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Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Malays

The mesticas of the Malays represent a class of stones differing in important respects from the various types of bezoars. A principal distinction is that the mesticas are not supposed to owe their origin to pathological conditions in the organism wherein they occur, but rather to a super-abundance of the normal and healthy constituents of the animal or plant. It is probably due to this that the virtues of these particular concretions are rather talismanic than therapeutic, and that they are believed to endow the finder, or one who receives them by gift, with courage, immunity from injury, and also with cunning and shrewdness in the affairs of life. Especially by warriors are these stones highly valued, for they are supposed to protect the wearer from wounds; indeed, this belief sometimes went so far as to lead the Malays to think that absolute invulnerability was conferred on one who carried several of them bound so closely to the skin that in some cases they even penetrated the flesh. The typical mestica is described as a hard stone, brilliant but seldom transparent; it is found in the flesh or fat, in the heart or on the legs of animals, and also sometimes in plants.