Pliny tells us that a decoction from the leaves of the ash tree, given as a drink, is such a remedy that "nothing so soveraigne can be found against the poison of serpents;" and farther: "That a _serpent dare not come neare the shaddow of that tree_. The serpent will chuse rather to goe into the fire than to flie from it to the leaves of the ash. A wonderful goodnesse of Dame Nature, that the ash doth bloome and flourish alwaies before that serpents come abroad, and never sheddeth leaves, but continueth green untill they be retired into their holes, and hidden within the ground." The ancient opinion respecting the rooted antipathy between the ash and the serpent is not to be explained merely by the fact in natural history of its being an antidote, but it has a deeply mythical meaning. See, in the _Prose Edda_, the account of the ash Yggdrasill, and the serpents gnawing its roots. Loskiel corroborates Pliny as to the ash being an antidote: "A decoction of the buds or bark of the white ash (_Fraxinus carolina_) taken inwardly is said to be a certain remedy against the effects of poison," _i.e._ of the rattlesnake. Serpents afford Pliny a theme for inexhaustible wonders. The strangest of his relations perhaps is where he tells us that serpents, "when they have stung or bitten a man, die for very greefe and sorrow that they have done such a mischeefe." He makes a special exception, however, of the murderous salamander, who has no such "pricke and remorse of conscience," but would "destroy whole nations at one time," if not prevented. In this same book (xxix.) he gives a receipt for making the famous _theriacum_, or treacle, of vipers' flesh. Another strange notion of the ancients was "that the marrow of a man's backe bone will breed to a snake" (_Hist. Nat._, x. 66.). This perhaps, originally, had a mystic meaning; for a great proportion of the innumerable serpent stories have a deeper foundation than a credulous fancy or lively imagination. Take, for instance, the wide-spread legend of the sea-serpent. Mr. Deane says,-- "The superstition of 'the serpent in the sea' was known to the Chinese, as we observed in the chapter on the 'Serpent-worship of China.' But it was doubtless, at one time, a very general superstition among the heathens, for we find it mentioned by Isaiah, ch. xxvii. 1., 'In that day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent: and He shall slay _the dragon that is in the sea_.'" In _Blackwood's Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 645., vol. iv. pp. 33. 205., may be found some interesting papers on the "Scrakin, or Great Sea Serpent."