236 CORALS 



an expedition was sent to the Mediterranean Sea to investi- 

 gate and report upon the coral fishery. 



In the course of the trade routes, whatever they may have 

 been in those early times, from the Mediterranean Sea to 

 China large quantities of coral were bought by various 

 Asiatic races of the countries through which it passed. 



In the care of the thousand Buddhas, south of the Gobi 

 deserts, Sir Aurel Stein found a number of paintings on silk 

 in which red coral is clearly shown. 



The references to coral among the treasures of Thibet 

 and India are of a much later date, but it is very probable 

 that it was valued by the inhabitants of those countries 

 quite as early in history as it was by the Chinese. 



Marco Polo, who made his famous and adventurous 

 journey across the Asiatic continent in the thirteenth century, 

 said that the coral that comes from our part of the world has 

 a better sale in Keshimeer than in any other country. He 

 also tells us that red coral was held in high esteem in Thibet, 

 for the people delight to hang it round the necks of their 

 women and of their idols. ^ 



Even to this day coral necklaces are among the most 

 cherished possessions of the wealthy Thibetans and are 

 included among the sacred treasures of the monasteries of 

 that country. 



In India generally it may be said that coral was widely 

 used for ornamental purposes, being found in ancient rings, 

 necklaces, and among the precious stones that adorned the 

 thrones. Tavernier (seventeenth century) says that the 

 common people wear it and use it as an ornament for the 

 neck and arms throughout Asia and principally towards the 

 North in the territories of the Great Mogul, and beyond them 

 in the mountains of the kingdoms of x^ssam and Bhutan. 



It is possible that the belief in some of its magical pro- 

 perties may have gone with the red coral into the regions of 

 the Far East, as we find it recorded in the T'ang Annals as 

 an article in the Chinese Materia Medica of that period, and 

 in the time of the Manchu dynasty red coral was used as a 



1 H. Yule, Cathav and the Way thither, Hakluyt Soc, vol. i., iS66, 

 P- 159- 



