THE SERPENT’S STRANGENESS 161 
South America, and exists still among some tribes, 
as it still does in Egypt, India, and China. Mean- 
while the area over which it once held sway in 
Europe has also been extended; among those who 
once regarded the serpent as a sacred animal we 
now include the Goths, British Celts, Scandinavians, 
Esthonians, and Finns. It would no longer be rash 
to say that in every part of the earth inhabited by 
the serpent this animal has at one time or other been 
reverenced by man. 
Into the subject of serpent-worship, about 
which scores of books and hundreds of papers 
have been written, I do not wish to go one step 
further than I am compelled by my theme, which 
is, primarily, the serpent, and the effect on the 
human intelligence of its unique appearance and 
faculties. At the same time the two matters are so 
closely connected that we cannot treat of one 
without touching on the other. We find that the 
authorities are divided in their opinions as to the 
origin of this kind of worship, some holding that it 
had its rise in one centre—Furgusson goes so far 
as to give the precise spot—from which it spread 
to other regions and eventually over the earth; 
others, on the contrary, believe that it sprang up 
spontaneously in many places and at different 
periods. 
The solution of this question is, I believe, to be 
found in ourselves—in the effect of the serpent on 
us. Much is to be gained by personal experience 
and observation, and by close attention to our own 
