PEARL-CULTURE AND PEARL-FARMING 297
small
pinhead and of much beauty, which I saw and examined not long after the
lady made the discovery. While my story may be received with laughter,
I can most solemnly assure you of the truth of my having seen these
pearls, and I have not the slightest doubt of the perfect truthfulness
of the lady who possessed them. I questioned an eminent Malay merchant
of Penang on this subject, and he assured me that one of his daughters
had once possessed a similar growth of pearls. l
Notwithstanding
the apparent absurdity of this pearl-breeding theory, belief in it
appears to be not only sincere but wide-spread, as can be attested by
any one familiar with affairs in the archipelago. A critical
examination into the matter was made in 1877 by Dr. Ν. Β. Dennys,
curator of the Raffles Museum at Singapore, the result of which was
communicated to the Straits branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 28th
February, 1878.2 From his numerous quotations of persons
who gave the results of their experiences we extract two instances.
One gentleman had 120 small pearls in addition to the five breeding
ones with which the experiment had started twenty years before, and
during the entire period the box had not been molested except that it
was opened occasionally for inspection by interested persons. Another
experimentor inclosed three breeding pearls with a few grains of rice
on 17th July, 1874; on opening the box on 14th July, 1875, nine
additional pearls were discovered, and the three original ones appeared
larger.
The
belief has many curious variations. It is stated that in Borneo and the
adjacent islands, many of the fishermen reserve every ninth pearl
regardless of its size, and put the collection in a small bottle which
is kept corked with a dead man's finger. According to Professor
Kimmerly, nearly every burial-place along the Borneo coast has been
desecrated in searching for "corks" for these bottles, and almost every
hut has its dead-finger bottle, with from ten to fifty "breeding
pearls" and twice that number of rice grains.3 A
correspondent at Sandakan, North Borneo, writes that at the time of his
death at Hongkong in 1901, Dr. Dennys had in his possession a small
box containing "breeding pearls"; but these disappeared after his
death, and his brother, the crown solicitor, was unable to find them.
This correspondent also states that the Ranee of Sarawak, a British
protectorate in western Borneo, has a collection of "breeding pearls"
numbering about two hundred, and that this is the only large collection
known at present.
1 "Notes and Queries," 3rd Series, Vol. II, Royal Asiatic Society," Singapore, 1878, Vol. p. 228.
I, pp. 31-37.
2 "Journal of the Straits Branch of the s "Jewelers' Review," May 10, 1892.
