In the Shu King, a 23rd-century B.C. book, the scribe sniffs that as tribute, a lesser king sent "strings of pearls not quite round." In Egypt, decorative mother-of-pearl was used at least as far ...

The genus ot shell-fish, Pentadinrz, furnishas the finest pearls as well as mo-ther-ot-pearl: it is found round the coasts of Ceylon, near Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, at Cape Comorin, and in some ...