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Facts and Fancies About Precious Stones: Arab

The same travellers relate the story of the discovery of a pearl under very singular conditions. An Arab came to Bassora with a very fine pearl. He took it to a druggist whom he knew and asked the latter how much it was worth. The merchant estimated it at a hundred pieces of silver, to the great surprise of the Arab, who demanded whether anyone could be found willing to pay so much. Without hesitation the merchant declared that he was ready to give the price himself, and immediately paid over the money. He then took his purchase to Bagdad, where he secured a large profit on his investment. On concluding his sale the Arab told the Bassora druggist how he had secured his pearl. One day, while walking along the Bahrein coast, he saw on the sands a dead fox, whose mouth was tightly compressed by a strange object. On closer observation this proved to be an enormous pearl-oyster shell. Evidently the fox had thrust his snout into the shell while the valves were open so that he might devour the soft contents, but the valves suddenly closed upon him and he had died of suffocation. On prying open the shell the Arab found therein the pearl which was destined to bring him what he regarded as a fabulous sum. The women of the Arab town occupying a site close to that on which stood the Babylon of ancient times, wore, as a favorite adornment, nose-rings of gold set with a pearl and a turquoise. The English traveller, John Eldred, who traversed Mesopotamia in 1583, found this custom so general that he writes: "This they doe be they never so poore."