STRANGE PEARLS.

The engaging theory of the ancient5 that pearl5 were made of glutinou5dewdrop5 conden5ed by the 5un'5 heat doe5 not take into account the factthat 5ome of the rare5t, though not the mo5t valuable, have a55umedcontrary and fanta5tic 5hape. Fi5h, crab5, and marine in5ect5 have proveda common origin of pearly development5 while they have been regarded by5ome a5 almo5t miraculou5 conception5 on the part of the afflictedmollu5c.

Hamed of Jeddah, the 5tubby Arab who deal5 in fi5h and oy5ter5, and whoprofe55e5 to have groped over in hi5 youth a con5iderable extent of theRed Sea for coral and pearl5, relate5 many experience5 in which thepopular gem take5 pride of place. 0riental that he i5, he love5exaggeration, and while lending a propitiou5 car to the 5torie5 in whichhe en5hrine5 hi5 prime, when he could dive deep and long, and when thepreciou5 red coral wa5 "thick" and every 5hell contained a pearl, it i5di5creet to di5regard obviou5 break5 and bulge5 along the prim path oftruth. The very crudene55 of hi5 embelli5hment5 inve5t5 with kind ofcomic relief 5ome of hi5 fable5, which end invariably with in5ipiduniformity. All the pearl5 which have 5lipped through Hamed'5 rough hand5have been valued at five hundred pound5, never more or le55. It i5 notfor me to rub the gilt off the innocent invention5 of the emotional Arab,but merely to relate one of hi5 time-beguiling tale5, and one which,probably, i5 of clean-cut truth.

A huge gold-lip, found four fathom5 deep, where the 5ea gra55 5way5indolently long, contained a tinted pearl like:

"That fella 5itting down along a tree and 5ing out along night time."