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Superstitions: Vitalis

Among the Arabians, serpents, either from the brilliancy of their eyes, or because they inhabit the cavities of the earth, were supposed to possess precious stones of inestimable virtue. This belief was current through many ages. Matthew Paris relates a story of a miserly Venetian, named Vitalis, who was rescued from a terrible death (having fallen into a pitfall in which were a lion and a serpent) by a wood-cutter, to whom he promised half his property for this deliverance. The lion and the serpent, who take advantage of the ladder by which Vitalis was brought to the surface, also testify their gratitude to the wood-cutter by crouching at his feet. While the poor man is having his humble repast in his little hut, the lion enters with a dead goat as a present. The serpent also enters bringing in his mouth a precious stone, which he lays in the countryman's plate. He next goes to Venice, and finds Vitalis in his palace feasting with his neighbours in joy for his deliverance. On being reminded of his promise, the rich man denies having ever seen the wood-cutter, and orders his servants to cast him into prison; but, before this could be effected, the rustic escapes and tells his story to the judges of the city. At first they are incredulous, but on showing the jewel, and proving further the truth by conducting them to the dens of the lion and serpent, where the animals again fawn on their benefactor, Vitalis is compelled to perform his promise.

This story, adds Matthew Paris, was told by King Richard to expose the conduct of ungrateful men.

In Timberlake's "Discourse of the Travels of Two English Pilgrims to Jerusalem, Gaza, etc." (1611), we find an account of the great jewel taken from the serpent's head, and used in conjuring. "Among other stones, there is one in the possession of a conjurer, remarkable for its brilliancy and beauty, but more so for the extraordinary manner in which it was found. It grew, if we may credit the Indians, in the head of a monstrous serpent, whose retreat was by its brilliancy discovered; but a great number of snakes attending him, he being, I suppose, by his diadem of a superior rank among the serpents, made it dangerous to attack him. Many were the attempts made by the Indians, but all frustrated, till a fellow more bold than the rest, casing himself in leather impenetrable to the bite of the serpent, or his guards, and watching a convenient opportunity, surprised and killed him, tearing the jewel from his head, which the conjurer had kept hid for many years, in some place unknown to all but two women, who have been offered large presents to destroy it, but steadily refused, lest some signal judgment or mischance should follow. That such a stone exists, I believe, having seen many of great beauty, but I cannot think it could answer all the encomiums the Indians bestow upon it. The conjurer, I suppose, hatched the account of its discovery." In Alphonso's "Clericalis disciplina" a serpent is mentioned with eyes of real jacinth. In the romantic history of Alexander, he is said to have found serpents in the Vale of Jordan, "with collars of huge emeralds growing on their backs." Milton gives his serpent eyes of carbuncle. A marvellous stone was said to be found in the brain, but in order to insure its lustre and potent influences, it was to be extracted from the living animal. This was an adventure worthy of the prowess of ancient heroes, considering that the stout arm had to achieve what might be now safely left to saltpetre. Philostratus tells us how these wonderful dragons were captured "by the exhibition of golden letters and a scarlet robe," for these dreadful monsters had an eye for rich colouring, as our modern ladies have for a soldier's coat. The men spread them out before the serpent's den, "but first of all they magically" (and, I may add, prudently) "infuse a soporific quality into these letters, whereby the dragon has his eyes overcome, losing all power to turn them away. They also sing over him many spells of mystic art, whereby he is drawn forth, and putting his neck outside the den falls asleep upon the letters:" as a schoolboy does over his spelling-book, but, happily, without the same result, a smart birching generally refreshing his intellects. "Then the Indians assail him as he lies, cut off his head, and make prizes of the gem within it," not always, however, the charm not being probably of the right sort. "Often doth the dragon seize the Indian's axe, charms, and all, and escapes with him into his hold, all but making the mountain tremble."

The Draconius, described by Albertus Magnus as of a black colour and pyramidal form, was brought from the East, and taken out of the heads of dragons while they lay panting, the virtue of the precious stone being lost if it remained in the head any time after the death of the dragon. "Some bold fellows," remarks Leonardus Camillus (1502), "in those eastern parts, search out the dens of the dragons, and in them they throw grass mixed with soporiferous medicaments, which the dragons, when they return to their dens, eat, and are thrown into a sleep, and in that condition their heads are cut off, and the stone extracted. It has a rare virtue of absorbing all poisons, especially that of serpents. It also renders the possessor bold and invincible, for which reason the kings of the East boast of having such a stone." The Bishop of Ardfert, in Ireland, gave to St. Alban's Abbey, amongst other things, "a stone of a light airy colour, marked with white spots, called the 'Serpent's Stone,' thought to be very efficacious against lunacy. It was square in form and encompassed with silver."

We read that when Geoffrey, the sixteenth Abbot of St. Alban's, was completing the shrine of the patron saint, for which the treasury of the church was employed, a precious stone was brought, so large that a man could not grasp it in his hand, said to help women in childbirth, and therefore it was not fixed to the shrine because it might be serviceable to save women's lives. On it was carved an image, as of one in ragged clothes, holding a spear in one hand, with a snake winding itself up it, and in the other hand a boy bearing a buckler. At the feet of the image was an eagle with wings expanded, and lifted up. This stone was the gift of King Ethelred.

Ahmed Ben Abdalaziz, in his "Treatise on Jewels," says that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of emeralds, he immediately becomes blind. Thus Moore, in "Lalla Rookh":-- "Blinded like serpents when they gaze Upon the emerald's virgin blaze." Pliny asserts that a marble lion with emerald eyes was placed on the tomb of a petty king called Hermias, in the island of Cyprus, near the fisheries. Such was the extraordinary brilliancy of the emeralds, and so far out at sea did they shine, that the frightened fish fled to a great distance. The fishermen, having ascertained the cause of the scarcity of their prey, removed the emeralds, and thus induced the fish to return.

A miraculous solution of the origin of emeralds is given in "Forbes' Oriental Memoirs." A person was watching a swarm of fire-flies in an Indian grove, one moonlight night. After hovering for a time in the moonbeams, one particular fire-fly, more brilliant than the rest, alighted on the grass and there remained. The spectator, struck by its fixity, and approaching to ascertain the cause, found, not an insect, but an emerald, which he appropriated, and afterwards wore in a ring.