180 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



which were more in harmony with their mental 

 condition. The proudest boast of their highest 

 intellects was that they had never bowed in rever- 

 ence or kissed their hand to anything in nature. 

 In such circumstances it was unavoidable that the 

 specific object — rock, or tree, or animal — singled 

 out for worship, or for superstitious veneration, 

 should to some extent become involved in the 

 feeling first excited against the worshipper. If the 

 Jews hated the serpent with a peculiarly bitter 

 hatred, it was doubtless because all others looked 

 on it as a sacred animal, an incarnation of the 

 Deity. The chosen people had also been its wor- 

 shippers at an earlier period, as the Bible shows, 

 and while hating it, they still retained the old 

 belief, intimately connected with serpent-worship 

 everywhere, in the creature's preternatural subtlety 

 and wisdom. The priests of other Eastern nations 

 introduced it into their sacred rites and mysteries ; 

 the Jewish priests introduced it historically into the 

 Garden of Eden to account for man's transgression 

 and fall. " Be ye wise as serpents," was a saying 

 of the deepest significance. In Europe men were 

 anciently taught by the Druids to venerate the 

 adder ; the Jews — or Jewish books — taught them 

 to abhor it. To my way of thinking, neither 

 blessing nor banning came by instinct. 



Veneration of the serpent still survives in a 

 great part of the world, as in Hindustan and other 

 parts of Asia. It is strong in Madagascar, and 

 flourishes more or less throughout Africa. It 



