The white serpent, referred to in the legends associated with Farquhar, the physician, and Michael Scott, sometimes travelled very swiftly by forming itself into a ring with its tail in its mouth. This looks like the old Celtic solar serpent. If the serpent were cut in two, the parts wriggled towards a stream and united as soon as they touched water. If the head were not smashed, it would become a beithis, the biggest and most poisonous variety of serpent.[174] The "Deathless snake" of Egypt, referred to in an ancient folk-tale, was similarly able to unite its severed body. Bride's serpent links with the serpent dragons of the Far East, which sleep all winter and emerge in spring, when they cause thunder and send rain, spit pearls, &c. Dr. Alexander Carmichael translates the following Gaelic serpent-charm:
To-day is the day of Bride,
The serpent shall come from his hole;
And the serpent will not molest me.
De Visser[175] quotes the following from a Chinese text referring to the dragons:
If we offer a deprecatory service to them,
They will leave their abodes;
If we do not seek the dragons
They will also not seek us.