Transcriber's Notes.
Hyphenation has been standardised.
A number of different spellings have been retained, e.g. rubies/rubyes,
encrusted/incrusted.
THE PEARL
[Illustration: H. M. QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER PEARLS]
THE PEARL
ITS STORY, ITS CHARM,
AND ITS VALUE
BY
W. R. CATTELLE
AUTHOR OF
"PRECIOUS STONES"
WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
MDCCCCVII
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
Published September, 1907
_Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._
NOTE
In these pages the story of the pearl is told from its birth and growth
under tropic seas, through the search for it by dark skinned divers
of the Orient and its journeyings by the hands of men who traffic in
precious things, until it becomes finally the cherished familiar of
the great. Historical and traditional allusions, the sentiment and
superstitions, the romance of ancient and noble associations, drawn
to it through the ages, are garnered here and to them added the more
prosaic facts which a merchant's experience suggests, to enable lovers
of the dainty sea-gem to discriminate. The qualities which make some
pearls of great value and the imperfections which render others less
valuable are described in detail, that owners and buyers may appreciate
at their true value the gems they have or would purchase and the market
price of all kinds is given. Means for the detection of imitations are
included.
Long time has been given to microscopic research and though much
remains to be learned of the genesis of the pearl, it is hoped that
something of value has been added to the knowledge of Nature's
wonderful and curious processes whereby through the humblest she makes
a jewel fit to adorn the most beautiful of her creatures—woman.
* * * * *
My thanks are due Messrs. Combes & Van Roden of Philadelphia for the
loan of the original photographs from which were made the reproductions
of the portraits of Queen Alexandra, The Marchioness of Londonderry,
Countess Torby and Princess Lazareff, which will, I trust, be of great
interest to lovers of pearls: also to Mr. Ludwig Stross for much
valuable information about Oriental pearl fisheries.
W. R. C.
CONTENTS
PAGE
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA 13
A PEARL OF LEGEND 25
ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL 39
THE FASHION OF PEARLS 69
VARIETIES 89
COLOR 101
IMPERFECTIONS 111
GENESIS OF THE PEARL 127
METHODS OF FISHING 177
HABITAT OF THE PEARL OYSTER 199
PEARL FISHERIES 211
PRICE 275
IMITATION AND DOCTORED PEARLS 295
FACTS AND FANCIES 311
PEARLS IN LITERATURE 335
GLOSSARY 363
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEARLS AND SHELLS
FROM THE VARIOUS FISHERIES 369
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
H. M. QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER PEARLS _Frontispiece _
THE RAJAH OF DHOLPUR 21
Whose Pearls Have Been Valued at $7,500,000
PRINCESS ABAMALEK LAZAREFF, NÉE DEMIDOFF 70
From the Painting by Vitelleschi
VARYING FORMS OF PEARLS 83
PANAMA PEARL-SHELL, SHOWING MUD-BLISTERS,
BORERS AND PEARL 92
TUAMOTU PEARL-SHELL 127
AUSTRALIAN PEARL-SHELL 129
VENEZUELAN PEARL-SHELL WITH PEARL ATTACHED 131
MANILA PEARL-SHELL WITH THE LIP CONSERVED 144
MISSISSIPPI NIGGER-HEAD PEARL MUSSEL 146
VENEZUELAN PEARL-SHELL SHOWING BAROQUE 161
NATIVE AUSTRALIAN PEARL-DIVERS 188
EAST INDIAN PEARL-DIVERS RESTING 215
PEARL-FISHING IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 262
THE MARCHIONESS OF LONDONDERRY 283
COUNTESS TORBY 326
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA
The sea in all her moods has a strange fascination for the children of
the dry land. The rumble and thunder of her never ending procession
of rolling breakers, rising and falling, tumbling over the sands, to
race hissing back to shelter under the curling crest of an eternal
successor; the mad recurring dash which cannot be discouraged, of
great waters upon unyielding rocks whose grim faces smile at the
spume fountains falling back upon them; the wash and mutter of rocky
shoals; the suck and bellow of her caverns and the monotone she chants,
heedless of hearers to the ages; all these charm the hearts of men
and bring them into the fellowship of spirits they feel, but cannot
understand. For the moods of the sea and the ways of the wind are akin
to the heart of a man. His eyes dance with the flicker of light in
the path of the sun over watery wastes; his breast heaves in unison
with the multitudinous swellings of the sea; he finds peace in the
slumber of her calms and exults in her mad race before the drive of
the tempest, but he seldom thinks below the surface and knows little
of the things she hides in her deeps. Yet a world lives there, very
strange and full of enchantments. Sheltered under the breasts of the
sea and undisturbed by the furies of the upper world, myriads of living
creatures, graceful, beautiful, wonderful, traverse the peaceful
depths. In the vast and fathomless solitudes, things grow and take on
form, meet for the eyes of the gods. In everlasting touch with soft
currents, trees of coral grow from rocky beds and finny tribes of
every shape and hue glide in and out among their fantastic branches.
Water covering all, on hills, plateaus, shelving stretches, sandy bars
and rocky shoals; in valleys, chasms and even in the dread abysses,
are things as strange to man as Jupiter or Saturn holds; weird as the
creatures of our dreams; uncanny as the pictures a riotous imagination
paints and some as beautiful.
Near the shore and a few miles out, where the bottom of the sea is but
a few fathoms deep and where man can go and come and live, there are
among other marvellous creations, shells of wonderful structure and
beautiful to look upon. One by one these have been discovered during
past ages by the adventurous and for their usefulness or beauty have
awakened the desire of those who dwell upon the earth. The chank, the
sacred shell of the Hindus, has been used by the priests of Buddha for
centuries as a horn to call the faithful. Shankar the Destroyer, of
Hindu mythology, and Vishnu, each hold a chank shell in one of their
hands.
The shell whorl usually runs from left to right, sometimes it is found
with the whorl reversed and these were so highly regarded by Hindus,
Cingalese and Chinese that in old times they were sold for their weight
in gold. Even now they bring a good price in the eastern markets. They
are kept in the pagodas of China to hold the sacred oil: the priests
of Ceylon administer medicine by them. In Dacca the chank is cut into
armlets and anklets for Hindu women upon whose persons they are left
after death. The delicate pink cameos carved from the Queen Conch
have delighted feminine eyes of almost every race. The Pearly Nautilus
decks many a dainty lady's table and is wrought into a thousand quaint
conceits. The silky byssus of the Pinna has been woven into fabrics
of such fineness as to be thought worthy of acceptance by Popes and
princes.
Before Europe knew of their existence, the people of China and Japan,
the Maoris of New Zealand, the Indians of our Pacific coast and the
brown skinned natives of far-off islands of the Southern Seas, were
delighting themselves with the magnificent coloring and iridescence of
the Haliotis even as ancient Greece and Rome made ornaments from the
"Venus Ear-shell," as they called it, brought from the ruder coasts and
islands further west. In these later days the costly outer garments of
proud dames are ornamented with buttons cut from the same resplendent
shell. But of all the beautiful things old ocean pays as tribute to the
adventurous spirit of man, the pearl-oyster and the gem found sometimes
in it are most precious.
From unknown times when man discovered them until now, mother-of-pearl
shells and their pearly treasures have held desire constant and the
eyes of modern queens brighten when the opening of the gift casket
reveals a string of these spheres of beauty just as eyes did in the
far-off Indies thousands of years ago. When Europe was a land of
barbarians and America an unknown country of savages, dusky fingers
that held the life and destiny of millions, toyed lovingly with pearls,
even as now the favored few who enter the sanctum sanctorum of fortune,
pride themselves in the possession of them and find pleasure for cloyed
desire, in every addition to their store.
In all ages, pearls have been the social insignia of rank among the
highly civilized. No other gem was so abundantly used for adornment by
the princes of the east. Above great diamonds from the mines of India
or glowing rubies from Burmah, the ocean gem became peerless among the
ancient nations of Asia and as their power began to wane and the tide
of empire swept westward, there went with it the love of pearls. The
rulers of Rome when she was Empress of the world sought pearls, so also
have the rich and powerful of every nation as it rose to affluence,
and now in this new western star of Empire the men who hold the vast
wealth of these United States in their hands, when they place their
consorts on the last plane of social eminence, buy pearls.
Before the machine-like system of modern industry had combined
ownership and seized the vast natural reservoirs which hold the
diamonds of Africa, and brought the output to a known average yield of
so many carats to so many loads, and established the cost of mining,
washing, shipping and marketing, separately or together, to the
fraction of a penny, there was a fascination in the hunt for diamonds
there, the charm of which drew thousands to the fields.
From the discovery of them as baubles in the hands of children and the
Hottentots, or plastered in the mud walls of Boer farm-houses through
the search for them along the Vaal River, to the time where findings
led men to the kopjes, which capped the great chimneys of diamond
bearing clay, where they staked and worked their individual claims, the
ever present hope of finding a royal gem among the small stones which
formed the every-day yield, gave edge to appetite and the spur to toil,
and the stories of fortunes diverted from one man to another by the
lapse of a few minutes at the beginning or expiration of a lease, or by
the line separating the mining rights of one from another, read like
fairy tales.
More exciting yet is the search for them when, as in Brazil, they lie
scattered over the river beds where one man hunts in vain and another
by chance stumbles upon a pocket full, or as in India, where one must
dig for them blindly into detrital matter ten or twelve feet under a
later covering of earth. Who has not felt the stir of it while reading
of miners in Brazil using diamonds worth a king's ransom as counters
in their games of chance, or of a naked Hindu, emaciated and diseased
carrying about his person, wrapped in a bit of soiled cloth, a gem
found by chance which the richest prince of India would covet. So also
do the tales of rubies brought from Death's Valley of Burmah renew
within us the glow which fired the heart of youth when we read of
Aladdin and his lamp.
But none of these are so redolent of romance as the story of the
pearl. Beneath the rolling of the sea, where the waves pace softly
and restlessly like caged lions, or lift themselves roaring to answer
the voice of the storm; where at times the water lies green and
placid under burning skies; at times, lashed by tornado and monsoon,
becoming a seething caldron of black perdition; where spice-laden
vessels sail, and where in the old days, privateers and pirates lay in
wait for prey, there, at the bottom of the sea, unruffled by storm or
pirate, unmindful of sun and calm, myriads of delicate creatures toil
ceaselessly to strew old ocean's bed with gems. The chaste spheres
with which you toy, while counting up the cost of hanging them round
some fair neck, at one time lay fathoms deep, the ocean rolling over
them. Dusky fishermen, at risk of life, brought them up and turbanned
merchants gave great sums of money to own them; ships carried them, and
dealers in precious things handled, sorted, examined and matched them,
ere they came to rest in festooned rows within the velvet covers your
jeweller opens to you.
[Illustration: THE RAJAH OF DHOLPUR
Whose pearls were valued at $7,500,000]
On almost every tropical sea that washes a shore near the equator,
when the time of storm is over, boats ride over the shallows, and men
dive from them for the pearl oyster as they have done for ages. Black
slaves for Arab masters in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf: Tamil
and Singhalese in the Indian waters: Polynesians about the islands
of the South Seas: Indians and other natives along the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of tropical America, and not a few white men in "dress"
off the coasts of Australia. Your pearls have seen the dusky man-fish
come silently and swiftly from the world of air to wrench the gaping
shells that held them, from their anchorage. It may be your pearl lay
twenty fathoms deep in the clear water of some lonely atoll in the
great Pacific, among branching coral, and found its way from water's
solitudes to the light of the Sun and admiring eyes by the hand of a
bright-eyed Polynesian. It may have come from Egypt or the Indies, from
Australia or Mexico; but from whatever quarter of the globe it came and
by whom, it was born and grew somewhere at the bottom of the sea.
A PEARL OF LEGEND
Long ago, ere the great Nations of Europe came into existence; before
Rome was, or Greece had made history: when the power of the Earth
dwelt in the lands of the Sun and was for good or evil in the hands of
princes, there lived in Travancore a ruler of renown. Of those who came
from the north, he with his followers had subjugated the fierce native
tribes inhabiting the country for many miles along the seacoast and
back to the mountainous interior. Over all, to the utmost bounds of his
territory, the land was fertile and very beautiful. Along the shores,
but a short distance from the ocean, were numerous shallow stretches
of water, formed by the meeting of the inland streams with the swift
current of the sea which there sweeps the coast. In them fish abounded,
yet were they free from the dangers of the outer waters, so that young
and old could there disport themselves without fear. Though the tropic
heat was often great there were no parched and barren wastes in the
land, for the rains were many and the streams which ran to the sea
from the mountains were numerous. Everywhere luxuriant verdure swayed
to breezes that played to and fro over the rolling lowlands and about
the hillsides, now coming from the water and now from the mountains.
Coffee, rice, the palm, cocoanut, the areca-nut, the pepper, tamarind,
and other tropical fruits and trees grew in rank abundance, and huge
forest timbers sheltered many noble creatures of the wild.
At the first coming of this prince, fighting was constant and bloody.
The hill tribes, more war-like than those of many lands, made frequent
descents from their fastnesses, seeking by every ruse of barbarous
warfare to exterminate the intruder. But this man was wary and alert.
Possessing the confidence of his followers, they obeyed him with
unquestioning obedience. Quick to move, merciless in his reprisals, he
was soon feared by all the surrounding country and as it became known
that he was also just and generous, peace presently followed.
Then did he seek to establish his kingdom wisely and well. He
encouraged his subjects to cultivate the land, to fish the waters, and
to trade with those who came by ship and over-land bringing all manner
of things for barter.
Though he and his people were devout believers in the Veda, yet did
he tolerate the faith of others, and considered the low-born, for
Brahmanism had not yet established the extremes of caste which came
later. He himself was a Kshattriya but he ruled the Brahmans and would
not permit injustice to the Sudras, therefore was he as a god among his
people.
And this prince was good to look upon. Tall and straight as a tree of
the forest, the fine lines of his grave impassive face were made alive
by the light of eyes keen as an eagle's, inscrutable as those of a lion
when he looks beyond.
One son only had he, for the others had all fallen in battle. The son
was like the sire, and the father's heart was knit to him as steel when
it is welded.
Now the time came when it was good that the young prince should marry,
for he was man-grown and had been invested with the sacrificial cord.
So the prince his father said to him, "My son, thou standest alone to
guard the manes of thy fathers. It is meet that the sons of my son be
alive upon the earth, that when the time is come I die in peace and
return to the place from whence I came, in confidence. I will find for
thee a wife." And the young prince answered, "Let it be as my lord
wills."
Now there was in the country beyond the hills, on the eastern coast of
India, a prince whose daughter was famed for her beauty and he also
was Kshattriya. To him the ruler of Travancore sent certain of those
who were near him, and a wise priest in whom he had great confidence,
to treat with the father of the maid. And these when they had arrived,
made haste to do their lord's bidding, nor was it difficult to obtain
his desire, for the prince of Travancore was in great repute. So as
soon as could be, the maid become the wife of the heir of Travancore.
Report had not lied concerning the beauty of the girl, and such other
qualities had she that the heart of her husband melted to her and
became as the gold of a jewel when it holds a ruby most precious.
In due time a son was born to them, and the father and his sire and all
the people with them were exceeding glad, for said they, "Now is wisdom
and power established on the throne of Travancore and a son's son will
guard the name of our lord."
Now when the princess was a maid in the land of her father, a Rover
from the coast of Kandy had greatly desired her, and when she was
carried away to Travancore he was very wroth. It was told that he would
seek vengeance, but another year passed and another son came and both
the children and the mother thrived.
But one day, when many sea-boats lay within the harbor of a city of
Travancore where much trading was done with men who came from far-off
countries and when multitudes were gathered there, it chanced that the
princess passed by the market-place. Suddenly, a great number of them
that were there from foreign shores, gathered together, and drawing
swords, rushed upon the guards which accompanied her. These, with the
bearers they over-powered, and ere the bewildered populace knew the
meaning of the tumult, the princess was dragged from her attendants and
hurried to a boat waiting and ready to sail. Immediately this glided
swiftly toward the sea followed by many others manned by ruffians who
had lately mingled with the men on shore as peaceful traders. They were
followers of the Kandy Rover.
In a very little while, the King, with the trusted priest of his
household, the prince and many picked men of the King's body-guard
rode furiously to the water-side. The face of the King was very stern,
but only in the flashings of his eyes could be seen the unrelenting
vengeance which moved him. Quietly he gave orders to man his ships of
war. Then it was found that every one of them had been damaged. Not
until the sailors made ready to sail were the hindrances observable,
and in no case was the evil great, or so that it could not be presently
repaired, for fearing discovery the doers of it sought only to delay
the sailing of the King's ships, as the ships of the Rover were swift,
and after they were out of the harbor, Travancore had none which could
overtake them. Then was the wrath of the King terrible to look upon.
Now while the prince and his followers chafed, and the dismayed
populace watched the work of the men who sought to make the boats ready
to sail, the King filled them with the fiercest of his soldiers, being
resolved that if the pirate escaped him on the sea he would follow him
to his lair with swift and overwhelming vengeance. While these things
were being done, the Rover passed out to the open sea and in sight of
all the people turned his prows to the south.
Then the Brahman, standing where the lapping waters encircled his feet,
stretched forth his hands toward the white sails as they spread to the
west wind and called upon Shankar to destroy the despoiler. Immediately
the wind died out and the ships were becalmed. Then the heart of the
King swelled with fierce joy.
At his orders all the lighter boats were filled with men and oars
were provided that they might row to the attack, and the young prince
stood in the front of the fastest one. But while the people whetted
themselves for battle, the Brahman still stood and prayed. And
presently the air became thick. Though no clouds appeared the sky faded
rapidly from sight, and the sun could no more be seen and the light of
it was as the color of fire in thick smoke only.
Darkness as of chaos and a silence like that of a dead world
encompassed the people, and a great dread gripped them. Suddenly there
came from the sea a breath of sighing broken by sobs very heartrending,
and this was followed by the sound of churning and lashing water. Soon
a furious wind swept the coast in gusts which rested only that they
might gather strength to rage, as the rush of rioters is momentarily
stayed between whiles. And the black air, writhing like smoke, was
driven hither and thither, and shaken by the din of thunder. Fierce
lightnings pierced the darkness and in passing gave lurid glimpses of
the sea's frenzy and the wind-swept earth. But though the storm raged
so that the roaring sickened the hearts of the people, the Brahman
remained unmoved, his hands stretched toward the sea where the Rover
and his fleet were when it began.
Presently the wind passed, and the people looking seaward saw that
there were no ships there, but the foam of the surf was black with
wreckage, and tossing in it were the forms of dead men. The Rover
and his followers had all perished. But the joy of the King and his
people was savage, and their thoughts were black, for the princess was
with them that were destroyed. Then the people made haste to spread
themselves along the coast to watch if perchance the gods might cast
her ashore alive, but no living thing appeared, neither was her body
seen.
Now while these things were being done, great clouds, very thick and
black, gathered, and rolling together, poured themselves in torrents
into the sea. So thickly did the rain fall that the waves were beaten
down and the sea became as a threshing-floor on which the rain fell
white and hissing. The Brahman watching, said "Behold! the Heavens
weep," and turning, he went straightway to the temple.
For many hours thereafter did the torrents fall and all Travancore
mourned, the lamentations of the people being very loud, for the King
and his son were much beloved and it was known that the prince was
sorely distressed, and the more so that his sword must needs be idle
for there were none left upon whom he could take vengeance.
Now when the elements were at peace again, the King gave orders that
certain fishermen of his people who were expert divers, should explore
the bottom of the sea where the ships of the Rover were destroyed. One
of these discovered the body of the princess and brought it to shore.
And when they prepared it for burial, the women found fastened upon
one of the hands a shell-fish, the two shells of which had closed upon
a finger when it fell between them as they gaped. And when the shells
were pried apart, there rolled from between them a round bone, white
and shining, yet of a luster so soft and beautiful that no man had seen
the like. And the Brahman when he saw it said, "Herein are the tears of
Heaven which fell into the sea congealed and have become a gem which
is beyond price." And he named it "Pearl," and carried it to the King.
Then the King after he had heard the story of it, sent for the chief
man of them that worked in gold and commanded him that he make for the
pearl a setting most precious, and when it was done he gave it to the
prince his son saying, "Above all things let this be first among the
jewels of Travancore for-ever." And the prince when he looked upon it
said, "The beauty of it is like the brightness of her eyes when they
veiled themselves before my passion," and he prized it more than all
the diamonds and rubies in his treasure-house.
From that day, when the fishermen dived for the chank, they sought
also for shells like unto that in which the King's pearl was found,
and after great rains many more pearls were brought from the depths
of the sea, and fishermen following the coast, found them on the
shoals between India and Kandy in great plenty. These were carried to
the King, for no man dared to sell them, yet did the King reward the
finders very liberally. So the store of them in the King's treasury
grew, and for that there were no gems like them in all the earth, the
fame of them spread, and travellers came from many and far-off lands to
look upon the pearls of Travancore.
ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL
How long the pearl has been used as a jewel is unknown. It is seen all
through the pages of history, from the long ago days when records were
inscribed on the leaves of plants, to the rapid-fire prints of to-day,
which unceasingly scatter to myriads the knowledge of things as they
occur.
Back of history, pearls loom everywhere in the mists of tradition
like delicate but imperishable orbs of beauty set in the smoulder
of burned out days and passions. And wherever their tranquil light
attracts the eye of imagination, the ghosts of the great are seen,
for pearls lie in the hair of royalty and clasp the fair necks of
Queens. Upon them shine the eyes of turbanned princes who valued them
above the blood and life of thousands of subjects. Shades of imperious
fingers, long since fallen to the elements, toy with them: they deck
the spectral gatherings of the mighty in all lands and ages, and there
is no dream of song or story which does not hold them among the chief
enchantments. As the fair moon hangs from the brow of night when she
broods over lonely waters, so does the pearl shine in the shades of the
ages.
In this country abundant evidence exists that before the advent of the
white man, or of the red-skins as we know them, the aborigines, from
the cold rise of the Mississippi to the glades of Florida, used them
for their adornment. In savage wilds, and on coasts that knew not the
sight of ships or other shores, copper-skinned natives treasured the
glistening things they found in the mollusks of the sea-shoals and
inland streams. Quantities of pearls have been found in the Indian
mounds, many of them loose, others strung for necklaces and wristlets,
some mounted in quaint and primitive fashion, all showing that in
the days of unbroken forests and swarming game and roving tribes of
untrammeled savages, in the tepees of the braves, their queens wore
pearls even as they are worn now by fairer successors in the palaces
reared where once were forests and camping-grounds. In those days
the savage lords of the undivided earth knew nothing of whirring
lathes and drills; of hardened points of steel turning with lightning
rapidity and unerring precision. Slowly they burned a way through the
gem with hot copper wire, destroying thereby with ruthless ignorance
the delicate beauty of jewels fit for royalty. To them the slender
prongs of gold with which the modern jeweller holds the lustrous
balls, uncovered and in safety, were unknown. Instead, the savage set
them in holes bored in the teeth of animals, possibly to enhance the
relics of a great fight with some fierce beast that succumbed finally
to his prowess: possibly to add beauty to the grim reminders of her
lord's valor when he hung them round the neck of a favored mate. The
Indian of this continent was much more primitive in the art of the
jeweller than in the manufacture of implements for war and the chase.
Gaudy colors extracted from plants and minerals appealed more to his
unthinking eye than a chaste form of beauty. With these he could stain
his blankets, record on skins of slaughtered animals his deeds, or
paint in hideous signs upon his face the malignancy of war. His time
and thought and ingenuity were given to things which would contribute
to his master passion and glorify its deeds. The scalps of his enemies,
the skins of animals he slaughtered, the feathers of birds that fell
to his unerring arrow, the teeth of bears and mountain lions slain
in desperate encounters, these were his jewels. Nor was his sexual
instinct sufficiently refined to enthrone his mate. She was his slave,
and her reward for toil was pride in his deeds and glory. He knew
little of the tender homage which brings gifts and lays them at the
feet of woman. Instinctively he made a setting for his pearls of bears'
teeth, that they might carry the scent of blood and tell the story of
his conquest. Nevertheless, among these rude tribes of wolfish savages,
sequestered from the touch of other people more refined, the modest
pearl found favor, and in it they unconsciously paid tribute to one of
the purest forms of beauty. But even this recognition must have been
the growth of years, possibly of ages, for not until the understanding
of worth has become general among a people is value established,
and only things valuable are stored. As desire for a thing for its
inherent qualities spreads, there is added a larger number of those
who seek to possess it for the profit they can make in supplying that
desire. Not many years ago, fishermen along the streams of remote parts
of Kentucky had no eye for the beauty of a pearl, and no knowledge that
men and women lived who prized them. If while fishing, the fisherman's
hook fell between the gaping valves of a mollusk it was immediately
seized. The disgusted angler thereupon angrily pulled the nuisance out,
and if upon disengaging the hook from the bivalve, he found within the
shells a pearl, it was immediately tossed back into the stream for
luck; for the beginning of a day's sport with a catch of that kind
was ill-luck and the fates could only be appeased by the finding of a
pearl, or a "mussel egg" as he would call it, in the mollusk, and its
return to the water. There lives yet on the banks of the Clinch River,
an old pearler, the distress of many a speculator for his knowledge of
pearls and their value, who sometimes sorrowfully relates how he thus
in bygone years angrily threw away many good pearls, one of them the
finest "ball" pearl he has ever seen. If these gems were so regarded
by the ignorant white settlers of the west until the advent of men who
had learned to appreciate them either for their beauty or the price
they would bring from the outside world, it may be surmised that the
awakening of the ancient Indian to their beauty, must have been a much
slower process, unassisted as it was by men from beyond their limits
who had long regarded them as precious. At first, probably, pearls were
thrown to the children as playthings, as diamonds were in the Cape:
then the young squaws gradually opened their eyes to the fact that the
white shining things enhanced the charms of their smooth copper skins
by contrast: the brave sought them to please the maid he would bring
to his tepee: perhaps rovers brought news that in the far south, in
lands of houses and teocalli and much magnificence, or farther off
among the Incas, these baubles were prized by the chiefs. So gradually
it dawned upon some that the "eggs" of the mollusk were beautiful, and
upon others that they could be bartered for skins, blankets, or arrows,
possibly for a pony, and so they came to be gathered and stored and
displayed as things which enriched the owner.
How far back in the ages the use of pearls on this continent extends
cannot be estimated. The discovery of them in the mounds east of
the Mississippi, which are credited to an ancient race that finally
succumbed to the similar but more war-like red men found here when
the country was discovered by Europeans, suggests many centuries. And
the use of pearls to the extent manifest by the discoveries, favors
the theory that the mound-builders had reached a degree of refinement
never attained by the North American Indians of record. When white men
invaded the North American continent, they found tribes of red men as
rugged as the coasts of New England. Inured to hardships, despising
pain, contemptuous of death, they lived by hunting and found their
chief pleasure in the slaughter of their enemies. Camping at will,
their lodges were here to-day and there to-morrow, and brutal if
heroic, they roamed over fields once inhabited by a race which had
passed, but left evidence that they were sufficiently civilized to
appreciate the pearl.
In Florida and South America, the conditions, when the country was
discovered by the Spaniards, were different. The ancient races,
corresponding with the mound-builders of the north, undisturbed by
the incursions of stronger tribes, had continued to progress and had
reached a high degree of barbarous luxury.
In Mexico, when Montezuma gave audience to Cortez, he was ablaze with
gold and silver and precious stones. His cloak and sandals were adorned
with pearls. Pearls were used to decorate temples, canoes and even the
paddles. Indian women had great strings of them coiled around their
necks and arms, and the chiefs used them freely on all occasions of
state. It was the same on the Colombian coasts.
At the island of Cubagua and on the main coast, Columbus found great
quantities of pearls, as did De Soto and his followers when they landed
at Tampa Bay, known by the Spaniards as "Spiritu Santo," in Florida
in 1539. The Incas of Peru also owned many fine pearls. Though the
natives of all these countries ignorantly injured the gems by cooking
the oyster to extract them, or by their crude methods of boring, and
reckoned them of little value as compared with the European idea, they
nevertheless esteemed them as jewels and must have done so for ages,
for the invaders found them in the sepulchres of the dead, so altered
by the processes of time that they retained nothing of their original
beauty.
From these premises therefore it can be said of the antiquity of the
pearl in this hemisphere, that it had been used as a jewel for some
centuries before the early part of the sixteenth century.
The European regard for the pearl at this time may be estimated by the
eagerness with which pearls were sought on the American continent by
the adventurers of Spain, and by the pains they took on the arrival
here of a new expedition, to convey assurances to the King of Spain
that pearls were to be had in the new conquest. In the commission
appointing De Soto to the governorship of Cuba, and as adelantado of
Florida, Charles V. stipulated that of the gold, silver, stones and
pearls, obtained by barter or in battle or otherwise, a certain portion
should be reserved for the Crown.
In all the courts of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries the pearl was, if not the chief, one of the most prominent
jewels. Mary, Queen of Scots, possessed a rosary of pearls which
excited the envy of Catherine de Médicis and Elizabeth of England, both
of whom sought diligently to acquire them when the Scotch Queen became
mired by misfortune.
The virgin queen of England when she went in state to chapel, wore
pendent pearls in her ears after the fashion of Rome, and borders of
large pearls fastened on her dress. When in her time Sir Thomas Gresham
of London, a wealthy subject, wished to show the Spanish Ambassador,
who had boasted of the magnificence of his Sovereign's court, how
prodigal her liege subjects could be in her honor, nothing occurred to
him more striking than to grind to powder a large pearl and mix it with
the wine he drank to her health. This act of the English merchant shows
that the pearl was then regarded by the great as the acme of costliness
and beauty.
From the reign of Francis I. of France to that of Louis XIII. the
pearl was prominent in all jewels of note, and from that time to the
death of Maria Theresa of Austria toward the close of the eighteenth
century, it was worn in preference to all other gems. It was during the
reign of Louis XIII. that Tavernier, the celebrated French Jeweller and
traveller, assisted by that monarch, made his journeys into Asia. The
account of his travels, published later, are highly esteemed for their
truthfulness, and are regarded as exact, if prosaic statements of fact.
The desire for the gem in Europe at this time was so great that
Tavernier purchased over half a million dollars' worth from the Arabian
Sea. Probably the immense quantities of pearls sent to Spain from the
Indies by her rovers in the early part of the sixteenth century, caused
the vogue of that gem during the three centuries following, for not
much mention is made of them in western Europe prior to that time.
Nevertheless pearls were esteemed in the British Isles as early as the
eleventh century, for it is recorded that Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick,
sent a present of Irish pearls from the fishery at Omagh, to Anselm,
Archbishop of Canterbury, about 1094, and Scotch pearls were not only
in demand in Britain but on the continent also as early as the twelfth
century. In 1355, the Parisian goldsmiths forbade by statute, workers
in gold and silver to set Scotch pearls with the Oriental.
The Oriental pearl probably came into Europe first from Egypt through
the incursions of the Macedonians into that country. Later, when
Alexander overran Persia his followers doubtless became yet more
familiar with the gem, for they spread through Arabia and the Persian
Gulf where ancient fisheries also existed.
Pearls were not well known west and north of Asia and Africa at this
time, for a writer of Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, about 350 B.C.,
which was but a few years before Alexander's conquest of Persia, says:
"In the Indian Sea, off the coasts of Armenia, Persia, Susiana and
Babylonia, a fish like an oyster is caught, from the flesh of which men
pick out white bones called by them 'pearls'." This would indicate that
knowledge of them was being carried at that time by returning soldiers,
camp-followers and travellers, and these men probably brought home
also many of the "white bones" obtained by trade or looting. Whatever
the method by which they were introduced, pearls came into favor, and
the favor increased as they were brought with other jewels from the
looted treasuries of eastern potentates. The Macedonians established
fisheries in the Red Sea, where the Egyptians obtained their chief
supply, and the Romans later brought them also from the Arabian Sea.
Three centuries B.C., the power of the Macedonians commenced to wane;
Rome began to rise and overrun the countries which had been subject
to the Macedonians; and pearls were thereby carried further west. The
Romans adopted the pearl as a jewel of the first importance if not
the chief of all, probably because they had found them so regarded by
the older royalties they plundered. As the riches of surrounding and
far-off countries which she raided, poured into the coffers of Rome,
and the city grew to be the centre of power and wealth, the excesses
of the rich became ludicrous to the verge of insanity. In their wild
extravagances the pearl was prominent.
Affected doubtless by the splendor of Asiatic courts, the rude soldiers
of Rome learned to regard the pearl as a royal luxury, and therefore
adopted it as a sign of great wealth and power. Enormous sums were paid
for pearls of rare size and beauty. Great leaders of men vied with
each other in the effort to add to their collections. It is said that
Julius Cæsar's chief incentive for pushing his conquests into the west
so far, was his desire to obtain the pearls to be found in the streams
of the British Isles. The Emperor Caligula decked his favorite horse
with a necklace of pearls. Pliny says of Lollia Paulina, Caligula's
wife, that he had seen her so bedecked with pearls and precious stones
that "she glittered and shone like the sun as she went." Clodius, the
glutton, claiming for them a very delicate flavor, placed one by the
plate of each guest at a great banquet to be mixed with the wine. This
same profligate, either setting the example or emulating Cleopatra,
swallowed in a cup of wine one worth eight thousand pounds that he
might have the pleasure of consuming so much value at once.
If in the intrigues so common then, a woman's influence was required,
pearls were given her. To convey an indirect bribe to a man of high
station a pearl of great price was presented to a member of his family.
Women wore them while they slept that they might possess them in their
dreams; they hung them in loose clusters suspended from the ears,
that the tinkling might remind them of the beauty they could not see,
and to attract the admiration and envy of others. These were called
"crotalia," meaning "rattles." Young men of fortune in Athens and Rome
followed the Persian fashion of wearing one in the right ear, hung as a
clapper in a small bell of metal. So strong and general did the desire
to own them become that Cæsar forbade unmarried women, and women under
a certain rank, to wear them.
Perhaps never in the history of jewels has the vogue of one so nearly
approached a frenzy as that of the pearl in Rome during her days of
extreme power and grandeur. The high esteem in which it was held there
is reflected in the Scriptures. The Saviour used it in His parables as
a symbol. The gates of the Holy City, as the prophet John saw it in
his vision, were pearls. From that time until now, writers have used
pearls to symbolize purity, innocence and the highest type of feminine
beauty. To say that a woman's teeth were like pearls has been the
poets' favorite adulation, and the discovery and sale of great pearls
has been deemed of sufficient importance by travellers and historians
to record them.
Much of the literature of pearls is founded on the statements of Pliny
regarding them: many, if not most, of the absurd beliefs as to their
origin and superstitions concerning them, may be traced to the same
source; and though these ancient errors have been repeatedly exposed
by later scientists and naturalists the poetic absurdities of the
industrious Roman compiler, gathered from contemporaneous writers and
tradition are current to-day, for they appeal more to the child-like
human love of the indefinite wonderful than the exact statements of
research, though the latter are really more marvellous.
Though jewels are regarded by many as baubles and of little account
among the great commercial interests of the world, they have been
an important factor in shaping the destiny of nations, changing
the borders of great countries and thereby aiding the progress of
civilization. As pearls helped materially to bring Rome to the British
Isles and the colonists of Spain to South America, so it is quite
probable that the pearls of Egypt had their influence in drawing the
Macedonians to that country, to be followed by the Romans when the
latter sought to overturn the Macedonian empire. Beyond this, their
influence among those who held the reins in the government of empires,
or those having power with them that did, cannot be estimated.
Passing beyond the days of Greece and Rome to more remote times and
countries, we come to the realms of conjecture. We know that pearls
were known and used as jewels in Egypt under the Ptolemies. Chares of
Mytilene mentioned that they were worn by women of the East about the
neck and arms and even upon the feet. It is said there is a word for
them in a Chinese dictionary four thousand years old.
There is evidence that they had been used in India and the far East
long before the West had knowledge of those countries, but we have
nothing recorded which penetrates the past beyond three to four
hundred years B.C., for there is not as much mention made of them in
ancient writings familiar to the West as of other precious stones.
Nevertheless the pearl is among the most ancient in the nomenclature
of jewels because when it did come to be written of only the one thing
could be meant. Nature produces nothing similar with which it could
be confounded, whereas it is not certain that the diamond, ruby, and
other stones as we know them, were intended when the names by which we
designate them were used. Such indiscriminate use of names has been
made by translators that it is difficult to determine what the stones
really were about which ancient authors wrote. The names of those in
the Jewish High Priest's breastplate, given in our English version of
the Old Testament, undoubtedly misrepresent the stones actually used,
and the only thing authorities agree upon regarding the names is that
they are incorrect.
As there was no definite knowledge of the crystallography and chemistry
of stones in the old days, writers referred to them often in general
terms rather than by specific names, and these were translated into the
names of later times according to the understanding of the translator,
who had neither expert knowledge of his own nor reliable literature
from which to gather information or guidance. An illustration of this
general confusion occurs in the book of Job XXVIII. 18. It is written
there, "No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls; for the price
of wisdom is above rubies." Scholars tell us that the words translated
here "coral" and "pearls," signify "found in high places," and are
thought to be precious stones though the variety is unknown. The Targum
renders the first "Sandalchin," probably our sardonyx. Junius and
Tremellius translated it "Sandaztros" in their Latin version of the Old
Testament, whereas Pliny described it as a sort of carbuncle having
shining golden drops in the body of it.
After the same manner the last sentence, "For the price of wisdom is
above rubies" is rendered by the great oriental scholar Bochart, "The
extraction of wisdom is greater than the extraction of pearls," and
other authorities agree with him.
Although there is evidence that many if not all the precious stones
of to-day were known and used by the ancients, it is equally evident
that they were much confounded and very roughly classified by general
appearance only, and as various peoples gave them different names, all
records of them are as misleading as the recorders were ignorant of
their differential qualities. Even with the rapid increase of knowledge
in the last few centuries, not until quite lately has science drawn the
lines clearly between stones similar in appearance though essentially
different and furnished means for the detection of those inherent
differences. It is impossible therefore to learn by ancient writings
how long any of the precious stones have been known and used as jewels,
for we do not know positively what the stone was by the name given in
old writings or by the translator of them. The pearl only has not been
thus generally confounded with other gems.
Once only are pearls mentioned in the Old Testament—the instance
quoted from the book of Job. It would seem therefore, that although
used as jewels, they were not regarded as of great value in the East
prior to about 400 years B.C., at which time the last of the sacred
Jewish books is supposed to have been written. True, royalty wore them
in Egypt and the people of Persia and Arabia used them very generally
for personal adornment; but they were abundant in those countries and
there had been no demand for them beyond their borders, therefore,
though beautiful, they were common and not appreciated fully. Upon the
influx of foreign invaders from shores that yielded no such gems their
status changed rapidly. The greedy avidity with which Greeks and Romans
seized them, and the demand for them from the West which came later,
gave these natives of pearl-producing shores a new idea of the value of
their pearls and the trinkets became gems.