A
year later these would be larger. It is also said that when a pearl is
about to breed, a small black speck makes its appearance on the
surface, and that during the period of breeding the pearl changes its
shape from a sphere to an irregular ovoid, and develops layers of
scales on the surface visible to the naked eye.
After
a time, the breeding pearls change their orient to a dirty white, the
scales having peeled off. In all cases the rice looks as though some
beetle had taken a circular bite out of the end of each kernel. Somehow
a perusal of the accounts of the remarkable results, leaves the reader
with a conglomerate impression of transformed rice and imagination.
Nevertheless,
the breeding of pearls in cottonÂwool or cotton-seed with rice, is
asserted and believed, and the methods by which the wonder is
accomplished may be had with great circumÂstance and some variations
from those who have experimented. No greater evidence exists of the
child-like faith of people in the old times than the incredible stories
about precious stones which were current in those days.
It is equally wonderful that although it took
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