PEARL: HOW PRODUCED: SYMBOLIC STORIES OF THE ANCIENTS: BOETHIUS AND THE RIVER PEARLS: VISHNU CREATES PEARLS: PEARLS ON THE RAMAYANA: SANDIUS’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON IN 1673: SIR EVERARD HOME AND DARWIN ON THE FORMATION OF PEARLS: MR. KELAART’S REPORTS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON: RESEARCHES OF PROFESSORS HERDMANN, HORNEL AND SEURAT: THE TIME OF PEARL MATURITY: HOME ON THE LUSTER OF THE PEARL: THE FORM OF A PEARL: THE PROCESS OF “SKINNING”: JEROME AND THE STORY OF THE DOVES: THE PEARL OF PRINCE IMENHEIT: THE GREAT PERSIAN PEARL: THE HOPE PEARL: THE AUSTRIAN IMPERIAL PEARL: LA PELLEGRINA: THE GREAT SOUTHERN CROSS: THE PEARL OF PHILLIP II OF SPAIN: THE PEARL OF THE KING OF MAABAR: THE TIBETAN PRAYER OF VICTORY: KING JAIPAL’S NECKLACE: THE FAMINE IN EGYPT: EBU HESHAM’S ACCOUNT OF THE TOMB OF PRINCESS TAJAH: BENVENUTO CELLINI AND THE PEARL NECKLACE OF THE DUCHESS OF FLORENCE: THE PEARL ROPE OF MARIE ALEXANDROVNA: PINK PEARLS: RED PEARLS: A DEATH RITE MENTIONED BY MARCO POLO: PEARLS USED IN BUDDHIST CEREMONIES: JULIUS CÆSARCÆSAR, AN EXPERT IN PEARLS: THE BREASTPLATE OF VENUS GENETRIX: CÆSAR’S GIFT TO SERVILLA: PEARLS IN THE TIMES OF THE CÆSARS: SENECA’S CYNICISM: KLEOPATRA’S PEARLS: OTHER PEARL SWALLOWERS: PEARLS AND JEWELS OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTLAND: PEARLS IN HEBRAIC AND ARABIAN LEGEND: THE PEARL IN CHINA: THE PEARL IN MEDICINE: THE ANGEL GABRIEL AND THE PEARL: THE PEARL OF PARADISE.

PEARL

The name “pearl” is derived from the Latin Pilula, diminutive of Pila, a ball, and some of the forms of the word noted are perle, peerle, perl, perll, perill, pearel, peirle, pearle. The pearl is a product of certain salt and fresh water shell-fish of the Aviculidae family. It is formed by the efforts of the mollusc to rid itself of irritating substances by the iridescent fluid secretion with which he lines his shell. The effect of this irritation is shown in a number of irregular tubercules inside the shell, and within these coverings is the securely protected pearl. Frequently pearls of most beautiful lustre and form are found detached from the shell in the fleshy folds of the oyster, and these are said to be the most perfect. It is now quite certain that disease is not the cause, as has so generally been believed. Amongst the ancient writers so much of the purely symbolic was set down in perfectly plain, matter-of-fact language that it is difficult to make assertions as to what was really known of the material truth. Both Pliny and Discorides poetically state that dew or rain from Heaven fell into the open pearl shells and were transformed by the secretions of the oyster into precious pearls. There is an old legend which tells that the tears of joy shed by the angels for the ultimate destiny of man were the tears that fell into the pearl oyster shell to be transformed into beautiful pearls. Moore delightfully refers to this story:

The philosopher Anicius Boethius, of the 5th and 6th centuries, A.D., writes that the fresh water pearl mussels of the Scotch rivers, the sky being clear and the weather temperate, open their mouths just a little above water to catch the heavenly dews, which, when swallowed, cause the breeding of pearls. These mussels, continues the philosopher, are so sensitive that the slightest noise causes them to sink to the bottom of the river. He credits them with “knowing well in what estimation the fruit of their womb is to all people.” Vishnu, according to Indian mythology, created pearls MOTI by his word, and consequently these gems are foremost in the adornment of Indian deities. The Ramayana, perhaps the greatest poem of ancient India, narrates the story of the death of Maha Bali, telling that pearls sprung from the teeth of the slain god.

In the winter of 1673 the naturalist Sandius sent—on the authority of “Henricus Arnoldi, an ingenious Dane”—a letter from which the following is extracted to the newly formed Royal Society of London:

“Pearl shells in Norway do breed in sweet waters: their shells are like mussels but larger: the fish is like an oyster, it produces clusters of eggs: these, when ripe, are cast out and become like those that cast them: but sometimes it appears that one or two of these eggs stick fast to the side of the matrix and are not voided with the rest. These are fed by the oyster against her will, and they do grow, according to the length of time, into pearls of different bigness, and do imprint a mark both on fish and shell by the situation conform to its figure.”

The eminent surgeon, Sir Everard Home, unaware of the letter of Sandius, arrived at the same conclusion independently. He writes that this, “the richest jewel in a monarch’s crown which cannot be imitated by any art of man, either in beauty of form or brilliancy of lustre is the abortive egg of an oyster enveloped in its own nacre.”

Darwin (Economy of Vegetation) writes that pearls are formed “like those calcareous productions of crabs known by the name of ‘crabs’ eyes’ which are always near the stomach of the creature. In both cases the substance is probably a natural provision either for the reparation or enlargement of the shell.”

Mr. Kelaart in his reports to the Government of Ceylon (1857-1859), seems to be the first to allude to the part played by parasites in the production of pearls in tropical seas. The researches of Professors Herdman and Hornel confirmed the deductions of Kelaart that the larva of a Cestoid was the identified pearl parasite. Monsieur Seurat, the French naturalist, who made a long study of the pearl oyster of the Pacific, was also convinced that pearl formation was caused by a parasite. Whatever the cause of the irritability which brings into action the nacreous secretion of the tortured oyster, it is evident that the protective process is a long one. The pearl culture industry of the Chinese and Japanese has shown that it takes twelve months for the irritant to be covered with a coat of a tenth of a millimetre. A new layer is formed over the old one about once a year. Pearlers say that an oyster must be at least four years old before pearls begin to form properly, and that it does not mature for from 7 to 9 years. The beautiful lustre of the pearl Sir Everard Home held to arise from a central cell of bright nacre, the diaphanous substance admitting the light rays. “Upon taking a split pearl,” he writes, “and putting a candle behind the cell, the surface of the pearl became immediately illuminated; and upon mounting one with coloured foil behind the cell, and by putting a candle behind the foil, the outer convex surface became universally of a beautiful pink colour.” The examination of a half pearl will show the concentric formation which is like an onion, and the process called “skinning” is often resorted to in the endeavour to gain a more lustrous jewel by removing the outer layer. The translucency of the perfect pearl has not been correctly reproduced by any artificial production. A curious passage in Jerome Cardan’s “De Rerum Varietate” (16th century), repeats an old saying that the lustre and polish on pearls arises from doves playing with them. To understand this seemingly absurd story it is necessary to carry our minds far back to the famous Greek oracle at Dodona in Epirus. According to Herodotus the Phoenicians carried off the sacred women from Thebes in Egypt to the Libian oracle of Zeus Ammon and to Dodona—the legend at Dodona saying that they came in the form of two doves. The Greek word for “doves” is the same as that for “priestesses,” namely, PELEIAI. The connection can be carried further, if necessary, but it is sufficient to establish the tie between women and the doves. The word PELEIAI was freely used for both and came to be employed as an endearing term for wise women just as we today call a woman of talent “Diva.” It is a proven fact and an extremely ancient one that pearls worn near the skin of a woman—especially, according to ancient philosophy, near one in whose horoscope the moon was powerfully placed at birth—are improved in lustre and tone. So let the “Doves” (peleiai) be wise and play with their pearls.

Tavernier writes of “the most beautiful pearl in the world” which belonged to Imenheit, Prince of Muscat. After a lavish entertainment which the Khan of Ormus gave in honor of the Prince, the latter took off a chain which he wore round his neck and to which was attached a small bag. From the bag he drew forth this wonderful pearl of perfect sphericity, so translucent that the light could almost be seen through it. The weight of this gem was 12 carats and so high a value did Prince Imenheit place on it that he refused 2000 tomans for it from his host, the Khan of Ormus, who coveted it as a present for the King of Persia, and 40,000 crowns with which he was later tempted by an agent of the Grand Mogul. This pearl was discovered off the Persian coast. Another great pearl which, according to Tavernier, was the most perfect ever discovered, was found at Catifa, a famous fishery in Pliny’s time. The great traveller says that the King of Persia obtained it from an Arabian merchant in 1633. It was a pearl of great size and a “pearl of great price,” the King giving 1,400,000 livres (about $550,000) for it. It was pear-shaped, and of perfect colour and symmetry. The weight is not stated, but it was said to be about 1½ inches in length and 63 inches in diameter at its greatest part. The “Hope” pearl of cylindrical form weighs 454 carats. This gem belonged to Mr. Henry Thomas Hope, so well-known in connection with the “Hope” diamond. Another famous pearl of 300 carats once adorned the Imperial crown of Austria. “La Pellegrina,” an Indian white circular pearl of 28 carats, said to be the most perfect specimen in the world today, was in the Zosima Museum, Moscow. Nine large pearls interlinked so as to naturally form a true representation of the Southern Cross were discovered in a pearl oyster off the West Australian Coast by Mr. Kelly, of Roeburn, who was familiarly known as “Shiner” Kelly. The crew of his lugger viewed it with superstitious fear and it was buried for some years. It was afterwards resurrected and exhibited at the Colonial and Indian exhibition, London, in 1886, where it caused some sensation. The pearls which formed the cross were at first thought by many to be joined together by craft, but experts with powerful magnifying glasses speedily dispelled this illusion and proved that nature, not man, was the artist who reproduced the Star Cross of the Heavens—the Cross of Australian Unity—in pearls in a sea oyster.

In the year 1579 a pearl of 250 carats was obtained amongst others by the agents of Philip II, of Spain, from the Island of Margarita in the West Indies. It was said to be worth 150,000 dollars. Marco Polo writes that the King of Maabar wears pearls and gems worth more than a city’s ransom. “Nobody is permitted to take out of his kingdom a pearl weighing more than half a saggio (a Venetian weight, the sixth of an onze), unless he manages to do it secretly. The King every year proclaims through the realm that if anyone possesses a pearl of great worth and will bring it to him, he (the King), will pay three times as much as its value. Everybody is glad to do this and thus the King gets all into his own hands, giving every man his price.” This King wore a necklace on which 104 pearls and rubies of great size were strung on fine silk, and every day, following the custom of his ancestors, he had to say 104 prayers to the gods. The number is disputed but in an occult sense the Tibetan prayer of Victory over the 104 devils seems to confirm it. The pearl necklace which Muhammed forced the Hindu King Jaipal to surrender to him (1001 A. D.), is said to have been made of great pearls. It was valued at 20,000 dinars (more than 500,000 dollars). We read in the Book of Genesis of the terrible famine which affected the peoples of the earth and drove them to seek corn in the land of Egypt where doubtless, owing to the great pull on her stocks, some anxiety was beginning to be felt. The Arabian writer, Ebn Hesham, describes a sepulchre in Yemen which had been discovered after some heavy floods. In this sepulchre lay the embalmed body of an Arabian princess around whose neck were 7 strands of pearls, age-stained and lustreless. There were rings set with precious stones on her fingers and toes, 7 jewelled armlets on each of her arms and 7 jewelled anklets about each ankle. In the tomb treasure was found, and on a tablet at her head she had caused to be written the following inscription, the translation of which by Mr. Forster is reproduced by Mr. William Jones, F.S.A.:

It would be very unlikely that after understanding these last words of the Princess Tajah (a name which quabalistically would imply “the Sacrifice”) any woman would be bold enough to attempt to put on the seven ropes of dead pearls and the other jewels that adorned the mortal remains of the famine-stricken princess.

Turning to later times Benvenuto Cellini tells in his interesting memoirs rather an amusing story of a string of pearls which the Duke of Florence purchased for the Duchess from “that scoundrel Bernardini” for several thousand crowns. Princess Catherine Radziwill whose intimacy with the old Courts of Europe is well known, tells of the love of the Russian Empress Marie Alexandrovna (grandmother of the unfortunate Nicholas II), for pearls which she never tired of buying. She wore ropes of from 25 to 30 which, being of varied lengths, would when worn extend from the top to the hem of her dress. She was reputed to have had some of the largest pear-shaped pearls in the world. James Bruce, the famous traveller (“Travels to discover the Sources of the Nile,” 1768-1773), writes that the pinna or wing shell mentioned by Pliny which is found with its fibre-like rope on the bed of the Red Sea yields the beautiful pink-tinted pearl so highly prized in ancient and modern times. Red or rose coloured pearls are termed by the natives SOHIT-AMUKTI. Marco Polo mentions that they are found off the island of Chipangu, “big, round and rosy, and quite as valuable as white ones.” He also writes that when a dead body is burnt one of these pearls is always put in the mouth, “for such is their custom.” Pearls of this tint are accounted as precious objects and were used in Buddhist ceremonial and worship. Julius CÆsar was extremely fond of pearls. Caius Suetonius (“Lives of the CÆsars”), tells us that he was a great expert and knew so much about them that he could estimate their exact weights “by his hand alone.” The same writer tells us that CÆsar’s love of pearls was the cause of his expedition against Britain, the pearls he obtained there being, greatly to his chagrin, of poor quality and little lustre. Nevertheless, we are told he consecrated a breastplate set with British pearls to the temple of Venus Genetrix. It is recorded that CÆsar gave Servilia, the mother of Brutus, a pearl worth nearly £50,000 sterling. Pearls in the time of the CÆsars were the rage in Rome and women adorned themselves lavishly with them, a custom which drew violent protests from the philosopher Seneca who, alluding to a lady who wore several pearls dangling from each ear, told her husband that his wife “carried all the wealth of his house in her ears.”

In the extravagant intoxication of the rich banquet which Kleopatra VII (Tryphena the Great) gave to the honour of Mark Anthony, it is related that this queen—the last of the Ptolemies—throwing one of her valuable pearls into a vinegar solution, swallowed it. The value of this gem is set down as £80,729 sterling. Its companion afterwards graced the statue of the Pantheon Venus at Rome. Kleopatra was not alone in this act of folly for we are informed that Clodius, son of Æsopus the actor, swallowed a pearl valued at £8072 sterling. Caligual, the Roman Emperor, added this act also to his many acts of stupidity. He too enjoyed the reputation of a “pearl swallower,” which title in the reign of Queen Elizabeth was also coveted by Sir Thomas Gresham who quaffed off a large pearl at a banquet which the Queen attended after visiting the Royal Exchange. The poet Hey wood alludes to this act in the lines:

Neither pearls nor diamonds were fortunate for Mary Queen of Scots, yet she wore both in profusion. Her wedding dress at her marriage with Philip of Spain is described as being “richly bordered with great pearls and diamonds,” whilst she wore the great diamond which Philip had sent to her by the Marquis de las Traves. Mary’s nativity favours few jewels but none less than diamonds, pearls and rubies. History relates that, when in the days of her sorrows the Scottish Queen was held captive by the rapacious Earl of Moray, this man who owed her so much sent her exquisite parure of pearls with other costly jewels by his agent, Sir Nicholas Elphinstone to Queen Elizabeth at London.

Madame de Barrera gives the following extract, copy from a letter of Bodutel la Forrest, French ambassador at the English court, describing the pearl parure: “There are six cordons of large pearls strung as pater nosters: but there are five and twenty separate from the rest, much finer and larger than those which are strung: these are for the most part like black muscades.” Elizabeth, after obtaining various expert opinions as to the value of this ornament, eventually purchased it at her own price. But if pearls, fortunate for Scotland, were unfortunate for Mary (for whom Scotland itself was unfortunate), they were doubly so for Elizabeth who had the dark planet Saturn and the subtle Uranus in the sign Cancer at her birth. The two famous diamond rings of Mary and Elizabeth and Elizabeth and Essex are stated to have been the indirect cause of the death of both Mary and Elizabeth.

Old Hebraic legend tells that the manna fell from Heaven, accompanied by showers of pearls and precious stones, and in ancient Judaea it was believed that a pearl wrapped in a bag of leather and tied round the neck of oxen would benefit them and increase their fruitfulness. The Arabs sang that “Nisan’s Ram (Sun in Aries) brings pearls to the sea and wheat to the land.” In China the pearl was regarded as the true symbol of ability and so the Chinese character for Pearl (Tchm) was placed on the vases used by artists, poets, scientists and writers, and the term TCHM ONAN is translated as indicating a rare pearl object. Great virtues were ascribed to the pearl by the Chinese and it was, and still is, used medicinally by them chiefly as a remedy for blood disorders, swooning, heart troubles, digestive irregularities and stomach complaints. The ancients used pearls, we are told, as absorbents or antacids and they were given to the weak-minded Charles VI of France in distilled water to cure his insanity. Dissolved in acids they were taken as an absorbent medicine and, as one writer puts it, “for the purpose of displaying the careless opulence and luxury of their possessors.”

The Pearl was sacred to the angel Gabriel in the East, and amongst the Mohammedans a great white pearl—the pearl of Paradise—reached from East to West, from Heaven to Earth. This is the Eternal Table of the Koran on which Allah has written all that has been, all that is, and all that is to come. The Arabian Heavenly Home of Glory and the Everlasting Eden of Wonder is, it is related, rich with red pearls.