A spotted adder

Spotted this little chap on the towans at Gwithian on a trip home to Cornwall a few years ago. They're not super-rare or endangered, but adders are protected, like all UK reptiles are. So it was something of a treat to see. 

One fact I like about the adder is that it used to be called a nadder and the letter 'N' has migrated to join the indefinite article. The name is derived from nædre, an Old English word for serpent (you might also like to known that the same thing happened  to a napron, which  'an apron', and a nompere became 'an umpire'). The adder is also known as the common viper.

   

Adders were once believed to be deaf (it's mentioned in the Bible in Psalm 58), and snake oil was used as a cure for deafness and earache. Druids believed that large frenzied gatherings of adders occurred in spring, at the centre of which could be found a polished rock with a hole in it. This was called an adder stone or Glain Neidr in the Welsh language. They were known as Milpreve in Cornwall and hagstones elsewhere (I blogged about them here). These stones were said to have held supernatural powers. 

In Russian folklore, adder stones were believed to be the abodes of spirits called the Kurinyi Bog (the Chicken Gods). Kurinyi Bog were the guardians of chickens, and their stones were placed into farmyards to counteract the possible evil effects of the Kikimora (house spirits) who would pluck out the feathers of hens they didn't like.

People also believed that adders could only die at sunset, and that they swallowed their young when threatened and regurgitate them unharmed later. Remedies for adder 'stings' included killing the snake responsible and rubbing the corpse or its fat on the wound, also holding a pigeon or chicken on the bite, or jumping over water. 

However, the reality of getting bitten is very small. They may be venomous but adders are not dangerous as they will avoid contact with humans at every opportunity.

As this one did very quickly.