Serpent.—The cult of the serpent is found in many parts of the Old World; it is also not unknown in America; in Australia, on the other hand, though many species of serpent are found, there does not appear to be any species of cult unless we include the Warramunga cult of the mythical Wollunqua totem animal, whom they seek to placate by rites. In Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was Dahomey; but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshippers, and ended by adopting from them the cult which they at first despised. At Whydah, the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes; every python of the danh-gbi kind must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing one, even by accident. Danh-gbi has numerous wives, who until 1857 took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried round the town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony for the expulsion of evils. The rainbow-god of the Ewe was also conceived to have the form of a snake; his messenger was said to be a small variety of boa; but only certain individuals, not the whole species, were sacred. In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives; among the Amazulu, as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes; the Masai, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.
In America some of the Amerindian tribes reverence the rattlesnake as grandfather and king of snakes who is able to give fair winds or cause tempest. Among the Hopi (Moqui) of Arizona the serpent figures largely in one of the dances. The rattlesnake was worshipped in the Natchez temple of the sun; and the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl was a serpent-god. The tribes of Peru are said to have adored great snakes in the pre-Inca days; and in Chile the Araucanians made a serpent figure in their deluge myth.
Over a large part of India there are carved representations of cobras (Nāgas) or stones as substitutes; to these human food and flowers are offered and lights are burned before the shrines. Among the Dravidians a cobra which is accidentally killed is burned like a human being; no one would kill one intentionally; the serpent-god's image is carried in an annual procession by a celibate priestess.
Serpent cults were well known in ancient Europe; there does not, it is true, appear to be much ground for supposing that Aesculapius was a serpent-god in spite of his connexion with serpents. On the other hand, we learn from Herodotus of the great serpent which defended the citadel of Athens; the Roman genius loci took the form of a serpent; a snake was kept and fed with milk in the temple of Potrimpos, an old Slavonic god. To this day there are numerous traces in popular belief, especially in Germany, of respect for the snake, which seems to be a survival of ancestor worship, such as still exists among the Zulus and other savage tribes; the "house-snake," as it is called, cares for the cows and the children, and its appearance is an omen of death, and the life of a pair of house-snakes is often held to be bound up with that of the master and mistress themselves. Tradition says that one of the Gnostic sects known as the Ophites caused a tame serpent to coil round the sacramental bread and worshipped it as the representative of the Saviour. See also SERPENT-WORSHIP.
Sheep.—Only in Africa do we find a sheep-god proper; Ammon was the god of Thebes; he was represented as ram-headed; his worshippers held the ram to be sacred; it was, however, sacrificed once a year, and its fleece formed the clothing of the idol.
Tiger.—The tiger is associated with Siva and Durga, but its cult is confined to the wilder tribes; in Nepal the tiger festival is known as Bagh Jatra, and the worshippers dance disguised as tigers. The Waralis worship Waghia the lord of tigers in the form of a shapeless stone. In Hanoi and Manchuria tiger-gods are also found.
Wolf.—Both Zeus and Apollo were associated with the wolf by the Greeks; but it is not clear that this implies a previous cult of the wolf. It is frequently found among the tutelary deities of North American dancing or secret societies. The Thlinkits had a god, Khanukh, whose name means "wolf," and worshipped a wolf-headed image.
AUTHORITIES.—For a fuller discussion and full references to these and other cults, that of the serpent excepted, see N. W. Thomas in Hastings' Dictionary of Religions; Frazer, Golden Bough; Campbell's Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom; Maclennan's Studies (series 2); V. Gennep, Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar. For the serpent, see Ellis, Ewe-speaking Peoples, p. 54; Internat. Archiv, xvii. 113; Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 239; Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship; Mähly,Die Schlange im Mythus; Staniland Wake, Serpent Worship, &c.; 16th Annual Report of the American Bureau of Ethnology, p. 273, and bibliography, p. 312. For the bull, &c., in Egypt, see EGYPT: Religion.
(N. W. T.)
ANIMÉ, an oleo-resin (said to be so called because in its natural state it is infested with insects) which is exuded from the locust tree, Hymenaea coumaril, and other species of Hymenaea growing in tropical South America. It is of a pale brown colour, transparent, brittle, and in consequence of its agreeable odour is used for fumigation and in perfumery. Its specific gravity varies from 1.054 to 1.057. It melts readily over the fire, and softens even with the heat of the mouth; it is insoluble in water, and nearly so in cold alcohol. It is allied to copal in its nature and appearance, and is much used by varnish-makers. The name is also given to Zanzibar copal (q.v.).