Archaic Scllpil'ki.ngs. 151 



ratllc-snakc to be less wise, as it spoiled its chance ol success 

 when attacking because of the noise it made. 



A cycle of stories as to its wisdom, from the tale of the 

 serpent endowing the seer Polyidus with wisdom and the 

 serpent's association with the Persian Tree of Knowledge 

 and with the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, is 

 too long for description here. 



The idea of its knowledgeable, sacred, and, at times, 

 royal character was fostered by the ancient, almost universal, 

 belief that the human soul after the death of the body sought 

 out an appropriate lodging place for itself when on occasion 

 it re-visited earth. The soul was deemed in its changed 

 condition to be not less shrewd than previously, and it looked 

 about for a house which was possessed of wisdom, sacred- 

 ness, and dignity, and thus it often preferred the body of a 

 serpent in which to dwell for the time being. 



The great antiquity of the belief is shown by its wide- 

 spread occurrence. In places far removed, such as British 

 Madagascar, Borneo, and New Guinea, the souls of the dead 

 were supposed to lodge in serpents. The serpentine form 

 became in some places dragonesque, and the dragon appar- 

 ently toying with a whirling disc or globe, as in China, was 

 simply and originally the wise reptile in association with the 

 human soul in one of its excursions from its temporary 

 lodging place and near the portal. 



Things, such as small pebbles of attractive colours, and 

 in comparatively late times in Scotland ancient and beautiful 

 glass beads, were deemed to have come out of the mouths of 

 adders — the familiar " adder-stanes " — and were therefore 

 deemed lucky. Small attractive objects, such as natural 

 pebbles of bright colour, even in far-away Sarawak, were 

 supposed to have a like origin, and were kept as charms. 



There is some evidence that Scotland was not free from 

 these ancient myths regarding the snake, and that at the 

 opening of the Christian era and for several centuries there- 

 after the same conceptions prevailed. 



In Pictland the serpent is drawn with the greatest pre- 

 cision and clearness, and is associated w^ith other emblems, 

 some peculiar to that area, which must be read in conjunction 



