266 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
the
few localities above specified. And that it was the latter that yielded
the treasures which tempted Cœsar to cross the Channel is certain, for
the pearls of our seas, found in the common oyster, are opaque and worthless.
Pearls
in the ancient world held the highest rank amongst precious stones, and
for an obvious reason—their beauty is entirely due to Nature, being
susceptible of no improvement from art. On the contrary, in the more
valuable, and which are also the hardest, kind of gems, the exact
converse holds good, their innate beauties were but poorly elicited by
the imperfect polish the Indian or the Roman lapidary was competent to
give them. Hence the Persians, even down to the times of Ben Mansur,
assigned to the Pearl the first place in the list ; the Romans indeed
followed the Indian rule of valuation, and placed it second after the
Diamond, but this merely on the score of the talismanic virtues of the
latter, not its beauty. It is on record also that the prices paid by
the Romans for Pearls of exceptional magnitude far exceeded those given
for any other kind of precious stone.
In
all the portraits of the Sassanian kings the eye is immediately caught
by the huge Pearl hanging down from the right ear, and which the
artist, to judge from the care bestowed upon its exact representation,
has evidently considered one of the most essential points in his image
of his sovereign. His solicitude brings to our recollection the
romantic tale so well related by that most entertaining of old
chroniclers, Procopius ('Bell. Pers.' i. 4), concerning that Pearl of
unrivalled magnitude obtained at the urgent entreaty of King Perozes by
the daring diver from the custody of the enamoured shark, but with the
sacrifice of his own life. And» how vividly does he set before us the
final catastrophe when disappeared for ever from the world this
unparagoned miracle of Nature—when the Great King,
