represented
as being adorned with Pearls, arrayed in all conceivable forms of"
ornament. According to the Indian astronomer, Varahamihira, the statue
of the Sun· god Mithra wore a crown upon his head, and was decked with
chain-work of Pearls, and earrings of Pearls. Pearls and diamonds were
employed in India as eyes for images of the gods : they shone upon the
beautiful box which held Buddha's sacred tooth, and they also decorated
the interior of his tomb. Distinguished Indian women wore purple
draperies ornamented with Pearls, and on great public occasions their
arms were covered with them ; and they even wove Pearls into their
hair. When the French jeweller, Jean Baptiste Tavernier (born 1605 ;
died, 1689), visited India, about the middle of the seventeenth
century, he noticed that the women, both high and low, generally wore
in each ear a Pearl between two coloured stones, more or less costly,
according to their means. It is still a custom in India, at a wedding,
to bore a fresh Pearl, as an emblem of maiden purity. Tavernier was
allowed in 1665, to see the throne of the Grand Mogul, Aurungzeb, the
most powerful sovereign of Hindustan, and he has given a very elaborate
account of this throne in his Voyages. " The arched roof of the
throne," he says, " is entirely ornamented with diamonds and Pearls,
and all round is a fringe of Pearls. Over the same stands a peacock,
with its outstretched tail of
