TRACES OF A RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF PRIMEVAL MAN. 143 



the worship of the sun and the worship of the serpent are 

 constantly found united. This was the case among the Aztecs 

 at the time of the Spanish conquest. In ancient Babylon, also, 

 the sun was adored, and great veneration was attached to the 

 evil deity which, as a serpent or dragon, dwelt in the ocean, 

 and was called by the ancient Babylonians "the huge seven- 

 headed serpent who pounds the waves of the sea."* Even at 

 the present day the semi-civilized Indians in Xew Mexico and 

 Arizona worship the sun and pay religious homage to the 

 rattlesnake. The great serpent-mound near Oban in Western 

 Scotland has been well described by Miss Gordon Cumraing,t 

 and similar mounds in the form of a serpent exist in North 

 America J and even in Australia. Now it is a singular fact that 

 the Baton of Montgaudier, which is a Palaeolithic sceptre, 

 contains a round hole made in its end which might represent 

 the sun, and on one side there are tw r o great serpents which are 

 admirably carved. § Here then are the sun and the serpent 

 together. Similar associations are found in the Palaeolithic 

 caves of La Madelaine and Kesslerloch. Among the Hottentots 

 of South Africa in former days the same dual worship existed, 

 mingled with the worship of sacred stones and sacred wells.|| 

 In Ancient Britain the same kind of worship was practised. 



Whatever difficulties may attach themselves to the explana- 

 tion of these facts, they ought not to be entirely passed over. 

 It will not do to say that, so far as the men of the Quaternary 

 Period are concerned, the indications are too slight for notice. 

 Facts are constantly accumulating, and they demand explana- 

 tion, or patient accumulation before theorizing. To take one 

 more instance only. Some of the figures portrayed on the walls 

 and roofs of the painted caves lately discovered in France and 

 Spain have been held to have a religious significance.! On 

 this I make no comment and offer no opinion, as the subject is 

 beset with many difficulties. 



Here I close this investigation. I readily admit that the 

 evidence I have adduced to show that the earliest Quaternary 

 men possessed a religion is but slight. But may I ask how it 

 is otherwise to be interpreted ? If I have drawn wrong 



* The beginnings of History, by Francois Lenormant, p. 109. 

 + In the Hebrides, pp. 46-49. 



% Prehistoric America, by the Marquis of Nadaillac, p. 126. 

 § La France Prehistorique, by E. Cartailhac, p. 82. 



|| The Supreme God of the Khoi Khoi, by Theophilus Halm, pp. 79-105. 

 IT Ancient Hunters, by W. J. Sollas. 



