The best comment on the virtues of a sheep's shoulder-bone is afforded by a passage in the Persones Tale (De Ira), I. 602, where we find--'Sweringe sodeynly withoute avysement is eek a sinne. But lat us go now to thilke horrible swering of adiuracioun and coniuracioun, as doon thise false enchauntours or nigromanciens in bacins ful of water, or in a bright swerd, in a cercle, or in a fyr, or in a _shulder-boon of a sheep_'; &c. Cf. also a curious passage in Trevisa's tr. of Higden's Polychronicon, lib. i. cap. 60, which shews that it was known among the Flemings who had settled in the west of Wales. He tells us that, by help of a bone of a wether's right shoulder, from which the flesh had been boiled (not roasted) away, they could tell what was being done in far countries, 'tokens of pees and of werre, the staat of the reeme, sleynge of men, and spousebreche.' Selden, in his notes to song 5 of Drayton's Polyolbion, gives a curious instance of such divination, taken from Giraldus, Itin. i. cap. 11; and a writer in the Retrospective Review, Feb. 1854, p. 109, says it is 'similar to one described by Wm. de Rubruquis as practised among the Tartars.' And see _spade-bone_ in Nares. Cf. Notes and Queries, 1 S. ii. 20. In Part I. of the Records of the Folk-lore Society is an article by Mr. Thoms on the subject of divination by means of the shoulder-bone of a sheep. He shews that it was still practised in the Scottish Highlands down to the beginning of the present century, and that it is known in Greece. He further cites some passages concerning it from some scarce books; and ends by saying--'let me refer any reader desirous of knowing more of this wide-spread form of divination to Sir H. Ellis's edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities, iii. 179, ed. 1842, and to much curious information respecting _Spatulamancia_, as it is called by Hartlieb, and an analogous species of divination _ex anserino sterno_, to Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, 2nd ed. p. 1067.' 355. The sense is--'which any snake has bitten or stung.' The reference is to the poisonous effects of the bite of an adder or venomous snake. The word _worm_ is used by Shakespeare to describe the asp whose bite was fatal to Cleopatra; and it is sometimes used to describe a dragon of the largest size. In Icelandic, the term 'miðgarðsormr,' [272] lit. worm of the middle-earth, signifies a great sea-serpent encompassing the entire world. 363. _Fastinge._ This word is spelt with a final _e_ in all seven MSS.; and as it is emphatic and followed by a slight pause, perhaps the final _e_ should be pronounced. Cp. A. S. _fæstende_, the older form of the present participle. Otherwise, the first foot consists of but one syllable. 366. For _heleth_, MS. Hl. has _kelith_, i. e. cooleth. 379. The final _e_ in _sinne_ must not be elided; it is preserved by the caesura. Besides, _e_ is only elided before _h_ in the case of certain words.