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Snake Stones and Bezoars: Mercato

An amulet set with a bezoar stone is said to have possessed such a power to prevent bleeding that when a Malacca prince was killed in a battle with his rebellious subjects, no blood was flowing from any of his numerous wounds. On stripping the body a golden armlet set with a bezoar came to view, and the moment this was removed blood began to flow freely from the wounds. Mercato writes of a marvellous Occidental bezoar, sent from Peru to Rome in 1534, as a gift to Pope Gregory XIII. It weighed no less than fifty-six ounces, although it was defective, since a large portion of the exterior crust was missing, the second layer was partly broken away, and even the third layer was damaged in some places. This wonderful concretion had been dedicated to one of the Peruvian gods, as a rare and precious object, and it was taken away by the Spaniards when they spoiled the temple. Mercato says that this bezoar was "of a truly monstrous size, unheard of in all previous centuries, and it is still the largest in the whole realm of nature."