The Life and Times of Martin Van Buren: The Correspondence of His Friends, Family and Pupils; Together with Brief Notices, Sketches, and Anecdotes; Illustrative of the Public Careers of James Knox Polk, Benjamin F. Butler, William L. Marcy, Thomas Ritchie

Excerpt from The Life and Times of Martin Van Buren: The Correspondence of His Friends, Family and Pupils; Together With Brief Notices, Sketches, and Anecdotes; Illustrative of the Public Careers of James Knox Polk, Benjamin F. Butler, William L. Marcy, Thomas Ritchie, Jesse and Lorenzo Hoyt, Levy Woodbury

The sagacious Scots have gone yet a little further in their ideas concerning the counteraction of poisons. It is a traditional belief among them, that, at certain times, all the adders of the moors, assemble to form, from their slime, an incrustation called an adder's stone, which receives its crowning beauty from the king of the adders passing through it and leaving on it the trace of all his shining glories. Happy is the shepherd, that at a safe distance beholding the operation, waits till all is finished, and then courageously steps in and mares the prize. He is henceforth held in the highest respect, as possessing an infallible antidote against a deadly poison. But he does not gain the prize without considerable risk, being pursued by all the venomous brood, and obliged 0 seek his safety in flight. If he does not throw some one of his garments to the adders, to occupy their attention and divert their rage, they cease not their pur suit till they recover their lost treasure, or obtain the body of their plunderer.

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