should be heated in an iron pot to boiling. The pot then should be
placed in a vessel filled with cold water and washed with water containing the Andarani salt.
But this practice gives rise to the suspicion that the upper portion or the
surface of the pearl would get abraded.
They have also offered the following method:
if the pearl has undergone a change through the use of fragrances, it
should be placed in an earthen urn together with soap, unslaked lime
and Andarani salt, all in equivalent weights. Sweet water and concentrated vinegar are poured upon this mixture. The mixture is then
placed upon a fire of glowing embers. The froth of the soap should
be scooped out until it ceases to come to the surface, and whatever is
in the cup is not cleansed. The pearl then should be taken out and
washed, and the pearls that have become pale or darkened should be
placed in a swab of cotton and dipped in odorous camphor. It
should be then wrapped in a burlap bag and suspended in a bath of
pure quicksilver and heated on a slow-burning fire in a vessel for a
period determined by comfortable counting up to one hundred and
fifty. The vessel is then taken off the fire, and allowed to cool, exercising care that air does not touch it. If it is still impure, the process
should be repeated. If the skin of the pearl happens to be dark, it
should be kept dipped in the milk of fig for forty days, inverted into
a cup to which equal parts of mahlab, 82 castor, and camphor are
added. The mixture is heated for two hours upon coal-fire without
blowing and finally taken off. Should the blackness be internal, (the
pearl) should be coated with wax, and transferred to a cup together
with citron juice and the peel of khadkhadah. Citron juice should be
removed and replaced every third day until the colour becomes
white, if it is pale and the paleness is confined to its outer skin, it
should be allowed to soak in the milk of fig. Later, soap, salsola and
borax are added in equal parts, and the same treatment as in the case
of the black pearl should be repeated. If the pale colour is internal,
mahlab, sesame and camphor (ground to small grains) are dipped
and covered with flour. The mixture is then placed in a pan and
enough of akarigh oil is added as would cover the mixture. This is
followed by boiling upon slow fire, twice. If the colour is red, the
pearl is heated in milk to which are added Persian soda plant, camphor and Yemenite alum ground well, and kneaded with solidified
milk and fermented bread. If the pearl has tinny colour, it should be
kept dipped in citron juice for three days, washed with egg-water
and preserved from air.
