Moscow. Nine large pearls interlinked so as to naturally form a true representation of the Southern Cross were discovered in a pearl oyster off the West Australian Coast by Mr. Kelly, of Roeburn, who was familiarly known as “Shiner” Kelly. The crew of his lugger viewed it with superstitious fear and it was buried for some years. It was afterwards resurrected and exhibited at the Colonial and Indian exhibition, London, in 1886, where it caused some sensation. The pearls which formed the cross were at first thought by many to be joined together by craft, but experts with powerful magnifying glasses speedily dispelled this illusion and proved that nature, not man, was the artist who reproduced the Star Cross of the Heavens—the Cross of Australian Unity—in pearls in a sea oyster. In the year 1579 a pearl of 250 carats was obtained amongst others by the agents of Philip II, of Spain, from the Island of Margarita in the West Indies. It was said to be worth 150,000 dollars. Marco Polo writes that the King of Maabar wears pearls and gems worth more than a city’s ransom. “Nobody is permitted to take out of his kingdom a pearl weighing more than half a saggio (a Venetian weight, the sixth of an onze), unless he manages to do it secretly. The King every year proclaims through the realm that if anyone possesses a pearl of great worth and will bring it to him, he (the King), will pay three times as much as its value. Everybody is glad to do this and thus the King gets all into his own hands, giving every man his price.” This King wore a necklace on which 104 pearls and rubies of great size were strung on fine silk, and every day, following the custom of his ancestors, he had to say 104 prayers to the gods. The number is disputed but in an occult sense the Tibetan prayer of Victory over the 104 devils seems to confirm it. The pearl necklace which Muhammed forced the Hindu King Jaipal to surrender to him (1001 A. D.), is said to have been made of great pearls. It was valued at 20,000 dinars (more than 500,000 dollars). We read in the Book of Genesis of the terrible famine which affected the peoples of the earth and drove them to seek corn in the land of Egypt where doubtless, owing to the great pull on her stocks, some anxiety was beginning to be felt. The Arabian writer, Ebn Hesham, describes a sepulchre in Yemen which had been discovered after some heavy floods. In this sepulchre lay the embalmed body of an Arabian princess around whose neck were 7 strands of pearls, age-stained and lustreless. There were rings set with precious stones on her fingers and toes, 7 jewelled armlets on each of her arms and 7 jewelled anklets about each ankle. In the tomb treasure was found, and on a tablet at her head she had caused to be written the following inscription, the translation of which by Mr. Forster is reproduced by Mr. William Jones, F.S.A.: