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Pearl (The)

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Dioscorʹidēs and Pliny mention the belief that pearls are formed by drops of rain falling into the oystershells while open; the rain-drops thus received being hardened into pearls by some secretions of the animal.

According to Richardson, the Persians say when drops of spring-rain fall into the pearl-oyster they produce pearls.

“Precious the tear as that rain from the sky

Which turns into pearls as it falls on the sea.”



“Pearls … are believed to be the result of an abnormal secretory process caused by an irritation of the mollusk consequent on the intrusion into the shell of some foreign body, as a grain of sand, an egg of the mollusk itself, or perhaps some cercarian parasite.”—G. F. King: Gems, etc., chap. xii. p. 211.

⁂ Cardan says that pearls are polished by being pecked and played with by doves. (De Rerum Varietate, vii. 34.)

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Peace-makers (The)
Peace of Antalcidas (The)
Peace of God
Peace with Honour
Peaceful (The)
Peach
Peacock
Peacock’s Feather Unlucky (A)
Peak (The)
Peal
Pearl (The)
Pearl
Pearl of the East
Peasant Bard
Peasant-boy Philosopher (The)
Peasants War (The)
Peascod
Pec
Peccavi
Peck (A)
Pecker