Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life

by Catherine Cooper Hopley

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SERPENT WORSHIP, ‘CHARMING,’ ETC.

IN the preceding pages it has been my endeavour to resolve some of the superstitious myths into zoological facts, and to explain by the light of science those peculiar features and manners of the Ophidia which from the earliest traditions of the human race have been regarded as supernatural.

In reviewing the general organization of these reptiles, their marvellous powers and habits, can we wonder at the impressions they have created in untutored minds? Let us picture to ourselves our earliest ancestors with their dawning intellect contemplating the instantaneous coil of a constrictor; or the almost invisible action in a flash of time with which the death-dealing stroke of the poison fang is effected. From a source which was incomprehensible, like the burning, scathing fluid from the skies, came a ‘sting,’ an agony, death! Awe-struck and filled with sacred terror were the beholders, as before them lay the paralyzed, tortured victim. Can we wonder that the slender, gliding ‘worm’ which inflicted this mortal injury should have been regarded as an evil spirit, a devil, and invested with maleficence?

Add to the two great death-dealing powers of the serpent race—constriction and venom—those other peculiarities which have here been faithfully recorded, the seeming renewal of life after the annual sleep, a mystery enhanced by the restored brilliancy and beauty of the reptile on its change of cuticle; let us picture to ourselves those wondering savages now watching the limbless creature as it glides into sight and is gone again, or as with fixed and glittering eyes it flickers that mysterious little tongue; let us imagine them crowding near to behold a serpent feeding, or to witness the still more amazing spectacle of a brood of young ones vanishing down their mother’s throat. There is enough of the mysterious in an ophidian to excite the awe and wonder of even a nineteenth-century beholder, taking each one of these surprising doings singly; but considering that any one serpent may be endowed with nearly all of these phenomenal powers, let us imagine the effect produced by them in the savage mind. To worship such an incomprehensible creature was only consistent with all we know of the influences which first awakened faith in a supernatural Being.

Consequently we find that in every country where a serpent was known, it plays its part in the mythology and religion of that country. We may examine the antiquities of any nation which has left a monument of its history and beliefs, and a serpent will be represented. Scarcely an Egyptian sculpture (in its entirety) can be found in which the serpent does not appear. The same may be said of the Hindoo monuments, their temples, buildings, and sculptured caves; also of Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and other ancient mythologies.

Singularly, too, no other object in nature—no birds or flowers or beautiful things—have been so universally adopted in personal ornaments as the serpent idea. And in times of remote antiquity—as relics prove—personal adornments, bracelets, coronets, and rings in the form of serpents were as much in favour as at the present day. We may, indeed, affirm that the modern bracelet is but a reproduction or a restoration of those of antiquity, dating as far back as artificers in metals can be traced. Rough and rude representations of still earlier times are extant. And where the human race in its savage state had no knowledge of art, the reptile itself, or such relics of it as could be preserved, were adopted as personal decorations. Thus were the American Indians found by the early colonists, with their belts of snake skins, with the rattles of the Crotalus strung in their ears, and with necklaces and chains of snake bones and ‘rattels.’ Mackeney, Catlin, Schoolcraft, and other historians of the American Indians relate numerous instances in proof of the universal veneration and superstition with which the serpent is regarded by those savages. If they kill a rattlesnake, it is immediately skinned and distributed in small pieces among the tribe for their medicine bags, while the captor is pompously decorated with the skin. If on a journey they meet a rattlesnake in their direct path, this is taken to be a sign that they must go no farther. Some of the Indian traditions bear a remarkable resemblance to the prophetic symbols of the Hebrew faith. ‘If thou bruise its head, it shall bruise thy heel.’ This in their eyes is regarded as ‘destiny,’ and they will on no account kill one that lies in their path, lest it should cause the death of the destroyer’s relatives. The Indians are also supposed to possess the art of snake-taming to an extraordinary degree. We are assured by more than one writer that they also pet rattlesnakes, investing them with divine attributes, and sheltering them during the winter; though in this case the ‘tameness’ may be partially due to the inertness resulting from the season of the year. On returning spring they permit their Penates to issue forth again.

The ancient temples of Mexico were richly embellished with carvings of serpents. One of them represents a serpent idol of not less than seventy feet long, in the act of swallowing a human being. Also, there is the ‘God of the Air,’ a feathered rattlesnake; and an edifice known as the ‘Wall of Serpents,’ from the numerous reptilian forms crowded upon it. But it is not necessary to enumerate antiquities, with most of which the reader must be already acquainted, the object here being rather to endeavour to account for those other attributes which have grown out of serpent worship, such as ‘fascinating,’ taming, ‘charming,’ ‘dancing to music,’ etc.

Not that serpent worship is extinct by any means. In India it is still so strong as to amount to a fatality; for the high annual death-rate from snake bites there is not half so much because the natives can’t be cured, as because they won’t be cured of what they regard as a just punishment from their deity. This we shall have occasion to show further on. That serpent superstitions are still rampant among the low-caste Hindoos, is borne out by all modern writers on the native faiths or customs. A. K. Forbes in his Hindoo Annals, or Râs Mala, tells us that cobras are looked upon as guardian angels. One cobra ‘guarded’ a cave in which treasures were deposited; another cobra ‘guarded’ a garden; and very good guards we should say they were, as few persons would venture too near to such an ‘angel.’ One of the supposed ‘Divinities’ is the Poorwug Dev, or spirit personified by a snake, which is not allowed to be killed or injured; and if it bite a person, that individual is supposed to be justly punished for some fault. Fatalism forbids any attempt to cure that unhappy victim, and he swells the annual death-rate. Due honours are paid to these ‘guardian angels’ found in most hamlets. Periodical festivals are held to them: their retreats are then garlanded with flowers, and, as already stated, eggs and milk are placed as propitiatory offerings. One of the Bengalese traditions is, that a male infant auspiciously shaded by a cobra will come to the throne.