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Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone

Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK IV
81
partly because it is arborescent. Because of its arborescent form, it has also been called dendrites. Actually the coral itself can be seen as a soft green bush growing under the sea. It has berries which are similar in appearance and size to those of the cornel tree. They are soft and white and when left in the air they soon harden as cleverly described by Ovid,
"In this way coral, when first it touches air, In time it hardens, soft was the plant under the waves."
Since it begins to harden as soon as it is exposed to the air it has been named gorgonia. The poets picture the Gorgones as turning people into stone. Pliny writes thus concerning gems, "gorgonia is nothing other than coral, the reason for the name being because it is changed into the hardness of stone." The Persians, according to Pliny, call it jaces. Coral is not of one color nor are the other stones of this genus that have congealed within the earth from a juice. If the juice was red the coral is red; if reddish, reddish; if white, white; if black, black; and if greenish, greenish.However, as I have said previously, all coral before it is torn away with nets or bro­ken off with pieces of iron is green. When a single stone forms from juices of different colors it has several colors and for this reason the stalk and branches of a single coral may be red, white, black and other colors, Black coral has been named antipathes by some, according to Dioscorides and by others isidis plocamos, according to Juba. Coral has a moderately astringent taste and an odor very similar to algae. Some is hard, such as that from Gaul, some soft such as that from Terra di Lavoro, while that from Erythra is even softer. All coral will break when it falls. Some is solid, some tube-like, some scaly, some with many branches and some with only a few.
Coral occurs in many places. It is found around the Orkneys north of the British Isles, in the Hetruscus Gulf near Gravisca, at Terra di Lavoro near Naples, in Sicily near Helia and Trapani, in Africa near Erythra, in the Persian Gulf. Black coral occurs in the Red Sea around the islands of the Troglodytae.
We wear the perforated berries of coral as ornaments and use them in calculating prices as do the Indians. Pliny writes that the Indian prophets and priests, being especially superstituous, believe that when they are worn as an amulet they have the power to ward off danger and hence the people take a decorous and religious pleasure in wearing them. Unless it is a coral berry I do not know what the mineral might be that Pliny calls a gem nor whom he has followed when he writes that it has the appearance of a cherry. The common people believe that if young sprouts of coral are worn suspended from the neck they will protect in­fants and children from being bewitched. The people of Gaul decorate their swords, shields and helmets with it. As a remedy it dries and cools and is astringent. For that reason, having been drunk in water, it stops the coughing of blood and cures severe cases of colic. Physicians select
Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone
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