A PEARL.
This jewel, so highly valued for its chaste beauty, is but a secretion of animal matter, resulting from the efforts of some uneasy mollusk, annoyed by a foreign substance, which has found its way into his habitation, to make the best of an unavoidable evil by enclosing it in a soft smooth covering. Let us imitate the Oyster, and when annoyed or afflicted, by meekness and patience, and christian charity, strive to turn our vexations and troubles into “pearls of great price,” and “goodly pearls,” like those mentioned in scripture.
It is on the north-west coast of the Island of Ceylon, in the Indian Ocean, that the Pearl Oyster most abounds, and there it is that the Pearl fishery is conducted in the most extensive, systematic, and successful manner; this fishing commences at the beginning of March, and upwards of two hundred boats are usually employed in it; in each of these boats are ten divers, who go down to the Oyster-beds, five at a time, and so relieve each other; there are besides thirteen other men who manage the boat, and attend to the divers. Altogether it is computed that from fifty to sixty thousand persons, in some way engaged in the fishery, or preparation, or sale of the pearls, assemble at and near the scene of operations, which must be indeed a busy one. The number of Oysters taken during the period of the fishing, which is about a month, must be prodigious. One boat has been known to bring on shore, in the day, as many as thirty-three thousand; they are placed in heaps, and allowed to remain until they become putrid, when they undergo a very elaborate process of washing and separating from the shells, which are carefully examined and deprived of their pearly treasures. The stench arising from the decomposed animal matter is described as horrible, and the whole process filthy and loathsome in the extreme; yet out of the slime and mud and disgusting effluvia, come every year gems of inestimable value, calculated to adorn the brow of beauty, and form ornaments the most pure and delicate that can be imagined. For the exclusive right of fishing on the banks of Ceylon, for a single season, as much as £120,000 have been paid to the English government by one person, who sublets boats to others. Pearls vary greatly in value according to their colour and size; those which are perfectly white are the most valuable; next to these are those which have a yellowish tinge; the smallest kind, used for various ornamental purposes, are called seed pearls, the refuse is made into a kind of confection called chimum, highly relished by Chinese epicures. A single Oyster will sometimes contain several pearls, which are generally embedded in the body of the animal, but are sometimes fixed to the shell; it is recorded of one rich mollusk, that there were found in his possession no less than one hundred and fifty precious jewels; he must have been a miser, or perhaps he had taken them in pledge from his less provident neighbours.
From the earliest time, pearls have been considered as valuable ornaments; they are mentioned in the book of Job, (see chap. xxviii, verse 18th.,) and are often alluded to by Greek and Roman writers. Various attempts have been made to imitate them, and one mode of producing them, practised, it is said, more than a thousand years ago, is still carried on in China. In the shells of Pearl Oysters, holes are bored, into which pieces of iron are introduced; these wounding and irritating the animal, cause it to deposit coat upon coat of pearly matter over the wounded part, and so the pearl is formed. Artificial pearls are made of hollow glass globules or little globes, covered on the inside with a liquid called pearl-essence, and filled up with white wax. Historians speak of an ancient traffic in native pearls carried on by this country; and in modern times, British pearls of considerable value have been discovered, one not many years since, by a gentleman who was eating oysters at Winchester, was valued at two hundred guineas. Generally, however, the pearls of this country are inferior in the two requisites of colour and size.
Interesting accounts of Pearls and Pearl-fishing, will be found in “the Penny,” and “Saturday Magazines,” and many other works easy of access. There our young readers may learn of the perils and dangers to which the poor divers are exposed from the voracious sharks, which hover about the fishing grounds, and make a dash at their victim, heedless of the written charms, with which the priest or shark-charmer has provided him previous to his descent, and of much more than we can find space here to tell. All we can now do is to give the portrait, as drawn by Thomas Hood, of a lady who takes up her abode in all the pearl-producing bivalves, and who is therefore, perhaps on this account, called
