embalmed and wrapped in a garment ornamented with pearls. They were then inclosed in a case of jade.1
Speaking
of the jewels of the King of Maabar, or what is now known as the
Coromandel Coast, Marco Polo tells us: "It is a fact that the king goes
as bare as the rest, only round his loins he has a piece of fine cloth
and round his neck he has a necklace entirely of precious
stones,—rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and the like, insomuch that this
collar is of great value. He wears also hanging in front of his chest
from the neck downwards, a fine silk thread strung with 104 large
pearls and rubies of great price. The reason why he wears this cord
with the 104 great pearls is (according to what they tell) that every
day, morning and evening, he has to say 104 prayers to his idols. Such
is their religion and custom; and thus did all the kings his ancestors
before him, and they bequeathed the string of pearls to him that he
should do the like."2
A
favorite East Indian amulet is known as the "Nao-ratna" or "Nao-ratan,"
and consists of "nine gems": in former times the pearl, ruby, topaz,
diamond, emerald, lapis lazuli, coral, sapphire, and a stone, not
identified, called the gomeda. At the present time these stones are
generally the coral, topaz, sapphire, ruby, flat diamond, cut diamond,
emerald, hyacinth, and carbuncle. This talisman may suggest the Urim
and Thummin or sacred oracle of the Jews, which was said to have been
taken from Jerusalem in 615 a.d. by Khusrau II, the Sas-sanian Persian king.
The
East Indian custom for persons of quality was to wear a pearl between
two colored stones in each ear, that is, either between two rubies or
two emeralds; and Tavernier noted, about 1670, that there was no person
of any consideration in those regions who did not wear, in each ear, a
pearl set between two colored stones. Another favorite ornament for
women in India is a girdle elegantly embroidered, bearing a large
pendant pearl in front, where it is fastened.3
A necklace of twenty-seven pearls bears in India the name of nak-shatra mala, nakshatras (originally "stars") being the name of the twenty-seven divisions of the Hindu zodiac.4
In
the Indian jewels often a small spot of enamel is fastened or melted on
to a gold wire, and then one or several pearls are hung upon it ; or
beads of some gems, as sapphire, ruby, emerald, or even glass, may be
added or alternated with pearls. Then the enamel stop-piece is turned
down and the other end of the gold wire is twisted on to the
1 De Mély, "Les Lapidaires Chinois," Paris, 3 Alexander, "The History of Women,"
1896, p. 178.
London, 1782, Vol. II, p. 172.
* "The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Vene- * Max Müller, "Rig-Veda Samhita," 1862,
tian," trans, and ed. by Col. Henry Yule, Vol. IV, p. 64. London, 1871, Vol. II, p. 275.
