THE SERPENT 63 



Truly it is a secret, a mystery, the unfolding of which 

 has to be looked for as the unfolding of the greater Riddle 

 of Life. 



Here we have but to recognise the universality of the 

 influence which this fellow mortal has had on the thoughts 

 of the human race. 



And not only as a mystery to be dreaded, but as one 

 which brings blessing also. Not only as a " spirit of fell 

 denial," but as a giver of good fortune. True " the fiery 

 serpents " bit the people so that " much people of Israel 

 died " ; but it also " came to pass that if anyone were bitten 

 when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived." 



So also the snake-twined rod of Esculapius, the caduceus 

 of Mercury was uplifted for healing afid giving ; and to 

 this day the mothers of India set sweet cakes and milk 

 before the hole of the snake in order to gain good luck in 

 childbearing, just as in Thebes and in many savage places 

 still, the mystical sign of the Swastika-cross was and is used 

 as a bringer of good fortune to mothers. Perhaps some day 

 laborious research and fresh unearthings of the " rich proud 

 cost of outworn ruined age " may establish a connection 

 between the Serpent and the Swastika, and so give us a 

 guide into the impenetrable labyrinth of snake-lore which 

 now twists round us like the endless coils of the Laocoon. 



Meanwhile it cannot but whet the appetite of curiosity 

 to know that even Science stands puzzled before the phy- 

 siological structure of the snake, so simple and yet so 

 radically different from the common type of vertebrate 

 animals. 



In truth Solomon was right when he equalled the mys- 

 tery of the gliding of " a snake upon a rock " with the 



