In the government of Archangel pearls have been collected for centuries from the streams flowing into the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean. An extended account of the fisheries of this region was given by Von Middendorff.[[239]] He states that the Unio margaritifera inhabits all the rivers in which the descent is not too rapid, and especially in the Tjura, the Tuloma, the Kovda, Kereda, the Kanda, etc. The fisheries have been conducted exclusively by the shore Laplanders; but they have been neglected in recent years owing to the small returns. Von Hessling notes that the pearls are dull in color; in the opinion of the fishermen this is caused by the mysterious influence of the copper money which they carry with them. The Tuloma was formerly a productive river; its pearls were sold in Kola, whence they were carried to Archangel, 335 miles distant, where they were pierced by expert workmen. The Tjura also yielded many pearls; but since a Laplander was drowned while fishing for them, a legend has spread that the spirit of the river guards the pearls, and the natives hesitate about seeking them.
Probably the occurrence of so many in the home streams had much to do with developing in Russia that great love for the pearl which has made it the national ornament, all classes finding pleasure in its possession. While the superb gems treasured by the nobility are mostly from oriental seas, a considerable percentage of those worn by the peasantry are from the native waters. An interesting account of this fondness among a certain class of Russian women—the Jewesses of Little Russia—was given sixty years ago by the German traveler Kohl.
RUSSIAN BOYARD LADIES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, SHOWING CAPS AND OTHER ORNAMENTS OF PEARLS
In Alexandria, a small city in the government of Kherson in South Russia, a Jew kept a café, and his charming daughter served us with coffee. We paid her compliments on her beautiful eyes and teeth. But she seemed to be much less vain of these natural ornaments than of the acquired ones in the magnificent glittering pearl-cap which she wore upon her head. For all the women through South and Little Russia even as far as Galicia wear a certain stiff, baggy cap which is very disfiguring, and is covered all over with a great number of pearls, upon a foundation of black velvet. It is called a “mushka.” This cap, with very unimportant modifications, has almost always the same form; the only difference is that, in the case of the wealthy, the pearls are larger, and sometimes a number of small pearls and precious stones are suspended here and there, set in the same way as the earrings of our ladies. It is common for them to wear half their fortune on their heads in this way. For these caps generally cost from five hundred to one thousand roubles, and many are worth five or six thousand and even more; they wear them every day, holidays as well as ordinary days, and strut around the kitchens and cellars with their “mushka.” They spend their last penny in order to secure such a pearl-cap, and even when they are clad in rags their head is covered with pearls. In order to furnish the requisite material for this wide-spread fashion, the commerce in pearls of Odessa, Taganrog and some other places in southern Russia is not unimportant. There may live in the region where the pearl-caps of which I speak are worn at least 2,000,000 Jewesses. Let us estimate that among them there are but 300,000 adults, and that only half of these, 150,000, wear pearl-caps (only the most indigent and the most aristocratic do not wear the “mushka”); let us then estimate the average value of such a cap at only five hundred roubles—these are the lowest minima and fall far short of the real figures—and we have a total capital of 76,000,000 roubles, which the Jewesses of this region wear upon their heads. Naturally the annual diminution of this capital is small, since these pearls are transmitted from the mothers to their daughters and granddaughters. Still, if we estimate that they last for a century, the necessary yearly contribution amounts to nearly one million. It is, however, probable that a much larger capital is employed in the commerce of pearls. They are, for the most part, oriental and come by way of Turkey and Odessa or else by way of Armenia and Tiflis. We inquired of our beautiful Jewess whether she was not in perpetual dread on account of her pearl-cap, and how she protected it from thieves. She answered that she wore it on her head all day and at night placed it in a casket which rested under her pillow. So that the whole short life of these Jewesses of the steppes revolves around their pearl-cap as the earth does around the sun.[[240]]
Several species of marine mollusks on the coasts of Europe yield pearly formations, but none of much ornamental or commercial value. Probably the most interesting of these are from the Pinna on the Mediterranean coasts, and especially on the coast of Sardinia and the shores of the Adriatic. An interesting collection of these Pinna pearls was furnished to the writers by Alexandro Castellani of Rome.
IX
ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC
SOUTH SEA ISLANDS, AUSTRALIAN COASTS, MALAY ARCHIPELAGO