Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/277

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Snake Stones.
265

The jewelled appearance of some of the more venomous species and the phenomenon of fascination, by which snakes paralyze their victims, may have suggested the almost universal belief that snakes possess a jewel or stone, or that a stone is to be found in their head or body which possesses magical properties. The sorcerers of the Roro-speaking peoples of New Guinea get a stone from the black snake which possesses such power that they can kill a man by touching him with it.[1] The Cherokee of North America believe in a great snake of fabulous size, with a blazing crest like a diamond upon its forehead with which it dazzles its victims. This diamond has only once been obtained, but it confers upon the possessor enormous power. It is described as like a large transparent crystal, shaped like a cartridge bullet, with a blood-red streak running through the centre from top to bottom. The owner keeps it hidden in a secret cave, and feeds it every seven days upon the blood of game to prevent its flying out at night and taking the blood of the conjuror or some of his people.[2] In Wales, whenever a snake is found under or near a hazel tree on which the mistletoe grows, the creature has a precious stone in its head.[3] According to the Malays the cobra has a bright jewel on its head which shines at night, and snakes carry a jewel in their mouths for the possession of which they fight.[4] Chinese dragons are said similarly to fight for a pearl.[5] The Sinhalese believe that certain serpents possess a jewel which is sovereign against snake-bite, and that snakes at night vomit up luminous stones

  1. Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, pp. 282-283. These snake-stones can be rendered innocuous by immersion in a bowl of salt water, which will then hiss and bubble as though boiling. When no more bubbles are to be seen, the stone is "dead."
  2. Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee," Nineteenth Annual Report of the American Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 297-298. There is record of the existence of this stone in the eighteenth century (Timberlake's Memoirs (1765), quoted in Folk-Lore, i. p. 278).
  3. Trevelyan, Folklore and Folkstories of Wales, p. 171. For the connection of the snake with the hazel cf . below, p. 26S, note 5.
  4. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 303-304.
  5. Skeat, loc. cit.