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ON THE VIRTUES OF FABULOUS STONES 181
Arabic name was hajar al-hattaf. If
it were worn by an epileptic, the attacks of his malady would cease ;
it favored procreation and also nullified the effects of the Evil Eye,
and it kept children from having, bad dreams if placed beneath their
heads when they were sleeping. Thus the effects it was fancied to
produce differed from those ascribed to the alectorius.61
In
medieval times bunches of dried "serpent's tongues" were sometimes hung
around salt-cellars or attached to spits ; but frequently, for royal or
princely use, such tongues, or the jawbones of snakes, were set with
valuable precious stones and constituted a peculiar jewel termed in old
French a languier, or épreuve (tester) ; for these
utensils, often very rich and tasteful specimens of the goldsmith's
art, were believed to show in some way the presence of the
much-dreaded poison in any viands with which they were brought in
contact.'2
The
Indians and Spaniards in South America made remedial use of a stone
said to be obtained from the cayman or alligator, at Nombre de Dios,
Cartagena, etc. This was employed as a cure for various intermittent
fevers. Monar-des writes that he applied two of these lapides caymanum to
the temples of a young girl suffering from an attack of fever, and
found that the fever was alleviated thereby; but he doubts that fevers
could be entirely cured by this treatment.53
From New Spain was also brought the lapis manati, taken from the manatee, or sea-cow. This does not appear
**
Julius Ruska, " Das steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des Muhammad ibn
Mahmud al-Kazwînî," Beilage to the Jahresbericht of the Oberrealschule,
Heidelberg, 1895-96, p. 15.
a Chabœuf " Charles le Téméraire à Dijon," 1474; in Mêm. de la Soc. burg, gëog. et hist., vol. xviii, p. 137.
·* Monardes, " Semplicium medicamentorum ex novo orbe delatorum his-toria" (Latin version by Clusius), Antverpiœ, 1579, p. 51.
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