180 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



which were more in harmony with their mental 

 condition. The proudest boast of their highest 

 intellects was that they had never bowed in rever- 

 ence or kissed their hand to anything in nature. 

 In such circumstances it was unavoidable that the 

 specific object rock, or tree, or animal singled 

 out for worship, or for superstitious veneration, 

 should to some extent become involved in the 

 feeling first excited against the worshipper. If the 

 Jews hated the serpent with a peculiarly bitter 

 hatred, it was doubtless because all others looked 

 on it as a sacred animal, an incarnation of the 

 Deity. The chosen people had also been its wor- 

 shippers at an earlier period, as the Bible shows, 

 and while hating it, they still retained the old 

 belief, intimately connected with serpent-worship 

 everywhere, in the creature's preternatural subtlety 

 and wisdom. The priests of other Eastern nations 

 introduced it into their sacred rites and mysteries ; 

 the Jewish priests introduced it historically into the 

 Garden of Eden to account for man's transgression 

 and fall. " Be ye wise as serpents," was a saying 

 of the deepest significance. In Europe men were 

 anciently taught by the Druids to venerate the 

 adder ; the Jews or Jewish books taught them 

 to abhor it. To my way of thinking, neither 

 blessing nor banning came by instinct. 



Veneration of the serpent still survives in a 

 great part of the world, as in Hindustan and other 

 parts of Asia. It is strong in Madagascar, and 

 flourishes more or less throughout Africa. It 



