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which guarded the golden fleece by the melody of her voice; and 

 similar effects are mentioned in Virgil's iEneid : 



" Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris 

 " Spargere, qui somnos cantiique manuque solebat, 

 ' ' Mulcebatqne iras, et morsus arte levabat. 



" His wand and holy words the viper's rage, 



" And venom'd wound of serpents could assuage." Dryden's Virgil. 



Herodotus mentions that in the vicinity of Thebes there were 

 sacred serpents not at all troublesome to men; and also that in the 

 citadel of Athens there was a large serpent in the temple which 

 continually defended it; and of this they had such an entire con- 

 viction, that they offered it every month cakes of honey, which 

 were always consumed. Bryant observes that the symbolical 

 worship of the serpent was in the first ages very extensive, and 

 was introduced into all the mysteries wherever celebrated. 



Dr. Buchanan, describing his journey through the Mysore, says 

 that he was shewn the pit where Sedasiva, who flourished there in 

 the fifteenth century, and erected a temple to Iswara at Kilida, 

 found a treasure, and a sword, which were the commencement of 

 his good fortune. " To this spot he was conducted by a naga, 

 " or hooded serpent, sent for the purpose by some propitious deity. 

 " While Sedasiva was a asleep in a field, the naga came, and 

 " shaded his head from the sun, by raising up as an umbrella its 

 " large fiat neck. The young man was awaked by a shriek from 

 " his mother, who in looking after her son found him under the 

 4S power of the monster. He immediately started up to escape, 



