Creek, a tributary of the Weiser River, which flows into the latter near
its confluence with the Snake River in Idaho.[447] These are hollow
quartz globes, with a shell so thin that the air in the cavity more than
makes up for the specific gravity of the quartz. Some formation similar
to this may possibly have been intended by Pliny in his description of
the _ovum anguinum_ or serpent’s egg of the Druids, which floated if
thrown into a stream, although it is perhaps more probable that these
“serpent’s eggs” were shells of the sea-urchin, as they are figured by
De Boot and other writers.
The snake-stone, legends regarding which are met with in so many
different parts of the world, is known to the Lapps of northern Europe,
and strange to say, some of the elements of Pliny’s old recital touching
the “serpent’s egg” come out in the account given of it by this
primitive race, in general so far removed from any notion of classical
tradition. Anyone in search of this stone must resort, according to the
Lapps, to the pairing place of snakes, for here they throw the stone,
which is small and white, back and forth to one another; he must steal
along quietly until he is quite near to the snakes and then snatch the
stone as it flies through the air, and run away with it as fast as he
can to the nearest piece of water. Should he reach the water before the
snake does—for the reptile pursues him—he gains the ownership of the
stone; if, however, the snake first reaches the water, this is very
dangerous for the man. Hence he should carefully search out the nearest
water before snatching the stone, and as the snake will not immediately
know what has become of it, and will hunt for it awhile before starting
in pursuit of the thief, the latter will have time to come first to the
water.[448]
Tertullian writes that the wearing of stones taken from the head of a
dragon or of a serpent was especially reprehensible in the case of a
Christian; for how could a Christian be said to “bruise the head” of the
Old Serpent (Gen. iii, 15) while wearing such a stone about his neck or
on his head, and thus testifying to a kind of serpent worship![449]
The Greek poem “Lithica,” belonging to the fourth century B.C., also
celebrates the virtues of a “snake-stone,” which is to be pressed
closely on the bitten spot; but besides this application, the drinking
of undiluted wine in which the stone _ostrites_ had been pulverized, is
recommended. This shows that the therapeutic value of alcohol as a
stimulant to revive the nerve-centres, paralyzed by the animal poison,
was recognized at this time. An unusually precise description is given
of the _ostrites_; it was round, hard, black and rough, and was marked
by many wavy lines or veins. Some one of the many varieties of banded
agate seems to answer best to this description.[450]
The legend that St. Patrick drove out all snakes from Ireland sometimes
took the form that the saint had transformed them into stones. This
belief is noted by Andrew Borde, physician and ecclesiastic, who,
writing in 1542, mentions some strange stones he had been shown on that
island:
I have sene stones the whiche have had the forme and shape of a snake
and other venimous wormes. And the people of the countrie sayth that
such stones were wormes, and they were turned into stones by the power
of God and the prayers of saynt Patrick. And English merchauntes of
England do fetch of the erth of Irlonde to caste in their garden’s, to
keepe out and to kyll venimous wormes.[451]
The legendary serpent-stone is usually one taken from the reptile’s
head, but Welsh tradition tells of one extracted from the tail of a
serpent by the hero Peredur, and having the magic property that anyone
holding it in one hand would grasp a handful of gold in the other. This
stone was generously bestowed upon Etlym by the finder, who only secured
it after vanquishing the serpent in a dangerous conflict.[452]
The snake-stone (or “madstone”), in Arabic _ḥajar alḥayyat_, is
described by the Arab writer Kazwini, as being of the size of a small
nut. It was found in the heads of certain snakes. To cure the bite of a
venomous creature the injured part was to be immersed in sour milk, or
in hot water, and when the stone was thrown into the liquid it would
immediately attract itself to the bitten part and draw out the
poison.[453] The homeopathic idea plays a considerable rôle in the
superstitions of the Arabs of northern Africa. To cure the bite or sting
of the scorpion, the creature is to be crushed over the wound it has
inflicted. If anyone is bitten by a dog, he should cut off some of the
animal’s hair and lay this on the bitten part; if, however, the dog was
mad, it must be killed, its body opened and the heart removed. This is
then to be broiled and eaten by the person who has been bitten.[454]
Many beautiful glass beads of Roman, or perhaps of British fabrication,
have been found in Great Britain and Ireland. Upon some of these are
bosses composed of white spirals, the body of the bead being blue, red,
yellow, or some other brilliant color. These have been called “holy
snake beads.” Probably most of them are merely ornamental productions
and were not intended to represent serpent-stones. The curious test of
the genuineness of an _ovum anguinum_ mentioned by Pliny, namely, that
even if set in gold, it would float up a stream against the current,
indicates a very porous structure; perhaps some of these serpent’s eggs
were hollow, vitrified clay balls with wavy lines on the surface.
De Boot, in his treatise on stones and gems,[455] figures the _ovum
anguinum_, and says that its form was either hemispherical or
lenticular. In his opinion the name “serpent’s egg” was given to the
stone because on its surface there appeared five ridges, starting from
the base and tapering off toward the top. These bore a certain
resemblance to a serpent’s or adder’s tail. The stone was believed to
protect the wearer from pestilential vapors and from poisons.
The so-called “snake-stones,” many specimens of which have been found in
British barrows, bear in the Scottish Lowlands the designation “Adder
Stanes.” They are also sometimes called adder-beads or serpent-stones.
For the Welsh they were _gleini na droedh_ and for the Irish _glaine nan
druidhe_, the meaning being the same, “Druid’s glass.” Many interesting
examples were added to the collection of the Museum of Scotch
Antiquaries, one of these being of red glass, spotted with white;
another of blue glass, streaked with yellow; other types were of pale
green and blue glass, some of these being ribbed while others again were
of smooth and plain surface. That the glass “snake-stones” were objects
of considerable care and attention is indicated by the mending of a
broken specimen shown by Lord Landesborough at a meeting of the Society
of Antiquaries in 1850. This broken bead had been repaired and
strengthened by the application of a bronze hoop.[456]
The supposed snake-stones are also to be found among the Cornishmen, who
sometimes call these objects _milprey_ or “thousand worms,” and they
even lay claim to the power of forcing a snake to fabricate the “stone”
by thrusting a hazel-wand into the spirals of a sleeping reptile. In
another version it is not a bead that is formed but a ring which grows
around a hazel-wand when a snake breathes on it. If water in which this
ring has been dipped be given to a human being or an animal that has
been bitten by a venomous creature, all ill effects of the bite will be
warded off, the water acting as a powerful antidote to the poison.[457]
The belief that the snake-stone of Welsh legend—in reality either a
fossil or a bead—was evolved from the venom or saliva ejected by a
concourse of hissing snakes, gave rise to a peculiar popular saying
among the Welsh to the effect that people who are whispering together
mysteriously, and apparently gossiping, or perhaps hatching some
mischief, are “blowing the gem.”[458]
Many of the glass beads known as “snake-stones” or “Druid’s glass” are
perforated, and this is fancifully explained as being the work of one of
the group of snakes which forms the bead. This particular snake thrusts
its tail through the viscous mass before it has become hardened into a
glass sphere. In various parts of Scotland such beads are treasured up
by the peasants; according to the testimony of an English visitor of
1699, who reports that they were hung on children’s necks as protection
from whooping-cough and other children’s diseases, and were also valued
as talismans productive of good fortune and protective against the
onslaught of malevolent spirits. To guard one of these precious beads
from the depredations of the dreaded fairies the peasant would keep it
enclosed in an iron box, this metal being much feared by the
fairies.[459]
A type of snake-stone used in Asia Minor is described as being of a
pearly white hue, rounded on one side, and flat on the other. Toward the
edge of the flat side runs a fine, wavy, bluish line, the undulations of
which are fancied to figure a serpent. The victim of a snake-bite first
had the spot rubbed with some kind of sirup; then the stone was applied
to the bitten spot, and it would adhere to the inflamed surface for
eight days; at the expiration of this time it would fall off. The bite
would be entirely healed and would not be followed by ill effects of any
kind.[460]
A novel theory in regard to the formation of a type of snake-stones is
given by an old Chinese writer. This is that snakes, before they begin
to hibernate, swallow some yellow earth and retain this in the gullet
until they come forth again in the springtime, when they cast it forth.
By this time the earth has acquired the consistency of a stone, the
surface remaining yellow, while the interior is black. If picked up
during the second phase of the moon this concretion was thought to be a
cure for children’s convulsions, and for gravel, and was powdered and
given in infusion. The infusion could also be applied with advantage
externally to envenomed swellings.[461]
An old manuscript found in a manor house in Essex, England, contains a
translation, made in 1732 by an Oxford student, E. Swinton, of some
details on the snake-stone, taken from a work published in the same year
at Bologna by Nicolo Campitelli. After noting that these stones came
from the province of Kwang-shi in China and from different places in
India, their appearance and qualities are described. In color they were
almost black, some having pale gray or ash-color spots. The test of the
genuineness of such a stone was to apply it to the lips; if not a
spurious one, it would cling so closely to the membrane that
considerable force must be exerted to separate it therefrom. The usual
directions are given for its employment in the cure of snake bites, but
its usefulness by no means ended here; its curative power was also
exhibited in the case of “Scrophulous Eruptions and Pestilential Bubos,”
and it could be used in the treatment of malignant tremors, venereal
disorders, etc. With the manuscript was found a specimen snake-stone.
This was described as being a thin oval body, about an inch in length
and three-quarters of an inch broad; the color was gray with light
streaks, and the surface was bright and polished. It was of the
consistency of horn, and the writer of the note in the “Lancet” believes
that it was part of a stag’s antler or some similar substance, from
which the animal matter had been removed by the action of heat; many of
the Oriental snake-stones are of this type, but, as we have already
seen, a great variety of more or less porous materials have been and are
still used in this way in different parts of the world. A practical
experiment was made in 1867 by Dr. John Schrott, who excited six cobras
to bite a number of pariah dogs. Without delay the snake-stones were
applied to the wounds, but they proved absolute failures, death
resulting as speedily as though nothing had been done.[462]
Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the great Oriental traveller of the seventeenth
century, gives the following description of the “snake-stones” found in
India:[463]
Finally, I will mention the snake-stone, which is about the size of a
doubloon, some approximating to an oval form, being thicker in the
middle and tapering toward the edges. The Indians say that it forms on
the head of certain snakes, but I rather believe that the priests of
these idolators make them think this, and that this stone is a
composition of certain drugs. However this may be, it has great virtue
to draw out all the poison, when anyone has been bitten by a venomous
creature. If the part that has been bitten has not been punctured, an
incision must be made, so that the blood can flow out, and when the
stone has been applied, it does not fall off until it has absorbed all
the poison which gathers about it. To clean it, woman’s milk is used,
or should this be lacking, cow’s milk, and after ten or twelve hours
steeping, the milk which has drawn out all the poison takes on the
color of pus. Having dined one day with the Archbishop of Goa, he took
me into his museum, where he had several curious objects. Among other
things he showed me one of these stones, and having told me of its
properties, he assured me that but three days before he had seen them
tested, and presented the stone to me. As he was traversing a marsh on
the Island of Salsate, whereon Goa is situated, to go to a country
house, one of those who bore his palanquin, and who was almost
entirely naked, was bitten by a snake and was immediately cured by
this stone. I have bought several of them, and they are sold only by
the brahmins, which makes me think the brahmins themselves make the
stones. There are two methods of testing whether the stone is good or
the product of some deception. The first of these tests is to place it
in one’s mouth, for then, if it be good, it springs up and cleaves to
the palate; the second test is to place it in a glass full of water;
if it is not sophisticated, the water begins to seethe, small bubbles
rising from the stone at the bottom to the surface of the water.
Thevenot, a French traveller who visited India in 1666, about the time
Tavernier was there, asserts that the famous “Stones of the Cobra” were
manufactured in the town of Diu, in Guzerat, and that they were made “of
the ashes of burnt roots, mingled with a kind of Earth they have, and
were again burnt with that Earth, which afterwards is made up into a
Paste, of which these Stones are formed.” After describing the process
employed for cleaning the stones after they had been used, Thevenot adds
that if not freed from the absorbed venom the stones would burst.[464]
Dr. J. Davy examined and analyzed some of these “stones,” and found one
of them to be a piece of bone partially calcined. When applied to the
tongue or to any other moist surface it adhered firmly. Another, which
lacked all absorbent or adhesive power, was said to have saved the life
of four men. It therefore appears that while some of the “snake-stones”
really possessed some possible curative virtues, others were esteemed
only because of a superstitious belief in their magical properties.
Kaempfer, writing in 1712, informs us that these stones should always be
used in pairs, and applied successively to the wound.[465] The belief in
the efficacy of such stones is still general in India, and one of the
varieties is supposed to be found in the head of the adjutant bird.[466]
Francisco Redi[467] describes the extraordinary healing power attributed
to stones obtained from the heads of certain serpents, called by the
Portuguese “_cobras de capello_,” found throughout Hindostan and Farther
India. These stones are claimed to be an infallible remedy for the bites
and stings of all kinds of venomous reptiles or animals, and likewise
for wounds made by poisoned arrows, etc. He repeats the usual tales of
their adhering powerfully when applied to the bite or wound, and
clinging to it like a cupping-glass until they had absorbed all the
poison, when they would fall off spontaneously, leaving the man or
animal sound and free. Then follows the account of steeping the stones
in milk to remove the poison, the milk assuming a color between yellow
and green. These wonderful stones and the narrations concerning them had
been brought to Italy by Catholic missionaries, who seemed to have
entire faith in their powers; so that Redi says they offered to prove
the accounts by any number of experiments, such as would satisfy the
most incredulous, and prove to medical men that Galen was correct when
he wrote (Chapter XIV, Book I) that certain medicines attract poison as
the magnet does iron. For this purpose a search for vipers, etc., was
recommended; but, owing to the season being later and colder than usual,
none could at that time be obtained, as they had not emerged from their
winter quarters. An experiment was therefore substituted, after much
consultation among the learned men of the Academy of Pisa, whereby oil
of tobacco was introduced into the leg of a rooster. This was regarded
as one of the most fatal of such substances, and was administered by
impregnating a thread with it to the width of four fingers and drawing
it through the punctured wound. One of the monks forthwith applied the
stone, which behaved in the regular manner described. The bird did not
recover, but it survived eight hours, to the admiration of the monks and
other spectators of the experiment.
[Illustration:
Frontispiece and title-page of Francesco Redi’s “Experimenta
naturalia,” Amsterdam, 1675, and two specimen pages of this
treatise, referring to the snake-stones believed to be taken from
the Indian _Cobras de Capello_, or hooded snakes.
]
[Illustration:
FORMS OF TABASHEER
Bought at Fair at Calcutta, 1888, by Dr. Valentine Ball.
]
Redi states that he himself possessed some of these stones, as did also
Vincent Sandrinus, one of the most learned herbalists of Pisa. Redi
describes them as “always lenticular in form, varying somewhat in size,
but in general about as large as a farthing, more or less. In color some
are black, others white, others black, with an ashy hue on one side or
both,” etc.
Up to the present time no one has apparently identified what Tavernier
referred to in speaking of snake-stones. It, however, occurred to the
writer, after receiving a quantity of tabasheer from Dr. F. H. Mallet of
the Geological Survey of India, who obtained it at the bazaar of the
Calcutta Fair in November of 1888, that many, if not most of the Hindu
snake-stones must have been tabasheer. Tabasheer is a variety of opal
that is found in the joints of certain species of bamboo in Hindostan,
Burma, and South America; it is originally a juice, which by evaporation
changes into a mucilaginous state, then becomes a solid substance. It
ranges from translucent to opaque in color, and is either white or
bluish-white by reflected light, and pale yellow or slight sherry red by
transmitted light. Upon fracture it breaks into irregular pieces like
starch. As in Tavernier’s account of its clinging to the palate and
causing water to boil when immersed, it actually has the property of
strongly adhering to the tongue, and when put into water emits rapid
streams of minute bubbles of air. It has a strong siliceous odor, but
after absorbing an equal bulk of water becomes transparent like a
Colorado hydrophane described by the writer several years ago before the
New York Academy of Sciences.
Although tabasheer is mentioned in nearly all the textbooks, very little
of it has reached the United States. It is highly interesting, since we
have here an organic product scarcely to be distinguished from a similar
opal-like body found by Mr. Arnold Hague in the geysers of the
Yellowstone Park. Both tabasheer and the hydrophane were probably what
was called “Oculus Beli,” “Oculus Mundi,” and “Lapis mutabilis” by
Thomas Nicol, Robert Boyle, and other writers of the seventeenth
century, and “Weltauge” by the Germans.
The great capacity of this substance for absorbing a fluid would
undoubtedly render it as efficacious for the purpose of absorbing poison
as any other known stone, providing the wound were open enough; and its
internal use to-day as a medicine is possibly also due to this property.
Tabasheer, as known among mineralogists, is a corruption of the word
tabixir, a name which was used even in the time of Avicenna, the Grand
Vizier and body surgeon of the Sultan of Persia in the tenth century. It
played a very important part in medicine during the Middle Ages. As to
its origin, Sir David Brewster[468] says that tabasheer is only formed
in diseased or injured bamboo joints or stalks.
[Illustration:
SPECIMENS OF TABASHEER
At the upper right-hand corner is figured a hydrophane, or “Magic
Stone,” at the upper left-hand corner is a floating stone from
Oregon. The tabasheer was bought at the Fair held in Calcutta in
1888.
]
Guibourt[469] differs from Brewster, inasmuch as he attributes the
different rates of growth to the fact that when there is a
superabundance of sap the tabasheer is formed from the residuum. More
recently, Henry Cecil[470] says, “In the onrush of tropical growth in
the young shoot, nature, after flooring the knot, has poured in, as it
were, sap and silica sufficient for a normal length and width of stem to
the knot next above it. But by some check to the impulse, or by
irregularity of conditions, the portion of stem thus provided for is
shorter or narrower than intended, and the unused silica is left behind
as a sediment, compacted by the drying residuum sap.”
This latter view is sustained by Dr. Ernst Huth, who discusses the name,
history, origin, and reputed virtues of this substance with much
fulness.[471] In regard to its use in medicine during the Middle Ages,
he quotes a remarkable list of applications to the ills that flesh is
heir to.
Here it is cited as a remedy for affections of the eyes, the chest, and
of the stomach, for coughs, fevers, and biliary complaints, and
especially for melancholia arising from solitude, dread of the past, and
fears for the future. Other writers speak of its use in bilious fevers
and dysentery, internal and external heat, and injuries and maladies.
The writer has examined a large number of so-called madstones, and they
have all proved to be an aluminous shale or other absorptive substance.
But tabasheer possesses absorptive properties to a greater degree than
any other of the mineral substances examined, and it is strange that it
has never been mentioned as being used as an antidote. It may be
confidently recommended to the credence of any person who may desire to
believe in a madstone.
[Illustration:
Cobra de Capello. From Tavernier’s Travels, English translation by
John Philips, London, 1684.
]
The writer believes that Tavernier’s snake-stones may all have been
tabasheer, or again, while some of them were of this substance, others
may have been artificially compounded by the authorized dealers of the
Brahmin caste. The instance he gives of the successful use of such a
stone is not altogether incredible, as, should one of the less active
poisons be sucked out of a wound shortly after this were inflicted, a
cure might well be effected. In view of the great difference in the
virulence of poisons and the varying degrees of the sensibility to toxic
effects, it is not strange that the snake-stones should sometimes seem
to give good results. Tavernier states that these stones were brought to
India by Portuguese soldiers returning from service in Mozambique.[472]
For successful use a pair of them were needed, so that, when applied to
a snake-bite, as soon as one became saturated with the venom the other
could be immediately substituted. To have them always at hand, those
natives fortunate enough to own a pair of _pedras de cobra_ carried them
about in a little bag.[473]