PEARL
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 CÆSAR, 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
“_Searching the wave I won therefrom a pearl
Moonlike and glorious, such as kings might buy
Emptying their treasury._”
ARNOLD.
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:
“_Precious the tear as that rain from the sky
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea._”
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.”
[Illustration:
Small Necklet of Perfect Oriental Pearls
Kelsey I. Newman Collection
]
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
Phœnicians 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.:
“_In thy name, O God, the God of Himyar,
I, Tajah, the daughter of Dzu Shefarr, sent my servant to Joseph,
And he, delaying to return to me, I sent my handmaid,
With a measure of silver, to bring me back a measure of flour:
And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of gold:
And not being able to procure it, I commanded them to the ground:
And finding no profit in them, I am shut up here.
Whosoever may hear of it, let him pity me:
And should any woman adorn herself with an ornament
From my ornaments, may she die with no other than my death._”
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.”
[Illustration:
HOROSCOPE OF MARY OF SCOTLAND
Pearls would be considered unfortunate for these rival Queens.
]
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:
“_Here £15,000 at one clap goes
Instead of sugar: Gresham drinks the pearl
Unto his Queen and mistress._”
[Illustration:
HOROSCOPE OF ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND
Pearls would be considered unfortunate for these rival Queens.
]
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.