94 WELSH POOL TO OSWESTRY* 



thofe druidical rings called Gleiniau Nadroedd^ 

 Snake* s Beads *. About fifteen years after this firfl 

 difcovery, other miners found human bones, and ia 

 one inftance a bone of the arm clafped by a golden 

 bracelet. Several Roman coins of Antoninus, Fauf- 

 tina, and others, have alfo been difcovered in this 

 cavern. 



The hill, befides copper, affords zinc, lead, cala- 

 mine, and fo much lime, as to fupply the whole 

 county of Montgomer}', and great part of Shrop- 

 ihire. In the fummer of 1795, upwards of eight 



* Thefc were glafs rings, ufually about half as wide as our 

 finger rings, and generally of a grecuifli colour. They were in- 

 vented and ufed by ihe druids as amulets, or charms. The popular 

 opinion rcfpcdling them in Cornwall and fome parts of Wales 

 is, that they are not glafs. They are believed to be produced 

 at a certain time of the year by a number of fnake.s joining their 

 heads together and hiffing : the people fay that a kind of bubble 

 of a flimy fubftance is formed upon the head of one of them, 

 which the red, by continued hiifirig, blow on till it pafies quite 

 over the body and ofF at the tail, when it immediately hardens. 

 — Another opinion prevalent in Wales is, that at that time of 

 the year when the fnakes ufually cafl their fkins, a number of 

 them collect together, and fo entwine thcmfelves round one, that 

 from the rapidity of their motions, they heat and foften its fcale« 

 and flcin, which being thruft from its head off at the tail, foon 

 after hardens into a folid ring. When this office has been per- 

 formed to one, another undergoes the fame, till they have all 

 gone through the operation. Some of the hihabitants aflcrtthat 

 they have feen them at work : they fay that at thofe times their 

 eyes appear fiery, and glitten in an extraordinary manner ; and 

 that they are fo fierce as immediately to fpring at any one who is 

 unlucky enough to diflurb them. 



thoufand 



