Chap. 56.] 
PEAELS. 
435 
which are thence called alum- coloured ^''^ pearls. Long pearls 
also have their peculiar value ; those are called elenchi/' 
which are of a long tapering shape, resembling our alabaster 
boxes in form, and ending in a full bulb.^^ Our ladies 
quite glory in having these suspended from their fingers, or 
two or three of them dangling from their ears. For the pur- 
pose of ministering to these luxurious tastes, there are various 
names and wearisome refinements which have been devised by 
profuseness and prodigality ; for after inventing these ear-rings, 
they have given them the name of crotalia,"*^ or castanet 
pendants, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of 
the pearls as they knock against each other ; and now, at the 
present day, the poorer classes are even afi'ecting them, as 
people are in the habit of saying, that a pearl worn by a 
woman in public, is as good as a lictor^^ walking before her." 
JS'ay, even more than this, they put them on their feet, and 
that, not only on the laces of their sandals, but all over the 
37 " Exaluminatos." It is clear from this passage that Pliny was ac- 
quainted with our alum, as he here clearly implies that the alum known 
to him was of a white colour. Eeckmann, however, in his History of" 
Inventions, asserts that our alum was certainly not known to the Greeks 
and Eomans, and that their alumen" was nothing else but vitriol, the 
green sulphate of iron, and that not in its pure state, but such as forms 
in mines. Pereira, however, in his Materia Medica, says, that there can 
be little doubt that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not dis- 
tinguish it from sulphate of iron, as he informs us that one kind of alum 
was white, and was used for dyeing wool of various colours. It is men- 
tioned more fully in B. xxxv. c. 52, where he speaks of its use in dyeing. 
3^ These alabaster boxes for unguents are mentioned by Pliny in 
B. xxxvi. c. 12. They were usually pear-shaped; and as they were held 
with difficulty in the hand, on account of their extreme smoothness, they 
were called aXdlSadrpa, from a, "not," and XapBtrOai, to beheld.'* 
The reader will recollect the offer made to our Saviour, of the " alabaster 
box of ointment of spikenard, very precious." Matt. xxvi. 7. Mark 
xiv. 3. 
Seneca, Benef. B. vii. c. 9, speaks of them as hanging in tiers from 
the ears of the Eoman matrons, two and two ; and he says that they are 
not satisfied unless they have two or three patrimonies suspended from each 
ear. 
From their resemblance to " crotala," used by dancers, and similar to 
our castanets. 
-1 That the pearls as fully bespeak the importance of the wearer, as the 
lictor does of the magistrate whom he is preceding. The honour of being 
escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other 
members of the imperial family. 
F :£ 2 
