OF SERPENTS. 47 



The Laplanders had their Magical Tyre, which was a Ball 

 about the Bignefs of a fmall Apple, (made of Mofs, or Hair of 

 Beafts) which, they fiiy, is quickned and moved by a particular 

 Art J they perfuade themfelves^ that by this Tyre, they can fend 

 Serpents, or what they pleafe, into any Man, to torment him. 

 When this Ball is thrown, it goes like a Whirlwind, and as fwift 

 as a pointed Arrow *. 



In the Book o{ Da/n'el, mention is made of feveral kinds of 

 Magicians in Chaldea, under King Nebuchadnezzar ; one is Mecaf- 

 phim, a Word which by St, Jerome, and the Greeks is tranflated 

 Malejicij Encha?2ters, fuch People as make ufe of noxious Herbs 

 and Drugs, the Blood of Vi(ftims, and Bones of the Dead, for 

 their fuperftitious Operations -f*. 



" The Tyrants of Japonia invented a ftrange Punifl:iment for 



*^ thofe who confelled Chrift. They hung them with their 



*' Heads downwards, half their Bodies into a large Hole digged 

 " in the Earth, which they filled with Snakes, Lizards^ and other 

 *' poifonous Vermin j but even thofe (fays my Right Reverend 

 '^ Author, the learned and pious Bifliop Taylor) were betterCom-- 

 '' panions than thofe infernal Dragons in the Pit of Hell ||. " The 

 Komans, when they puniHi'd any iox Parricide, to exprefs their 

 Abhorrence of fo heinous a Murder, they fliut him up in a Sack, 

 with a Serpent, an Ape, and a Cock. 



To thefe Inftances, I fliall add, that the Attendants of P/^//i?, 

 Prince of the Infernal Regions, are reprefented in a Serpentine 

 Habit, viz. the Furies, Harpies 



I N his Train, are three Dirce, Eumenides^ov Furies, viz. AlcBo\ 

 Meg£ra, and Tvjipkone, whofe Heads are covered with long and 

 dreadful Snakes, inftead of Hair, wiih Whips, Chains, and flam- 

 ing Torches, in their Hands, to punifn the Guilty. Thefe 

 a^fo attended the Throne of Jo-vCy and were accounted to be Mef- 

 fengers of the Gods, v^^hofe Office it was to execute their Decrees 

 in the Infiidion of Calamities upon Mortals. 



These Furies had their Temples and Worfliippers, and were 

 defcribed in Figures of fo frightful a Form, that they durft fcarce 

 mention their Names without Horror. 



Tn 



* Schefents^s HiiT:o''y or Lapland-, cap. xi. p. 60. f Cahnet^s Hill, Cric.-^ 

 j!)i'5lionary. 1| Contempla icis^ Book ii. chap 6, . 



