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 



1 Hasselquist. 



