246 CORALS 



called anything of the nature of a black hornv axis 

 Antipathes, whether it was Antipathes, Gerardia, Plexaura, 

 or Gorgonia. 



Pliny's milk test for Antipathes is interesting but unfor- 

 tunately very obscure. The phrase he uses is " experimen- 

 tum eius, ut coquatur in lacte ; facit enim id murrae simile." 

 But similar to myrrh in what respect ? In odour, in colour, 

 or in form ? Solinus considers it to have been similar to 

 myrrh in odour {Collect, v. 26), but other authors have inter- 

 preted Pliny to mean similar to myrrh in colour. If this 

 test be applied to a piece of Antipathes it will be found, 

 after prolonged boiling in milk, to have a faint odour 

 resembling that of heated myrrh, but the colour of neither 

 the milk nor the coral seems to be in any way affected. 

 For this reason it seems probable that Pliny meant to say 

 " similar in odour to myrrh." 



In modern times black coral is still in use in the form of 

 bracelets worn on the wrist or arm as a cure for rheumatism, 

 as a protection from drowning, and for other purposes of a 

 similar kind. Bracelets and other articles of the same 

 material are worn in China and Japan, in the Malay 

 Archipelago, and in the islands of the Indian Ocean ; and 

 there is reason to believe that the belief in its virtues 

 has been handed down by tradition from very ancient 

 times. 



In his book on the Antiquities of the Jews (i. 3. 6), 

 Josephus relates that according to Berosus, the Chaldean, 

 there is still some part of Noah's Ark in Armenia, and the 

 natives carry off pieces of the bitumen (pitch ?) to make into 

 amulets for averting mischief. We have in this passage 

 reference to a substance like bitumen {i.e. black and flexible 

 when heated) which was believed to possess magical pro- 

 perties. Of course, it may not have been black coral at all, 

 but if black coral accompanied by the beliefs in its efficacy 

 against evils of many kinds was transported to distant parts 

 of the world, as we know red coral was transported at that 

 period, it would not be remarkable if it became associated 

 with the Noah's Ark myth. 



It would be a matter of great interest if scholars learned 



