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Article MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. ← Page 3 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Notes And Queries.
the same deity . "Te are they that forgot my holy mountain ( says Isaiah ) , that prepare a table for Gad , and furnish the drink offering unto Meni . " According to Jerom and several others , God signifies fortune , or good fortune , and iu this sense is used in the 11 th verse of the 30 th Chapter of Genesis . Those passages in Jeremiah , where the prophet marks the superstition of the Jews in
making calces for the queen of heaven , are very similar to this of Isaiah . At this very day we discover vestiges of the festival of the sun on the eve of All-Souls . As , at this festival , the Pagans " are the sacrifices of the dead " —so our villages , on the eve of All-Souls , burn nuts and ¦ shells to fortune , and pour out libations of ale to Meni . The Druids , who were the Magi of the Britons , had an
infinite number of rites in common with tbe Persians . One of the chief functions of the Eastern Magi was divination ; and Pomponius Mela tells us , that our Druids possessed the same art . There was a solemn rite of ¦ divination among the Druids from the fall of the victim and convulsion of his limbs , or the nature and position ¦ of his entrails . But the British priests had various kinds of divination . By the number of criminal causes , and by
the increase or diminution of their own order , they predicted fertility or scarceness . Prom the neighing or prancing of white horses , harnessed to a consecrated chariot—from the turnings or windings of a hare let loose from the bosom of the diviner ( with a variety of other ominous appearance or exhibitions ) , they pretended to determine the events of futurity . * Of all creatures ,
however , the serpent exercised in the most curious manner the invention of the Druids . To the famous Anguinum they attributed high virtues . The Anguinum , or serpent's egg , was a congeries of small snakes rolled together , and incrusted with a shell , formed by the saliva or viscous gum or froth of the mother serpent . This egg , it seems , was tossed into the air by the hissings of
its aam , and before it fell again to the earth ( where it would be defiled ) , it was to be received in the sagus or sacred vestment . The person who caught the egg was to make his escape on horseback , since the serpent persues the ravisher of its young , even to the brink of the next river . Pliny , f from whom this account is taken , proceeds with an enumeration of other absurdities ? relating to the Anguinum . This Anguinum is in British called Glain-neider , or the serpent of glass ; and the same sunerstitious reverence which the Dammonii
universally paid to the Anguinum , is still discoverable in . some parts of Cornwall . Mr . LlhuydJ informs us , that " the Cornish retain variety of charms , and have still , towards the Land's-end , the amulets of Maen-Magal and Glain-neider , which latter they call a Melpvev , and have a charm for the snake to make it , when they have found one asleep , and stuck a hazel wand in the centre of her
spii'SB . " Camden tells us , that " in most parts of Wales , and throughout all Scotland and Cornwall , it is an opinion of the vulgar , that about Midsummer-eve ( though in the time they do not all agree ) , the snakes 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 quite through the bodwhen it
passes y , immediately hardens , and resembles a glass ring , which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings . The rings thus generated are called Gleinu-nadroeth , or 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 . " Carew says , " that the country people in Cornwall have a persuasion that tbe snakes breathing upon a hazel wand produce a stone ring of blue colour , in which there appears the yellow figure of a snake , and that beasts bit and envenomed , being given some water to drink wherein this stone has been infused , will perfectly recover of the poison . " §
From the animal the Druids passed to the vegetable world ; and there also displayed their powers , whilst by the charms of the misletoe , tbe selago , and the samolus , they prevented or repelled disease , and every species of misfortune . They made all nature , indeed , subservient to their magical art , and rendered even the rivers and the rocks hetic . Prom the undulation or bubbling
prop of water stirred by an oak branch , or magic wand , _ they foretold events that were to come . This superstition of the Druids is even now retained in the western counties . To this day the Cornish have been accustomed to consult their famous well at Madern , or rather the spirit of the well , respecting their future destiny . " Hither , " says Borlase , " come the uneasy , impatient , and superstitious ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Notes And Queries.
the same deity . "Te are they that forgot my holy mountain ( says Isaiah ) , that prepare a table for Gad , and furnish the drink offering unto Meni . " According to Jerom and several others , God signifies fortune , or good fortune , and iu this sense is used in the 11 th verse of the 30 th Chapter of Genesis . Those passages in Jeremiah , where the prophet marks the superstition of the Jews in
making calces for the queen of heaven , are very similar to this of Isaiah . At this very day we discover vestiges of the festival of the sun on the eve of All-Souls . As , at this festival , the Pagans " are the sacrifices of the dead " —so our villages , on the eve of All-Souls , burn nuts and ¦ shells to fortune , and pour out libations of ale to Meni . The Druids , who were the Magi of the Britons , had an
infinite number of rites in common with tbe Persians . One of the chief functions of the Eastern Magi was divination ; and Pomponius Mela tells us , that our Druids possessed the same art . There was a solemn rite of ¦ divination among the Druids from the fall of the victim and convulsion of his limbs , or the nature and position ¦ of his entrails . But the British priests had various kinds of divination . By the number of criminal causes , and by
the increase or diminution of their own order , they predicted fertility or scarceness . Prom the neighing or prancing of white horses , harnessed to a consecrated chariot—from the turnings or windings of a hare let loose from the bosom of the diviner ( with a variety of other ominous appearance or exhibitions ) , they pretended to determine the events of futurity . * Of all creatures ,
however , the serpent exercised in the most curious manner the invention of the Druids . To the famous Anguinum they attributed high virtues . The Anguinum , or serpent's egg , was a congeries of small snakes rolled together , and incrusted with a shell , formed by the saliva or viscous gum or froth of the mother serpent . This egg , it seems , was tossed into the air by the hissings of
its aam , and before it fell again to the earth ( where it would be defiled ) , it was to be received in the sagus or sacred vestment . The person who caught the egg was to make his escape on horseback , since the serpent persues the ravisher of its young , even to the brink of the next river . Pliny , f from whom this account is taken , proceeds with an enumeration of other absurdities ? relating to the Anguinum . This Anguinum is in British called Glain-neider , or the serpent of glass ; and the same sunerstitious reverence which the Dammonii
universally paid to the Anguinum , is still discoverable in . some parts of Cornwall . Mr . LlhuydJ informs us , that " the Cornish retain variety of charms , and have still , towards the Land's-end , the amulets of Maen-Magal and Glain-neider , which latter they call a Melpvev , and have a charm for the snake to make it , when they have found one asleep , and stuck a hazel wand in the centre of her
spii'SB . " Camden tells us , that " in most parts of Wales , and throughout all Scotland and Cornwall , it is an opinion of the vulgar , that about Midsummer-eve ( though in the time they do not all agree ) , the snakes 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 quite through the bodwhen it
passes y , immediately hardens , and resembles a glass ring , which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings . The rings thus generated are called Gleinu-nadroeth , or 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 . " Carew says , " that the country people in Cornwall have a persuasion that tbe snakes breathing upon a hazel wand produce a stone ring of blue colour , in which there appears the yellow figure of a snake , and that beasts bit and envenomed , being given some water to drink wherein this stone has been infused , will perfectly recover of the poison . " §
From the animal the Druids passed to the vegetable world ; and there also displayed their powers , whilst by the charms of the misletoe , tbe selago , and the samolus , they prevented or repelled disease , and every species of misfortune . They made all nature , indeed , subservient to their magical art , and rendered even the rivers and the rocks hetic . Prom the undulation or bubbling
prop of water stirred by an oak branch , or magic wand , _ they foretold events that were to come . This superstition of the Druids is even now retained in the western counties . To this day the Cornish have been accustomed to consult their famous well at Madern , or rather the spirit of the well , respecting their future destiny . " Hither , " says Borlase , " come the uneasy , impatient , and superstitious ,