[Mr. Thoms' Query in this case should have been limited to the _straw
necklaces_, as Mr. Nichols has already explained the _serpents' eggs_;
but our Correspondent's letter is so satisfactory on both points that we
insert it entire.]
The passage from Erasmus, "brachium habet ova serpentum," is plainly to
be rendered "and with a string of serpents' eggs on your arm." The
meaning is equally apparent on recalling the manner in which snakes'
eggs are found, viz., hanging together in a row. Erasmus intends
Menedemus to utter a joke at the _rosary of beads_ hanging over the
pilgrim's arm, which he professes to mistake for serpents' eggs.
I am not aware what particular propriety the "collar or chaplet" (for it
may mean either) of _straw_ may have, as worn by a pilgrim from
Compostella; or whether there may not lurk under this description, as
beneath {25} the other, a jocular sense. The readiest way of determining
this point would be to consult some of the accounts of Compostella and
of its relics, which are to be found in a class of books formerly
abundant in the north-western towns of Spain.