THE SERPENT 



" Akhekh the Crooked one, the Deluder." — Inner African myth. 

 " Naka the Shadow of Night." — Egyptian Hymn. 

 " The Serpents of Death who fear not." — Akkadian Legend. 

 "Serpent of evil, impious Apap." — Egyptian Ritual. 



" Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the 

 Lord God had made." — Bible. Gen. Hi. 



^ERE we have a consensus of opinion truly ! 

 one which, extending over many thousands 

 of years, yet leaves us, as we began, un- 

 able to grasp the mystery of the Serpent. 



It is easy enough, with some, to talk 

 glibly of sun-settings and star-risings, and 

 point triumphantly to the two constellations which held the 

 Pole-star and the Solstices. 



But how came those constellations by their names .■* 

 Why was the serpent, the dragon, uplifted by primitive man 

 to the skies? Why was it made the type of darkness.'' 

 Shall we follow the common lead and say because of its 

 gloze and guile, just as owing to the sloughing of its skin it 

 stands also as symbol of self-renewal and eternity .? 



But the serpent is not a cunning creature, it is harmless 

 and peaceable enough, and there seems no reason why the 

 human race, emerging from purely animal life, should have 

 emerged into an all pervading fear of one and one only of 



