150 Archaic Sculpturings. 



The Serpent. 



One of the most frequently sculptured objects on the 

 early Christian monuments in Scotland is the serpent. It 

 is introduced in a great variety of styles. It is, however, 

 rare in the south-vi^estern district. It is clear that it stood 

 for something- of importance, and was not merely decorative. 



Almost everywhere one g^oes throughout the world it 

 will be found that the serpent has for some reason been held 

 in great regard. The folk-lore of Scotland points in the 

 same direction. The secret is that primitive man, vastly 

 more acute in his powers of observation than modern people 

 imagine, saw in the serpent's habits, its agility and clever- 

 ness in avoiding injury and capture, in its mode of life — 

 how, for example, it sunned itself, took plenty of prolonged 

 and refreshing sleep, and changed its skin in certain 

 seasons of the year — that it was far above the other reptiles 

 and many quadrupeds in its knowledge and in its wisdom. 

 This widespread acknowledgment of its wisdom stamped the 

 reptile universally as superior, and eventually as sacred. The 

 ancient kings of Thebes and Delphi, for example, had 

 for their sacred animal the serpent (or dragon), and claimed 

 kinship with it. Tradition states Cadmus and Harmonia 

 were at death transformed as serpents to rule over a tribe of 

 eel-men or Encheleans in Illyria at the end of their lives, 

 just as Caffre kings turned at death into snakes. Thus royal 

 personages assumed the style of serpents in their lifetime. 

 Serpents were held sacred, and often kept in captivity and 

 fed with fine food, as at the Necropolis at Athens and in 

 India at the present day. The serpent seems to have repre- 

 sented the royal house of King David, and the supreme 

 position of the cobra about 3400 B.C. in Egypt has recently 

 been freshly confirmed by the discovery in Egypt of a gold 

 diadem which belonged to a princess of that period. On 

 the diadem the place of honour is occupied by the head of a 

 cobra. 



The same beliefs held sway in the New World also. 

 The Red Indians, for instance, attributed special intellec- 

 tuality to the ordinary snake, though they considered the 



