OF SERPENTS. 217 



of a Serpent with a Hawk's Head, becaufe of the wonderful 

 Agility of that Bird. We fee no Table of Ofiris and Ifis, two 

 Egyptian Idols, without a Serpent joined to them *. This 1/is 

 married Ofiris, King of that Country, and govern'd with fo 

 much Wifdom and Gentlenefs, that the Egyptians paid divine 

 Honours to them, who had been fuch Bieffings to the Land. 



In Egypt is a Serpent of the Afpick Kind, called Thermutis, 

 to which they gave divine Worlhip ; therefore crown'd with it 

 the Statue of their Goddefs Ifis. In the Corners of the^Temples, 

 they built little Chapels under ground, where they carefully fed 

 this Thennutic Serpefit^ as 2l J acred Genius -f-. 



The Egyptians alfo paid divine Honours to the Crocodile, that 

 monftrous kind of Serpent, particularly the Inhabitants of .^r/z/zce, 

 and they who dwelt in the Neighbourhood of Thebes, and the 

 Lake Maris ; among whom 'tvi'as fed by their Priefts with Bread, 

 Wine, Flefli, and diverfe Rarities |. 



THMAUTUS, fo often mentioned by Sa?2choniatho, attri- 

 buted fome Deity to the Nature of the Serpent ; an Opinion ap- 

 proved by the Phenicians, therefore look'd upon as holy and im- 

 mortal, and comes into the facred Myfteries ||. 



They reprefented the World by a Circle, in the middle of 

 which was a Serpent, reprefenting the good Demon, or Genius 

 of the World, by which 'tis animated, and is a Symbol of the 

 Almighty Creator. Behold here the Blafphemy of Satan, in 

 giving to God the Form of a Serpent, which he bad borrow'd 

 himfelf to make war againft God in Paradife. They fometimes 

 reprefented their Gods with the Bodies of Serpents, and honour'd 

 thofe odious Animals with divine Worship, as Symbols of Apollo, 

 of the Sun, and of Medicine, and were put into the Charge of 

 Ceres and Proferpine, 



HERODOTUS obferves, that in his time, near Thebes^ 

 there were to be feen tame Serpents, adorn'd with Jewels, and 

 confecrated to Jupiter, which did no harm to any body : When 

 they died they were buried in Jupiter'^ Temple **. Mlian fpeaks 



Ff of 



* Macrohi't Oper . Sat. cap. XX. 



f ^lian de A7iimalibus, lib. X. Conrad: Gefntr. de Serp. p. 32- 

 ^ In Joiiflonus de ^ladruped, Cap. viii. p. 142. 



II EuJ'eb. Prafp. Evangel. 1. i. c. 10. from Fhilo Bihlius, the Tranflaror of 

 Sanchon. 



** Ex Crocodilis alunt. appenientes auribus vet gemmas — —facris in tir?iis 



fepeliant. Euterpe, lib. ii. p. i8(J. 



