The Included Animal Resembles A Piece Of Red Flesh,
Or Like The Tongue Of An Animal Towards The Root, Having No Bones, Veins,
Or Sinews.
One opinion of the production of pearls in this shell-fish is,
that the oyster rises to the surface when it rains, and, by gaping, catches
the drops of rain, which harden into pearls.
The more likely opinion is,
that the pearls are generated within the body of the oyster, for most of
them are fixed, and not moveable. Such as are loose are called seed
pearls.
An Arab came once to Bassora with a pearl of great value, which he shewed
to a merchant, and was astonished when he got so large a sum for it as an
hundred drams of silver; with which he purchased corn to carry back to his
own country. But the merchant carried his acquisition to Bagdad, where he
sold it for a large sum of money, by which he was afterwards enabled to
extend his dealings to a great amount. The Arab gave the following account
of the way in which he had found this large pearl: Going one day along the
shore, near Saman, in the district of Bahrein[21], he saw a fox lying dead,
with something hanging at his muzzle, which held him fast, which he
discovered to be a white lucid shell, in which he found this pearl. He
concluded that the oyster had been thrown ashore by a tempest, and lay with
its shell open on the beach, when the fox, attracted by the smell, had
thrust in his muzzle to get at the meat, on which the oyster closed its
shell, and held him fast till he died:
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