What
the followers of Rome, the Gauls, the Normans, the citizens of the
Italian city-states, the Anglo-Saxons, the English in Tudor times, and
the ancient peoples of Mexico and Peru thought of pearls must wait for
another chapter.
When
the outlines of this volume first suggested themselves to me, I
intended to utilize only the fruits of personal experience. This has
indeed been my rule throughout. But no work on any subject is complete
without some attempt at an historical survey, and, I cannot hide it
from you, the extent of my reincarnations has not enabled me to gather
personally the materials either for this chapter or the next, which
deal purely with the past.
For
these I have been forced to glean in others' fields. One of the books,
however, which did most to feed my knowledge came into my hands a good
many years ago, when my mind was highly receptive, and in a place where
books of any kind were hard to come by and were therefore read over and
over again. This book then, in a manner most people have experienced
with some book or other, has almost become a part of my own personal
knowledge, and I feel able to draw on it as freely. It was called The Book of the Pearl, by
Kunz and Stevenson, and was published, I think, by Macmillan. I am
under the impression that it cost fifty gold dollars, which seems a
great deal of money for a book, but was not too much for this one.
I
first became aware of its existence on a small island in the Sulu Sea,
upon whose typhoon-raked beds the pearl-oyster breeds gorgeous gems and
where those who gather them in deadly peril to life and limb have heard
of one book alone, the tome that contains the words of the Prophet. Pat
Maddy, the pearler, carried it under his arm, wrapped in a piece of
sailcloth, when he came to my office on Jolo Island the day he made his
record catch of pearls and shell. This was on the occasion when his
timely arrival saved my skin from being pumped full of lead. But I have
written all about that in another book and will not repeat it now,
though the two events are indivisibly linked in my mind.
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