CHAPTER XXVIII. 



SERPENT WORSHIP, ' CHARAIING; ETC. 



IN the preceding pages it has been my endeavour to 

 resolve some of the superstitious myths into zoological 

 facts, and to explain by the light of science those peculiar 

 features and manners of the Ophidia which from the 

 earliest traditions of the human race have been regarded as 

 supernatural. 



In reviewing the general organization of these reptiles, 

 their marvellous powers and habits, can w^e wonder at the 

 impressions they have created in untutored minds ? Let us 

 picture to ourselves our earliest ancestors with their dawning 

 intellect contemplating the instantaneous coil of a constrictor; 

 or the almost invisible action in a flash of time with 

 which the death-dealing stroke of the poison fang is 

 effected. From a source which was incomprehensible, like 

 the burning, scathing fluid from the skies, came a ' sting,' 

 an agony, death ! Awe-struck and filled with sacred terror 

 were the beholders, as before them lay the paralyzed, 



tortured victim. Can we wonder that the slender, gliding 



507 



