(Edinburgh, 1866), i. 75 sqq.; J.G.  Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 84-88; Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), pp. 170 sq.; J.C.  Davies, Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.  Compare W.W.  Skeat, “Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts,” Folk-lore, xxiii. (1912) pp. 45 sqq. The superstition is described as follows by Edward Lhwyd in a letter quoted by W. Borlase (op. cit. p. 142):  “In most parts of Wales, and 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 (as some old women and children are persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings.  The rings thus generated, are called Gleineu Nadroeth; in English, Snake-stones.  They are small glass amulets, 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.”

[41] Pliny, Naturalis Historia xxiv. 12 and 68, xxv. 171.

[42] Marcellus, De medicamentis, ed.  G. Helmreich (Leipsic, 1889), preface, p. i.:  “Nec solum veteres medicinae artis auctores Latino dumtaxat sermone perscriptos ... lectione scrutatus sum, sed etiam ab agrestibus et plebeis remedia fortuita atque simplicia, quae experimentis probaverant didici.”  As to Marcellus and his work, see Jacob Grimm, “Ueber Marcellus Burdigalensis,” Abhandlungen der koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaft zu Berlin, 1847, pp. 429-460; id., “Ueber die Marcellischen Formeln,” ibid.. 1855, pp. 50-68.

[43] Marcellus, De medicamentis, i. 68.

[44] Marcellus, op. cit. i. 76.

[45] Marcellus, op. cit. xxviii. 28 and 71, xxix. 35.

[46] Marcellus, op. cit. xxix. 51.

[47] Edward Westermarck, “Midsummer Customs in Morocco,” Folklore, xvi. (1905) pp. 32 sq.; id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 75 sq.

[48] E. Westermarck, “Midsummer Customs in Morocco,” Folk-lore, xvi. (1905) p. 35 id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 88 sq.

[49] Matthaeus Praetorius, Deliciae Prussicae, herausgegeben von Dr. W. Pierson (Berlin, 1871), p. 54.

[50] H.H.  Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisees du Mexique et de l’Amerique Centrale (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 29.