Fetish Stones which Cure Disease.
Many of these stones have the power of curing disease, and the water with which they have been bathed is considered a useful medicine. This is the case with a number of sacred Mahâdeva Lingams all over the country. A common proverb speaks of the old woman who is ready enough to eat the Prasâd or offering to the god, but hesitates to drink the water in which his feet have been washed. In Western India no orthodox Brâhman will eat his food till he has thrice sipped the water in which his Sâlagrâma stone has been washed.102 We have already noticed the fetish bowl, the washings of which are administered by midwives to secure easy parturition. So, in Western lands the stones fetched by Merlin had the power of healing if washed in water and the patient bathed in it.103 Stone celts are, in Cornwall, supposed to impart a healing effect to water in which they have been soaked.104 In Java a decoction of the lichen which grows on fetish stones is used as a remedy for disease.105 In the Isle of Lewis cattle disease is attributed to the bites of serpents, and the suffering animals are made to drink water into which charm stones are put; in the Highlands large crystals of a somewhat oval shape were kept by the priests to work charms with, and water poured thereon was given to cattle as a preventative of disease.106