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 the other, a jocular sense. The readiest way of determining this point would be to consult some of the accounts of Compostella and of its relics, which are to be found in a class of books formerly abundant in the north-western towns of Spain.