[574] Cf. “Macbeth” (iii. 4):
“There the grown serpent lies: the worm, that’s fled,
Hath nature that in time will venom breed.”
[575] Worm is used for serpent or viper, in the Geneva version of the New Testament, in Acts xxvii. 4, 5.
[576] See Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England,” 1871, p. 415; and Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 270.
[577] Denham’s “Weather Proverbs,” 1842.
[578] “Folk-Lore Record,” 1878, vol. i. p. 45.
[579] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. iii. pp. 223, 287, 381.
[580] See article on “Spider-Lore,” in Graphic, November 13, 1880.
[581] “Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare,” 1841, p. 220.
[582] See Croker’s “Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,” edited by T. Wright, 1862, p. 215.