226 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
injured part was to be immersed in sour milk, or in hot water,
and when the stone was thrown into the liquid it would immediately
attract itself to the bitten part and draw out the poison.4*
The homeopathic idea plays a considerable rôle in the superstitions of
the Arabs of northern Africa. To cure the bite or sting of the
scorpion, the creature is to be crushed over the wound it has
inflicted. If anyone is bitten by a dog, he should cut off some of the
animal's hair and lay this on the bitten part; if, however, the dog was
mad, it must be killed, its body opened and the heart removed. This is
then to be broiled and eaten by the person who has been bitten.45
Many
beautiful glass beads of Roman, or perhaps of British fabrication, have
been found in Great Britain and Ireland. Upon some of these are bosses
composed of white spirals, the body of the bead being blue, red,
yellow, or some other brilliant color. These have been called "holy
snake beads." Probably most of them are merely ornamental productions
and were not intended to represent serpent-stones. The curious test of
the genuineness of an ovum anguinum mentioned by Pliny, namely,
that even if set in gold, it would float up a stream against the
current, indicates a very porous structure; perhaps some of these
serpent's eggs were hollow, vitrified clay balls with wavy lines on
the surface.
De Boot, in his treatise on stones and gems,48 figures the ovum anguinum, and says that its form was either hemispherical or lenticular. In his opinion the name "serpent's egg'' was given to the stone because on its surface
44
Julius Ruska, " Das Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des Muhammad ibn
Mahmud al-Kazwtnî," Beilage to the Jahresberichte of the
Oberrealschule, Heidelberg, 1895-96, p. 15.
"Edmond Doutte, "Magie et Religion," Alger, 1909, p. 145; quoting Largeau, "La Sahara algérienne," p. 80.
* Gemmarum et lapidimi historia," Lug. Bat., 1636, pp. 347-349.
