A. D. M.
Dorcester, 3d Nov. 1849.
[We shall gladly receive the particulars which our Correspondent
proposed to collect and forward.]
* * * * *
SERPENTS' EGGS AND STRAW NECKLACES.
[Mr. Thoms' Query in this case should have been limited to the _straw
necklaces_, as Mr. Nichols has already explained the _serpents' eggs_;
but our Correspondent's letter is so satisfactory on both points that we
insert it entire.]
The passage from Erasmus, "brachium habet ova serpentum," is plainly to
be rendered "and with a string of serpents' eggs on your arm." The
meaning is equally apparent on recalling the manner in which snakes'
eggs are found, viz., hanging together in a row. Erasmus intends
Menedemus to utter a joke at the _rosary of beads_ hanging over the
pilgrim's arm, which he professes to mistake for serpents' eggs.
I am not aware what particular propriety the "collar or chaplet" (for it
may mean either) of _straw_ may have, as worn by a pilgrim from
Compostella; or whether there may not lurk under this description, as
beneath {25} the other, a jocular sense.
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