Chap. IX.] 
SNAKE-STONES. 
315 
of any secondary appliance. In other words, the confi- 
dence inspired by the supposed talisman enables its 
possessor to address himself fearlessly to his task, and 
thus to effect, by determination and will, what is popu- 
larly believed to be the result of charms and stupefac- 
tion. Still it is curious that, amongst the natives of 
Northern Africa, who lay hold of the Cerastes without 
fear or hesitation, impunity is ascribed to the use of 
a plant with the juice of which they anoint themselves 
before touching the reptile 1 ; and Bruce says of the 
people of Sennar, that they acquire exemption from the 
fatal consequences of the bite by chewing a particular 
root, and washing themselves with an infusion of cer- 
tain plants. He adds that a portion of this root was 
given him, with a view to test its efficacy in his own 
person, but that he had not sufficient resolution to 
make the experiment. 
As to the snake-stone itself, I submitted one, the 
application of which I have been describing, to Mr. 
Faraday, who has communicated to me, as the result 
of his analysis, his belief that it is " a piece of charred 
bone which has been filled with blood perhaps several 
times, and then carefully charred again. Evidence of 
this is afforded, as well by the apertures of cells or tubes 
on its surface as by the fact that it yields and breaks 
under pressure, and exhibits an organic structure within. 
When heated slightly, water rises from it, and also a 
little ammonia ; and, if heated still more highly in the 
air, carbon burns away, and a bulky white ash is left, 
retaining the shape and size of the stone." This ash, 
as is evident from inspection, cannot have belonged to 
Hasselqiust. 
