Superstitions About Porcupine Stones

The "fretful porcupine" also contributed its stone to the series of concretions; this was usually found in the animal's head, and was considered to be even superior to the bezoar as an antidote against poison. If steeped in water for a quarter of an hour, the water became so bitter that "there was nothing in the world more bitter." Another stone supposed to be found in the animal's entrails possessed like properties, but was said to lose none of its weight when placed in water, while the first-mentioned stone became lighter. Tavernier bought three of these stones, paying as much as five hundred crowns for one of them.

A jewel made of ambergris, in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection, is said to be the only specimen of its kind that has been preserved for us from medieval times. The perfumed material has been skilfully carved into the symbolic figures of a woman and three children. At one time believed to symbolize Charity, the later theory is that these figures have a less pure significance and rather denote the reproductive energies, for ornaments of this material were credited with aphrodisiac powers; however, they were also believed to cure stomachic disorders. The delicate perfume they exhaled was one of their chief titles to admiration, and after the lapse of more than three centuries, this particular jewel still emits a fragrant aromatic odor when it has been held for some time in a warm hand. The style of the workmanship indicates that this is a piece of cinquecento Italian work. It was at one time in the Wencke Collection, in Hamburg, and later formed part of the Spitzer Collection, until the sale of the latter in 1893.

While many of the reports of the finding of immense masses of ambergris (in one the weight of the mass is given as three thousand pounds) may be classed as at least highly improbable, still there is abundant unmistakable evidence that very large pieces have really occasionally been found. In Rome and in the Santa Casa of Loreto costly and artistically shaped pieces of ambergris were to be seen, which clearly indicated that the weight of the original unworked mass must have greatly exceeded that of the ornamental object. There can be no doubt of the authenticity of the details regarding a great piece of ambergris weighing 182 pounds bought in the year 1693 from King Fidori by the Dutch East India Company for 11,000 rigsdalers or nearly $12,000 at the current valuation of the coin of that time. In form it resembled a tortoise-shell, was 5 feet 8 inches thick, and 2 feet 2 inches long. After being long kept in Amsterdam as a curiosity, and having been viewed there by thousands of persons, it was finally broken up and sold at auction. A lump extracted from a whale in the Windward Islands weighed 130 pounds and was sold for $3500, or nearly $27 a pound.