OF SERPENTS. 



The Laplanders had their Magical Tyre, wliich was a Bull 

 about the Bignefs of a fmall Apple, (made of Mofs, or Hair of 

 Beafts) which, they fay, is quickned and moved by a particular 

 Art ; they perfuade themfelves, that by this Tyre, they can fend 

 Serpents, or what they pleafe, into any Man, to torment hirn. 

 When this Ball is thrown, it goes hke a Vv'hirlwind, and as fwifc 

 as a pointed Arrow "*'. 



I N the Book of Daniel, mention is made of feveral kinds of 

 Magicians in Chaldea, under King Nebuchadnezzar ; one is Me- 

 cafphim, a word which by St. Jerome, and the Greeks is tranllated 

 Malefici, Enchanters, fuch People as make ufe of noxious Herbs 

 and Drugs, the Blood of Vidims, and Bones of the Dead, for 

 their fuperftitious Operations 'f, 



" The Tyrants of ya/ow/rt invented a flrange Punifliment for 



" thofe who confeiTed Chrift. They hung them with their 



"■ Heads downwards, half their Bodiesinto a large Hole digged in 

 " the Earth, which they filled with Snakes, Lizards, and other 

 *' poifonous Vermin; but even thofe (fiys my Right Reverend 

 " Author, the learned and pious Bifhop Taylor) v/ere better Com- 

 " panions than thofe infernal Dragons in the Pit of Hell |[." The 

 Romans, when they puniili'd any for Parricide, to exprefs their 

 Abhorrence of fo heinous a Murder, they lliut him up in a Sack, 

 with a Serpent, an Ape, and a Cock. 



T o thefe Inftances, I fhall add, that the Attendants of PlutOy 

 Prince of the Infernal Regions, are reprefented in a Serpentine 

 Habit, viz. the Furies, . Harpies ■ 



I N his Train, are three Dircs, Riimejiides, or Furies, viz. A- 

 leSio, Megara, and Tyfiphone, whofe Heads are covered with long 

 and dreadful Snakes, inftead of Hair, with Whips, Chains, and 

 flaming Torches, in their Hands, to punifh the Guilty. Thefe 

 alfo attended the Throne of Jove, and were accounted to be Mef- 

 fengers of the Gods, whofe Office it was to execute their Decrees 

 in the Inflidtion of Calamities upon Mortals. 



These Furies had their Temples and Worrtiippers, and were 

 defcribed in Figures of fo frightful a Form, that they durfl: fcarce 

 mention their Names without Horror. 



TT- 



* Schefferm'i Hiftory of Lapland, cap. xi. p. 60. f Calmet's Hift, Crit.— 



Didionary. || ConUmplations, Book ii. chap. 6. 



