REPTILES AND SXAKE-S TONES. 21 



The glass beads, in more recent times employed 

 as charms, were used as a substitute for the rare 

 "snake-stones," These "beads are not unfrequently 

 found in barrows,* or occasionally with skeletons 

 whose nation and age are not ascertained. Bishop 

 Gibson engraved three : one of earth enamelled 

 with blue, found near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire ; 

 a second of green glass, found at Aberfraw; and a 

 third, found near Maes y Pandy, Merionthshire;"t 

 Some have affirmed that in Cornwall, where they 

 retain a respect for such amulets, they have a charm 

 for the snake to make the "milprev," as it is termed, 

 when they have found one asleep, and stuck a hazel 

 wand in the centre of her spiral. " The country 

 people," says Dr. Borlase, "have a persuasion that the 

 snakes here breathing upon a hazel wand produce a 

 stone ring of blue colour, in which there appears the 

 yellow figure of a snake, and that beasts bit and en- 

 venomed, being given some water to drink wherein 

 this stone has been infused, will perfectly recover of 

 the poison." 



We will leave Pliny alonej with his ovum an- 

 guinum, and the various other authors who have 

 referred to these amulets, and proceed to matters of 

 fact rather than of poetry and romance, concluding 

 this chapter with a copy of the figures of " snake- 



♦Stukeley's "Abury," p. 44. 



t Brande's " Popular Antiquities," iii., p. 37L 



| Nat. Hist., lib. xxix., c. 12. 



