Ribadeneira says that even the wood of Ireland is proof against poisonous reptiles. He declares that King's College, Cambridge, is built within of Irish oak, and consequently not even a spider can be found within it. In the first volume of Chambers' "Book of Days" is told the story of the attempt made by James Cleland, an Irish gentleman, in 1831, to introduce reptiles into the Holy Isle. He bought half a dozen harmless English snakes (_natrix torquata_) in Covent Garden market, London, and turned them loose in his garden in Rathgael, County Down. Within a week one was killed at Milecross three miles distant. A peasant who found one and thought it an eel, took it to Dr. J. L. Drummond, the celebrated Irish naturalist, and was horrified to learn that it was a genuine serpent. There was great excitement, and it was fortunate for Mr. Cleland that his connection with the affair was not known. One clergyman preached on the discovery of the reptile as a presage of the millennium; another saw a relation between it and the cholera-morbus. Some energetic men took the matter in hand and offered a reward for the dead bodies of the snakes. Three were killed within a few miles of the garden, and the others were never fully accounted for. But to return to Father Cahier. He tells us of the following, depicted in sacred art in close proximity to serpents. MOSES is not only represented raising the brazen serpent in the desert to cure those who had been bitten by the reptiles (Num. xxi. 6-9), but also casting his rod on the ground, that it may be changed into a serpent--either at God's command before the burning bush as proof of his divine mission (Exod. iv. 1-5), or before Pharaoh to obtain the deliverance of the Israelites. (Exod. viii. 8-13.) SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE. A viper hanging from his hand and which he is shaking off into the fire. (Acts. xxviii. 3-6.) This event, which occurred in the island of Malta, has given rise to a devotion greatly in vogue, especially among the Greeks. Earth taken from a cavern, wherein it is alleged Saint Paul took refuge after his shipwreck on the coast of that island, is carried to a distance as a preservative against the bite of dangerous beasts and against fevers. There was also in by-gone times a persuasion that any man born on the 25th of January (the day of the apostle's conversion) was guaranteed against the reptile's tooth. SAINT ANDREW THE APOSTLE. His apocryphal legend relates, that he cast out devils, under the form of serpents or dragons. (_Legend aur._, cap. ii.) This is found represented amongst other places, on a stained-glass window of the Cathedral of Chartres.