SECTION VIII.
That venemous Creatures have been made Instruments of divine and human Vengeance, is most evident. The romantic Account given in Antiquity, of strange Feats done by a poisonous Breath—does not affect the Truth of this Proposition.
The Antients divided Serpents, into good and evil Ministers; thus the Egyptians looked upon some of them to be Administrators of Mercy, and others to be Messengers of Justice. Osiris[[85]] one of their Gods, is said to send out Serpents, to chastise Evil-Doers[[86]].
[85].
——δρακων επι νωτα δαφωινος
Σμερδαλεος, του ῥ’ αυτος ολυμπιος ηκε φοως δε.
Hom. Iliad. B.
[86]. Ælian. Hist. Animalium.
When the Church of Israel murmured against God in the Wilderness, and censured the Conduct of Providence, he employs an Army of Serpents as his Agents, to correct the Rebels.——Plagues, and other pestilential Diseases, were, in old times, reputed to be the Messengers of the Gods, and commissioned by them, to execute Wrath upon the Wicked.
Some of the Heathens had exalted Notions of Virtue, and believed Men of Virtue to be the Favourites of the Gods, and that a vicious Life, being opposite to the Sanctity of their Nature, they could not let it pass with Impunity.
An Instance to this purpose we have in the History of the Apostles, Acts xxviii. 1-6. The Island was called Melita. And when Paul had gathered a Bundle of Sticks, and laid them on the Fire, there came a Viper out of the Heat, and fastened on his Hand. And when the Barbarians saw the venemous Beast hang on his Hand; they said among themselves, No doubt this Man is a Murderer, tho’ he has escaped the Sea, yet Vengeance (δικη, Justice) suffers not to live——They looked when he should have swoln, or faln down—And when they saw no harm come to him, they changed their Mind, and said he was a God. How came they to alter their Opinion? Because, according to their Divinity, none else could thus command, and controul a venemous Serpent, which was one of the Messengers of the Gods.
“No venemous Beasts, according to the fabulous Tradition, will live in the Island, which they ascribe to St. Paul’s Blessing, when he was shipwreck’d there.” They shew the Cave where they pretend he resided, and reckon the Earth of it, an Antidote against Poison.
From this historical Passage, ’tis evident, that these Barbarians did believe a Providence, and the Doctrine of Divine Justice, which Justice they openly adored, under the Name of Vindicta, or Nemesis, which was the Goddess of Revenge, whose Province was to inspect the moral Conduct of all Men, and distribute Rewards and Punishments as the Case required. It was painted in the same manner as Justice, with a Pair of Scales in one hand, and a Sword in the other.
In Ethiopia, we read of a large Country, this side the Cynamolgi, that was laid waste, and entirely depopulated by Scorpions, before whom, the Inhabitants not being able to stand, fled for their Lives. The same Desolation was made by the Scorpions at Salamin, an island not far from Athens, called the Island of Dragons, for which Lycophron is quoted[[87]].
[87]. Conrad. Gesner. de Scorp.
The Inhabitants of Amyclæ, a Town in Italy, were destroyed by Serpents, being, as ’tis said, of the Pythagorean Race, whose Laws forbid to kill Animals, and by suffering these venemous Creatures to multiply without Controul, they became insufferable[[88]].
[88]. Ibid.
The Inhabitants of Pescara, an antient City in Africa, were constrained to forsake their Habitations in Summer, by reason of Scorpions that were very numerous, and in that Season, their Sting most dangerous: In Winter, when their Wounds were less dangerous, the Refugees turned to their Houses[[89]].
[89]. Atl. Geogr. p. 319.
DIODORUS SICULUS observes how many Regions have been deserted, for this reason; both People and Cattle being driven away by an Army of Scorpions, and their Allies.
In the Canary-Islands, these venemous Animals are more dreaded than the Pestilence. ’Tis said they are hunted and taken by the Turks, who prepare the Oil of Scorpions from them[[90]]. In India, about the Arrahban-Lake, the Country has been intirely dispeopled by these mischievous Creatures. Ibid.
[90]. Conrad. Gesner. p. 29.
In Times of War, Serpents have been prest into the Service. Thus Heliogabalus (Emperor of Rome, so called because he was Priest of the Sun before his Election) having, by his Sacerdotal Incantators, or sacred Conjurers, gathered together several Serpents, contrived a Method to turn them loose, before day, among his Enemies, which soon put them into a terrible Hurry, and a Motion, that was a Trial for their Lives; the Sight of the crooked Serpent being far more dreadful, than the Whizzing of a straight Arrow[[91]]. The same Author informs us of Snakes thrown by a Sling-Staff into the Camp of the Barbarians, which did great Execution.
[91]. Gesner. de Scorp.
King Prusias being overcome by King Eumenes, by Land, and intending to try his Fate by Sea, Hannibal, by a new Invention, made him victorious. The Stratagem was this: Hannibal having procured a great Number of Serpents, put them into earthen Vessels; and by another Device, and in midst of the Engagement, convey’d them into Antiochus’s Fleet, which proved more dreadful than Fire-balls, and feather’d Weapons, that flew amongst them. At first, it seemed ridiculous to the Romans, that they should arm themselves, and fight with earthen Pots; but when they were broken, an Army of Snakes rush’d out, which so terrified the Marines, that they immediately yielded the Victory to Prusias, the Carthaginian Hero’s Friend[[92]].
[92]. Justini Hist. lib. xxxii. ad finem.
We read in History, how Juno, out of her hatred to Hercules, sent two dreadful Serpents to devour him in the Cradle, which he soon crush’d with his Infant-Hands.
It was common among the Antient Swedes, to send out certain Flies (which they pretended to be their Familiars) to plague their Enemies. They also made Magical Balls for the same purpose, boasting how they thereby conveyed Serpents into their Enemies Bodies.
The Laplanders had their Magical Tyre, which was a Ball about the Bigness of a small Apple, (made of Moss, or Hair of Beasts) which, they say, is quickned and moved by a particular Art; they persuade themselves, that by this Tyre, they can send Serpents, or what they please, into any Man, to torment him. When this Ball is thrown, it goes like a Whirlwind, and as swift as a pointed Arrow[[93]].
[93]. Schefferus’s History of Lapland, cap. xi. p. 60.
In the Book of Daniel, mention is made of several kinds of Magicians in Chaldea, under King Nebuchadnezzar; one is Mecasphim, a word which by St. Jerome, and the Greeks is translated Malefici, Inchanters, such People as make use of noxious Herbs and Drugs, the Blood of Victims, and Bones of the Dead, for their superstitious Operations[[94]].
[94]. Calmet’s Hist. Crit.—Dictionary.
“The Tyrants of Japonia invented a strange Punishment for those who confessed Christ.——They hung them with their Heads downwards, half their Bodies into a large Hole digged in the Earth, which they filled with Snakes, Lizards, and other poisonous Vermin; but even those (says my Right Reverend Author, the learned and pious Bishop Taylor) were better Companions than those infernal Dragons in the Pit of Hell[[95]].”
The Romans, when they punish’d any for Parricide, to express their Abhorrence of so heinous a Murder, they shut him up in a Sack, with a Serpent, an Ape, and a Cock.
[95]. Contemplations, Book ii. chap. 6.
To these Instances, I shall add, that the Attendants of Pluto, Prince of the Infernal Regions, are represented in a Serpentine Habit, viz. the Furies, Harpies——
In his Train, are three Diræ, Eumenides, or Furies, viz. Alecto, Megæra, and Tysiphone, whose Heads are covered with long and dreadful Snakes, instead of Hair, with Whips, Chains, and flaming Torches, in their Hands, to punish the Guilty. These also attended the Throne of Jove, and were accounted to be Messengers of the Gods, whose Office it was to execute their Decrees in the Infliction of Calamities upon Mortals.
These Furies had their Temples and Worshippers, and were described in Figures of so frightful a Form, that they durst scarce mention their Names without Horror.
TYSIPHONE, one of them, enraged at an innocent Youth, pluck’d off one of her Snakes, and threw it at him, which wound about his Body, and immediately strangled him. Some say, that we see these three Furies on a Medal of the Emperor Philip, struck at Antioch, on whose Reverse are represented three Women, arm’d with a Key, burning Torches, Poniards, and Serpents.
The Daffodil was sacred to the Furies, and such as offered Sacrifice to them were crowned with it[[96]].
[96]. From Eustathius, on the first Book of the Iliad.
As soon as departed Souls had been examined by Minos, Radamanthus, and Æacus, and found guilty, and Sentence past, they were delivered to the Furies, who cast them down headlong into Tartarus, the Place of Torment,—and all those who had lived well, were conducted to the Elysian Fields.
HOMER speaks of them as the Executioners of Justice upon false Swearers, among other Instances:
Infernal Furies, and Tartarean Gods,
Who rule the Dead, and horrid Woes prepare
For perjur’d Kings, and all who falsly swear.
The Harpies[[97]] were monstrous and cruel Birds describ’d with Women’s Faces, and Dragons Tails, to render them more formidable to Mankind: The Ancients looked upon them as Dæmons or Genii, which last Homer calls Podarge. About Kaskan in Persia, is a fine and fertile Country, but plagued with Multitudes of Scorpions, which haunt the Inhabitants, especially in that Town (one of the most populous and eminent Marts in that Empire) where the Inhabitants, for fear of that venemous Animal, dare not sleep upon the Floor (as in other Places, where they only throw a Quilt upon the Tapestry) but have light Couches, hanging down from the Roof, like Seamens Hammocks, or hanging Beds on ship-board.
[97]. Aello, Ocypete, and Celæno, Virg. Æneid. lib. 3.
They have indeed a ready Help against its venemous Wounds, which is made of the Filings of Copper, tempered with Vinegar and Honey, which proves a speedy Cure; but if neglected, the Patient is in danger of his Life. This, says the Historian, I presume, has been first found out by the antipathetick Quality, which seems to be between Scorpions and Copper; for not far from the City is the Copper-Mine, where, as before, if one of these Animals be brought, it dies immediately. Q. Whether this be not Herbert’s Parthian?
Yea, to render a future State terrible to Mortals, the Heathens, speaking of departed Souls, feigned, that at their Descent from Charon’s Boat (who was the Ferryman of Hell) they met Cerberus, a monstrous Dog, with three Heads, who was covered all over with Serpents, instead of Hair. There was the Monster Chimæra that vomited Fire, her Head like a Lion, Middle like a Goat, and her Tail like a furious Dragon; so sings the Poet:
——Cerberus, who soon began to rear
His crested Snakes—he gapes with three enormous Mouths.
Dryden’s Virgil.
So another:
For as the Pope that keeps the Gate
Of Heaven, wears three Crowns of State;
So he, that keeps the Gates of Hell,
Proud Cerberus, wears three Heads as well.
And, if the World have any Troth,
Some have been canoniz’d in both.
Hudibras.
But further, we may observe, that besides this frightful Appearance of Serpents to salute their Entrance into Hell, there was Variety of Punishments for them when there. Thus the Danaides were condemned to Tartarus by the Poets, to be continually employed in filling a Cask perforated at the bottom; Phlegas, condemned by Apollo to Hell, where he sat upon a rolling Stone, in constant danger of falling into a Pit of greater Misery; Tityus, adjudged to Hell, where a Vultur feeds on his Liver, and the Liver always grows with the Moon: Nay, such were the horrible Preparations in Hell, that Virgil[[98]], after a Survey of it, declares, that had he a hundred Mouths and Tongues, they would not suffice to recount all the Plagues of the Tortured: so that it is no wonder to see them represent the infernal Prison in Figures the most frightful.
[98]. Æneid. lib. vi. ver. 638.
And as the Heathen had their terrible Place for bad Men, so, to prompt them to Virtue, they had their Elysium, i. e. a Place of Pleasure in Hades, furnished with most pleasant Fields, agreeable Woods, Groves, Shades, Rivers; whither the Souls of good People were supposed to go after this Life. These are finely described by the Poet:
——locos lætos & amœna virenta
Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.
A
NATURAL HISTORY
OF
SERPENTS