228 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
all ill-effects of the bite will be warded off, the water acting as a powerful antidote to the poison.48
The
belief that the snake-stone of Welsh legend—in reality either a fossil
or a bead—was evolved from the venom or saliva ejected by a concourse
of hissing snakes, gave rise to a peculiar popular saying among the
Welsh to the effect that people who are whispering together
mysteriously, and apparently gossiping, or perhaps hatching some
mischief, are "blowing the gem."49
Many
of the glass beads known as "snake-stones" or "Druid's glass" are
perforated, and this is fancifully explained as being the work of one
of the group of snakes which forms the bead. This particular snake
thrusts its tail through the viscous mass before it has become hardened
into a glass sphere. In various parts of Scotland such beads are
treasured up by the peasants; according to the testimony of an English
visitor of 1699, who reports that they were hung on children's necks as
protection from whooping-cough and other children's diseases, and were
also valued as talismans productive of good fortune and protective
against the onslaught of malevolent spirits* To guard one of these
precious beads from the depredations of the dreaded fairies the peasant
would keep it enclosed in an iron box, this metal being much feared by
the fairies.50
A
type of snake-stone used in Asia Minor is described as being of a
pearly white hue, rounded on one side, and flat on the other. Toward
the edge of the flat side runs a fine, wavy, bluish line, the
undulations of which are fancied to figure a serpent. The victim of a
snake-bite first had the spot rubbed with some kind of sirup; then the
stone was
** John Brand, " Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," London, 1849, vol. iii, p. 371.
"Wirt Sikes, "British Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Myths, Legende and Traditions," London, 1880, p. 360.
"J. G. Frazer, "Balder the Beautiful," London, 1913, vol. i, p. 16.
