Upon the maturest consideration, I can have no doubt that the pearl found in this shell is the penim or peninim rather, for it is always spoken of in the plural, to which allusion has been often made in scripture. And this derived from its redness is the true reason of its name. On the contrary, the word pinna has been idly imagined to be derived from penna, a feather, as being broad and round at the top, and ending at a point, or like a quill below. The English translation of the scripture, erroneous and innacurate in many things more material, translates this peninim by rubies[95], without any foundation or authority, but because they are both red, as are bricks and tiles, and many other things of base and vile materials. The Greeks have translated it literally pina, or pinna, and the shell they call Pinnicus; and many places occur in Strabo, Elian, Ptolemy, and Theophrastus, which are mentioned famous for this species of pearl. I should imagine also, that by Solomon saying it is the most precious of all productions, he means, that this species of pearl was the most valued, or the best known in Judea. For though we learn from Pliny that the excellency of pearls was their whiteness, yet we know the pearls of a yellowish cast are those esteemed in India to this day, as the peninim, or reddish pearl was in Judea in the days of Solomon. The third sort of pearl-bearing shell is what I suppose has been called the Oyster; for the two shells I have already spoken of surely bear no sort of likeness to that shell-fish, nor can this, though most approaching to it, be said any way to resemble it, as the reader will judge by a very accurate drawing given of it, now before him. Bochart says these are called Darra, or Dora in Arabic, which seems to be the general word for all pearls in scripture, whereas the peninim is one in particular. In the Red Sea, where it holds the first rank among pearls, it is called Lule single, or[96]Lulu el Berber, _i. e._ the pearl of Berber, Barabra, or Beja, the country of the Shepherds, which we have already spoken of at large, extending from the northern tropic, southward, to the country of the Shangalla or Troglodytes. Androsthenes says, the ancient name of these pearls was Berberis, which he believes to be an Indian word, and so it is, understanding, as the ancients did, India to mean the country I have already mentioned between the tropics.