A KING'S RANSOM IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND The perfectly spherical pearls range in weight from a small fraction of a grain to 300 grains or more, but it is very, very rare that one of choice luster weighs more than 100 grains. The largest of which we have any specific information was that among the French crown jewels as early as the time of Napoleon, an egg-shaped pearl weighing 337 grains. The very large ones, weighing in excess of 100 grains, are called "paragons." The small pearls, weighing less than half a grain each, are known as "seed pearls." The very small ones, weighing less than 1/25 of a grain, are called "dust pearls."-The Book of the Pearl, by George Frederick Kunz and Charles Hugh Stevenson. The bidding was conducted in Tamil, Singhalese, and Arabic by means of interpreters. Oysters were sold in lots of not less than 1,000. The highest price paid per thousand was Rs. 110/-; the highest average price per day was Rs. 74/-; the average for the whole fishery was Rs. 45/per thousand; the total revenue to government, Rs. 514,326.00. (The normal value of the rupee is about 482 cents.) The purchasers of large quantities of oysters remove the shells to totties, inclosures which contain the oysters until they rot. Millions of maggots eventually consume the flesh. The residue is examined, sieved, and sifted innumerable times, and even the dust is picked over, so that the tiniest seed pearl may not escape. "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster," says Colonel Atwit in Swift's "Polite Conversation." One might add that The pearl fakirs of Pearl Town sit about the streets before small three-legged wooden work tables. With this primitive bow-drill a clever workman can pierce 40 to 50 pearls a day. There is in existence in America a necklace of 120,000 seed pearls made in this way. he is a bolder man who braves the perfume of decaying oysters and seeks for pearls. But the glorious uncertainty of the gamble leads him on, and there are few thrills equal to that of finding "one pearl of great price.' The following interesting notes on the formation of the pearl are contributed by Dr. Pearson, the Ceylon Government's Marine Biologist: "The mystery of pearl production has been the subject of much speculation throughout historic times. The formation of the pearl was variously ascribed by the ancients to the consolidation of drops of dew, to the distillation of the tears of the Nereids, or yet again to the effect of a flash of lightning. "Leaving aside these more fanciful views, the most reasonable theory ascribes the creation of a pearl to the intrusion into the tissues of the oyster of some foreign particle, such as a sand grain, or parasitic worm, or indeed any suitable irritant. The problem still awaits definite solution, however, though there would appear to be considerable support for the parasite theory. "The pearl oyster has its soft parts covered by a skin, which has the faculty WASHING THE OYSTER SHELLS To expedite the process of rotting, so that the pearls may be more easily extracted, the oysters are piled into dugout canoes and covered with matting. At the end of from seven to ten days little is left except pearls, shells, and slime. The canoe is now flooded to the brim and the naked natives, ranging on either side, remove the shells and begin rinsing and kneading the refuse in which the pearls are imbedded. It is extremely difficult either to see or to feel a pearl in a perfectly fresh oyster. It is the practice, therefore, to allow decomposition of the soft part to set in before the search begins, with the result that the task is excessively odoriferous (see text, page 179). of producing the nacre, or mother-ofpearl, with which the inside of the shell is lined. On occasion foreign particles find their way between the soft parts and the shell. "Thus a secretion of nacre is stimu lated around the intruding particle and a blister pearl is formed, which remains attached to the mother-of-pearl lining of the shell. Or, again, a young parasite may bore its way through the skin, carrying with it a few of the nacre-forming cells, which will proliferate and envelop the parasite. "So the unfortunate parasite becomes inclosed in a nacreous tomb and forms the nucleus of a beautiful pearl. As a French scientist has put it, 'La plus belle perle n'est donc, en définitive, que le brillant sarcophage d'un ver.'" (The most beautiful pearl is in reality only the brilliant sarcophagus of a worm.)* THE PORTUGUESE MADE FIRST DETAILED RECORD OF CEYLON PEARL FISHERIES It is not until we reach the Portuguese occupation of Ceylon (1517-1658) that we find any detailed account of the manner in which a pearl fishery of those days was conducted, although fragmentary refand from these it would appear that the erences to earlier fisheries are frequent, general methods for the conduct of a fishery have remained substantially un * See, also, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, "The Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon," by Hugh M. Smith, February, 1912, and "The Cultivation of Marine and Fresh Water Animals in Japan," by K. Mitsukuri, Ph. D., September, 1906. |