Tales About Bezoar Stones from Various Cultures

In his memoirs, Jehangir Shah relates that an Afghan once brought from the Carnetic two goats said to have bezoar stones [pazahar] in their bodies. Jehangir was much surprised to note that these animals were fat and healthy looking, as he had always been told that those having bezoars were invariably thin and wretched in appearance. However, the Afghan was shown to be correct in his conjecture, for when one of the goats was killed and the body opened four fine bezoars were brought to light.

About the beginning of the eighteenth century, Charles Jacques Poncet, a French physician, was called to the court of the Abyssinian monarch of that time. One of the favorite remedies of this Frenchman was a kind of artificial bezoar, which he claims to have used with great success in cases of intermittent fever. This so-called bezoar he administered to the sovereign and to two of his children, and he also revealed to the Abyssinian king the secret of its composition. He tells us that this "Emperor of Ethiopia," as he terms him, showed great interest in medical science, and listened eagerly to explanations of the character and operation of the various remedies.

The Indians of Peru had their own theory as to the genesis of the bezoar-stone. In relation to this Joseph de Acosta writes:

The Indians relate from the traditions and teachings of their ancestors, that in the province of Xaura, and in other provinces of Peru there are various poisonous herbs and animals which empoison the waters and pastures where they [the vicunas, etc.] drink and eat. Of these poisonous herbs, one is right well known by a natural instinct to the vicuna and to the other animals which engender the bezoar, and they eat of this herb and thus preserve themselves from the poison of the waters and pastures. The Indians also say that the stone is formed in the stomachs of these animals from this herb, whence comes the virtue it possesses as an antidote for poisons, as well as its other marvellous properties.

Of the mineral bezoar, which was also regarded as an antidote against poisons, Mohammed ben Mancur relates that various ornamental figures were formed from it, such as small images of the Shah or little female figures; these were perhaps regarded as talismans. Knife-handles were also made of this material, and here the use may have been connected with the belief in the curative power of the bezoar, if brought into direct contact with the skin, as would be the case when the knife-handle was grasped in the hand.

A mineral bezoar bearing a close likeness to the animal concretion was found in Sicily. This stone was usually round, sometimes oblong like an egg, and sometimes compressed; its usual size was about that of a pigeon's egg, the largest stone not surpassing the size of a hen's egg. It was commonly white, occasionally of a somewhat ashy hue, and the surface was generally smooth, though now and then it was rough with small protuberances. Its taste resembled that of the white bolus armenus. The composition of this stone was similar to that of the Oriental bezoar of animal origin, having the same layers, and in the centre a small mass of sand over which nature had imposed from eight to ten layers, just as in the animal bezoar.