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The Authors.

September, 1908.

I

PEARLS AMONG THE ANCIENTS

THE BOOK OF THE PEARL

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The richest merchandise of all, and the most soveraigne commoditie throughout the whole world, are these pearles.

Pliny, Historia naturalis.

Lib. IX, c. 35.

Perfected by nature and requiring no art to enhance their beauty, pearls were naturally the earliest gems known to prehistoric man. Probably the members of some fish-eating tribe—maybe of the coast of India or bordering an Asiatic river—while opening mollusks for food, were attracted by their luster. And as man’s estimation of beauty developed, he found in them the means of satisfying that fondness for personal decoration so characteristic of half-naked savages, which has its counterpart amid the wealth and fashion of the present day.

Pearls seem to be peculiarly suggestive of oriental luxury and magnificence. It is in the East that they have been especially loved, enhancing the charms of Asiatic beauty and adding splendor to barbaric courts celebrated for their display of costume. From their possession of the rich pearl resources it is natural that the people of India and of Persia should have early found beauty and value in these jewels, and should have been among the first to collect them in large quantities. And no oriental divinity, no object of veneration has been without this ornament; no poetical production has lacked this symbol of purity and chastity.