=79. Pearls in Enormous Favor.=--Time fails to speak of the beautiful cameos, intaglios, engraved medals, and huge engraved gems which are the triumphs of the lapidaries, and which many rich connoisseurs put in their collections; but one must not omit certain precious objects which Romans seem to prize above all others: _pearls_. The more pearls apparently that the fashionable can spangle upon shoes, dress, fingers, and (for women) upon the hair, the better. The great jewelers will say that they sell more pearls than all the ordinary gems put together. The imperial councilors protest in vain at the ceaseless export of gold to India to pay for the unprofitable imports of pearls from Taprobane (Ceylon), but the mania for such gems continues. People still tell how Julius Cæsar gave to Servilia, the mother of Marcus Brutus, a single weight pearl worth six million sesterces ($240,000); or how the inordinately rich Lollia Paulina, one of Caligula’s overnumerous wives, appeared at a dinner party, with great pearls spangled over her unlovely person worth all together every whit of forty million sesterces ($1,600,000).[42] There are no such tantalizing collections as hers now in Rome, but many a lady of modest means has in her coffers a few pearls large and beautiful; and the cynics declare that in a crowd “the sight of a big pearl in a woman’s ear is better than a lictor to clear the way for her.” =80. Perfumes: Their Constant Use.=--Nevertheless, something else is needful for a fine toilet beyond clothes, rings, and pearls, namely, perfumes. The old-line Italians were a coarse and hardy folk; and later the Orientals, whom slavery or self-interest has brought into Italy, have a truly barbaric love for powerful odors. Even modest women, therefore, of reputed good taste like Gratia, will appear in public charged with scents which another generation would find highly unwelcome. There is no alcohol in which to carry perfumery. The odorous substances have to be dissolved in olive oil, making them at best greasy and liable to grow flat and obnoxious after a little exposure. But perfumery is practically indispensable. Men use it hardly less than do women. At fine banquets vials of perfumery are passed among the guests to pour over their heads and hands. The foppish youths who wave the hair on their heads, and render the rest of their bodies sleek and shiny with depilatories, simply reek with strong perfumery.