rtain occasions under magic influence and
planetary agencies. Sir Thomas Browne, in his "Vulgar Errors," describes
this imaginary creature "with legs, wings, a serpentine and winding
tail, and a crest or comb somewhat like a cock." The Londesborough
collection supplies us with a thumb-ring (Fig. 141), having two
cockatrices cut in high relief upon an agate. The eye of the living
cockatrice was believed to be so deadly as to kill by a look, to which
Shakspere alludes in _Twelfth Night_, and again in _Romeo and Juliet_:--

"Say thou but _I_,
And that base vowel _I_ shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice."

There was, however, a counteraction to the danger, for it was also
believed that if a person saw the creature before it saw him, then the
cockatrice died from the effect of the human eye. To this Dryden
alludes:--

"Mischiefs are like a cockatrice's eye,
If they see first they kill, if seen they die."

The figure of this bird merely gave security against the evil eye; it
had no other effect; and for this purpose various engraved stones were
used. Thus, Fig. 142, from the same collection, has set in its centre a
Gnostic gem with cabalistic figures, believed able to avert the dreadful
glance.

Such stones were, of course, "far sought, dear bought;" and rings
believed to possess such covetable power had a high money value. How
then were the poor, still more ignorant and superstitious, to be aided?
Craft came to the aid of faith: demand, as usual, produced supply, and
inscriptions took the place of costly jewels. Rings were fabricated in
silver and baser metals, having cabalistic words upon them, the names of
spirits or of saints. To meet the poorest ring-wearer they were even
cast in lead, and sold on the cheapest terms. They were believed to
prevent cramp and epilepsy. One in the Londesborough collection is
inscribed with the mystic word _Anamzapta_. In a manuscript of the
fourteenth century, in the library at Stockholm, we have this recipe
"for the falling sickness. Say the word _anamzaptus_ in his ear when he
is fallen doun in that evyll, and also in a woman's ear _anamzapta_, and
they shall never more after feel that evyll."

[Illustration: Fig. 143.]

In the Journal of the Archaeological Institute, vol. iii., is an
engraving of a curious magical ring, copied in Fig. 143. It was found on
the coast of Glamorganshire, near to "the Worm's Head," the western