hours
steeping, the milk which has drawn out all the poison takes on the
color of pus. Having dined one day with the Archbishop of Goa, he took
me into his museum, where he had several curious objects. Among other
things he showed me one of these stones, and having told me of its
properÂties, he assured me that but three days before he had seen them
tested, and presented the stone to me. As he was traversing a marsh on
the Island of Salsate, whereon Goa is situated, to go to a country
house, one of those who bore his palanquin, and who was almost entirely
naked, was bitten by a snake and was immediately cured by this stone. I
have bought several of them, and they are sold only by the brahmins,
which makes me think the brahmins themselves make the stones. There are
two methods of testing whether the stone is good or the product of some
deception. The first of these tests is to place it in one's mouth, for
then, if it be good, it springs up end cleaves to the palate; the
second test is to place it in a glass full of water; if it is not
sophisticated, the water begins to seethe, small bubbles rising from
the stone at the bottom to the surface of the water.
Thevenot,
a French traveller who visited India in 1666, about the time Tavernier
was there, asserts that the famous "Stones of the Cobra" were
manufactured in the town of Diu, in Guzerat, and that they were made
"of the ashes of burnt roots, mingled with a kind of Earth they have,
and were again burnt with that Earth, which afterwards is made up into
a Paste, of which these Stones are formed." After describing the
process employed for cleaning the stones after they had been used,
Thevenot adds that if not freed from the absorbed venom the stones
would burst.55
Dr.
J. Davy examined and analyzed some of these "stones," and found one of
them to be a piece of bone parÂtially calcined. When applied to the
tongue or to any other moist surface it adhered firmly. Another, which
lacked all absorbent or adhesive power, was said to have saved the life
of four men. It therefore appears that while some of the "snake-stones"
really possessed some possible curative virtues, others were esteemed
only because of a superstitious
" " The Travels of M. de Thevenot into the Levant," London} 1686, Pfc III, p. 82; Blc I, chap. 18.
"~
