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FACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT PRECIOUS STONES 393 The well-known lines in Shakespeare's "Othello":
Of one whose hand, like the base Judean's, Cast away a pearl richer than all his tribe.
have
been explained in many different ways by the commentators, one of whom
(Steevens) saw in them a reference to the following story current in
Venice in the sixteenth century. A Jew, after long and perilous
wanderings in the East, succeeded in bringing with him to Venice a
great number of fine pearls. These he disposed of there at
satisfactory prices, with the exception of one pearl of immense size
and extraordinary beauty, upon which he set a price so high that no one
was willing to pay it. Finally, the Jew invited all the leading
gem-dealers to meet him on the Rialto, and when as many of them as
answered his call had assembled, he once more, and for the last time,
offered his peerless pearl for sale, detailing all its perfections in
eloquent terms. However, he made no concession in· the price, and the
dealers unanimously refused to purchase it, probably expecting that the
Jew would at last be forced to make a reduction, but to their
amazement, instead of doing this, he threw his pearl before their very
eyes into the waters of the canal, preferring rather to lose it than to
cheapen it.25
The
belief that the growth of pearls in the pearl-oyster was due to
rain-drops is perpetuated in the Arab proverb : "The rain of the month
of Nisan brings forth pearls in the
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