being an antidote:

"A decoction of the buds or bark of the white ash (_Fraxinus carolina_)
taken inwardly is said to be a certain remedy against the effects of
poison," _i.e._ of the rattlesnake.

Serpents afford Pliny a theme for inexhaustible wonders. The strangest of
his relations perhaps is where he tells us that serpents, "when they have
stung or bitten a man, die for very greefe and sorrow that they have done
such a mischeefe." He makes a special exception, however, of the murderous
salamander, who has no such "pricke and remorse of conscience," but would
"destroy whole nations at one time," if not prevented. In this same book
(xxix.) he gives a receipt for making the famous _theriacum_, or treacle,
of vipers' flesh. Another strange notion of the ancients was "that the
marrow of a man's backe bone will breed to a snake" (_Hist. Nat._, x. 66.).
This perhaps, originally, had a mystic meaning; for a great proportion of
the innumerable serpent stories have a deeper foundation than a credulous
fancy or lively imagination.

Take, for instance, the wide-spread legend of the sea-serpent. Mr. Deane
says,--

"The superstition of 'the serpent in the sea' was known to the Chinese,
as we observed in the chapter on the 'Serpent-worship of China.' But it
was doubtless, at one time, a very general superstition among the
heathens, for we find it mentioned by Isaiah, ch. xxvii. 1., 'In that
day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword, shall punish
Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent:
and He shall slay _the dragon that is in the sea_.'"

In _Blackwood's Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 645., vol. iv. pp. 33. 205., may be
found some interesting papers on the "Scrakin, or Great Sea Serpent."

Mr. Deane's _Worship of the Serpent_ (London, 1830); and _The Cross and the
Serpent_, by the Rev. Wm. Haslam (London, 1849), are noble works both of
them, and ought to be in the hands of every Christian scholar. In these two
words, "Cross" and "Serpent," we have an epitome of the history of the
world and the human race, as well as the ground-work for all our hopes and
fears. In them are bound up the highest mysteries, the truest symbolism,
the deepest realities, and our nearest and dearest interests.

Lord Bacon thus narrates the classical fable which accounts for the
serpent's being gifted with the power of restoring youth:

"The gods, in a merry mood, granted u