368 LEAVES FROM THE 



warm, and being very weary, he pulled off his clothes, 

 and fell into such a deep sleep that he did not feel the 

 serjDonts about him till they had wrought his cure. 



Such instances of good-will towards man, combined 

 with the periodical renovation of youthful appearance, 

 by a change of the whole external skin, and the charac- 

 ter of the serpent for wisdom, contributed, doubtless, to 

 raise the form to a place among the deities. ,j^ 



We may not forget that Genii were sometimes payuted by the 

 Paynims in the forme and shape of man, having a home, betoken- 

 ing plentie or aboundance in their hand : as is yet to be seene in 

 many ohle and auncient stampes or coynes ; and sometimes in the 

 forme of serpents : which may well serve to understand that verse 

 of Persins, — 



Pinge duos angues, pueri, sacer est locus, &c. 



And this did not Servius forget, speaking of that serpent which 

 ^neas (in his anniversaries, or yearljf sacrifices, celebrated to the 

 name of his father Anchises) did see to creepe upon his tombe : 

 touching the which (as Virgill saith) jEneas was imcertaine, whether 

 it were the Genius of his father or of the place. And this may 

 also helpe to the interpretation of another place in Theocritus, in 

 his booke of Characters (which I have also corrected from the 

 vulgar and common reading), where he saith, that a sujjerstitious 

 person, seeing by chaunce a serpent in his house, did consecrate 

 unto it a little chappell in the same place. But my meaning is 

 not here to speake of serpents, which (as Plutarch saith) were con- 

 secrated unto noble and heroicall persons, and which after their 

 deaths, did appeare neere to their corpses : for this is not any part 

 of our matter ; albeit a man may very well fit, unto the Genii, that 

 same which he hath delivered touching this point.* 



Fond of milk and wine, these genii, like the luhricus 

 anguis of Virgil's fifth book, tasted the libations and were 

 regarded as sacred. Their aptitude for tameness was 

 another quality which aided their elevation. The little 

 girl mentioned by Maria Edgeworth, of blessed memory, 



* A Treatise of Spectres or Straunge Sights, Visions, and Appa- 

 ritions appearing sensibly unto Men. At London. Printed by 

 Yal. S. for Matthew Lownes. 1605. 



