The belief has many curious variations. It is stated that in Borneo and the adjacent islands, many of the fishermen reserve every ninth pearl regardless of its size, and put the collection in a small bottle which is kept corked with a dead man’s finger. According to Professor Kimmerly, nearly every burial-place along the Borneo coast has been desecrated in searching for “corks” for these bottles, and almost every hut has its dead-finger bottle, with from ten to fifty “breeding pearls” and twice that number of rice grains.[341] A correspondent at Sandakan, North Borneo, writes that at the time of his death at Hongkong in 1901, Dr. Dennys had in his possession a small box containing “breeding pearls”; but these disappeared after his death, and his brother, the crown solicitor, was unable to find them. This correspondent also states that the Ranee of Sarawak, a British protectorate in western Borneo, has a collection of “breeding pearls” numbering about two hundred, and that this is the only large collection known at present. As contrasted with abundant and unquestionably sincere testimony that pearls do “breed,” it may be stated that absolutely no result has followed one or two native experiments made under supervision. While it must be admitted that negative evidence is always weaker than positive, and twenty failures would be outweighed by one successful experiment, yet the scientific objections to the possibility of pearls “breeding” cannot be overcome. The phenomenon is doubtless one of those curiosities of natural history in which some important factor has been overlooked. Another curious theory is that peculiar pearls continue to grow after removal from the mollusk in which they originate. Quite recently it was reported from New Durham, North Carolina, that a pearl found there in 1896 had been growing continually since it was found and removed from the water. Unfortunately, it was weighed only when the last observation was made, and its increased size doubtless existed only in the imagination of its possessor. XII MYSTICAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF PEARLS XII MYSTICAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF PEARLS Divers are the virtues of gems; some give favor in the sight of lords; some protect against fire; others make people beloved; others give wisdom; some render men invisible; others repel lightning; some baffle poisons; some protect and augment treasures, and others cause that husbands should love their wives. Arabic version of Solomon’s writings. While no special gems are mentioned in the tribute which the Arabs credit to Solomon, it seems that pearls must certainly have been included, for in nearly all countries where these gems have been prized and from the earliest period, they have been credited with mystic properties and healing virtues.