MARGARITA. 261
to,
and often snaps off their fingers : and some are thus killed
immediately. But all who put in the hand transversely, easily pull
away the shells from the rocks."
These
same authorities Pliny seems to have followed in his account (ix. 53)
of the formation of the Pearl : merely adding that the impregnation was
produced by the dews of heaven falling into the open shells at the
breeding time ; an essential point evidently omitted by Athenaeus from
his abstract of the passage in Isidorus. The quality of the Pearl
varied according to that of the dew imbibed, being lustrous if that was
pure ; dull, if it were foul. Cloudy weather spoilt the colour,
lightning stopped the growth, but thunder made the shell-fish miscarry
altogether, and eject hollow husks called physemata (bubbles).
He adds that Taprobane (Ceylon) was then, as until lately, the seat of
the most productive fishery. Pliny remarks the formation of Pearls out
of numerous concentric layers (multiplici constant cute), and hence
properly concludes them to be mere callosities formed in the body of
the fish. In fact the pearl is only a concretion of the matter lining
the shell that accumulates upon some foreign body accidentally
introduced into the shell (usually a grain of sand), for the purpose of
preventing the irritation its roughness would otherwise occasion to the
tender inmate.*
Those
of hemispherical form were called Tympania (tambourines) : the shells
to which some were firmly attached were preserved in this condition to
serve the Roman fair ones for perfume-holders. There was a story that
the shoals of pearl-oysters had a king distinguished
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