It is very remarkable that in Folk-lore the mole and the snail are identified, and, as De Gubernatis states, both are the same with the grey mouse, or, as he might more accurately have declared with the mouse in general. A critic objects to this simply because it occurs in the work of De Gubernatis, among his "fanciful theories," but it need not follow that every citation or opinion in his book is false. Friedrich, who certainly is not a fanciful theorist, asserted nearly thirty years ago that the mouse, owing to its living underground and in dark places as well as to its gnawing and destroying everything, is a chthonisches Thier, one of the animals of darkness and evil. Also "the mole, because it is of subterranean life, has received a chthonic, demoniac, misanthropic reputation." In support of these statements he cites a great array of authorities. The connection between the mole and mouse is evident enough, that between both and the snail is also clear: firstly, from the fact that "the snail of popular superstition is demoniacal," or evil; and secondly, from the rhyme which I now quote, which is applied to both moles and snails. According to Du Cange it was usual in the Middle Ages for children to go about carrying poles, on the ends of which was straw, which they lighted, and going round the gardens and under the trees shouted:-- "Taupes et mulots, Sortez de vos clos, Sinon je vous brulerai la barbe et les os!" But in Germany there are two and in Italy five versions of the same song addressed to snails. It is evidently a Roman Catholic formula, based on some early heathen incantation. Thus in Tuscany they sing:-- "Chiocciola marinella Tira fuori le tue cornelle, E se tu non le tirerai Calcie pugni tu buscherai." Both the snail and mole and mouse were, as I have said, chthonic, that is diabolical or of darkness. The horns of the former were supposed to connect it with the devil. "In Tuscany it is believed that in the month of April the snail makes love with serpents." There is another nursery counting-out rhyme whose antiquity and connection with sorcery is very evident. It is as follows:-- "One, two, three, four, five, I caught a hare all alive. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, I let her go again." The following from the medical spells and charms of Marcellus Burdigalensis manifestly explains it:--