Chap. 12.] SEKPENTS' EGGS. 389 



in high renown by the people of the Gallic provinces, but 

 totally omitted by the Greek writers. In summer^'-^ time, num- 

 berless snakes become artificially entwined together, and form 

 rings around their bodies with the viscous slime which exudes 

 from their mouths, and with the foam secreted by them : the 

 name given to this substance is ** anguinum."^^ The Druids 

 tell us, that the serpents eject these eggs into the air by their 

 hissing,^ and that a person must be ready to catch them in a 

 cloak, so as not to let them touch the ground ; they say also that he 

 must instantly take to flight on horseback, as the serpents will 

 be sure to pursue him, until some intervening river has placed 

 a barrier between them. The test of its genuineness, they say, 

 is its floating against the current of a stream, even though it 

 be set in gold. But, as it is the way with magicians to be 

 dexterous and cunning in casting a veil about their frauds, they 

 pretend that these eggs can only be taken on a certain day of 

 the moon; as though, forsooth, it depended entirely upon the 

 human will to make the moon and the serpents accord as to 

 the moment of this operation. 



I myself, however, have seen one of these eggs : it was 

 round, and about as large as an apple of moderate size ; the 

 shell®* of it was formed of a cartilaginous substance, and it was 

 surrounded with numerous cupules, as it were, resembling 

 those upon the arms of the polypus : it is held in high estimation 



the name of Glain naidr, or " the Adder gem." Mr. Luyd (in Rowland's 

 jVIona Antiqua, p. 342) says that tlie genuine Ovum anfftdnum can be no 

 other than a shell of the kind called echinus marinus, and that Dr. Borlase 

 observes that, instead of the natural anguinum, artificial rings of stone, 

 glass, and sometimes baked clay, were substituted as of equal validity. 

 The belief in these charms very recently existed in Cornwall and Wales, if 

 indeed it does not at the present day. The subject is very fully discussed in 

 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 286, et seq., and p. 369, et seq., 

 £ohn's Edition. These gems and beads are not uncommonly found in tumuli 

 of the early British period. 



'*"- A similar belief in its origin was prevalent in Cornwall and "Wales, 

 and whoever found it was supposed to ensure success in all bis undertakings. 



^3 " The snake's eg^'' — ovum being understood. 



»* " The vulgar opinion in Cornwall and most parts of "Wales is that these 

 are produced through all Cornwall by snakes joining their heads together 

 and hissing, which forms a kind of bubble like a ring about the head of 

 one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it comes ott 

 at the tail, when it immediately hardens and resembles a glass ring." — 

 Govgh's Camden,\ol. II. p. 571, Ed. 1789. 



"* The shell of a sea urchin most probably. See Note 81 above. 



