George Frederick Kunz

“ It is absolutely a gift of nature, on which man cannot improve. We turn from the brilliant, dazzling ornament of diamonds or emeralds to a necklace of pearls with a sense of relief, and the eye rests upon it with quiet, satisfied repose and is delighted with its modest splendor, its soft gleam, borrowed from its home in the depths of the sea. ”

“ The usual legend is, that at certain seasons of the year, the pearl-oysters rise to the surface of the water in the morning, and there open their shells and imbibe the dewdrops; these, aided by the breath of the air and the warmth of the sunlight, are, in the course of time, transformed into lustrous pearls; but if the air and the sunlight are not received in sufficient quantities, the pearls do not attain perfection and are faulty in form, color, and luster. ”

“ Doubtless in no pearl fishery in the world are greater hardships endured than in the Red Sea and along the coast of the Arabian Gulf. In practically every other region, the industry is carried on under government supervision, and there is little opportunity for ill-treatment of the humbler fishermen. But the fanatics who control the fishery on the Arabian coast—untrammeled by authorities and responsible to none—show little consideration for the poor divers, and particularly for the unfortunate black slaves brought from the coast of Africa. ”

“ The monotony of continued disappointment is occasionally brightened by the news that some one—possibly a near neighbor—has made a lucky find, and then the work is continued with renewed enthusiasm. A spirit akin to that which dominates the gambler takes possession of the fisherman, and the days go on and the seasons go by while the gem that is to bring the fortune still eludes him. ”

“ Redding gave an interesting description of the fishery:
In the warm months before harvest is ripe, whilst the rivers are low and clear, the poor people go into the water and take them up, some with their toes, some with wooden tongs, and some by putting a sharpened stick into the opening of the shell; and although by common estimate not above one shell in a hundred may have a pearl, and of these pearls not above one in a hundred be tolerably clear, yet a vast number of fair merchantable pearls, and too good for the apothecary, are offered to sale by those people every summer assize. ”

“ They see some wonderful sights down below the surface-plant life and creeping things and enemies innumerable. Dropping from the sun-scorched surface down into the deep cool waters, everything shows “a sea change, into something rich and strange,” just as the eyes of the drowned man in Ariel’s song are turned into pearls and his bones into coral.
And there are enemies innumerable. The terrible sharks, prowling about near the bottom, prove a source of perpetual uneasiness, and in the aggregate many fishermen are eaten by these bloodthirsty tigers of the sea. ”

“ As Kadir Munshi says, “pearls have no pedigree”; their beauty is not to be traced to their origin, but exists wholly in the excellence of the surroundings in which they develop.
The pearl-bearing mollusks are luxurious creatures, and for the purpose of protecting their delicate bodies they cover the interior of their shells with a smooth lustrous material, dyed with rainbow hues, and possessing a beautiful but subdued opalescence. ”

“ Pearls seem to be peculiarly suggestive of oriental luxury and magnificence. It is in the East that they have been especially loved, enhancing the charms of Asiatic beauty and adding splendor to barbaric courts celebrated for their display of costume. From their possession of the rich pearl resources it is natural that the people of India and of Persia should have early found beauty and value in these jewels, and should have been among the first to collect them in large quantities. ”

“ As the boat is impelled by the tide, the diver may have to walk rapidly in a swinging gait; and if he should stumble or fall while stooping to pick up the shell, recovery of balance may be difficult. He must be constantly on the alert and has many dangers to avoid. Sharks are numerous in these clear tropical waters; but although disaster sometimes results, they are timid, a stream of air bubbles from the sleeve of the dress sending them away in fright. More fruitful sources of danger are fouled air-pipes, broken pumps, falling into holes, and especially paralysis from recklessly deep diving. ”

“ With the various means of transportation and locomotion that have existed in the past twenty-three or twenty-four centuries, there is no doubt that the commerce of pearls has varied more or less, but there has ever been, in some part of the world, a great potentate, a great collector or dealer who has influenced the finest gems to gravitate his way. Never has there been a time when some person was not prepared to encourage—and to richly encourage—the sale of fine jewels to him. ”

“ Since it is constantly wasting away on the exterior surface as it grows on the interior, it follows that in time the shell passes the pearl quite through to the outside, where it rapidly decays. Thus the oyster virtually forces the annoying intruder directly through the wall of its house instead of by way of the open door, and magically closes the breach with its marvelous masonry. ”

“ Doubtless the most interesting sight in the Ceylon fishery is afforded by the return, about mid-afternoon, of the hundreds of novel, sail-spreading boats running before the wind and crowded with turbaned fishermen dressed in their few brilliant rags, and each anxious to be the first at the wave-washed beach, where they are welcomed by an equal if not greater number of officials, merchants, laborers, and camp followers, gathered on the shore to learn the result of the fishery. ”

“ Almost ever since the South Sea Islands have been known to civilization they have contributed pearls; and the fishery has been one of the principal industries, not only for the natives, but also for the not inconsiderable number of sailors who, preferring the lotus on shore to the salt pork and monotony of ship life, have yielded to the insular attractions and formed domestic ties. The industry has been especially extensive during the last seventy years, when there has been a profitable market for the shells. Most of the natives—men, women, and children—follow it for a living. ”

“ Perfected by nature and requiring no art to enhance their beauty, pearls were naturally the earliest gems known to prehistoric man. Probably the members of some fish-eating tribe—maybe of the coast of India or bordering an Asiatic river—while opening mollusks for food, were attracted by their luster. And as man’s estimation of beauty developed, he found in them the means of satisfying that fondness for personal decoration so characteristic of half-naked savages, which has its counterpart amid the wealth and fashion of the present day. ”

“ In a depth of over fifteen fathoms the attendant usually has instructions not to let him remain longer than fifteen minutes at a time; yet a diver’s eagerness in working where good shell is plentiful sometimes impels him to order the attendant to disregard this rule. The very great pressure of the water—amounting to thirty-nine pounds or more to the square inch—is liable to cause paralysis, and death occasionally results. In working at a depth of twenty to twenty-five fathoms, a diver is rarely under water longer than half an hour altogether during the day. ”

“ In the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Gulf of California, and the islands of the Pacific, where pearl-diving is a profession and a regular source of livelihood, the number of employees is fairly constant. But in the rivers and ponds of America, as well as of Europe and of Asia, where neither experience nor costly equipment is required for the industry, and pearls to the value of very many thousands of dollars are obtained by men, women, and even children, on pleasure bent, as well as in the widely fluctuating professional fisheries, the problem is far more difficult. ”

“ And even where pearls were occasionally found in mollusks opened for fish-bait, the people were in few instances informed as to their market value, and did not attempt to sell them, although the most attractive ones may have been treasured as ornaments or as keepsakes. This was paralleled in the diamond fields of South Africa, where gems worth thousands of dollars were used as playthings by the farmers’ children. A jewel, like a prophet, is frequently without honor in its own country until the residents of that country learn of the great esteem in which it is held elsewhere. ”

“ The oriental demand still consumes the bulk of the Persian and Indian output, and the vast increase in wealth among the middle classes in America, Europe, and elsewhere, has increased the demand tenfold over that of a century ago. While women no longer appear ornamented from head to foot as in the sixteenth century, pearls are in the highest fashion, and the woman of rank and wealth usually prizes first among her jewels her necklace of pearls. ”

“ In 1577, Urbain Chauveton wrote: “The pearls of Cubagua are mostly 2, 3, 4, and 5 carats. But the quantity of them is so great that the fifth part which is paid to the king of Spain yields every year the value of more than 15,000 ducats; this besides the frauds committed and the pearls which stick to the fingers of those who manage the business, and who pilfer the most beautiful in great numbers, sending them here and there for sale. They place themselves in great danger if the facts become known, but they do it all the same.” ”

“ At present this “shell slug” is worth more than one hundred times that amount. Numerous instances of a similar nature occurred until the average fisherman lost all confidence in his judgment as to the values, and extravagant ideas prevailed regarding even almost worthless nacreous concretions. Thus, when a choice pearl is found, an exorbitant price is set upon it and the seller feels for the market value by repeated dickerings with several buyers. And unless one is an expert, he is quite likely to pay two or three times as much for a pearl at the river bank as in a metropolitan market. ”

“ We need have no fear that either the price or the use of pearls will diminish when we consider the great demand for them both on account of luxury and superstition. There is no Hindu who does not regard it as a matter of religion that he should pierce at least one pearl on the occasion of his marriage. This must be a new pearl which has never been perforated. Whatever may be the mysterious signification, this very ancient usage is, at least, very useful for the commerce of pearls. ”

“ Following the analogy of the well-known precious stones—the diamond, the ruby, the sapphire, the emerald and those of less importance—the pearl is equally potent in creating great and permanent values for itself in catering to the human love of adornment; and though these large values may be greatly in excess of the original price that it commanded in the native oriental market, yet the increased valuation gives profitable livelihood to hundreds of thousands of persons. ”

“ American fresh-water pearls have had many prejudices to overcome, often because of the natural indifference in regard to anything that is found at home or is easily obtainable. It has been said that, in comparison with foreign pearls, they had less specific gravity; that they were not so hard, and that their luster was not as good. It is certain, however, that the skin is generally smooth, and although they may not have so peculiar an orient, their brilliancy equals that of any known pearls. Sometimes they are translucent and either pink or of a faintly bluish tint, like molten silver. ”

“ Thus we see that pearl buyers and pearl wearers not only gratify a commendable admiration for the beautiful, but contribute largely to the economic balance whereby one class of humanity either sustains or is dependent upon another, even though these classes be so widely separated as the crown of Russia from the half-starved diver of the tropical seas. ”

“ With diamonds, rubies, and emeralds there may be a stated price per carat for stones of a certain size, but a gem of unusual perfection or brilliancy, or of exceptionally fine color, will often command a price far beyond that generally quoted. It is the same with the pearl. Sums which may seem exorbitant in comparison with those that are paid for ordinary pearls, are often given for specimens remarkable for their beauty, size, or luster.
Pearls of one hundred grains are even more rare at the present time than are diamonds of one hundred carats. ”

“ So long as a diver can hold his breath the pressure forces him to the surface at a speed which seldom requires accelerating by strokes with the hands or feet; but the moment he lets go his breath—if under water—his upward course is arrested and his body commences to sink. Now, when the white man sees this, either he must plunge in to the rescue himself, or direct such divers who may be on the top to do the needful. ”

“ While in the United States such sales of valuable jewels are very unusual, it has been a custom in England and in France for many years, in the settlement of estates, to sell not only the furniture, bric-à-brac, etc., but also the jewels. Sales of this kind are naturally calculated to attract not only the dealers, but also many rich collectors and connoisseurs, and as they are frequently widely advertised, and London and Paris are, at the most, but one to two days’ journey from all parts of Europe, many people attend, most of the private buyers being represented by their agents. ”

“ However, the name margaritarius did not only apply to the jewelers, merchants, and setters of pearls, but also to those who fished for them and to the guardians of the gems and jewels wherein pearls were used.
With the fall of the Western empire, the Dark Ages settled down like a cloud over Europe for five hundred years. Only among the Saracens and at Byzantium did the culture of the old civilization survive, and eventually the light of knowledge and of progress was rekindled from these sources. ”

“ The water in the South Seas is wonderfully clear, enabling the fishermen to detect small objects at considerable depths, and especially so when using the water-telescope, similar to that employed in the Red Sea fisheries. By immersing this to a depth of several inches and cutting off the light from the upper end as he gazes through it down into the waters, the fisherman can readily inspect the bottom at a depth of fifteen fathoms, and thus locate the shells before he descends.
The diving is quite unlike that in Ceylon and Arabia. The men do not descend on stones, but swim to the bottom. ”

“ The most widely-known pearl fisheries of Malaysia are in the Sulu Archipelago, a group of islands comprising about 1000 square miles in area, and containing a population of 100,000. The beautiful yellow pearls shared with the many acts of piracy in attracting attention to this group previous to 1878, when the islands were brought under the influence of Spanish rule; and since the Spanish-American War, pearl fishing has been the leading industry, though it has received less attention from outside sources, perhaps, than has the existence of slavery and harems as part of the social system. ”

“ At no period in the world’s history have pearls been more widely distributed; and some of those of to-day are finer in quality and orient, and also more carefully matched, than those in the great collections of the past. Of course there are exceptions, where royal personages have been careful observers and have used good taste, but it is a question whether there have ever been more critical or better buyers, as far as selection is concerned, than are many American men and women who have purchased this gem. ”

“ I, for my part, believe that the pearl is the belly not indeed of a spider, but of Garuda, the eagle of Vishnu, known in the old Hindu mythology as the foe of the Vagas, beings with human bodies and the tails of serpents. At least, I found on an old Chinese gateway, dating back to the times of the Mongol emperors, a sculpture showing the contest between Garuda and the Vagas. On another sculpture of the late King epoch the Vagas are already changed into dragons, and the wings, the limbs and the head of Garuda have become quite insignificant, while his belly is prominent like a ball. ”

“ Our returns do not represent the annual output of pearls in the values best known to gem buyers. The difference in price between pearls in the fisherman’s hands in the Persian Gulf or at the Pacific islands, and that for which they are exchanged over the counters in New York or Paris, is nearly as great as the difference in value of wool on the sheep’s back and of the same material woven into fashionable fabrics. ”