Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest:
As our dire neighbours of Cyclopean birth.”
[330] Vide Captain Wallis’ Voyage, in “Hist. Account of all the Voyages round the World,” 1773, iii. p. 79.
[331] Caduceatores—compare supra, [p. 348.] In connection with these latter, let us inquire more particularly as to their wand of office, the caduceus. “In its oldest form” it “was merely a bough twined round with white wool; afterwards a white or gilded staff with imitations of foliage and ribands was substituted for the old rude symbol. These were probably not turned into snakes till a much later age, when that reptile had acquired a mystic character.” Müller’s explanation is that it was originally the olive branch with the stemmata, which latter became developed into serpents.—Encyc. of Arts and Sciences. If, therefore, Müller’s explanation is correct, the oldest form of the symbol of office of those who were the depositaries of laws of nations in the matter of peace and war, was a symbol which has a special history and significance in connection with the Deluge. Will this not tend to identify their institution with that epoch? It will, perhaps, be said that the branch of a tree is in any case a natural symbol of peace. But why a symbol or token at all? Why more than a simple gesture of salutation? unless the symbol embodied some idea which conveyed a pledge over and above? What, then, was this idea, unless the traditional idea? It may appear to us a natural emblem, but it is not so from association of ideas with the scriptural dove and olive branch? and yet consider how universal it is. Captain Cook’s Voyages (i. p. 38; London, 1846) says, “It is remarkable that the chief, like the people in the canoes, presented to us the same symbol of peace that is known to have been in use among the ancient and mighty nations of the northern hemisphere, the green branch of a tree.” This occurred both in New Zealand and Otaheite. Wallis (“Voyages round the World,” iii. 98) says that on an occasion when the Otaheitans wished to testify fidelity and friendliness, “the Indians cut branches from the trees and laid them in a ceremonious manner at the feet of the seamen; they painted themselves red with the berries of a tree, and stained their garments yellow with the bark of another.” We have, as we have just seen, found this symbol in the caduceus, and it appears to me that the caduceus in its earlier form of a staff with foliage and ribands, is recognisable in the Gothic monuments as given in Stephens’ “Central America.” Vide also Cunningham’s “Bhilsa Topes.” Washington Irving (“Life of Columbus,” iii. 214) speaks of the natives coming forward to meet them with white flags; and the same, if I remember rightly, is recorded in Cook’s visit to the Sandwich Islanders. The white flag is our own symbol; but what is the white flag but the development and refinement of the staff and white wool? Again, why are stripes, in a variety of combination of colour, the characteristic symbol of flags? The reader will find the answer on returning to the text, where he will also learn the significance of the red and yellow, in the above descriptions.
[332] II. p. 317.
[333] Vide also in Carver’s “North America” (p. 296), an engraving of the Indian “Calumet of Peace,”—the stem is of a light wood curiously painted with hieroglyphics in various colours, and adorned with the feathers of the most beautiful birds. It is not in my power to convey an idea of the various tints and pleasing ornaments of this much-esteemed Indian implement"(p. 359).
[334] It will hardly be denied that the tradition of the rainbow as a sign and pledge to man existed among the ancients. Vide Bryant, ii. 348. [The goddess Iris, who was sent with the messages of the gods, bore the same name as the rainbow Iris.]
E.g. Homer—
“Ἴρῖσσιν ἐοικότες ἅς τε Κρονίων
ἐν νεφεϊ στηριξε, τερας μεροπων ἀνθρωπων.—Il. xi. 27.