(4) Principal Characteristics. The chief characteristics of the serpent throughout the East in all ages seems to have been their supposed power over the wind and rain.
Among the Chinese, the dragon is regarded as the giver of rain, and in time of drought, offerings are made to it. In the spring and fall of the year it is one of the objects worshiped, by command of the Emperor, by certain mandarins.
Another equally strong belief is the power of the serpent in its connection with health. Mr. Fer guson says that, when we first meet with serpent worship, either in the wilderness of Sinai, the groves of Epidaurus, or in the Sarmatian huts. the serpent is always the agatho-darmon, the bringer of health and good fortune.
(5) Attributes. One of the best-known at tributes of the serpent is wisdom.
The Hebrew account of the fall speaks of that animal as the most subtile of the beasts of the field ; and the founder of Christianity tells his disciples to be "as wise as serpents," though "as harmless as doves." Thus we see that the serpent was anciently the symbol of wisdom, life, and healing, and also that it was thought to have power over the wind and rain. This last attribute is easily understood when the importance of rain in the East is considered.
(6) Deceased Ancestors. Among various Afri can tribes this animal is viewed with great venera tion, under the belief that it is the re-embodiment of a deceased ancestor. This notion is also prev alent among the Hindus, who, like the Kafirs, will never kill a serpent, although it is usually re garded more with dislike than veneration. North American Indians entertain a superstitious regard for the rattlesnake.
Though always avoiding they never destroy it, lest "the spirit of the reptile should excite its kindred to revenge." Heckwelder relates that the Linni Linape called the rattlesnake 'grandfather,' and would on no account allow it to be destroyed. The most curious notion, however, is that of the Mexicans, who always represented the first wom an, whose name was translated by the old Span ish writers "the woman of our flesh," as accom panied by a great male serpent.
(7) The Serpent Sun. The serpent is the sun god Tonacaticoats, the principal deity of the Mexican Pantheon, and his female companion, the goddess mother of mankind, has the title China Cohuatt, which signifies "the woman of the ser pent." With the Peruvians, also, the principal deity was the serpent sun, whose wife, the female ser pent, gave birth to a boy and a girl, from whom all mankind were said to be descended.
(8) Summary. The facts cited prove that the serpent superstition is intimately connected with ancestor worship, probably originating among un cultured tribes, who, struck by the noiseless move ment and the activity of the serpent, combined with its peculiar gaze, and power of casting its skin, viewed it as a spirit embodiment. As such,
it would be supposed to have the superior wisdom and power ascribed to the denizens of the invisi ble world, and from this would originate also the ascription to it of the power over life and health, and over the moisture on which those benefits are dependent. These few facts far from exhaust the subject, but they appear to justify the following conclusions: (I) The serpent has been viewed with awe or veneration from primeval times, and almost uni versally as a re-embodiment of a deceased human being, and as such there were ascribed to it the attributes of life and wisdom, and the power of healing.
(2) The idea.of a simple spirit re-incarnation of a deceased ancestor, gave rise to the notion that mankind originally sprang from a serpent, and ul timately to a legend embodying that idea.
(3) This legend was connected with nature, or rather sun, worship; and the sun was, there fore, looked upon as the divine serpent—father of man and nature.
(4) Serpent worship, as a developed religious system, originated in Central Asia. the home of the great Scythic stock, from whom all the civil ized races of the historical period sprang. (Ser pent Worship, C. Staniland Wade.) [NorE—When man had sinned and gone away from God, his first instinct seems to have been adoration for the things of the universe. Hence the earliest literature of the Hindus is the Veda, containing their hymns of praise to earth, air and sky—to the sun and stars. The worship of "the host of heaven" (Deut. iv :19; xvii :13; Job xxxi: 26, 27) was one of the earliest forms of idolatry. The constellations may have been the first ob jects which received the adoration of fallen man.
The serpent as the prophecy of the sin power was first found in the sky. "By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens: his hand bath formed the crooked serpent" (Job xxvi :13). (See STAR.) Hence men who began by worshiping the con stellation were soon bringing oblations to the reptiles at their feet.
There is another constellation which is a glo rious prophecy of redemption, the cross which blazes in the southern sky. It has been drifting slowly southward, having been seen in the horizon of Jerusalem about the time of the crucifixion. This, too, with other constellations, was early seized upon as an object of veneration, and all unknowing of the great Sacrifice which it pre figured, men bowed before its glory in the heavens and used its form as a sacred symbol upon the earth. Although it has been thus wrest ed from its divine mission, it was ever the pro phecy of Calvary, and it shall show forth the story of redemption through the ages of eternity.
E. A. R.]