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To the Snake-stone a popular superstition is still attached in the East. In the narrative of a voyage in H.M.S. "Samarang," Captain Sir Edward Belcher says:--"At my last interview with the Sultan (of Guning Taboor), at which he would only permit Tuan Hadji and our interpreter to be present, he conveyed into my hand (suddenly closing it with great mystery) what they term here the Snake-stone. This is a polished globe of quartz, about the size of a musketball, which he described as of infinite value, an heirloom, and reported to have been extracted from the head of an enchanted snake. At first I suspected it to be a bezoar stone, but on inspection found it to be merely quartz, the grinding and polishing of which in a globular form must have required some art."
Allusions to serpents' stones are frequent by the early writers; in the "Gesta Romanorum" (chapter cv.), we read that the Emperor Theodosius the Blind ordained that the cause of any injured person should be heard on ringing a bell, placed in a public part of his palace. A serpent had a nest near the spot where the bell-rope hung. In the absence of the serpent a toad took possession of her nest; the serpent, twisting itself round the rope, rung the bell for justice, and by the emperor's special command the toad was killed. A few days afterwards, as the emperor was reposing on his couch, the serpent entered the chamber bearing a precious stone in its mouth, and crawling up to the emperor's face laid it on his eyes, and glided out of the apartment; the monarch was immediately restored to sight. |
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Precious Stones Vol 11
>> Legends About the Snake-Stone
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