432 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



of a clear and lively hue, free from stains, fouls, spots, 

 specks, or roughness." He condemns all coloured pearls, 

 although the Hindoos prefer a yellow tinge, and some 

 nations admire the red. He values them according to their 

 weight, in the following manner : — A pearl of one carat 

 (three grains and one-fifth) is valued at ^s. ; one of two 

 carats at four times that amount ; one of three carats at 

 nine times, and so on in a square proportion, multiplying 

 the number of carats by itself and the product by ^s. 

 But the price set upon some pearls of ancient days exceeds 

 this estimate enormously; and even now a pearl of very 

 extraordinary beauty would most probably receive a 

 valuation upon other grounds than its weight. 



The enormous value attached in ancient times to some 

 extraordinary pearls seems to be almost fabulous. Much of 

 this must, of course, be attributed to the caprice which will 

 pay any price, however excessive, for whatever is unique of 

 its kind, the possession of which may be an object of com- 

 petition ; and the manufacture of artificial pearls had not 

 then lowered the price of the real jewel. But though no 

 longer so extravagantly valued, the pearl must always be a 

 favourite ; its delicate and silvery lustre, in the words of an 

 admirer, " relieves the eye of gazing at the brilliancy of the 

 diamond, as the soft brightness of the moon after the 

 dazzling fire of the sun." 



There were the often-mentioned pearls of Cleopatra, one 

 of which that celebrated queen drank dissolved in vinegar 

 before Marc Antony, while the other, saved from a similar 

 fate, was slit into halves to form earrings for the statue 

 of Venus in the Pantheon. Julius Caesar presented to 

 Servilia a pearl valued at 6,000,000 sesterces, or nearly 

 ^50,000. Clodius, the glutton, swallowed one worth 

 ^8000. 



