170 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



produced by deep clear water when gazed on 

 steadily and for a long time which may have given 

 rise to the African superstition of the I cant i already 

 mentioned. Among some North American tribes 

 there also existed a belief in a serpent of enormous 

 size that reposed at the bottom of some river or 

 lake, and once every year rose to the surface showing 

 a shining splendid stone on his head. 



The mountains, too, have their serpent-shaped 

 guardians: thus, it was believed by the neigh- 

 bouring tribes that a huge camoodi, or boa, rested 

 its league-long coils on the flat top of the table 

 mountain of Roraima in Venezuela. Doubtless a 

 serpent of cloud and mist; of the white vapour 

 that, forming at the summit, dropped down in a 

 long coil, or crept earthwards along the deep 

 fissures that score the precipitous sides. 



Other beliefs of this kind might be adduced, 

 and other resemblances to the serpent's form and 

 motion in nature traced, but enough on this point 

 has been said. If it is due to these resemblances 

 that the savage is disposed to see the life and 

 intelligent spirit he attributes to Nature, and to all 

 natural objects, take the serpent form, may we 

 not believe that the serpent-myths of the earlier 

 civilised races originated in the same way? Doubt- 

 less in many cases, with the development of the 

 reasoning powers and the decay of the mythical 

 faculty, the fable would be somewhat changed in 

 form and embellished, and perhaps come at last 

 to be regarded as merely symbolical. But sym- 



