Perforated,
spherical beads of milky-white chalcedony are worn at the present day
by Italian peasant-women to increase the supply of milk. Hence.the
Italian name for such a bead, pietra lattea. Perforated beads
of white steatite, belonging to the early Iron Age, have been found
near Perugia, where the chalcedony beads are worn, and it is believed
that these steatite beads were borne for the same purpose.32
Coral
and safran, if wrapped in the skin of a cat, were believed to have
marvellous powers; and when emeralds were added to the coral the
talisman would drive off a mortal fever. To have the proper effect,
however, it must be attached to the neck of the patient.33
As a cure for hydrophobia, dog-collars set with flint and Maltese
coral were recommended in Roman times; "sacred shells" and herbs over
which magic incantations had been pronounced were also attached to, or
enclosed in these collars. The use of coral in this case appears to
have been due to the belief in its power to dissolve the spell cast by
the Evil Eye, for Gratins, who flourished in the first century A.n. and
was a contemporary of the poet Ovid, asserts that if such collars were
put on dogs suffering from hydrophobia, the gods were appeased, and the
charm cast by "an envious eye" was broken.34
The Hindu physicians found that coral tasted both sweet and sour, and they asserted that its principal action was
"Belucci, " Catalogue de l'Exposition de la Société d'Anthropologie " (Ex. de 1900), pp. 278-279.
™ Severus Sammonicus, " Préceptes médicaux," text and trans, by L. Baudet, Parie, 1845, pp. 76, 77.
** Gratii Falisci, " Cynegeticon " ; collection des auteurs Latin, éd. Nizard, vol. xvi, Parie, 1851, p. 786, lines 401-405.
