EBONY OR CRETE. See EBONUS.
EBONY Wood is brought from the Indies, exceedingly hard and heavy, susceptible of a very fine polish, and on that account used in mosaic and inlaid works, toys, &c. There are divers kinds of ebony: the most usual among us are black, red, and green, all of them the product of the island of Madagascar, where the natives call them indifferently banon mainthi, q. d. black wood. The island of St Maurice, belonging to the Dutch, likewise furnishes part of the ebones used in Europe.
Authors and travellers give very different accounts of the tree that yields the black ebony. By some of their descriptions, it should be a sort of palm-tree; by others, a cyrtus, &c. The most authentic of them is that of M. Flacourt, who resided many years in Madagascar as governor thereof; he assures us, that it grows very high and big, its bark being black, and its leaves resembling those of our myrtle, of a deep, dusky, green colour.
Tavernier assures us, that the islanders always take care to bury their trees, when cut down, to make them the blacker, and to prevent their splitting when wrought. F. Plumier mentions another black ebony-tree, discovered by him at St Domingo, which he calls spartium portulaca foliis aculeatum ebani materia. Candia also bears a little shrub, known to the botanists under the name of EBANUS GRECIA, above described.
Pliny and Dioscorides say the best ebony comes from Ethiopia, and the worst from India; but Theophrastus prefers that of India. Black ebony is much preferred to that of other colours. The best is a jet black, free of veins and rind, very massive, asstringent, and of an acrid pungent taste. Its rind, infused in water, is said to purge pituita, and cure venereal disorders; whence Matthiolus took guaiacum for a sort of ebony. It yields an agreeable perfume when laid on burning coals: when green, it readily takes fire from the abundance of its fat. If rubbed against a stone, it becomes brown. The Indians make statues of their gods, and