rosewater has been poured When the cover of
by a long incantation which repeatedly focuses
the black lead vessel is opened, air must be al owed
on the drum and stick along with fumigations
to pass through for an hour to decrease the odor
Thereafter if one wishes to kill someone, one
If you wish that it have the power of kil ing within
should strike the drum when the Moon is associ-
six hours, leave it so; if you wish that it be fatal
ated with Saturn While striking the drum one
immediately, without delay and tarrying, pulver-
should sing in praise of Mars and “whoever hears
ize the penetrating things which are eaten and
drunk This reaches the core of the body While
this voice dies either on the same day or after
one of the two is dry and the other moist, gather
three hours following the darkness of the night
both together and add them to the poison you
have passed ”115
have macerated Mix them all well Certainly it
can be lethal on the spot without delay I recite
the praise of the old one [God], the generous,
d The serpent(-dragon) stone
the kind, the beneficent for those who know him
and worship him and for those who do not know
Belief in the healing properties of a magic serpent
him and do not worship him!
stone (Pers shāh-muhra) is ancient and wide-
When you want to use this to kill, weigh out
spread and refers to a precious stone located either
one carat and mix it with any food, drink, gruel,
in the head of the dragon116 or in its mouth, that
or any odoriferous substance It works when it
is, one that would be expectorated by the ophid-
reaches the belly or touches a spot on the body,
ian creature 117 The idea that serpents have pre-
wounds it and then, after a while, kills him It is
cious stones in their heads is recorded in the
penetrating and sharp
Whoever drinks this poison which is extracted
Indian Panchatantra, a collection of stories and
from the black snake and sulfur, then his symp-
fables, originally written in Sanskrit in the third
toms are that he becomes very restless, his eyes
century bc 118 It is propounded in the Koiraniden
become red, his tongue swel s, and he is so thirsty
of Hermes Trismegistos and related texts in which
that a drink of water does not quench it [i e , the
the occult medical effects of the organs of animals
thirst]; his tongue lolls and his voice is remote,
are described 119 Examples include a large myth-
his eyes pop out, all the veins of his body are
ical serpent in the western sea with cervid-type
gorged with blood, he becomes very anxious,
dendritical antlers and a mane like that of the
and often he cries until he dies 114
seahorse, a creature said to have stones in its head
Ibn Waḥshiyya, moreover, records an interesting
that are used for talismans 120 Such a serpent stone
operation which can be lethal by sound It involves
is also mentioned in Ibn Waḥshiyya’s ninth-cen-
a compound agent, one of the central ingredients
tury text on poisons and their antidotes He spec-
being three large vipers, used to anoint two hides
ifies that:
and the wood of a drum, which when struck “kil s
There is a bead (kharaza) in the neck of the viper
by the sound when it is heard ” Once the agent
between its head and body It is not found and
has been applied three times and has dried, the
is not clear except in large vipers which have
drum has to be struck with a stick made of the
aged for hundreds of years This bead is found
branch of an olive tree Drum and stick have to
on its neck When you take this bead at the time
be set apart and when the Sun sets on a Tuesday
of the rising of the sign of Aries, whatever climate
it may be, with the left hand and fasten it tightly
evening, the drum and stick have to be placed
with parchment of the fawn by means of a white
facing Mars, preferably when the Moon is adjoin-
silk thread, and after he fastens it, if he wishes,
ing Mars or when Mars is rising This is followed
he sews it in a tanned hide and hangs it fastened
114 Tr Levey, 1966, pp 58–9, also n 297 for further ref-
Pliny ( Naturalis Historia, XXXVII 158) it is to be obtained
erences on this species For other preparations of poisons
by severing the head of a sleeping dragon Cf Merkelbach,
with snakes as central ingredient, see idem, pp 52–5 Ibn
“Drache,” RAC IV, 1959, p 228 See also Hasluck, 1929,
Waḥshiyya also records the preparation of a compound
vol 2, p 653 and n 1; Massé, 1938, vol 2, p 326
poison which requires snake eggs, see idem, p 62, and speci-
117 Steingass, 1892, repr 1981, p 728, cf also muhra,
fies an antidote for someone who drinks gall of the viper
p 1354 Cf Hoffmann-Krayer, “Schlange,” HdA, vol 7, 1936,
(see idem, p 81) Snake gall also serves as ingredient for the
p 1122, and idem, pp 1199–201
preparation of a lethal agent (see idem, p 107)
118 Frazer, 1888, p 179; also Laufer and Walravens, 1987,
115 Tr Levey, 1966, pp 37–8
p 138
116 The stone is the dracontias or dragon stone described
119 Ullmann, 1972, p 404, and idem, 1994, p 100, 83
by Pliny ( Naturalis Historia, XXXVII 10 57) and Solinus
120 Idem, 1994, pp 28–30, 80–3, 100, 83
( Col ectanea Rerum Memorabilium, 30 16) According to
the dragon and the magico-medical sphere
181
on his left upper arm, then it serves to keep away
a pearl said to be found in a serpent’s head and
from him the evils of the vipers and that of all
to secure the owner’s continual good luck 126
snakes … When the vipers and any snakes touch
his body, then they become soft; their hatred
Pearls and their association with serpents also
goes out …
appear in a legend in the seventh-century Sanskrit
As to what Shūshā ordered, he said that the
text Harshacharita (“The Deeds of Harṣa”)
bead of the snake is taken during the rising of
According to the story a pearl necklace, “which
the sign of Aries and is tied in the slough of the
shone like a cluster of stars,” born of the tears
snake, then sewed in a tanned hide The man
of the Moon god, became an antidote to poison
fastens it on his middle where he binds the trou-
and came into the possession of Vāsuki, the king
ser band If snakes sting him, then it is not harm-
ful to him He requires only a mild remedy to
of serpents The latter always carried it with him-
avoid death, becoming black or blue in colour,
self to soothe the burning heat of poison and
and lessening in power 121
eventually presented it to Nāgārjuna during his
stay in the Netherworld 127
A “snake-stone,” often linked with a bezoar
The belief in a rain stone (Turk yai, Mong
( bāzahr, a corruption of the Pers pād-zahr, lit
yada),128 often a bezoar placed in water, which
“ protecting (against) poison”),122 that is, a concre-
was widespread among the Altaic people of Inner
tion or “stone,” found in a snake or another ani-
Asia in the medieval period seems to have spread
mal, can be used in an amulet against the Evil
Eye and illness
from the early Turks to the Mongols The rain
123 That it is also supposed to work
as an antidote against snake venom is indicated
stone could be used in weather magic and by its
by the twelfth-century poet Niẓāmī Ganjawī when
means the holder could magically cause rain or
he states that:
snow to fall or to cease 129 In his treatise on min-
eralogy, Azhār al-afkār fī jawāhir al-aḥjār (“Best
from the thorny rose there comes rose water; life
Thoughts on the Best of Stones”), written around
from the snake-stone 124
637/1240, Aḥmad al-Tifāshī describes the use of
And about two hundred years later al-Damīrī
such a stone in a rain-making ritual conducted
(d 808/1405) records that there is one type of
by an old Turkish weather-magician in the camp
serpent, for whose bite “the bezoar stone (al -
of the Khwārazm-shāh Muḥammad Khān, which
diryâq) is useful ”125
took place under the personal supervision of the
Talismanic virtue is also ascribed to the guhar-
sulṭān:
muhra:
Then [the old Turk] took a live snake of the
same colour as the [rain] stone, and fixed it [by
121 Tr Levey, 1966, pp 69–70
human beings; cf Molnár with an appendix by Zieme, 1984,
122 Real bezoar stones, that is to say, hard round concre-
pp 128–9 On the bezoar, see also Pseudo-Aristoteles, Das
tions, are also said to be obtained from the body of wild goats
Steinbuch, tr and ed Ruska, 1912, pp 147–9 A thirteenth-
(the concretions are believed to have formed, for instance, in
or fourteenth-century gold bowl with a mounted bezoar
the head, the heart or the intestines, especially the stomach)
stone attached by a gold chain, perhaps produced in the
indigenous to Iran and the lands on the borders of China
Caucasus, is now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum,
that live chiefly on poisonous serpents; the bezoar is said to
Vienna, inv no 1140, published by Ettinghausen, 1955,
form when the animal has eaten too much snake flesh Cf
p 282, pl XXXIX, no 6
Ruska, “Bezoar,” EI¹ I, p 710; for a detailed description, see
123 Massé, 1938, vol 1, p 210
al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1,
124 Meisami, 1995, pp 25, 280, 7:54
pp 222–5 and n 1; Ettinghausen, 1955, pp 280–1 and n 29,
125 Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1,
pp 283–5, and n 52 The twelfth-century Jewish theologian
p 636
Ibn Maymūn/Maimonides notes with regard to the bezoar:
126 Steingass, 1892, repr 1981, p 1107 For the associa-
tion of dragons with pearls, see also the Iranian legend of
Of the bezoar there is no mention in Galen’s writings
Azhdahāk (that is, Azhi Dahāka) giving a huge pearl to a
The bezoar stone, cal ed animal bezoar, is an acorn-like
concubine Tchukasizian, 1964, p 325 See pp 62–3
object of green to blue-green hue It is formed layer
127 Bāṇa, Harshacharita, tr Cowell and Thomas, 1897,
upon layer, like some shell heaped one upon another
pp 250–2
People say its origin is in the medial eye-corner of
128 See the linguistic discussion in Molnár with an appen-
the Oriental ram; others believe it is formed in the
dix by Zieme, 1984, pp 104–16
gallbladder, which is indeed the case
129 Bosworth, “yada Tash,” EI² XI, 226a For further dis-
cussion, see Rashīd al-Dīn, tr and ed Quatremère, 1836,
Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes, tr and ed Muntner,
pp 428–35 An in-depth study of the phenomenon is found
1966, pp 17–8 According to other accounts, bezoar stones
in Molnár with an appendix by Zieme, 1984 Cf DeWeese,
are also believed to be found in different animals as well as
1994, pp 175–6, n 24
182