A great number of these crystals are still to be seen in the highlands of Scotland ; they are there known by the name of Clach-naithir, the adder-stone, or Clain nan Druidh, the Druid-glass ; and to this talisman the na tives ascribe every power, short of raising the dead. To its efficacy, they have recourse in any alarming cases of distemper, either among men or cattle ; and it is no uncommon thing to send, on such occasions, to a distance of forty or fifty miles, for one of these glass physicians. Munro, in his account of the Western Isles, 1703, in forms us, that " the M'Intoshes of the isle of Arran, care fully keep a green stone of a globular shape, as big as a goose's egg, the virtue of which is to remove stitches, and to swear upon." That similar ideas prevail in Ire land, is mentioned in the History of Waterford, p. 107, as quoted by Dr Borlase, p. 185, where we find that a solid globe of glass, or crystal, has been kept, from time immemorial, in the family of Tyrone, which is said to cure the murrain in cattle.
Probably of the same nature, and used for similar purposes, is the ANoutum LAPIS, adder-stone; a name given to a supposed stone in Germany, which is of a cylindric figure, has a cavity capable of admitting a finger, and is of a yellow colour, with a great many va rieties. The vulgar call it duchaneck, and have an idle opinion of its having its origin, in some manner, from a serpent-ant. De Boot, who had seen many of them, declares them to be fictitious, and made of glass, tinged with two or three colours.
From what has been stated, we see that the supersti tious notions of medical virtues, ascribed to certain glass beads or amulets, in the present day, are no other than those which have ever accompanied the serpent's egg of the Druids, which has more or less preserved its an cient reputation in this country, for a space of one thou sand seven hundred years ; but as that period reaches no higher than the time of the elder Pliny, and as it is probable, that Druidism, with the Ovum Anguinum, may have come into Europe from Persia or Phoenicia, many centuries before the Christian sera : it may, there fore, be interesting to endeavour farther to trace, to still more remote periods of antiquity, this implement of superstition, and the mythological doctrine it may have been originally intended to convey, by comparing it with similar emblems, and with the religious doctrines of these and other ancient nations ; from which may result an illustration of some remarkable traditions, and insti tutions of Pagan antiquity, which have not hitherto been compared with each other, or sufficiently explained. And as, from the above account of the Ovum Angui: num, the serpent does not appear to have been actually worshipped, or reverenced by the Druids ; before we can insist that any worship, which the ancients paid to the serpent, had been adopted by the Druids, we shall mention the following instances, either little known or attended to, to show that the serpent was connected with their mythology.
In the druidical temple of Abury, in Wiltshire, de scribed by Stukeley and others, the circle of large stones ' which forms its circumference, is terminated by the figure of a serpent of immense size. And again, we are assured by M. D'Hancarville (Recherches sur l'esprit, et le progres des arts de la Grece, vol. i. p. 460,) that he saw at Cadiz, in the cabinet of the marquis Tirry, two antique serpents of bronze, acknowledged to have been of the• xra of the Celts in Spain, one of which was entire ; the other, whose scales had been of blue ena mel, had lost its head and tail. The latter appeared to
him to have been of a still larger size than the former, which was three feet (French measure) in length ; they had been dug up at a short distance from Faro, in the kingdom of Algarvez. He further relates, that M. Car bonel, professor of the academy of marines at Cadiz, shewed him drawings of some serpents, still larger than the foregoing, but that they were of stone. They had been found, toper with some vases of bronze, and inscriptions in •eltiberian characters, in ruins, which were judged to be those of an ancient town, which they were endeavouring to•explore in the year 1755.
We shall now proceed to state the traditions of diffe rent Asiatic nations, on the subject of the egg and ser pent, all of which appear to have had one common ori gin, intending to convey.an idea of the creation of the world, of which an egg was the emblem, and of some important agency effected upon it by the serpent. We learn froth Porphyry and others, that, from a remote antiquity, the formation of the world was represented by the figure of a serpent, with an egg coming out of its mouth, and that this egg war the world itself. The reverses of the Asiatic medals and coins, generally have a reference to the religion of the places where they are struck ; and on that of a medal of ancient Tyre, is to be seen an egg, with a serpent folding its body round it, supposed to represent the incubation of the mundane egg by the serpent. We are expressly told by Philo Byblius, the translator of the Phoenician Sanchoniathon,' that the serpent was called by the Phoenicians, the Agathu Demon, or good genius; and he adds, that he was the same with the Egyptian Cneph, whom the in habitants of the country ol Thebais, according to Plu tarch, acknowledged as the unbegotten and immortal God ; and they refused to contribute any thing towards pourtraying the animals reverenced by the rest ol Egypt. We find, however, notwithstanding this opinion and authority of Philo, the mundane egg to have been most commonly represented by the ancients, in conjunction with the Egyptian Typhon, consideied as the same with the Pluto of the Greeks, and the evil demon, or devil, of the Egyptians, of which the hieroglyphic was a ser pent having an egg in its mouth, or the egg and ser pent round it, as on the Tyrian medal ; and it may be here remarked, that either of these hieroglyphics, or figures, will equally well represent a serpent attempting to destroy the egg; which, from what follows, will ac tually appear to have been the original Meaning of the symbols. • The mundane egg we also find to have been employ ed as the symbol of the creation of the world, by the Bramins of India, the Japanese, and other nations. The great Bramin poet, Vyasa, the author of Mahabharata, the second famous poem of the Hindus, has the follow ing passage in the Brahmanda, the egg of Brahma, or mundane egg ; the account is given from no less autho rity than that of Menu, the son of Brahma, who deli vered it in the following terms, to the sages who came to consult him on the formation of the world. " A golden egg was produced, blazing with a thousand suns, in which was born Brahma. He having dwelt in the egg, through revolving years, himself meditating on himself, divided it into two equal parts, and from these halves formed the heavens and the earth." And the breaking of this egg is ascribed to Illahadeva, or the destroyer. Kxmpfer informs us also, that in the temple of Daiboth, at Meaco, in Japan, there is the represen tation of the mundane egg, opened by the sacred Steer, .upon which the world issues forth.