The Pearl, its story, its charm, and its value

by Wallis Richard Cattelle

Although there is evidence that many if not all the precious stones of to-day were known and used by the ancients, it is equally evident that they were much confounded and very roughly classified by general appearance only, and as various peoples gave them different names, all records of them are as misleading as the recorders were ignorant of their differential qualities. Even with the rapid increase of knowledge in the last few centuries, not until quite lately has science drawn the lines clearly between stones similar in appearance though essentially different and furnished means for the detection of those inherent differences. It is impossible therefore to learn by ancient writings how long any of the precious stones have been known and used as jewels, for we do not know positively what the stone was by the name given in old writings or by the translator of them. The pearl only has not been thus generally confounded with other gems.

Once only are pearls mentioned in the Old Testament—the instance quoted from the book of Job. It would seem therefore, that although used as jewels, they were not regarded as of great value in the East prior to about 400 years B.C., at which time the last of the sacred Jewish books is supposed to have been written. True, royalty wore them in Egypt and the people of Persia and Arabia used them very generally for personal adornment; but they were abundant in those countries and there had been no demand for them beyond their borders, therefore, though beautiful, they were common and not appreciated fully. Upon the influx of foreign invaders from shores that yielded no such gems their status changed rapidly. The greedy avidity with which Greeks and Romans seized them, and the demand for them from the West which came later, gave these natives of pearl-producing shores a new idea of the value of their pearls and the trinkets became gems.

It was a condition similar to that which arose nineteen hundred years later when the Spaniards invaded America. At their first coming the natives gave them freely large quantities of pearls and gleefully traded magnificent gems for broken pieces of gaudily painted and varnished porcelain. As one to-day might take a new acquaintance for a day's fishing to a well-stocked stream, so the Indians took the Spaniards to the pearl banks to show them how they obtained their pearls. With pleasure and probably some amusement, they watched the eagerness with which the strangers sought the pearls, and doubtless wondered at the gratification displayed when they found any.

The Egyptians and Asiatics being more highly civilized undoubtedly valued their pearls more than the South American Indians did, but naturally they would not appreciate them so highly as they did after foreign desire had depleted their hoards and established a constant demand for them, greater than the yield of their fisheries.

That this condition prevailed in Egypt and Asia prior to the advent of Europeans, is indicated by the apparent ignorance of the writer of the book of Job concerning pearls. The word used in Chapter XXVIII. 18 is simply the translator's sign for an unknown quantity, and as the pearl is an apt symbol and illustration of many ideas connected with or embodied in the cult of the Jewish Church, the fact that the Jewish writers did not so use it, though the precious metals and other precious stones were so used, and though their books were written in various countries, suggests that the pearl in those days was not reckoned of equal importance with gold and silver and stones like those set in the Jewish High Priest's breastplate for instance.

That a very considerable change in the world's estimate of the pearl took place during the four centuries B.C. is illustrated by the references made to pearls in the New Testament. Rome had made of the "white bones from a shell-fish" of the fourth century B.C., a gem for the rich and powerful and so generally established it in the public estimation that the sacred writers used it to illustrate their greatest conceptions of beauty and spiritual worth.

The Saviour likened the Kingdom of Heaven to "a pearl of great price:" under the similitude of pearls He counseled the reservation of holy things from men incapable of appreciating them. Paul and John numbered them among the costly adornments in the pride of life and with the most precious articles of merchandise. From that day, with the extension of commerce, and the growth of Western nations in affluence and refinement, the demand for pearls grew and spread until even the rude island of Britain learned to appreciate them.

The quantities of large and beautiful pearls stored in the treasure-houses of Hindu princes suggest that they have existed as jewels in India for a very long period, but for how many centuries cannot be definitely stated. The probability is that in very remote ages, rude fishermen of tropic seas all over the world, while fishing for food were attracted by the lustrous objects found occasionally in the oysters which they gathered and that they saved them as things likely to please some maid or matron of their affections. A favor for them once established, they would be sought, and with the growth of intelligence and refinement would come increased appreciation. There is a close analogy in all things between the development of the individual and nations, and even of the world. Each progresses on the same lines, the difference consists in the magnitude and duration of the processes only.

To the child, pearls are playthings; to youth, pretty baubles; to mature years, important gems; to age, most beautiful and wonderful creations, and the more intelligent and refined the individual, the more quickly are these stages of regard reached.

So probably, in countries where they were found, pearls have risen with the evolution of a great nation out of a primitive race, from the rude favor of toilers of the sea, to a high place in the esteem of the princes of a cultivated people. It is quite probable that when the Aryans from the north spread over India, they found pearls among the possessions of the natives of the Madras and Malabar coasts, if not of the interior and north, as Spain found them among the natives of South America. Having a higher order of intelligence, they would naturally estimate the gem as of greater value than the aborigines would.