no balm can cure, but his heart-blood
Which breath'd this poison."

In Cornwall it is still believed that the dead body of a serpent,
bruised on the wound it has occasioned, is an infallible remedy for its
bite.[576] Hence has originated the following rhyme:

"The beauteous adder hath a sting,
Yet bears a balsam too."

[576] See Hunt's "Popular Romances of the West of England,"
1871, p. 415; and Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 270.

The old notion that the snake, in casting off its slough, or skin,
annually, is supposed to regain new vigor and fresh youth, is alluded to
by King Henry ("Henry V.," iv. 1), who speaks of "casted slough and
fresh legerity"--legerity meaning lightness, nimbleness. In "Twelfth
Night" (ii. 5), in the letter which Malvolio finds, there is this
passage: "to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble
slough and appear fresh." One of the most useful miracles which St.
Patrick is reported to have performed was his driving the venomous
reptiles out of Ireland, and forbidding them to return. This tradition
is probably alluded to by King Richard ("Richard II.," ii. 1):

"Now for our Irish wars:
We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns,
Which live like venom, where no venom else,
But only they, hath privilege to live."

The way, we are told, by which the saint performed this astounding feat
of his supernatural power was by means of a drum. Even spiders, too,
runs the legend, were included in this summary process of
excommunicating the serpent race. One of the customs, therefore,
observed on St. Patrick's day, is visiting Croagh Patrick. This sacred
hill is situated in the county of Mayo, and is said to have been the
spot chosen by St. Patrick for banishing the serpents and other noxious
animals into the sea.

In "Julius Caesar" (ii. 1), where Brutus says,

"It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking."

we may compare the popular adage,

"March wind
Wakes the ether (_i. e._, adder) and blooms the whin."[577]

[577] Denham's "Weather Proverbs," 1842.

_Spider._ This little creature, which, in daily life, is seldom noticed
except for its cobweb, the presence of which in a house generally
betokens neglect, has, however, an interesting history, being the
subject of many a curious legend and quaint superstition. Thus, it has
not escaped the all-perva