i.e., the barley grain. The mudarras variety is crooked like the molar
teeth, and it has elevations and cavities.
The qukumi variety is associated with the Red Sea. Its grains resemble those of the mudarras and mudtarab varieties. In the Serandibi
variety also there are the mudarras which present the view of several
grains having coalesced with each other.
The nmdtamir variety has a kind of constriction in it. Ra'i says:
The pleiades glimmer like the pearl that is constricted.
The poet has compared the whole constellation to one pearl, although
the constellation consists of six stars. The southern half of this constellation comprises two stars and the northern half four. The stars are not,
therefore, evenly distributed, and the northern half has the larger number. It, therefore, inclines eastward, while the opposite southern side is
constricted.
The mu~annar variety is called kamarbast in Persian. Some have
taken it to be kamarpnsht, i.e. having a crooked waist. It is constricted
in the middle as if it has been tied with a thread on the sides. The buyer
has to exercise considerable care while purchasing it lest it should have
been made from the skins of two pearls of equivalent size whose interiors
have been filled with a material which provides nourishment to the matter which does not dissolve either in water or the oil of the red juniper.
The fact is that the skin of the pearl is arranged layer upon layer, as in
onion. At times muzaunar is made from the outer peel of the pearl. The
pearl is made soft, polished, and bored with the implement employed by
goldsmiths in perforating jh inmauahs.
It is said that some pearls are made from mica that has been soaked
several times, kneaded together with sublimated quicksilver, and imparted the shape of a pearl. Such gilding is brought about by placing a
pearl in distilled vinegar and citron juice.
To sum up, I expressed the desire to purchase a few medicines and
articles of necessity from a Haji. Amongst these items were small pearls
which were needed as ingredients in a cardiac electuary. A trader from
Baghdad (who had these pearls) asked the Haji who the purchaser was.
The Haji introduced me and told him why these pearls were required,
whereupon he took out two pills whose colour was like the dung of the
camel, and told the Haji:
Tell the buyer that once 1 had considerable assets which I had inherited from my father. But I lavished all my wealth upon pearls,
and presently I have only two left. Advise him not to waste his time
and money on them like I did. Greetings to him.
Words are inscribed upon pearls, etc. Inscriptions that are desired to be
preserved are inscribed by candle wax, while those that are not to be preserved are left as they are. The pearl is then dipped in concentrated vine-
