COMMON SMOOTH NEWT OR EFT. 159 



forth to drink, and of course you take care that 

 they do not get back again. The dry ask, in 

 addition to this bad character, is also supposed 

 to be endowed with the power of the f evil eye J 

 children and cows exposed to its gaze wasting 

 away. The Rev. J. Graves states that in Kil- 

 kenny it is looked on as ' a devil's beast/ and, 

 as such, burnt. But to compensate in some 

 measure for its evil qualities, the dry ask. is said 

 in Dublin to bear in it a charm. Any one desirous 

 of the power of curing scalds or burns, has only 

 to apply the tongue along the dry ask's belly to 

 obtain the power of curing these ailments by a 

 touch of that organ. In the Queen's County it 

 is also used to cure disease, but in a different 

 way ; being put into an iron pot under the 

 patient's bed, it is said to effect a certain cure, 

 though of what disease I am not quite clear." * 



Lord Clermont's excellent description of this 

 reptile may usefully close this chapter : 



The whole of the skin is quite smooth, without 

 any tubercles ; on the top of the head are two rows 

 of pores; occasionally there are a few distinct 

 pores on the sides, forming an indistinct lateral 

 line ; the collar beneath the throat very incon- 

 spicuous; the male in the breeding season fur- 

 nished with a crest, which runs continuously 



* The Zoologist, p. 4355. 



