peculiar to us, has been the best adapted to the conditions among those peoples.
As
an illustration of the interest taken by Oriental potentates in the
collection of jewels, we quote an instance from Marco Polo, who,
centuries ago, wrote the following: 1 "Several times
every year the King of Maabar sends his proclamation through the realm
that if any one who possesses a pearl or stone of great value will
bring it to him, he will pay for it twice as much as it cost. Everybody
is glad to do this, and thus the King gets all into his own hands,
giving every man his price."
Great
quantities of pearls, the result of centuries of accumulation, and
exceeding in splendor the collections of the present day, must have
been garnered up in many cities of the Orient during the period of
their prosperity. But these cities have disappeared, wrecked and ruined
by fire and sword, and no vestige of their former wealth remains with
them. Their treasures have been looted, hoarded, buried, or scattered
to the four ends of the Orient, frequently finding their way in former
times to Europe, but now more often to America, where fine gems always
find a generous buyer.
In
Syria, and some of the Oriental countries, until recently, and perhaps
at the present time, it has been the custom, when a native wished to
embark in the pearl business, for him to allow himself to drift
gradually into a state of vagrancy, becoming a veritable tramp for
fully a year. Then, with the money that he had himself or that which
was supplied by his backer, he would visit the pearl fisheries and
shrewdly acquire the gems to the.best advantage, returning again as a
vagrant; for if it were known at any point along the route that he
carried with him sums of money his life would be in jeopardy, and he
would probably never reach the fisheries; or, if he did, the chances
are that he would never return. This may remind us of Marco Polo's old
coat, in which he had concealed some valuable gems, the gift of the
Grand Khan. His wife heedlessly gave the coat to a beggar and it was
only regained by a clever stratagem.
The
product of the pearl fisheries, either that of entire fisheries where
they are managed by a company, or the gatherings of merchants, or even
the single gems which may be acquired by the smaller merchants, all
these usually find their way to the great markets, although
occasionally they change hands at once. In the East they are sent
either to Bombay, Calcutta, Madras or Colombo ; frequently they are
intended for a higher market. Many of them remain in the East, for in
the East to-day a fine pearl is as much prized as ever, and there are
those who love pearls as much as did the King of Maabar in
1 "The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian." Trans, and ed. by Col. Henry Yule,
London, 1871, Vol. II, p. 275.
