THE KOYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 285 It was very dark, culoured with a zigza<^ patteru iu white. How these beads were culoured and formed seems a mystery. The lirst notice of Kiich beads that has been found i.s in Cauiden.* Gibson says that in CircuLir flint, and .. WLitby. most parts of Wales it is the common opinion of the vulgar that about Midsummer eve it is usual for snakes to meet in companies, and that by joining heads together and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed like a ring about the head of one of them, which the rest by continual hissing blow on till it comes off at the tail, and then it immediately hardens and resembles a glass ring, which, whoever finds (as some old women and children believe) shall prosper iu his undertakings. These rings arc railed Glenieu Nadroedh, Z.^., (jemmce anguime. In Gllamorganshire and Monmouthshire they arc called Maen Magi. They are small glass annulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger rings, but much thicker, of a gi-een colour usually • but some of them are blue, and others curiously waved with blue, red and white. Gibson had seen twenty or thirty of them, and also two or throe earthen rings, but glazed with blue, and adorned with transverse streaks or furrows on the outside. And he thinks it very likely that these snake-stones were used as charms or amulets amongst the Druids of Britain in the same way as the snake eggs amongst the Gaulish Druids, as described by Pliny.' At p. G95 four engi-avings of these curious beads are given. Next came s}>ecimens of Hint arrow heads. There appear to be three distinct kinds. The barbed head, the leaf-shaped head, and the head sharpened at both ends alike. It was supposed that possibly these diflcrenccs might arise from the heads having been formed bydifteront races ; and Mr. Uobinson, of Whitliy, had mentioned that in one place near Whitby the aiTow heads found on one side differed from those on » Brit. 083, by Gib-sou.
- nut. Nat. lib. x.vix. c. 3
