Viper, 21 
Blind worm, 
26. 
Glain Neidr, 
cP ae 
APPENDIX. 34° 
Keyfler, vol. Tih 2 37, relates, that Sir 
Kenelm Dighy whed to feed his wife, 
who was a moft beautiful woman, 
with capons fattened with the flefh of 
vipers. 
The traveller does not quote his 
authority ; but the lady did not long 
furvive this ftrange regimen. 
In Sueden is a fmall reddifh ferpent, 
called there the /ping, the Coluder 
Cherfea, of Linneus: it is{mall, and 
of a reddith color, and its bite is faid 
to be mortal. ace 
May it not have been from a fer- 
pent of this fpecies, that the man in 
Oxfordfbire received his death ? 
This reminds me of another Welch 
word that is explanatory of the cuf 
toms of the antients, fhewing their 
intent in the ufe of the plant Vervaine 
in their luftrations; and why it was 
called by Diofcorides Hierobotane, or 
the facred plant, and efteemed proper 
to be hung up in their rooms. 
The Briti/h name Cas gan Cythrawl, 
or the Devil’s averfion, may be a mo- 
dern appellation, but is likewife called 
Y Dderwen fendigaid, the holy oak, 
which evidently refers to the Druids 
groves, | 
) Pliny 
