Travels in India (Tavernier) 98.8

98.8

As for the pearls tending to yellow, the colour is due to the fact that the fishermen sell the oysters in heaps, and the merchants awaiting sometimes up to fourteen or fifteen days till the shells open of themselves, in order to extract the pearls, some of these oysters lose their water during this time, decay, and become putrid, and the pearls become yellow by contact. This is so true that in all oysters which have retained their water the pearls are always white. They are allowed to open of themselves, because if they are opened by force, as we open our oysters in the shell, the pearl may be damaged and broken. The oysters of the Manar Strait open of themselves, spontaneously, five or six days sooner than those of the Gulf of Persia, because the heat is much greater at Manar, which is at the 10th degree of North Latitude, while the island of Bahren is at about the 27th. And consequently among the pearls which come from Manar there are few yellow ones found. Finally, all the Orientals are very much of our taste in matters of whiteness, and I have always remarked that they prefer the whitest pearls, the whitest diamonds, the whitest bread, and the whitest women.