History and Legends About Snake Stones

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History and Legends About Snake Stones

 

Stones extracted from snakes were believed to cure a poisonous bite or the sting

of a scorpion and holy snake beads were made from glass as ornamental

representations.

 

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. The snake-stone (or " mad-stone " ), in Arabic hajar alhayyat,

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. The homeopathic idea plays a

considerable role 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. bodyAd(500386) 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 serpentstones. 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, 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 Landes-borough 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. 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. 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. " 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. 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. 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. 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.

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