The excessive passion for the use of pearls in decora- tive costume which prevails at the present day in the East is shown by the state costume of the shah of Per- sia. Sir Robert Ker Porter, describing it, mentions " the diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds" of which the tiara is composed, " the pear-formed pearls of an im- mense size" with which the plumes are tipped ; the " two strings of pearls, probably the largest in the world," which crossed the king's shoulders; and the "large cushion encased in a network of pearls," against which he reclined (Trarels, i, 325). Sir Harford Brydges dilates on other objects: "The king's tippet ... is a piece of pearl-work, of the most beautiful pattern ; the pearls are worked on velvet, but they stand so close to- gether that little, if any, of the velvet is visible. It took me an hour to examine this single article, which I have no fear in saying cannot be matched in the w^orld. The tassel which on such occasions is append- ed to the state dagger is formed of pearls of the most uncommon size and beauty; and the emerald which forms the top of the tassel is, perhaps, the largest per- fect one in the world" {Mission to Persia, p. 3H'3). Sir William Ousely, describing the " royal apparel"' of Fut- teh Ali Shah, says: "Of the king's dress I could jier- ceive that the color was scarlet, but to ascertain exactly the materials would have been difficult, from the pro- fusion of large pearls that covered it in various places, and the multiplicity of jewels that sparkled all around; for the golden throne seemed studded at the sides with precious stones of every possible tint, and the back re- sembled a sun of glory, of which the radiation was im- itated by diamonds, garnets, emeralds, and rubies. Of such, also, was chietly composed the monarch's ample and most splendid crown, and the two figures of birds that ornamented the throne, one perched on each of its beautiful enamelled shoulders" (Travels, iii, 131). From the immutability of custom in the East we are ready to conclude that the elements of this magnificence must have been common to the ancient Oriental courts. But there are some circumstances which seem to militate against the very great antiquity of the use of pearls, at least to an extravagant extent. The costume of the monarchs of Egypt, as depicted in the numerous paint- ings which have come down to us from their own times, is comparatively simple; the principal article of adorn- ment which can be called jewelry being the collar. This indeed was rich and elaborate, and seems to have been composed either of gold or of gems set in gold. Yet pearls do not seem, so far as we can judge from the representations, to have taken a prominent place in the construction of these or similar articles. IMany exam- ples of ladies' jewelry, as necklaces, bracelets, and ear- rings, have been found in the tombs, and are preser\-ed in the museums and cabinets of Europe. In these pearls are sometimes mounted, as well as gems; but their occurrence is by no means profuse. The discov- ery of Ninevite remains has made us comparatively fa- miliar with the appearance and usages of the Assyrian court and people at a much later period than that of the Egyptian monuments. Tlic portraits of successive monarchs have been exhumed, and numerous represen- tations exist of royal costinno. Generally this is gor- geous enough, but there is little evidence to show that pearls were much used in personal decoration. The circlets of tlie tiara, the ear-rings, necklaces, and collars, the armlets and bracelets, the sword and dagger hilts, all show the jeweller's art ; but for the most part these objects were evidently wrought in gold. Insettings and strings of gems do occur, but the angled and facet- ed forms of these almost invariably show that stones or imitations of stones are intended. According to
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Colonel Rawliiison's reading of tlie inscription on the Black Obelisk, however, Teraciibar receivetl as ''tribute from the kings of the Chaldees gold, silver, gems, and penrls." What, we think manifest from the evidence of Egyptian and Assyrian monuments is not the abso- lute lack of pearls in costume, but great moderation in the use of tliem. " A necklace of twenty-seven pearls" is mentioned in the Ramuijana (i, sect. 14), a Hindii poem of an antiquity probably at least as great as that of the Assyrian remains. The possession of the rich pearl-banks in the Persian Gulf would naturally make the court of Shushan the chief depository of these ele- gant luxuries; and the taste for effeminate luxury in costume which has always distinguished that court, at least from Grecian times, would suggest the manner of appropriating them. We know that the Hshery was actively prosecuted, both in the gulf and the Indian Ocean, in the time of Pliny and Strabo. The island called Tylos, the modern Bahrein, on the southern shore of the Persian (julf, was the seat of t lie former, and that of the latter probably the strait between Ceylon and the shore of luilia; and these two constitute the chief sources of pearls to this day. From the Persian court the taste for pearls spread to that of the Ptolemies. Cleopatra, at a supper with Antony, of which Pliny has given us the details, took from her ear one of a i^air of pearls of the value of £80,000 sterling — " the singular and only jewels of the world, and even nature's won- der;" and having dissolved it in vinegar, swallowed the absurdly precious draught; and would have done the same with its fallow had it not been rescued from her "pride and wanton trauverie." From Egypt the fash- ion passed to Home ; and the degenerate descendants of the iron rejjublicans rivalled even the Persian mon- archs in their ambition to