454 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Nov. 2, iE 



Mittheilungen der Anthropol. Gesellschaft zu Wien and 

 in the Naturforscher. He considers that there is scarcely 

 any animal which has played so great and so manifold a 

 part in the religious conceptions of all nations. The 

 mythogenetic or saga-framing imagination has formed 

 the most varied beings out of serpents. At first it is 

 always the serpent as an animal to which fable and wor- 

 ship attach themselves. It is a fact that snake-myths 

 and snake-worship are found wherever snakes exist — 

 that is over the whole earth (?) — but more especially in 

 those lands which are richest in serpents, India and 

 South America. Although the bodily properties of the 

 serpent do not, to the keenly discriminating eye ol the 

 naturalist, entitle serpents to take such a position, 

 the lay public, and especially the savage, see differently, 

 and it is their superficial consideration of physical pro- 

 perties which determines the popular conception of 

 serpents. Thus, the uncanny, flashing eye of the serpent, 

 which does not strike the zoologist as remarkable, plays 

 a very prominent part. Hence among the ancient 

 Greeks the serpent was regarded as the most sharp- 

 sighted of all animals. Hence there arose numberless 

 sagas concerning the magical action of the serpent's 

 look — fables which still live in narratives of the fasci- 

 nation exerted by serpents upon birds, and which have 

 made their way even into scientific treatises. We may 

 here, however, interpose a question whether birds and 

 and other small animals by gazing fixedly at the eyes of 

 a serpent may not fall into a trance or hypnotic con- 

 dition, during which they become a ready prey. This 

 influence, apparently exerted upon their enemies, 

 together with the docility which many serpents evince 

 up to a certain degree, led to the ascription of an exalted 

 intelligence to serpents, and naturally brought them into 

 close connection with magic and soothsaying. Through- 

 out the East the serpent is an object of sorcery. The 

 Delphian oracle — the most famous of all in Greece — was 

 guarded by the dragon python. Many Oriental sagas 

 represent priests and prophets as being indebted to 

 serpents for an understanding of the language of birds. 

 In like manner German fables describe the king as 

 learning the language of animals by eating a white 

 serpent, which reappears in Hindu literature as the all- 

 knowing, deeply learned itself and imparting knowledge. 

 The universality of this article of popular faith appears 

 from the fact .that even in South America the serpent 

 appears as oracular. 



In consequence of the profound knowledge attributed 

 to serpents, we need not wonder that they were con- 

 nected with the metallic treasures of the earth. Winter- 

 nitz suggests that the rich metallic lustre which many 

 snakes display may have contributed to this representa- 

 tion. But we may also consider that the abode of 

 snakes in cavities and chinks of rocks may have led 

 them to be regarded as mine-spirits and guardians of 

 treasures. In the old German mythology the dragons 

 sleep upon gold, and in Greek sagas the " Golden Fleece " 

 and the apples of the Hesperides are committed to the 

 keeping of the serpent. Throughout Asia and America 

 is spread the belief in strange, black, shining stones 

 which serpents bear in their heads. That the mine genii 

 are represented as winged snakes may be due to the 

 speed with which these creatures seem to glide down 

 precipitous rocks. 



The moulting of serpents gave rise to fables of another 

 kind. Since the serpent seemed thus to renew its 

 youth, it was regarded as immortal, and was adopted in 



the mysteries. Here we find the first step taken to the 

 sagas, which describe serpents assuming various forms, 

 and especially as transforming themselves into beautiful 

 youths and maidens. 



Above all, the fearful action of its venom has brought the 

 serpent to high popular honours. Says an Indian proverb, 

 " No one is reverenced, however great he may be, until he 

 has wrought evil." Thus the serpent has been deified, 

 worshipped as an evil demon, on account of the terrific 

 death-dealing power of many species. As such it appears 

 in the Hebrew history of the Creation, and in the Zenda- 

 vesta Ahriman, the evil principle, figures as the great 

 serpent. But on the other hand was the belief that the 

 same being which inflicted sickness and death could heal 

 and quicken. This representation of a conflicting dualism 

 in one and the same being is found distinctly embodied 

 in all antiquity. As examples are the head of the Gorgon, 

 combining beauty and horror, or the lance of Peleus, 

 which alone could heal the wounds it had inflicted. 

 Thus the serpent alone was supposed able to counteract 

 its own deadly bite. Not merely snake-bites, but other dis- 

 eases, were supposed to be cured by serpents. So closely 

 were they connected with the art of healing that the god 

 ot medicine, Asklepios (vulgarly jEsculapius), himself 

 figures as a serpent, and a rod entwined with snakes 

 is still the symbol of his followers. All manner of 

 remedies were prepared from serpents by the physicians 

 of antiquity and of the middle ages, and even in the last 

 centuries the consumption of poisonous serpents by 

 pharmacists was so great that multitudes were im- 

 ported from Egypt. 



But when once serpents had come to be regarded as 

 beneficent beings, healers of disease, only a small step 

 was needed to convert them into good spirits, tutelary 

 genii, the bringers of good fortune. As serpents often 

 were found inhabiting tombs, they were connected with 

 the spirits of the lower world, and regarded as the souls 

 of the departed, the manes, the heroes. Thus snake- 

 worship links itself with the worship of forefathers, 

 as we find alike among the Zulus, the Red Indians, and 

 the Greeks. But the same worship is also closely inter- 

 twined with the veneration of the house-gods, the 

 penates. Thus numerous nations viewed serpents as 

 beneficent tutelary spirits, whose destruction would in- 

 volve the ruin of the family or the tribe. Such was 

 the case among the Teutons, Sclaves, Greeks, Romans, 

 peoples of the East, of Africa and America. In Mexico, 

 Yucatan, and Guatemala even human sacrifices were 

 offered to serpents. The deity Cihuatcohuat, the " woman- 

 serpent," was regarded as the mother of mankind, and 

 the saga of creation among the Quiches of Guatemala 

 tells us that " in the beginning was only God the Creator, 

 the mighty Serpent." 



Thus we see the serpent pass through all changes 

 from a rude fetish to mythological beings, evil demons, 

 and good spirits, and ultimately appear as the Supreme 

 Deity. 



The deification of the serpent was promoted by the 

 circumstance that various natural phenomena seemed to 

 contain its image. Earthly and heavenly waters, the 

 " serpentine " river, the black storm-cloud, and the des- 

 cending lightning were all viewed as serpents. 



Perhaps the last stage of evolution through which the 

 serpent has passed is when the abstract idea of eternity 

 is shadowed forth as a coiled-up snake. Thus the 

 Orpheic deity, ^Eon, and Chronos himself are represented 

 as wound round by a serpent, 



