SERPENT 415 



Siol lomhair, Ivir, or Ivor is from "uidhir," odhar, odhaire, and 

 uidhre, dun-coloured one, thus the above means the progeny of 

 Odhar. The name " Maguire " is just Mac uidhre. 



A week before St Bridget's day, old style, 1st February, 

 serpents are obliged to leave their holes, at least so Mr A. 

 Carmichael has it : — 



" Moch maduinn Bhride Early on St Bride or Bridget's morn- 



Thig an nirahir as an toll, ing 



Cha bhoin mise ris an nimhir The serpent from its hole doth come, 



'S cha bhoin an nimhir rium." I will not touch the serpent 



And it will not me harm. 



Another version or rendering of the foregoing is : — 



" Latha Fheill Brighde brisgeanach. On rustling St Bridget's day 



Thig an ceann de'n chaiteanach, The catkin heads are falling, 



Thig nighean lomhair as an toll Ivor's daughter leaves her den 



Le fonn feadalaich." WhistUng so cheerfully. 



There are three kinds of serpents or adders in the island of Skye, 

 one spotted black and white is said to be the most venomous, and is 

 said to be from two to four feet in length, a second is spotted brown, 

 and the third brown. A belief existed there — as perhaps else- 

 where — that cutting up a black barndoor cock alive, and apply- 

 ing it at once to the part stung, was an infallible cure, extracting 

 the poison, the evidence of success being the turning black or a 

 very dark blue of the fowl's flesh. This cure was witnessed by the 

 late Rev. John Forbes of Sleat, Skye, who, however, in the cause 

 of humanity, insisted upon the fowl being killed before being cut 

 up. A cure was said to have been effected, though the limb 

 shrank to skin and bone, and remained so for the space of nearly 

 a year afterwards. The application of a poultice of bruised juniper 

 berries is also said to be a very good cure. When a serpent was 

 killed, the head, in some cases, was preserved for years to heal 

 other serpents' stings, being cast into water, and the wound of a 

 stung person or animal, etc., washed with it. The famous wizard, 

 Michael Scott, as is generally known, obtained his knowledge of 

 "good and evil " from tasting the sauce made by a certain woman 

 from, inter alia, the piece of a serpent Michael had killed somewhere 

 in the Grampians. It was said that a bed prepared for him in the 

 evil place was shown to one he had sent thither, which is almost 

 too horrid to be described, being strewn or filled promiscuously 

 with all the awful brutes imaginable, among which were toads and 

 lions, lizards and leeches, and, what was not the least conspicuous, 

 a large serpent, with its mouth wide open and gaping for Michael 

 himself. Serpents were so far associated with the infernal 

 regions as to give the old Irish name for hell as "nar-aike," a 

 serpent monster. An incident, very similar to that above related, 

 is told of Fearchar 'n Leigh, Farquhar the physician, to the effect 

 that it was by tasting the juice or brew of a boiled white snake or 

 serpent he got " to know everything." Farquhar was originally a 



