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 Irlonde to caste in their garden’s, to keepe out and to kyll venimous wormes.[[451]]
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.[[452]]
The snake-stone (or “madstone”), in Arabic ḥajar alḥayyat, 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 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.[[453]] 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.[[454]]
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,[[455]] 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 there appeared five ridges, starting from the base and tapering off toward the top. These bore a certain resemblance to a serpent’s or adder’s tail. The stone was believed to protect the wearer from pestilential vapors and from poisons.
The so-called “snake-stones,” many specimens of which have been found in British barrows, bear in the Scottish Lowlands the designation “Adder Stanes.” They are also sometimes called adder-beads or serpent-stones. For the Welsh they were gleini na droedh and for the Irish glaine nan druidhe, the meaning being the same, “Druid’s glass.” Many interesting examples were added to the collection of the Museum of Scotch Antiquaries, one of these being of red glass, spotted with white; another of blue glass, streaked with yellow; other types were of pale green and blue glass, some of these being ribbed while others again were of smooth and plain surface. That the glass “snake-stones” were objects of considerable care and attention is indicated by the mending of a broken specimen shown by Lord Landesborough at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in 1850. This broken bead had been repaired and strengthened by the application of a bronze hoop.[[456]]
The supposed snake-stones are also to be found among the Cornishmen, who sometimes call these objects milprey or “thousand worms,” and they even lay claim to the power of forcing a snake to fabricate the “stone” by thrusting a hazel-wand into the spirals of a sleeping reptile. In another version it is not a bead that is formed but a ring which grows around a hazel-wand when a snake breathes on it. If water in which this ring has been dipped be given to a human being or an animal that has been bitten by a venomous creature, all ill effects of the bite will be warded off, the water acting as a powerful antidote to the poison.[[457]]
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.”[[458]]
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.[[459]]
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 applied to the bitten spot, and it would adhere to the inflamed surface for eight days; at the expiration of this time it would fall off. The bite would be entirely healed and would not be followed by ill effects of any kind.[[460]]