SUPERSTITIONS. 
269 
To return to the superstitions of the Ashantees : when they 
drink, they spill a little of the Kquor on the ground as an oftering 
very curious bead has two circular lines of opaque sky blue and white, which seem to 
represent a serpent entwined round a centre, which is perforated. This was certainly 
one of the Glain Neidyr of the Britons, derived from glain, which is pure and holy, and 
neidyr a snake. Under the word glain, Mr. Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, has given 
the following article : " The Glain neidyr, transparent stones, or adder stones, were 
worn by the different orders of the bards, each having its appropriate color. There is 
no certainty that they were worn from superstition originally ; perhaps that was the 
circumstance which gave rise to it. Whatever might have been the cause, the notion of 
their rare virtues zvas universal in all places where the Bardic religion was taught. It 
may still be questioned whether they are the production of nature or art." The beads 
which are the present object of my attention, are thus noticed by Bishop Gibson in his 
improved edition of Camden's Britannia. " In most parts of Wales, and throughout all 
Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Mid- 
summer eve (although in the time they do not all agree,) it is usual for snakes to meet 
in companies ; and that by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is 
formed like a ring, about the head of one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing 
blow on till it comes off at the tail ; and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a 
glass ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are persuaded) shall 
prosper in all their undertakings. The rings which they suppose to be thus generated 
are called Gleinu Nadroedh, i. e. Gemmae Anguinum, whereof I have seen at several 
places about twenty or thirty. They are small glass annulets, commonly about half as 
wide as our finger rings, but much thicker; of a green color, usually, though some of 
them are blue, and others curiously waved with blue, red, and white. I have also seen 
two or three earthen rings of this kind, but glazed with- blue, and adorned with trans- 
verse streaks in furrows on the outside. There seems to be some connection between the 
Glein Neidyr of the Britons, and the Ovum Anguinum mentioned by Pliny,* as being 
held in veneration by the Druids of Gaul, and to the formation of which he gives nearly 
the same origin. They were probably worn as an insigne, or mark of distinction, and 
* Preeterea est ovorum genus in magna Galliarum fama, omissum Graecis. Angues 
innumeri aestate convoluti, salivis faucium, corporumque spumis artifici complexu glome- 
rantur, anguinum appellantur. Druidge slbilis id dicunt in sublime jactari, sagoque 
oportere intercipi ne tellurem attingat, Profugere raptorem equo. Serpentes enim 
insequi donee areeant amnis alicujus interventu. Experimentum ejus esse si contra aquas 
fluitet vel auro cinctum Insigne Druidis. Ad victorias litium ac regum aditus maxima 
laudat. Plinii Hist. Natural. L. 29. c. 3. 
