168
It is remarkable that the Periplus does not mention emeralds also as an export from Berenice to India. There was a large production from mines in the hills just west of our author’s home. They may have fetched better prices in Rome than in India, where they would have had to compete with the native beryls.
For a description of these mines, as well as of the present appear- ance of the site of Berenice, see Bent, Southern Arabia , 291-7.
39. Coral. See also §§28 and 49. This was the red coral of the Western Mediterranean, which was one of the principal assets of the Roman Empire in its trade with the East. Pliny observes with some surprise (XXXII, 11) that coral was as highly prized in India as were pearls at Rome. The Gauls formerly ornamented their swords, shields and helmets with coral, but after the Indian trade was opened and its export value increased, it became extremely scarce with them.
Tavernier ( Travels in India, II, xxiii) found the same conditions in his time: “Although coral does not rank among precious stones in Europe, it is nevertheless held in high esteem in the other quarters of the globe, and it is one of the most beautiful of nature’s produc- tions, so that there are some nations who prefer it to precious stones.' ’
Ball, in his notes on Tavernier (II, 136), ascribes the preference for coral to “the way its tints adapt themselves to set off a dark skin, and also look well with a white garment. ”
It was also valued for its supposed sacred properties, and the be- lief in its uses as a charm continued through the Middle Ages, and even to the present day in Italy, where it is worn as a protection against the evil eye.
The principal red coral fisheries, then as now, were in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, near Naples, Leghorn and Genoa, in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the coasts of Tunis, Algeria and Morocco. Tavernier describes the method of fishing by swabs” — crossed rafters, weighted, and bound with twisted hemp, which were let down and entangled amongst the coral on the rocky bottom, breaking more than they caught. For a fuller description, see Encyclopedia Britannica , art. “Coral.’’
Red coral is Corallium rubrum, family Gorgonide.
There was black coral in abundance in the Red Sea, and others along the Arabian coast, but these were not prized so highly. See Haeckel, Arabische Korallen.
39. CostUS. — This is the cut root of Saussurea lappa , order Com- posite, a tall perennial, growing on the open slopes of the vale of Kashmir, and other high valleys of that region, at elevations of 8,000
