344 
31 As then neither the rationalistic view of nature-worship,nor 
the simple dread of the destructive powers of the serpent do 
more than help us to a very partial explanation of a feature 
which, as we have seen, hardly ever differed in expression, though 
at the remotest distances, we must look for some other and 
more powerful influence as the originating cause. To arrive at 
this it will be necessary to recapitulate the points of agreement 
at the greatest geographical distances ; viz., a common worship 
of the sun and serpent, either as distinct deities or a compound 
one, together with the principal symbols attending them,— fare 
and the cross, the association of fratricide or human sacrifice 
with this worship, and that too for propitiation, and the widely 
distinct customs of the two first sections of the human family by 
the desire to acquire wealth, through the production and traffic 
in metals, and the opposite of exclusively pastoral life. JNow in 
the earliest times, when there was little or nothing to distract 
man’s attention, and when his ideas must necessarily have been 
few. it appears to me there is only one way to account lor a 
common custom at the remotest geographical positions, which 
is bv a common tradition. Tacts that had occurred would be 
known and handed down, and if not palatable to any, there 
might be evidences of perversion; but in those times there 
could never have been a total forgetfulness, nor, on the other 
hand, a wholly original and pure invention, for there was no 
experience on which to frame it.* 
32. Moreover, if we should find in one and the same tradition 
at least the three prominent and universal features referred to, 
fi re in connection with worship, human sacrifice ol blood 
kindred, and the admitted need of reconciliation with an 
estranged and powerful deity ; still farther, if these are foun 
in coniunction with like symbols and occupation, and even a 
corroboration, by the presence of other traditions having a: ® ni1 fy 
with that one, though at wide-spread distances, we should 
certainly have strong reasons for attributing the customs to 
the tradition, by considering that tradition was once universal, 
and that, however remotely found, it had there been carried. 
33 If in addition we should find that this tradition was retained 
by the descendants of those who had, as it appears, not even 
moved from their central geographical position, but who retained 
* The Indian traditions, as mentioned further on, are so puerile that they 
not only betray a most contemptible endeavour at invention, hut also show 
that they were of a much later date, when at least the utility of the sugar- 
cane was understood, and wine and clarified butter in use. If ^thmg better 
Tonld he thought of then, by way of invention, it shows a difficulty that 
would increase the further we go hack. 
