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106 SEASON FOR FISHING book ii
I
have seen, at Marseilles, something wonderful in a shop where coral was
worked. There was a piece as big as the thumb, and as it was somewhat
glassy it was cut in two, and a worm was found inside, which I saw
wriggle ; it had been kept alive for some months by shutting it up in
its hole. For it should be remarked that among some branches of coral
there grows a sort of sponge similar to our honeycombs, where small
worms ensconce themselves like bees— in such ways does nature delight
to diversify her works. Some persons believe that coral is soft in the
sea, but, as a matter of fact, it is hard. It is, however, true that in
certain months of the year one can express from the ends of the
branches a kind of milk as from the breast.of a woman.1 This
may be the seed which, falling upon whatsoever it meets with in the
sea, produces another branch of coral—thus, for instance, it has been
found on a human skull, upon the blade of a sword, and upon a grenade
which had fallen into the sea, where it was interlaced in the branches
of coral to the height of six inches ; and I have had the grenade in my
hands.
The
coral fishery lasts from the beginning of April to the end of July, and
generally 200 boats are engaged in it, some years more and some less.
They are built on the Genoa river,2 and are very light. They
carry much sail in order to sail fast, there is no other part of the
Mediterranean where boats carry so much, and there are no galleys able
to outstrip them. There are seven men to each boat, with a boy to
attend on them. The fishing is carried on from 25 to 40 miles from the
land, where it is believed there are rocks, the boats not advancing
farther to sea for fear of pirates, from whom they escape, when they meet them, by swift sailing.
I
have to make a remark here about coral in reference to certain nations
of the East. The Japanese, as I have said, esteem neither pearls nor
precious stones,3 but they value
1 This refers to the ova of the coral polypes.
8 [Surely ' Genoese Riviera '.]
3
See vol. ii, p. 88 above. It is also remarkable that red coral seems to
have been little used as an ornament in Egypt and Phoenicia, but the
material may have crumbled away, or been dissolved (Hastings, Diet. Bible, i. 478 and of. Ency. Biblica, i. 895 f.).
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