IMITATIONS AND DOCTORED
first
water is thrown away. The scales are then washed and pressed. The mucus
sinks to the bottom and is gathered as an oily mass, very brilliant and
bluish-white. This is packed with ammonia in tin boxes and sealed for
shipment. It takes about 20,000 fish to make one pound of the mucus.
A
cheap imitation pearl is made of opal glass, a bluish-white milky
appearing material, to which a pearly effect is given by treating it
with fluoric acid. Imitation black pearls are made from hematite, but
as they require careful finishing to hide the metallic luster and are
much heavier than pearls, they are seldom used.
The
Chinese and Japanese have been much more ingenious in their methods and
have long produced, with enforced aid from the animal, imitations which
are in part real pearl. The former insert in the Chinese pearl-mussel
(anodonta. herculea) small figures of Buddha upon which the fish
proceeds to deposit its nacre. When they are coated, which occurs in
from one to two or three years, the pearly figures are extracted and
sold to the devout.
The Japanese do more. They attempt to
297
