THE SERPENT'S STRANGENESS 167 



if in a deep perpetual sleep, yet eternally awake, 

 with open brilliant eyes fixed on whosoever re- 

 gards it. A sense of mystery becomes insepar- 

 ably associated with its appearance ; and when 

 habitually regarded with such a feeling, other 

 qualities and faculties possessed by it would seem 

 in harmony with this strangeness, and outside of 

 the common order of nature : — its periodical re- 

 newal of youth ; the power of existing without 

 aliment and with no sensible diminution of vigour 

 for an indefinite time ; the faculty of fascination 

 — a miraculous power over the ordinary lower 

 animals ; and the deadliness which its venom and 

 the lightning-like swiftness of its stroke give it, 

 and which is never exercised against man except 

 in revenge for an insult or injury. To this in- 

 offensiveness of the lethal serpent, together with 

 its habit of attaching itself to human habitations, 

 about which it glides in a ghostly manner, may be 

 traced the notion of its friendliness and guardian- 

 ship and of its supernatural power and wisdom ; 

 the belief that it was a reincarnation of a dead 

 man's soul, a messenger from the gods, and, finally, 

 the Agathodaemon of so many lands and so many 

 races of men. 



The serpent's strangeness and serpent- worship 

 are thus seen as cause and effect. Now, there is 

 another effect, or another subject, so mixed up 

 with the one I have been considering that this 

 paper might appear incomplete without some notice 

 of it — I refer to the widely prevalent belief in the 



