654 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



all, whites, mulattoes, and slaves, and the latter, no doubt, Drought 

 into Louisiana the word vodu and the snake-worship. 



That the Ardra and Whydah slaves should have clung more 

 tenaciously to the worship of their snake-god than to that of the 

 other deities of their native country is explained by the fact that 

 the python-god was the national god. According to existing tra- 

 dition, the people of Whydah advanced the python to the dignity 

 of their chief tutelary deity on account of the signal services it 

 rendered when they were attacked by some powerful foe. Over- 

 whelmed by superior numbers, they were giving way in every 

 direction, when all at once the python-god appeared in the 

 broken ranks, caressed the warriors with his head and tail, and 

 inspired them with new courage ; so that, when the chief priest 

 raised the god on high at arms' length, and showed him as a guar- 

 antee of victory, the Whydahs rushed forward in a frenzy of en- 

 thusiasm, swept back the foe and utterly routed him. It was on 

 account of this service, says the tradition, that the Whydahs 

 built at Savi an elaborate temple, in which the priests professed 

 to keep the very snake who had brought them victory. So confi- 

 dent were the Whydahs in the power of their god that, on the 

 approach of the invading Dahomi army in 1727, instead of con- 

 centrating their forces at the lagoon to the north of Savi, which 

 was only fordable at one point and on a narrow front, and so 

 might easily have been held against superior numbers, they 

 remained quietly at home and confided the defense to a python, 

 which they placed on the southern bank. The Dahomis soon dis- 

 covered this, crossed the lagoon without opposition, killed the 

 python, and captured Savi. 



The Dahomis treated the snake-gods with contempt, and de- 

 stroyed the temple at Savi, but they did not prohibit the worship ; 

 and the remnant of the Whydahs who escaped the slaughter of 

 the conquest continued it, with the result that after a quarter of 

 a century or so the more southern Dahomis adopted the worship 

 themselves. Some fugitives from Ardra, who fled to the east- 

 ward and founded the kingdom of Porto rTovo, a new Ardra as it 

 was then called, established the worship there ; and these places, 

 with Agweh and Little Popo to the west, to which the cult has 

 within the last half-century spread from Whydah, are the only 

 ones in which python-worship prevails. 



The name of the python-god is Dailh-gbi (dank, snake, and 

 agbi, life). He is the god of wisdom, to whom all things are 

 known, and, as he opened the eyes of the first man and the first 

 woman, who were blind, he is the benefactor of mankind. He 

 must not be confounded with the Great Snake of the Heavens, 

 Anyiewo, sometimes called simply Danh, who is the Rainbow- 

 god. Danh-gbi has his own order of priests, and, like all tho 



