OPHIDIANS. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
In ancient times serpents were an object of worship. 
Las Casas speaks of the Ringed Boa, or Aboma, found in 
Mexico, a reptile of great destructive powers, as being wor- 
shipped by them as an object of fear. The Incas considered 
the snake to be a symbol of cunning and wisdom, and as such 
it was sacred and adored. The Hindoos believed it to be 
possessed of supernatural powers, of which they saw glimpses 
in the expanded hood of the Cobra, consequently images of 
Brahma and Vishnu are found in their temples and on the 
decorations of the cars of Juggernaut, standing upon the 
caudal coil of a serpent whose perpendicular folds overlie each 
other, and whose neck and head expand into a broad concayo- 
convex hood, whose upper periphery is divided into triangular 
points, each of which bears a smaller head with distended 
jaws, thus forming the appearance of a canopy over the head 
of the god. A small image carved in stone, and about three 
feet in height, answering nearly to the above description, may 
be seen at the India Museum, in the India Office, in London. 
The symbolical twining of serpents around the staff of 
/Esculapius indicates a belief in its endowment with some ex- 
traordinary virtues in connection with the healing art, while the 
Caduceus of Mercury, composed of two intertwined serpents, 
