THE ANGUINUM, OR SERPENT-EGG OF THE DRUIDS. A SERPENT was always an important symbol in the ancient mysteries; a living one we have seen, in a former volume, was thrown into the bosom of the candidate for initiation in those of Mithras; it was esteemed an emblem of immortality, from the great age it sometimes arrives at, and of regenera tion, from the annual shedding of its skin. In the mysterious rites of Druidism it was a symbol not less in request; the aguinum was a charm of wonderful power, and constantly carried, suspended from the neck, on the bosom of the Druid. Pliny has thus described its formation. Angues innumeri astate convoluti, salivis faucium corporumque spumis artifici complexu glomerantur; anguinum appellatur. Druida sibilis id dicunt in sublime jactari, sagogue oportere intercipi, ne tellurem attingat: profugere raptorem equo : serpentes enim insequi, donec arceantur amnis alicujus interventu. An infinite number of snakes entwined together, in the heat of VOL. VI. Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. xxix. cap. 3. M summer, summer, roll themselves into a mass; and, from the saliva issuing from their jaws, and the sweat and froth of their bodies, that egg is engendered which is called anguinum. By the violent hissing of these serpents, the egg is forced aloft into the air, and the person destined to secure it must catch it in the sagus, or holy vestment, before it reaches the ground, or otherwise its virtue is lost. It is necessary that he should be mounted on a swift horse, for the serpents will pursue the ravisher, with envenomed rage, to the brink of the first river, whose waters alone stop their pursuit. He adds, that this ceremony of gaining the anguinum is only to be undertaken at a particular period of the moon; that this egg was thought to render the possessor fortunate in every cause which he undertook, and triumphant over all his adversaries; and, of his own knowledge, he asserts, that a Roman knight, who was agitating a suit at law, and addicted to Druidism, was put to death by Claudius Cæsar for entering the forum with the anguinum in his bosom, under the persuasion that it would influence the judges to give a deci sion in his favour. Toland informs us, that the ovum angui num num is, in British, called glain-neidr, or serpent of glass; and, in truth, the whole relation above inserted was no more than a fabricated tale of the Druids to impose on the vulgar. Their boast, by this charm, to controul the current of destiny, added to their pretended skill in magic, served to bind down, in the indissoluble bonds of superstition, their abject British vassals, not less than the horrible incantations, with consecrated grass, of the Brahmins, tended to overawe and oppress the more timid race of India. Mr. Camden gives the following account of the remains of this superstition in Britain. "In most parts of Wales, throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common opinion of the vulgar, that, about midsummer-eve, (though 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, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on, till it passes quite through the body, and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, which whoever finds (aş some old women and chil dren are persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus generated are called Gleineu Nadroeth; in English, snakestones. They are small glass annulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though sometimes blue and waved with red and white."* To these serpent-stones, formed in imitation of the imagined anguinum, as numerous and wonderful virtues were attributed as to the famous cobra-stone of the Brahmins, an ancient article of commerce at Surat. Mr. Toland, in addition, informs us, that they were worn about the Druid, as a species of magical gem; that they were in fashion either perfectly spherical, or in the figure of a lentil, and were generally made of chrystal and agate.+ I cannot conclude this article without observing, that Mr. Mason, in his Caractacus, alluding to this rite of Druidism, has very poetically and accurately detailed the preceding relation of Pliny: * Camden's Britannia, p. 815. + See Toland's History of the Druids, vol. i p. 60: But But tell me yet, From the grot of charms and spells, The foaming snakes prolific join; And instant flies, Follow'd by th'envenom'd brood, LUSTRATIONS OF THE INDIANS AND OLD BRITONS. THERE were many other evident relics dispersed over all the Gentile world of the religion and sacred rites of the Brahmins; nor is the Christian world, at this day, entirely free from them, especially that portion of it in which the Roman Catholic religion flourishes. At the entrance of all the Eastern temples were placed vessels filled with consecrated water, with which the votaries at their entrance besprinkled themselves; and this custom |