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THE ADDER STONE. 349
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purpose of spindle-wheels, are similarly found, and pass
by the name of Adder Stones. But the genuine article—
the " Ovum Anguinum,"—was superstitiously held to
owe its production to a number of adders putting their
heads together, and hissing until their foam became
consolidated into beads ; which beads, or stones, were
considered to be powerful charms against disease, as
used by the Druids,
" And the potent Adder-Stone, Gendered 'fore th' autumnal moon ; When, in undulating twine, The foaming snakes prolific join."—
Mason (" Caractacus.")
The
origin of a belief in the magic power of most precious stones has
always been traced to Chakkea. Pliny refers to a book on the subject
which was written by Lachalios, of Babylon.
Byron (in Heaven and Earth) relates
about Azazial, a Seraph who fell in love with Anab, a granddaughter of
Cain, that when the flood came he carried her under his wing to some
other planet. It was this angel who " first taught the nature, and uses
of precious stones" to mankind ; how their virtues find response in
the human body, which they affect accordingly—" like the stars "—
"Making our dim existence radiant with Soft lights which were not ours."
This
Poem is " a mystery : " founded on the passage in Genesis : " And it
came to pass that the Sons of God saw the daughters of man that they
were fair : and they took them wives of all which they chose."
Dr. E. Clapton, (lately Physician to St. Thomas's Hospital), tells, in his Life of Saint Luke, (Churchill, 1902), that the " beloved physician" affixed to his writings the personal seal which distinguished him.
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