woods; but Godric cared nought for them; and the shingles swarmed
with snakes,--probably only the harmless collared snakes of wet
meadows, but reputed, as all snakes are by the vulgar, venomous:
but he did not object to become "the companion of serpents and
poisonous asps." He handled them, caressed them, let them lie by
the fire in swarms on winter nights, in the little cave which he had
hollowed in the ground and thatched with turf. Men told soon how
the snakes obeyed him; how two especially huge ones used to lie
twined about his legs; till after many years, annoyed by their
importunity, he turned them all gently out of doors, with solemn
adjurations never to return, and they, of course, obeyed.

His austerities knew no bounds. He lived on roots and berries,
flowers and leaves; and when the good folk found him out, and put
gifts of food near his cell, he carried them up to the crags above,
and, offering them solemnly up to the God who feeds the ravens when
they call on him, left them there for the wild birds. He watched,
fasted, and scourged himself, and wore always a hair shirt and an
iron cuirass. He sat, night after night, even in mid-winter, in the
cold Wear, the waters of which had hollowed out a rock near by into
a natural bath, and afterwards in a barrel sunk in the floor of a
little chapel of wattle, which he built and dedicated to the blessed
Virgin Mary. He tilled a scrap of ground, and ate the grain from
it, mingled with ashes. He kept his food till it was decayed before
he tasted it; and led a life the records of which fill the reader
with astonishment, not only at the man's iron strength of will, but
at the iron strength of the constitution which could support such
hardships, in such a climate, for a single year.

A strong and healthy man must Godric have been, to judge from the