240 CORALS 



it is probable that their trade in coral had a very early 

 origin. 



Among the treasures of the kingdom of Benin on the 

 west coast there was found a remarkably fine fly-whisk, 

 composed of several strings of coral beads attached to a 

 handle which is itself a very large solid stem of red coral. 

 From the same and neighbouring states there were obtained 

 some curious network caps strung with coral beads. These 

 specimens may be seen in the British Museum. It is known 

 that there was an extensive trade in coral with Liberia by 

 the Portuguese in the fifteenth century, and these specimens 

 may have come in this way by sea from the Mediterranean.^ 



But coral is widely spread among the natives of North 

 Africa and is used partly as an ornament in the form of 

 necklaces of beads, but sometimes as a phallus or in some 

 special form as a protection from the evil eye."^ The wander- 

 ing tribes of Moors carried red coral with them on their 

 travels to " still the tempests and to enable them to cross 

 broad rivers in safety," and probably carried it also as an 

 article of barter with the natives across the desert. 



It is impossible to say how long this trade has been 

 going on , but it would be no exaggeration of the facts to say 

 that it began before the Christian era. 



Al-Muqadassi, who flourished about a.d. 980, states that 

 the red coral of commerce in his time came from an island 

 named Marsa-al-Kharaz, which was near Bona on the coast 

 of Algeria, and other writers in Arabic, such as Jaqut (1229) 

 and x\l-Taifashi (1242), refer to the same island as the 

 principal source of red coral. 



There is one great civilisation of North Africa, however, 

 which seems never to have held coral in high esteem, and 

 that is the one of which we have perhaps the most complete 

 records from the earliest times, namely, the Egyptian.^ x\ll 

 through the many dynasties the wealthy Egyptians prided 

 themselves on their necklaces, scarabs, rings, and other kinds 



' H. Johnson, Liberia, vol. i., igo6, p. 74. 



- W. Hilton Simpson, Among the Hill Folk of Algeria, 1921, p. 79. 

 * The predynastic Egyptians used bits of the red Organ-pipe coral 

 (Tubipora, p. 116) as beads. 



