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PACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT PRECIOUS STONES 389
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sands
a dead fox, whose mouth was tightly compressed by a strange object. On
closer observation this proved to be an enormous pearl-oyster shell.
Evidently the fox had thrust his snout into the shell while the valves
were open so that he might devour the soft contents, but the valves
suddenly closed upon him and he had died of suffocation. On prying open
the shell the Arab found therein the pearl which was destined to bring
him what he regarded as a fabulous sum.20
The
women of the Arab town occupying a site close to that on which stood
the Babylon of ancient times, wore, as a favorite adornment, nose-rings
of gold set with a pearl and a turquoise. The English traveller, John
Eldred, who traversed Mesopotamia in 1583, found this custom so
general that he writes: "This they doe be they never so poore." 21
For
years a statement has been going through the press that pearls are
liable to become diseased and die, and that the famous necklace of
pearls presented by President Thiers of France to his wife, and
bequeathed by Mme. Thiers to the French Government, had lost their
lustre and died, perhaps owing to the death of the owner. For there is
an old belief that pearls, as well as opals and turquoises^ lose some
of their lustre when the owner or wearer becomes ill, and change to a
dull and lifeless hue when the owner dies. An examination of the
necklace by the writer showed that the pearls were in good condition,
and to confirm his statement to this effect he had the director of the
Louvre Museum write him a letter. In this official communication the
director not only states that the pearls had not sickened and died, but
that they were in as "healthy" a condition as they had ever been.
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" " Ancient Accounts of India and China by Two Mohammedan Travellers," trans, by Abbé Eenaudot, London, 1733, pp. 97, 98.
aSee Hakluyt, "The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation," London, 1589.
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