Chapter Seremenes to Seven Champions of Christendom of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

the serpent, who took him between two of its teeth. It was then the most beautiful of all the animals, and walked upon legs and feet.—Masudi: History, 22 (A.D.956).

The Serpent’s Punishment. The punishment of the serpent for tempting Eve was this: (I) Michael was commanded to cut off its legs; and (2) the serpent was doomed to feed on human excrements ever after.

Y llamô [Dios] a la serpiente, y a Michael, aquel que tiene la espada de Dios, y le dixo; A questa sierpe es acelerada, echala la primera del parayso, y cortale las piernas, y si quisiere caminar, arrastrara la vida por tierra. Y llamô à Satanas, el qual vino riendo, y dixole; Porque tu reprobo has enganado a aquestos, y los has hecho immundos? Yo quiero que toda immundiciasuya, y de todos sus hijos, en verdad de sus cuerpos entre por tu boca, porque en verdad ellos haran penitencia, y tu quedaras harto de immundicia.— Gospel of Barnabas.

Serpent dIsabit, an enormous monster, whose head rested on the top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, its body filled the whole valley of Luz, St. Sauveur, and Gèdres, and its tail was coiled in the hollow below the cirque of Gavarnie. It fed once in three months, and supplied itself by making a very strong inspiration of its breath, whereupon every living thing around was drawn into its maw. It was ultimately killed by making a huge bonfire, and waking it from its torpor, when it became enraged, and drawing a deep breath, drew the bonfire into its maw, and died in agony.—Rev. W. Webster: A Pyrenean Legend (1877).

Serpent Stone. In a carn on the Mound of Mourning was a serpent which had a stone on the tail, and “whoever held this stone in one hand would have in the other as much gold as heart could desire.”—The Mabinogion (“Peredur,” twelfth century). (See FORTUNATUS, p. 387.)

Serpents of North Africa. (See PHARSALIA, p. 835.)

Served my God. WOLSEY said, in his fall (1530), “Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king. He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.”—Shakespeare—: Henry VIII. act iii. sc. 2(1601).

SAMRAH, when he was deposed from the government of Basorah by the caliph Moawiyah, said, “If I had served God so well as I have served the caliph, He would never have condemned me to all eternity” (seventh century).

ANTONIO PEREZ, the favourite of Philip II. of Spain, said (1611), “Mon zele etoit si grand vers ces benignes puissances [i.e.Turin] qui si j’en eusse eu autant pour Dieu, je ne doubte point qu’il ne m’eut deja recompense de son paradis.”

The earl of GOWRIE, when in 1584 he was led to execution, said,“If I had served God as faithfully as I have done the king [James VI.], I should not have come to this end.”—Spotswood: History of the Church of Scotland, pp. 332, 333 (1653).

Service Tree. A wand of the service tree has the power of renewing the virulence of an exhausted poison. —Comtesse of d’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“Florina,” (1682).

Sesame (3syl.), the talismanic word which would open or shut the door leading into the cave of the forty thieves. In order to open it, the words to be uttered were, “Open, Sesamê!” and in order to close it, “Shut, Sesamê!” Sesamê is as plant which yields an oily grain, and hence, when Cassim forgot the word, he substituted barley, but without effect.

Mrs. Habberfield, coming to a small iron grating, exchanged some words with my companions, which produced as much effect as the “Open, Sesamê!” of nursery renown.—Lord W.P.Lennox: Celebrities, etc., i.53.