In medieval times bunches of dried “serpent’s tongues” were sometimes hung around salt-cellars or attached to spits; but frequently, for royal or princely use, such tongues, or the jawbones of snakes, were set with valuable precious stones and constituted a peculiar jewel termed in old French a _languier_, or _épreuve_ (tester); for these utensils, often very rich and tasteful specimens of the goldsmith’s art, were believed to show in some way the presence of the much-dreaded poison in any viands with which they were brought in contact.[375] The Indians and Spaniards in South America made remedial use of a stone said to be obtained from the cayman or alligator, at Nombre de Dios, Cartagena, etc. This was employed as a cure for various intermittent fevers. Monardes writes that he applied two of these _lapides caymanum_ to the temples of a young girl suffering from an attack of fever, and found that the fever was alleviated thereby; but he doubts that fevers could be entirely cured by this treatment.[376] From New Spain was also brought the _lapis manati_, taken from the manatee, or sea-cow. This does not appear to have been a stone, but rather the cochleæ of the animal, the small bones in the head which transmit the auditory vibrations to the sensorium. They were highly valued by the Indians for their remedial action in cramps and colic, and the Spaniards collected them and brought them to Spain to enrich their very miscellaneous pharmacopœia. Sometimes they were taken internally, but often they were set in rings or worn suspended from the neck as amulets. This stone, or bone, is described as oval in shape and of a hue resembling that of ivory. When pulverized and dissolved, the solution was odorless and tasteless. They are in size often as large as a woman’s clinched fist.[377] [Illustration: Lapis manati. From Valentini’s “Museum Museorum, oder Vollständige Schau-Bühne,” Frankfurt am Main, 1714. ] The ear-bones of fish, almost invariably in pairs, are still used as amulets in Spain and Italy. One of their chief virtues is to protect children from the Evil Eye, as well as from accidents of any kind. They are also believed to preserve the wearer from deafness or diseases of the ear.[378] This is quite in accord with the primitive fancy that the different parts of the animal body had prophylactic or curative powers in relation to any disease of that portion of the human body. [Illustration: Lapis malacensis, stone of the hedgehog or porcupine. From Mercati’s “Metallotheca Vaticana,” Romæ, 1719. ]