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SNAKE STONES AND BEZOARS 225
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révive
the nerve-centres, paralyzed by the animal poison, was recognized at
this time. An unusually precise description is given of the ostrites; it
was round, hard, black and rough, and was marked by many wavy lines or
veins. Some one of the many varieties of banded agate seems to answer
best to this description.41
The
legend that St Patrick drove out all snakes from Ireland sometimes took
the form that the saint had transformed them into stones. This belief
is noted by Andrew Borde, physician and ecclesiastic, who, writing in
1542, mentions some strange stones he had been shown on that island :
I
have sene stones the whiche have had the forme and shape of a snake and
other venimous wormes. And the people of the countrie sayth that such
stones were wormes, and they were turned into stones by the power of
God and the prayers of saynt Patrick. And English merchauntes of
England do fetch of the erth of Monde to caste in their garden's, to
keepe out and to kyll venimous wormes."
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.43
The snake-stone (or "mad-stone"), in Arabic hajar al-hayyat, 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
« " Lithica," lines 336 sqq.
β
The fyrste boke of the introduction of Knowledge made by Andrew Borde
of Psysycke Doctore. Ed. by Furnival, London, 1870, p. 121. Early
English Text Soc., Extra Series No. X.
"Wirt Sikes, "British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Myths, Legends and Traditions," London, 1S80, p. 366.
15
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