32: VIPER. Class III. 



But tell me yet 

 From the grot of chaxms and fpells. 

 Where our matron filter dwells, 

 Brenniis, has thy holy hand 

 Safely brought the Druid wand, 

 And the potent Adder-Jlo7ie, 

 Gender'd 'fore the autumnal moon ? 

 When in undulating twine. 

 The foaming fnakes prolific join ; 

 When they hifs, and when they bear 

 Their wond"rous ^gg aloof in air ; 

 Thence before to earth it fall. 

 The Druid in his hallow'd pall, 

 - Receives the prize. 

 And indant flies, 



Foilow'd by the envenom'd brood, 

 ^Till he crofs the cryftal flood *. 



This wondrous egg feems to be nothing more 

 than a bead of glals, ufed by the Druids as a 

 charm to impofe On the vulgar, whoai they taught 

 to believe, that the pofTeilbr would be fortunate 

 in all his attempts, and that it would gain him 

 the favor of the great. 



Our modern Druidejfes give much the fame ac- 

 count of the ovum anguinum, Glain Neidr, as the 

 I'Felcb call it, or the Adder-Gem^ as the Roman 

 philofopher does, but feem not to have fo exalt- 

 ed an opinion of its powers, ufing it only to aflift 

 children in cutting their teeth, or to cure the chin- 

 cough, or to drive away an ague. 



• Mq/on^i Cara^acus, The perfon fpeaking is a Druid. 



Wc 



