[576] Râmây. iii. 8.
[577] iii. 2609, et seq.
[578] Triçîrshâ iva nâgapotâs; 12, 744.
[579] Cfr. Papi, Lettere sulle Indie Orientali, Lucca, 1829; it is the cobra de capello of the Portuguese.
[580] Cfr. Simrock Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 478, 513, 514, and Rochholtz Deutscher Glaube und Brauch, i. 146.
[581] Cfr. again the legend of Adam and Eve, of the tree and the serpent, and the original sin. In the mediæval comedy La Sibila del Oriente, Adam when dying says to his son, "Mira en cima de mi sepulcro, que un arbol nace." In Russian stories the young hero will be fortunate, now because he watched at his father's tomb, now because he defended the paternal cypress from the demon who wished to carry it off. In the legend of the wood of the cross, according to a sermon of Hermann von Fristlar (cfr. Mussafia, Sulla Leggenda del legno della Croce), the tree upon the wood of which, made into a cross, Christ died, is said to have been a cypress. The same mediæval legend describes the terrestrial paradise whence Adam was expelled, and where Seth repairs to obtain for Adam the oil of pity. The tree rises up to heaven, and its root goes down to hell, where Seth sees the soul of his brother Abel. On the summit there is a child, the Son of God, the promised oil. The angel gives to Seth three grains which he is to put into Adam's mouth; three sprouts spring up which remain an arm's-length in height till the time of Moses, who converts them into miraculous rods, and replants them before his death; David finds them again, and performs miracles with them. The three sprouts become one plant which grows proudly into a tree. Solomon wishes to build the temple with this wood; the workmen cannot make use of it; he then has it carried into the temple; a sybil tries to sit upon it, and her clothes take fire; she cries out, "Jesus, God and my Lord," and prophesies that the Son of God will be hanged upon that wood. She is condemned to death, and the wood thrown into a fish-pond, which acquires thaumaturgic virtue; the wood comes out and they wish to make a bridge of it; the Queen of the East, Saba, refuses to pass over it, having a presentiment that Jesus will die upon that wood. Abia has the wood buried, and a fish-pond appears over it.—Now, this is what an author, unsuspected of heresy, writes concerning the symbol of the serpent (Martigny, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Chrétiennes): "Les ophites, suivant en cela les nicolaites et les premiers gnostiques, rendirent au serpent lui-même un culte direct d'adoration, et les manichéens le mirent aussi à la place de Jésus Christ (S. Augustin. De Hœres. cap. xvii. et xlvi.) Et nous devons regarder comme extrêmement probable que les talismans et les amulettes avec la figure du serpent qui sont arrivés jusqu' à nous, proviennent des hérétiques de la race de Basilide, et non pas des païens, comme on le suppose communément." To the continuers of the admirable studies of Strauss and Renan will be reserved the office of seeking the sense hidden in this myth, made poetical by the evangelical morals. When we shall be able to bring into Semitic studies the same liberty of scientific criticism which is conceded to Âryan studies, we shall have a Semitic mythology; for the present, faith, a natural sense of repugnance to abandon the beloved superstitions of our credulous childhood, and more than all, a less honourable sentiment of terror for the opinion of the world, have restrained men of study from examining Jewish history and tradition with entire impartiality and severity of judgment. We do not wish to appear Voltairians, and we prefer to shut our eyes not to see, and our ears not to hear what history, studied critically and positively, presents to us less agreeable to our pride as men, and to our vanity as Christians.
[582] Cfr. Yaçna, ix. 25-27; cfr. also Prof. Spiegel's introduction to the Khorda Avesta, pp. 59, 60.
[583] Cfr. the chapter concerning the Fishes and that on the Tortoise.
[584] Cfr. Prof. Spiegel's introduction to the Khorda-Avesta, p. 60.
[585] xxxviii. 36.