74 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



resins, burns with a black smoke and agreeable odour) 

 as a kind of incense (especially at the tomb of Mahomet 

 at Mecca). These uses are chiefly Oriental, and most 

 European amber now goes to the East, In China they 

 use a fine sort of amber, obtained from the north of 

 Burma. The use of amber as a mouthpiece is con- 

 nected with its supposed virtues in protecting the mouth 

 against poison and infection. It is softer than the teeth, 

 and therefore pleasant to grip with their aid ; but as a 

 cigar or cigarette tube it is disadvantageous, as it does 

 not absorb the oil which is formed by the cooling of the 

 tobacco smoke passing along it, but allows it to condense 

 as an offensive juice. 



Forty years ago an old lady used to sit in the 

 doorway of her timber-built cottage in the village of 

 Trimley (where there are the churches of two parishes 

 in one churchyard), smoking a short clay pipe and 

 carving bits of amber found on the Suffolk beach into 

 the shape of hearts, crosses, and beads. She would 

 carve and polish the amber you had found yourself 

 whilst you joined her in a friendly pipe. You were 

 sure in those days of the genuine character of the 

 amber, jet, and agate sold as " found on the beach." 

 Nowadays these things, as well as polished agates and 

 " pebbles from the beach," are, I am sorry to say, 

 manufactured in Germany, and sent to many British 

 seaside resorts, like the false coral and celluloid tortoise- 

 shell which, side by side with the genuine articles, are 

 offered by picturesque Levantines to the visitors at hotels 

 on the Riviera, and even in Naples itself. Nevertheless, 

 genuine and really fine specimens of amber picked up on 

 the beach and polished so as to show to full advantage 

 their beautiful colour and " clouding " can still be 

 purchased in the jeweller's shop at Aldeburgh on the 



