“‘Take the saint and put him into the prison where dragon-serpents are assembled.’
They took the saint and put him in the prison where the dragon-serpents were assembled.
And the poisonous serpents inclined their tongues in worship.
And said: ‘Pity us, O Saint Gregory, and hearken to the complaint of us, dragon-serpents.
It is many thousands of years since we drank water from the springs;
We have not drunk water from the springs, but only the blood of condemned men.
We have eaten no green herbs, but only the flesh of the condemned.’”
The poet goes on to tell how St. Gregory when he came out of the well set free the dragon-serpents in answer to their prayer.
This poem is very old, being written in the fifth or sixth century at the latest. The metre is that of the pagan poets.
We cite here another poem of this class—an allegorical description of Christ on the Cross:—