A witch stone or adder stone is a powerful talisman used by druids in the Celtic world.
Names
Also called hag stone, witch stone, serpent's egg, snake's egg in Britain, or glain neidyr in Wales, milpreve in Cornwall, adderstanes or Gloine nan Druidh in Scotland. In Egypt they are called aggry or aggri.
Origin
Two traditions exist as to the origins of adder stones. One holds that the stones are the hardened saliva of large numbers of serpents massing together, the perforations being caused by their tongues. The other claims that an adder stone comes from the head of a serpent or is made by the sting of an adder.
Powers
Adder stones were believed to have magical powers such as protection against eye diseases or evil charms, preventing nightmares, curing whooping cough, recovery from snakebite and even ensuring success in legal cases . According to popular conception, a true adder stone will float in water.
There is a passage in Pliny’s Natural History, book xix, minutely describing the nature and the properties of this amulet. The following is a translation of it:
"There is a sort of egg in great repute among the Gauls, of which the Greek writers have made no mention. A vast number of serpents are twisted together in summer, and coiled up in an artificial knot by their saliva and slime; and this is called "the serpent's egg". The druids say that it is tossed in the air with hissings and must be caught in a cloak before it touches the earth. The person who thus intercepts it, flies on horseback; for the serpents will pursue him until prevented by intervening water. This egg, though bound in gold will swim against the stream. And the magi are cunning to conceal their frauds, they give out that this egg must be obtained at a certain age of the moon. I have seen that egg as large and as round as a common sized apple, in a chequered cartilaginous cover, and worn by the Druids. It is wonderfully extolled for gaining lawsuits, and access to kings. It is a badge which is worn with such ostentation, that I knew a Roman knight, a Vocontian, who was slain by the stupid emperor Claudius, merely because he wore it in his breast when a lawsuit was pending."
References
- Henkin, Leo J. The Carbuncle in the Adder's Head. Modern Language Notes, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1943) , pp. 34–39.