- ălectŏrĭus [L.]; ἀλέκτωο [Gk.]
- Type of stone said to be found in a cock/rooster.
According to Pliny*1, "the name given to a stone that is found in the crop of poultry, like crystal in appearance,
and about as large as a bean in size" and which made the athlete Milo of Crotona undefeatable. (* Crotona was a Hellenized (Greek-settled) city on the E. coast of Calabria, ≈ modern Cotrone in Italy). Pliny does not make clear which part of the cock it is found.
In The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus*1 it says "Alectoria. . is white as a Crystal, and it is
drawn out of the Cock's gizzard, or maw, after that he hath been gelded more than four years", "put under the tongue, it quencheth thirst."
While real Albertus Magnus (Animalia, xxiii. 46) says that "A capon. . after six years a stone named electorius grows in its liver,
and from that time onwards the capon does not drink. And therefore a man who wears this stone is said not to get thirsty." (tr. Dorothy Wyckoff)
You would expect to find pebbles inside a gizzard, and keeping pebbles in the mouth does help keep away thirst.
* 1 Pliny 37.54 , § 22. (Latin or CurtisLaucus)
* 2 The book of secrets of Albertus Magnus of the virtues of herbs, stones and certain beasts,
also A book of the marvels of the world, p.32 (Edited by Michael R. Best and Frank H. Brightman, Oxford [Eng.] Clarendon Press, 1973).
Also Cotgrave's dictionary (1611) defines "Alectorie: . . a christall coloured stone (as big as a beane) found in the gyzerne, or maw of some cockes"
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