232 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
belief
in their magical properties. Kaempfer, writing in 1712, informs us that
these stones should always be used in pairs, and applied successively
to the wound.56 The belief in the efficacy of such stones is
still general in India, and one of the varieties is supposed to be
found in the head of the adjutant bird.57
Francisco Redi58
describes the extraordinary healing power attributed to stones obtained
from the heads of certain serpents, called by the Portuguese "cobras de capello," found
throughout Hindostan and Farther India. These stones are claimed to be
an infallible remedy for the bites and stings of all kinds of venomous
reptiles or animals, and likewise for wounds made by poisoned arrows,
etc. He repeats the usual tales of their adhering powerfully when
applied to the bite or wound, and clinging to it like a cupping-glass
until they had absorbed all the poison, when they would fall off
spontaneously, leaving the man or animal sound and free. Then follows
the account of steeping the stones in milk to remove the poison, the
milk assuming a color between yellow and green. These wonderful stones
and the narrations concerning them had been brought to Italy by
Catholic missionaries, who seemed to have entire faith in their powers
; so that Redi says they offered to prove the accounts by any number of
experiments, such as would satisfy the most incredulous, and prove to
medical men that Galen was correct when he wrote (Chapter XIV, Book I)
that certain medicines attract poison as the magnet does iron. For this
purpose a search for vipers, etc., was recommended; but, owing to the
season being later and colder than usual, none could at that time be
obtained, as they had
"
Davy, " An Analysis of the Snake-stone," Asiatic Researches, vol. xiii,
p. 318; Kaempf er, " Amoen. Exit.," pp. 395-397; cited in Yule-Burnell,
"A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Other Phrases,"
London, 1886, pp. 643, 644.
" " Jungle Life in India," p. 83.
K Redi, " Expérimenta," Amstelodami, 1675, pp. 4-8.
