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supposed to be protected in their sleep by having a piece tied round their necks.
To
this day the Brahmins and Fakirs of the East place coral upon their
dead to prevent evil spirits taking possession of the corpse, while in
Egypt it is taken internally as a tonic after being treated with lemon
and burned.
Coral
is imitated in celluloid, also by a mixture of marble dust cemented
with glue, and stained with vermilion. Beads of bone and of gypsum are
also stained so as to imitate coral. These imitations can be
distinÂguished by chemical and physical characters, true coral having a
specific gravity of 2.6-2.7, and a hardness of nearly 4. It also
effervesces with weak acid, which would not be the case with two of the
above imitations.
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223
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