It has been erronenously said, that pearl shells grow upon rocks, and again, that they are caught by nets. This is certainly a contradiction, as nobody would employ nets to gather fish from among rocks. On the contrary, all kinds of pearl are found in the deepest, stillest water, and softest bottom. The parts of most of them are too fine to bear the agitation of the sea among rocks. Their manners and œconomy are little known, but, as far as I have observed, they are all stuck in the mud upright by an extremity, the mussel by one end, the pinna by the small sharp point, and the berberi, or lule, by the hinge or square part which projects from the round.
In shallow and clear streams I have seen small furrows or tracts, upon the sandy bottom, by which you could trace the mussel, from its last station, and these not straight, but deviating into traverses and triangles, like the course of a ship in a contrary wind laid down upon a map, the tract of the mussel probably in pursuit of food. The general belief is, that the mussel is constantly stationary in a state of repose, and cannot transfer itself from place to place. This is a vulgar prejudice, and one of those facts that are mistaken for want of sufficient pains, or opportunity, to make more critical observation. Others finding the first opinion a false one, and that they are endowed with power of changing place like other animals, have, upon the same foundation, gone into the contrary extreme, so far as to attribute swiftness to them, a property surely inconsistent with their being fixed to rocks. Pliny and Solinus say, that the mussel have leaders, and go in flocks, and that their leader is endowed with great cunning, to protect himself and his flock from the fishers, and when he is taken, the others fall an easy prey. This however I think we are to look upon as a fable. Some of the most accurate observers having discovered the motion of the mussel, which is indeed wonderful, and that they lie in beds, which is not at all so, have added the rest to make their history complete.
It is observed that pearls are always the most beautiful in those places of the sea where a quantity of fresh water falls. Thus in the Red Sea they were always most esteemed that were fished from Suakem southward, that is in those parts corresponding to the country anciently called Berberia, and Azamia, from reasons before given; on the Arabian coast, near the island Camaran, where there is abundance of fresh water; and the island of Foosht, laid down in my map, where there are springs; there I purchased one I had the pleasure to see taken out of the shell. It has been said that the fish of these shells are good, which is an error; they were the only shell-fish in the Red Sea I found not eatable. I never saw any pearl shells on either side southward of the parallel of Mocha in Arabia Felix. As it is a fish that delights in repose, I imagine it avoids this part of the gulf, as lying open to the Indian Ocean, and agitated by variable winds.
In that part of my narrative where I speak of my return through the Desert of Nubia, and the shells found there, I have likewise mentioned the mussel found in the salt springs that appear in various parts of that desert. These likewise travel far from home, and are sometimes surprised by the ceasing of the rains, at a greater distance from their beds than they have strength and moisture to carry them. In many of these shells I have found those kind of excrescences which we may call Pearls, all of them ill-formed, foul, and of a bad colour, but of the same consistence, and lodged in the same part of the body as those in the sea. The mussel, too, is in every respect similar, I think larger, the outer skin or covering of it is of a vivid green. Upon removing this, which is the epidermis, what next appears is a beautiful pink, without gloss, and seemingly of a calcareous nature. Below this, the mother-of-pearl, which is undermost, is a white without lustre, partaking much of the blue, and very little of the red, and this is all the difference I observed between it and the pearl-bearing mussel in the Red Sea; but even this latter I always found in still water, soft bottom, and far from stony or rocky ground. None of these pearl mussels, either in the Red Sea or the desert, have any appearance of being spinners, as they are generally described to be.
I have said that the Baherein has been esteemed the place whence the greatest quantity of pearls are brought. I would be understood to mean, that this has been the reputed greatest regular market from antiquity to the present time. But Americus, in his second navigation, says, that he found an unknown people of that continent, who sold him above 54 pound weight for 40 ducats[97]. And Peter the Martyr says, that Tunacca, one of the kings of that country, seeing the great desire the Spaniards had for pearls, and the value they set upon them, sent some of his own people in search of them, who returning the fourth day, brought with them 12 pounds of pearls, each pound 8 ounces. If this is the case, America surely excells both Africa and Asia in the quantity of this article.
The value of pearls depends upon size, regularity of form, (for roundness is not always requisite) weight, smoothness, colour, and the different shades of that colour. Suetonius says, that Cæsar gave to Servilia, Marcus Brutus’s mother, a pearl worth about L. 50,000 of our money. And Cleopatra, after vaunting to her lover, Mark Antony, that she would give him a supper which should cost two hundred and fifty-thousand pounds, for this purpose dissolved one of the pearls which she carried in her ears, which amounted to that price, and drank it. The other, it is said, was carried afterwards to Rome by Augustus Cæsar, sawn in two, and put in the ears of Venus Genetrix.
The price of pearls has been always variable. Pliny seems to have over-rated them much, when he says they are the most valuable and excellent of all precious stones. He must probably have had those just mentioned in his view, for otherwise they cannot bear comparison with diamonds, amethysts, rubies, or sapphires.
It has been observed to me by the pearl fishers in the east, that when the shell is smooth and perfect, there they have no expectation of a pearl, but are sure to find them when the shell has begun to be distorted and deformed. From this it would seem, as the fish turned older, the vessels containing the juice for forming the shell, and keeping it in its vigour, grew weak and ruptured; and thence, from this juice accumulating in the fish, the pearl was formed, and the shell brought to decay, perfectly in the manner, as I have before said, supposed by M. Reamur.
In Scotland, especially to the northward, in all rivers running from lakes, there are found mussels that have pearls of more than ordinary merit, though seldom of large size. I have purchased many hundreds, till lately the wearing of real pearls coming into fashion, those of Scotland have increased in price greatly beyond their value, and superior often to the price of oriental ones when bought in the east. The reason of this is a demand from London, where they are actually employed in work, and sold as oriental. But the excellency of all glass or paste manufactory, it is likely, will keep the price of this article, and the demand for it within bounds, when every lady has it in her power to wear in her ears, for the price of sixpence, a pearl as beautiful in colour, more elegant in form, lighter and easier to carry, and as much bigger as she pleases, than those famous ones of Cleopatra and Servilia. I shall only further observe, that the same remark on the shell holds in Scotland as in the east. The smooth and perfect mussel shell rarely produces a pearl, the crooked and distorted shell seldom wants one.
I shall here mention a very elegant sort of manufactory, with which I cannot positively say the ancients were acquainted, which is fineering, or inlaying with the inside of the shell called mother-of-pearl, known to the dealers in trinkets all over Europe, and in particular brought to great perfection at Jerusalem. That of Peninim, though the most beautiful, is too fragil and thin to be employed in large pieces. It is the nacre, or mother-of-pearl taken from the Lulu el Berberi, or what is called Abyssinian oyster, principally used in those fine works. Great quantities of this shell are brought daily from the Red Sea to Jerusalem. Of these all the fine works, the crucifixes, the wafer-boxes, and the beads, are made, which are sent to the Spanish dominions in the new world, and produce a return incomparably greater than the staple of the greatest manufactory in the old.