80 SIR JOSEPH PATBBJB, K.C.S.I., ETC., 



Serpent-worship, according to Fergusson,* is characteristic 

 of the Turanian races, and is rarely to be found among Aryan 

 or Semitic peoples. There is no mention of it in the Old Testa- 

 ment from the formation of the Jewish nation, unless the 

 raising of the Brazen Serpent be so considered, but six cen- 

 turies later, Hezekiah "'brake in pieces the brazen serpent that 

 Moses had made ; for unto those days the children of Israel 

 did burn incense to it ; and he called it Nehushtan," 2 Kings 

 xviii, 4 and 5. Between these periods there is no other 

 mention of it in the Old Testament, but in the book of the 

 Wisdom of Solomon, xi, 15, we read, "They worshipped 

 serpents void of reason " ; nevertheless its revival among 

 the Gnostic sect of the Ophites points to the fact that the 

 notion was not extinct. " A wondrous blending of the 

 ancient rites of Ophiolatry with mystic conceptions of 

 Gnosticism appears in the cultus which tradition (in truth or 

 slander) declares the semi-Christian sect of Ophites to have 

 rendered to their tame snake, enticing it out of its chest, to 

 coil round the sacramental bread, and worshipping it as repre- 

 senting the great king from heaven, who in the beginning 

 gave to the man and woman the knowledge of the mysteries " 

 (" Primitive Culture," Tylor). 



Serpent-worship, according to Fergusson, has prevailed to 

 a greater or less extent nearly all over the world. 



In America it was known in Peru, Mexico, and among the Red 

 Indians, according to anc?ent records of the United States. 



Its prevalence in Western Asia seems doubtful, except in 

 Judaea, to a slight extent in Phoenicia, and in the Troad, 

 among the so-called Ophiogones. 



As regards Europe, there are next to no traces of its 

 prevalence among the Germans, though Tylor refers to the 

 "Prussian serpent-worship and offering of food to the house- 

 hold snakes," nor among the Gauls nor Britons. Ophiolatry 

 is said to have been practised by the Druids ; according to 

 Fergusson there is not much evidence of this, but other 

 authorities state that the serpent's egg was the Druids' crept, 

 and that the serpent was entwined at the foot of their altars. 

 At Avebury in Wiltshire, there existed the figure of a serpent 

 in stones extending for two and a half miles, of which the 

 head and tail are still obvious. There are traces of it in 



* To Fergnsson's " Tree and Serpent- Worship," and Tylor's " Primitive 

 Culture," I am indebted for much information. 



