20 OUR REPTILES. 



The glass beads, in more recent times em- 

 ployed as charms, were used as a substitute 

 for the rare ' snake-stones/ These " beads are 

 not unfrequently found in barrows,* or occa- 

 sionally 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, Merionethshire. "f 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 envenomed, 

 being given some water to drink wherein this 

 stone has been infused, will perfectly recover of 

 the poison." 



We will leave Pliny alone J with his ovum 

 anguinum, and the various other authors who have 



* Stukeley's " Abury," p. 44. 



t Brande's " Popular Antiquities," iil p. 371. 



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



