34 Pearls.
merchants
were in the habit of visiting India and purchasing Pearls and other
commodities. Pearls are represented on old Egyptian monuments, and from
time to time, diadems of Pearls have been found in ancient sarcophagi.
It
would seem that Egyptian women, from the earliest times, wore ear-rings
; generally simple hoops of gold, from which hung pendants of precious
stones or Pearls. They wore, likewise, necklaces made of alternate rows
of shells, coral, scarabei, precious stones and Pearls. One ornament
worn by both sexes was the gorget, upon which Pearls were embroidered in every conceivable pattern.
Alexandria,
a city which, under the Ptolemies, became the central point of the
commerce of the old World, was the scene of the greatest luxury in
Pearls. We have only to re-call Cleopatra's wonÂderful Pearls, to
understand to what an extent this luxury was carried in Egypt in her
day. The history of these remarkable Pearls will be duly narrated in
the chapter on " Historical Pearls."
Greece.
The
splendid victory which the Greeks gained over the Persians about 490
B.c., made them acÂquainted with the treasures of Asia. During the
following time of peace, they gave themselves up
