Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/282

270 version the parent swallows effected the cure by the application of celandine (chelidonia), which in consequence was a specific for sore eyes. It is interesting to notice that by an intelligible transference the flesh of swallows and the swallow plant come to be recommended not only for ophthalmia, but also for snake-bite.

Among the magical stones which were catalogued in later classical times there are some which enjoy the reputation of putting serpents to flight or curing the victims of snake-bite, which cannot with certainty be brought under any of the above categories of so-called snake stones. And mention should be made of a class of snake stone which appears to derive its name not from its serpentine shape, markings or origin, but from its function of extracting poison, for which it is qualified by its adhesive properties. Thus among the Malays snake stones are manufactured by magicians out of a mixture of metals. They are described as about an inch long, oval in shape and perforated. They are placed upon the wound, to which they adhere and will not fall off until they have sucked out the poison. In the Eastern Levant a rare kind of yellow porous stone was similarly used to absorb "every particle of venom from the wound."