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only precious or semi-precious stones were used as charms or talismans
and for curative purposes; a large number of animal concretions also
were and are still somewhat in favor. These concretions, variously
composed but usually containing a quantity of carbonate of lime, are
found in different parts of animals' bodies, and they were believed to
contain a sort of quintessence of the nature of the animal in which
they occurred. For this reason the alec-torius, from the body
of the cock, one of the most widely-known of the animal stones in
ancient times, was thought to confer valor upon the wearer, and is said
to have been worn by athletes in their contests.
In
the case of venomous, or supposedly venomous, creatures, such as the
toad and certain snakes, the stone was used as an antidote for poisons.
This virtue was thought to be notably present in the so-called bezoar
stone, taken from the stomach of a species of goat, as well as from
some other animals. As we shall see, legend sought to account for the
peculiar qualities of the bezoar by the tale that the animals in whose
bodies the stones were formed had been bitten by serpents. Indeed, it
seems not unlikely that the belief in the curative properties of the
bezoar stone originally owed its existence to the finding of some such
concretion in the body of an animal that had died from the effects of
snake-bite.
As is well known, certain pathological conditions induce the formation of stones of various kinds and shapes in the 160
