CLASS III. REPTILIA: ORDER 4. OPHIDIA. 
403 
already alluded to the disposition of mankind to bestow idolatrous worship on serpents. That 
such creatures, endowed with powers which in a semi-civilized state of society must operate pow- 
erfully on the mind ; moving with freedom alike on the land, in the water, or among the trees ; 
at once wily, daring, and irresistible in their attack, graceful in their movements and splendid in 
their coloring — that they should be both dreaded and admired, and become the objects of super- 
stitious reverence, is scarcely to be wondered at. The ancient Mexicans regarded the Boa as 
sacred; they viewed its actions with rehgious horror; they crouched beneath the fiery glance of 
its eyes ; they trembled as they Hstened to its long-drawn hiss, and from various signs and move- 
ments predicted the fate of tribes or individuals, or drew conclusions of guilt or innocence. The 
supreme idol was represented encircled and guarded by sculptured serpents, before which were 
offered human sacrifices ; 
"On a blue throne, with four huge silver snakes, 
As if the keepers of the sanctuary, 
Circled, with stretching neck and fangs display' d, 
Mexitli sate ; another graven snake 
Belted with scales of gold his monster bulk." 
Often, however, the divinity was represented in the form of a huge serpent with a human 
victim in his coils, or half-ingulfed in his horrid jaws ; and the priests had tame boas of great 
size, with which they were familiar, and which they suffered to twine around them, thereby 
inspiring the people with wonder, fear, and servile obedience. Southey, in his poem of Madoc, 
has vividly depicted such an exhibition and its effects. Neolin, the priest of the snake-god, is a 
prisoner in the hands of Madoc and his party, when 
" Forth from the dark recesses of the cave Astounded at the powerful reptile's bulk, 
The serpent came : the Hoamen at the sight And that strange sight. His girth was as of man, 
Shouted ; and they who held the priest, appall'd, But easily could he have overtopp'd 
Relaxed their hold. On came the mighty snake, Gohath's helmed head ; or that huge king 
And twined in many a wreath round Neolin, Of Basan, hugest of the Anakim. 
Darting aright, aleft, his sinuous neck. What then was human strength if once involv'd 
With searching eye and lifted jaw, and tongue Within those dreadful coils ! The multitude 
Quivering ; and hiss as of a heavy shower Fell prone and worshipp'd." 
Upon the summer woods. The Britons stood 
The manner in which these huge serpents attack their prey, doubtless contributed to the 
awful impressions of their powers. Mr. Broderick thus describes the kilKng and devouring of a 
rabbit by a boa in the Tower Menagerie of London, and it may be remarked that this illustrates 
the mode of proceeding with all these larger serpents : 
" A large buck rabbit was introduced into the cage. The snake was down and motionless in 
a moment. There he lay like a log, without one symptom of life, save that which glared in the 
small bright eye twinkling in his depressed head. The rabbit appeared to take no notice of 
him, but presently began to walk about the cage. The snake suddenly, but almost impercep- 
tibly, turned his head according to the rabbit's movements, as if to keep the object within the 
range of his eye. At length the rabbit, totally unconscious of his situation, approached the am- 
bushed head. The snake dashed at him like lightning. There was a blow — a scream and 
instantly the victim was locked in the coils of the serpent. This was done almost too rapidly 
for the eye to follow : at one instant the snake was motionless ; in the next he was one congeries 
of coils round his prey. He had seized the rabbit by the neck just under the ear, and was evi- 
dently exerting the strongest pressure round the thorax of the quadruped; thereby preventing 
the expansion of the chest, and at the same time depriving the anterior extremities of motion. 
The rabbit never cried after the first seizure ; he lay with his hind-legs stretched out, still breath^ 
ing with difiiculty, as could be seen by the motion of his flanks. Presently he made one des- 
perate struggle with his hind-legs ; but the snake cautiously applied another coil with such dex- 
terity as completely to manacle the lower extremities, and in about eight minutes the rabbit was 
quite dead. The snake then gradually and carefully uncoiled himself, and finding that his victim 
moved not, opened his mouth, let go his hold, and placed his head opposite to the fore part of 
the rabbit. The boa generally, I have observed, begins with the head ; but in this instance the 
