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Ch. 10: Gemstone Facts

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	FACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT PRECIOUS STONES 391

	pounded a new cosmetic. He did not, however, pin his faith to the pearl-dust alone, hut wisely added a number of other ingredients. Still another mythical tale in reference to pearls has to be refuted. For some time past numerous specimens of a so-called ' ' coeoanut-pearl ' ' have been .brought from the East. These are very white pearls, resembling in hue the hard meat of the cocoanut, and said to have been produced in the cocoa-nut, just as other pearls are produced in certain species of mollusks. However, the writer has always found them to be pearls secreted by the gigantic mollusk Ostrea Singapora. A strange poetic fancy regarding the transmutation of parts of the human form into gems of the sea appears in Ariel's song in Shakespeare 's ' ' Tempest ' ' :



	Some natives of the Sulu Archipelago believe that the nautilus pearl is a most unlucky object to possess, for should a man engage in a fight while wearing such a pearl he would Inevitably be killed. Hence, when a native by chance comes across one of them, he very quickly throws it away, as a probable bringer of ill-luck. Occasionally, however, such pearls fall into the hands of those who are less influenced by superstition, and one weighing 72 grains was given, in 1884, io an Australian gentleman, by Mohammed Beddreddin, irother-in-law of the Sultan of Sulu. This was a perfect, pear-shaped pearl of a creamy-white hue and somewhat

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