Home » Travel » Arkansas » LEGENDS OF THE MAD STONE

LEGENDS OF THE MAD STONE

© Bertha Sutliff

Before we get into the stories of the mad stone, let's go back several years and look into what the mad stone was and where it came from. Did it really possess healing powers and are there any in existence today?

Years ago, when a human was bitten by a rabid animal the results were an agonizing death for that human, unless a mad stone was obtained and applied to the wound before the disease became advanced. There were no other cures. Rabies is a disease that affects the nervous system and slowly destroys it. It finally attacks the spinal cord and death is imminent. The victim may froth at the mouth, scream and fight, thus creating the effect of being mad.

Lucky for us, advanced science has developed a vaccine that will stop the onslaught of the disease in our bodies. By simple injections, we can be cured of rabies. Vaccinations are given to our pets to help prevent them from catching the disease from animals, mostly wild, that transmit it to them.

A mad stone placed on the bite of the victim will attach itself to the wound for an hour or up to several hours. Once it releases itself and refuses to be reattached the victim is declared cured. Some say mad stones come from the stomach of white deer. Some say God made them and only a select few are chosen to find them hidden in the earth. The mad stone itself is of an irregular shape, from an inch to several inches in length. Some are composed of a number of porous tubes, connected by a rocklike material. When the stone is used, it seems to shrink slightly. This is believed to be due to the chemical reaction in the stone to the disease.

After the stone is used it is usually cleaned by placing it in a jar of water. It will start to bubble and until the bubbling ceases it remains in the water. When the stone is finally removed from the water it is rinsed clean of any foreign material on the surface and placed in the air to dry until used again. The water from the jar is never thrown out but the jar and water in it are buried deep in the ground where no other animal or human could get to it.

It is said that a mad stone exists in the courthouse in Essex County, Virginia. Legend states the mad stone was first brought to the area in 1781 as payment from a traveler in exchange for room, board and medical treatment. The stone became the property of the courthouse in the 1930s when a then clerk Allen Latnae bought it from Roy Micou, a Tappahannock native who said the stone had been in his family for 150 years. Latnae died in 1948 and willed the stone to be forever kept at the county courthouse. The stone is now kept in a wooden box inside a metal box inside a locked box in a courthouse records room.