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shell) in Persian. There are two reasons why it has been so named. One
is that it is of benefit to one bitten by a snake. It is rubbed, and then administered with milk or some other draught. In the Kitab al-Jawahir
(The Book of Jewels) it has been stated that the snake-stone is beneficial
to a person who has been bitten by a snake. It is suspended round the
neck of the bitten person. This could be so. The second reason for its
name is that it is extracted from the snake. It used to be gathered in the
times of the Khusraws together with other medicines for the needy and
indigent people.
Nasr writes:
Those who keep snakes, search for and keep a vicious snake which
eats other snakes. This stone is found in its neck. It is white and
pearly in colour. Some stones are black and white. This stone forms
in the neck of the snake by the time it has consumed four hundred
snakes.
I remember having come across a similar description in the Kitab al-
A'in, although I do not precisely remember what was written. Nasr goes
on to say:
When the stone has formed in the neck of the snake, its forehead is
pressed between two iron rods. The snake begins to have tremors
and its skin, having been cut with a knife, is squeezed until the stone
manifests itself. It is taken out. At first it is soft, but its contact
with air makes it hard and stony. It is identified by being rubbed
over a black blanket which should be soft and rough. The stone so
rubbed would turn the blanket white.
It is said that the keepers of snakes make it from Mary's stone, and
that it also turns a blanket white. But it is essential that a terrestrial object should be heavier than the object which concerns an animal. A
knowledgeable person related to me that, a snake-charmer lived at Bust
in his neighbourhood in a courtyard. One day he heard his wife letting
out wild shreiks as if the snake-charmer was belabouring her. When he
went to the snake charmer's place to stop him from beating his wife he
saw him wailing and tearing off his clothes. He succeeded in eliciting the
information from the snake-charmer that he had kept a snake so that
mar mulirah (snake stone) might grow within it. He used to take it to
the roof so that it might get some fresh air, his wish may be fulfilled and
the stone might appear. He had gone out to get a prey for it but his wife
acted negligently. She left it in the sun with the result that it had died.
Having said this, he showed him the dead snake which had two stones.
It is God Who propsers and assists.
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