M 



MEDICINAL AND MAGICAL STONES 95 



are formed in the intestines of various large vegetarian 

 animals and occasionally stony concretions of various 

 chemical composition are formed in the urinary bladder 

 of various animals, as well as of man. The " eagle-stone" 

 is also a concretion to which magical properties were 

 ascribed. I have seen a specimen, but do not know its 

 history and origin. Glass beads found in prehistoric 

 burial-places are called by old writers " adders' eggs," and 

 " adder-stones," and were said (it is improbable that one 

 should say " believed ") to hatch out young adders when 

 incubated with sufficiently silly ceremonies and observ- 

 ances. A celebrated " stone " of medicinal reputation in 

 the East is the " goa-stone." This is a purely artificial 

 product a mass of the size and shape of a large egg, 

 consisting of some very fine and soft powder like fullers'- 

 earth, sweetly scented, and over-laid with gold-leaf. A 

 very little is rubbed off, mixed with water, and swallowed, 

 as a remedy for many diseases. The deep connection of 

 medicine with magic, throwing light on the strange 

 application of stones and hairs, bones and skins, by 

 imaginative mankind, in all ages and places, is exhibited 

 in the common practice of writing with ink a sentence of 

 the Koran (or other sacred words) on a tablet, washing off 

 the ink and making the patient swallow the water in 

 which the sacred phrase has been thus dissolved ! How 

 convenient it would be were it possible thus to impart 

 knowledge, virtue, and health to suffering humanity ! 



A good example of one of the ways in which magical 

 properties become attributed to natural objects is the stone 

 known as amethyst. The ancient Indian name of this 

 stone had the sound represented by its present name. In 

 Greek this sound happens to mean " not intoxicated " ; 

 hence, without more ado, the ancients declared that the 

 amethyst was a preventive of, and a cure for, drunkenness. 



