Ripe strawberry leaves doth over them spread.
Babes in the Wood.
It is unlucky either to keep or to kill a robin. J. H. Pott says, if any one attempts to detain a robin which has sought hospitality, let him “fear some new calamity.”--Poems (1780).
Salamander. The salamander lives in the fire.
Should a glass-house fire be kept up without extinction for more than seven years, there is no doubt but that a salamander will be generated in the cinders.--J. P. Andrews, Anecdotes, etc., 359.
The salamander seeks the hottest fire to breed in, but soon quenches it by the extreme coldness of its body.--Pliny, Natural History, x. 67; xxix. 4.
Food touched by a salamander is poisonous.--Ditto, xxix. 23.
Saliva. The human saliva is a cure for blindness.--Ditto, xxviii. 7.
If a man spits on a serpent, it will die. Ditto, vii. 2.
The human saliva is a charm against fascination and witchcraft.