EEPTILES AND SNAKE-STONES. 19 



throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we 

 find it a common opinion of the vulgar that 

 about Midsummer-eve (though in the time they 

 do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in 

 companies, and that by joining heads together 

 and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed, which 

 the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it 

 passes quite through the body, and then it im- 

 mediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, 

 which whoever finds shall prosper in all his 

 undertakings. The rings thus generated are 

 called Gleinau Nadroeth; in English, snake- 

 stones.-" In winter the viper may often be found 

 in its hybernaculum^ several individuals together, 

 intertwined and in an almost torpid state. From 

 this circumstance probably some of the notions 

 connected with the stones alluded to may have 

 been derived. Mason, in his " Caractacus," puts 

 into the mouth of a Druid the following pas- 



The potent adder-stone 

 Gender'd 'fore th' autumnal moon : 

 When in undulating twine 

 The foaming snakes prolific join ; 

 When they hiss, and when they bear 

 Their wondrous egg aloof in air ; 

 Thence, before to earth it fall, 

 The Druid, in his hallow'd pall, 

 Eeceives the prize, 

 And instant flies, 

 Follow'd by th' envenom'd brood 

 Till he cross the crystal flood. 

 c 2 



