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Fabulous Stones, Concretions and Fossils: Germans

The trochites and entrochus, named Raderstein, or "wheel-stone," by the Germans, are other fossils to which remedial or talismanie virtue was accorded in popular fancy. These "wheel-stones," while detachable, fitted as closely together in the original formation as though they had been skilfully adjusted by a clever artisan. De Laet states that when immersed in oil they gave forth bubbles and moved about spontaneously. Still another of these fossils believed to be amulets was the enastros, which De Boot terms the asteria vera, or genuine asteria, since it not merely showed a star-shaped marking as did the fossil coral bearing the name astroites, but was shaped like a five-pointed star. As with the trochites, chains of these little stars were found, closely joined together but separable from one another. Some called them "star-seals," because the stellar imprint was sharp and clearly defined as though the work of an engraver or gem-cutter. These fossils are types of encrinites. The sections of the stem-like fossils called entrochus by the older writers have been named St. Cuthbert's beads in later times, while the fossil called lapis Judaicus has borne the name of "stone-lily," because in form it resembles the lily. Ages ago the stem and flower-like head united constituted a crinoid (a marine zoophyte). These aquatic creatures--half-plant and half-animal--usually twine their roots about some shell in the depths of the waters, but sometimes they become detached and then, moving their delicate tentacles, they creep along the bottom of the sea.

In olden times parts, or segments, of an animal were worn as a protection against harm from that particular creature, or else to endow the wearer with some of its real or fancied qualities. In modern times this tendency finds expression in the wearing of jewels of animal form, wherein precious stones are grouped and arranged so as to constitute different parts of the creature's body. Such jewels are often looked upon as "mascots." A peculiar fossil was known to the Germans by the name of Mutterstein, and is called hysterolithus in the Latin treatises of Agricola, De Boot, etc., a word of Greek derivation signifying the resemblance of the object to an organ of the body. These fossils are formed from the contents of certain shells, and retain the shape of the enclosing shell, which has broken away. Some of these formations were called enorchi from a fancied resemblance to another organ and were regarded as phallic emblems, while others were thought to figure the heart, especially large specimens being named bucar dites, or "ox-hearts." This name is already employed by Pliny. The hysterolithus was used to cure various female diseases, and to the bucardites was accorded among other virtues that of increasing the wearer's courage. The hysterolithus is believed to be the same as the autoglyphus mentioned by pseudo-Plutarch as having been found in the river Sagaris, in Asia Minor. Its peculiar shape was regarded as symbolizing Cybele, the mother of the gods, and the story ran that if one of the unfortunate male victims of Eastern jealousy should obtain a stone of this kind he would become reconciled to his sad lot and would cease to regret his lost manhood.