166 



■devices, the serpent early became connected with phallus- 

 worship and thus acquired still greater religious significance. 

 In the Mexican tradition of the serpent-mother of mankind, 

 in the Hebrew legend of the temptation of the first woman, 

 in the Karen story of her cohabiting with the python, in the 

 Sanskrit account of the churning of the ocean by means of 

 the eternal naga Ananden, we find the serpent occupying a 

 similar place in cosmogony and the origin of the human 

 race. This phallic symbolism of the serpent took consider- 

 able development and was adopted in nearly every religion 

 of antiquity. It was introduced, with many other heathen 

 symbols into christian rites, its phallic source being masked 

 by its significance of eternity, of the resurrection, &c.* 



When by the ' decentralization' of the attributes originally 

 belonging to the Hindu Trimurti, each member of it, or 

 two of them at least, became invested with the powers of 

 creation, preservation and destruction formerly allotted 

 separately to the three members, we find the symbolical 

 serpent sharing in the multifariousness of functions and 

 appearing as a symbol of the three supreme attributes ; he 

 is a creator, a preserver, a destroyer. In the phallic form 

 of serpent-worship the creating and preserving attributes 

 are adored, and this worship widely spread in India is found 

 in other countries, even in Germany. Considered as a 

 destroyer, the serpent-demon inspires no less awe than the 

 serpent-creator and guardian obtains reverence. The monster 

 emerges from the waters to devour women, the night-dragon 

 tyrannizes over the earth and is slain by solar heroes. The 

 christian devil, bearing an Aryan name and an adaptation 

 of Siven's trisul, ends in a serpent's tail. In modern times, 

 especially in Europe, where snakes are less common than 

 ia Asia, the phallic form of serpent- worship is often dis- 



* See the curious notes on this point in de Gubernatis' Zoological 

 Mythology. 



