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und such“elaborate Christian obelisks or Swenos stone at Forres, or the group that once surmounted the mound at St. Vigeans.* We shall probably not err far if we regard these traces of Serpent Workhin as indicating the presence in the north-east. of Scotland of the head of that column of migration, or of propagandism, which, under the myth of Wodenism, we endeavoured in a previous chapter to trace from the Caucasus to Scandinavia. The Edda seems sufficient to prove that a form of Serpent: Worship did certainly prevail in the latter country in the early centuries of the Christian era; and nothing seems more probable or more in accordance with Pictish traditions,t than that it should have passed thence into Scotland, and should have. left its traces everywhere between the Orkneys and the Firths.{ There is no.evidence, however, of Serpent Worship, in this form at least, having passed south of the Forth. The traces of it that may exist in .England x lreland—if any—most probably belong to an earlier - pre-historic people, and may have been introduced by another and more southern route. AFRIOA. We tread on surer ground, when leaving Serpent Worship in its most attenuated form, and in the uncongenial climate of its furthest extension to the north and west, and turn to Africa, where it always was at home, and where it now flourishes in all its pristine vigour. Serpents are, and always must have been, so numerous and important in Africa, that it is there, if not in Mesopotamia, that we should, & priori, expect their worship to flourish, and it is by no means impossible that it was so. We know s0 little, however, of what happened in Africa in ancient times—except in Egypt—that it is difficult to speak with any confidence on the subject, and the institutions of Egypt were so abnormal and so exclusively their own, that we ‘cannot reason from them to.any general conclusions. Perhaps when the subject is carefully looked into, more may be ascertained than is now known, but our present purpose is with the orsp as it exists at the pout day,. or did in recent times. One of the best known examples of modern Serpent Worship exists 3 in Upper Egypt, at a place called Sheikh Haredi, from a tomb of a Mahomedan saint of that name, which exists on the spot. The account given of the place by Norden,§ who visited it in 1738, with a mere change of names, is an exact counterpart of what might have been found in Pausanias or any ancient author describing the grove of Esculapius, Avebury and Stonehenge, that in so far as the testimony of this author is concerned, it may be considered as conclusive. Perhaps I may be allowed to add that though I only became aware of the existence of these passages a few months ago, they are entirely in accordance with the conclusions J had long ago arrived at from an examination of the monuments themselves. * All these will be found described in Stuart’s “ Sculptured Stones,” above referred to, and also in Colonel Forbes Leslie’s “‘ Early Races of Scotland.” Edin. 1866. . { Skene’s Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, p. x¢v. et seq. ~ There are some traditions in Northumberland, such as that of the Laidley Wurm of Spindleston Heugh ; and there was a Wurm hill at Lambton, and at other places in the neighbourhood (Walter White, “ Northumber- land and the Border, p. 249, et seq.). All this would perfectly accord with the theory that it was the result of a Scandinavian course of immigration which reached these two points on the coast. § Travels in the East, ii. 40. AFRICA. 83 at Epidaurus. When any one was so unwell as to require his seryices, an ambassadress was sent in the person of a spotless virgin—as at Lanuvium—and if- his godship pleased he came out of his cave, hung himself around her neck, and allowed himself to be carried in procession to the sick man’s bedside. Here he stayed, ‘as Norden irreverently suggests, a length of time proportionate to the gifts’ offered to his priests, and then returned alone to his dwelling. Dr. Pococke’s episcopal dignity seems to have been so offended by the monstrosity of the superstition, that he abuses the serpent and his attendants, but he confirms in every particular Norden’s account. He was told it had been there since the time of Mahomet; that they sacrificed to it sheep and lambs. They added that when a number of women visit him, which they. do once a year, he comes out and twines himself about the neck of the most beautiful.* From Wilkinson+ we learn that the worship still ops but has fallen somewhat into disrepute of late. It. does not seem to be a matter of much doubt but that the Serpent was extensively worshipped in Abyssinia before the introduction of Christianity in the. fourth century. All the lists of their kings which have been brought home by Bruce, Riippell, and others, commence with “ the Serpent” and his progeny, though we are not told when he reigned nor where. We are further told that when Abreha and Atzbeha founded Axum 340 a.p., “ that one portion of the people of Ethiopia then worshipped the Serpent, the rest followed the Law of Moses. Abuna Abba Salim’, then introduced Christianity, and the inhabitants were baptized,” &c.t It is by no means clear whether the great dragon who is said to have lived at Axum § was a god or merely a serpent, more probably the former, as he was burst asunder by the prayers of nine Christian saints. Be all this as it may, we have the direct testimony of Bruce || that the Shangalla, in that neighbourhood, “worship ** various trees, serpents, the moon, planets, and stars in certain positions ;” and more instances might no doubt be found if looked for. It is, however, on the west coast that the worship flourishes in all its pristine vigour. Although no one has resided long enough on the Guinea coast with learning and leisure sufficient to write anything like an exhaustive treatise on the religions of that country, we have what is nearly of equal value for our purposes in a series of narratives of Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English travellers, extending over more than two hundred years. Those anterior to 1746 have been digested by Astley J into a continuous narrative and description ; and in 1760 President de Brosses,** of the French Academy, wrote a lucid account of what was then known on the subject, and from that time various travellers have added to our knowledge; but the best and fullest are the narratives of M. Répin,+? a surgeon in the French navy; but * Povocke in Pinkerton’s Voyages, xv. p. 269, || Travels, ii. 554, et seq. { Astley’s Collection of Voyages, 4 vols. quarto, + Ulandbook of Egypt, 301. London, 1846. { Dillmann in Zeitschrift der Morgenlindischen ~ ** De Brosses, du Culte des Dieux Fetisches, &c, Gesellschatt, vol. VII. p. 338, et seq. 12mo. Paris, 1760. § Ludolt. Comment, iii, 284 ? Tt Le Tour du Monde, 1863, p. 9, et seq. (4799.) E 3 4 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.. “we have also that of "Capt. Burton ‘and Commodore Wilmot,* who went on an official mission to Dahomey in 1868. The one point on which we desire’ more information is as to the extent of this form of faith; and as to the ethnological relations of the people who practise it. We are told, for instance, that when the Dahomans invaded Whidah'in 1726, they killed the sacred snakes, and otherwise outraged the religious feelings of the Whidans.t Both countries are now united under one rule, and apparently with one religion. Was it otherwise 140 years ago? ‘ and can the distinction now be traced? These and such like questions are well worthy of more attention than they have hitherto received, for if we are ever to understand the ancient -peculiarities of this faith, it; must be by a thorough study of _the best living examples. |” Hitherto we have been only gathering together, as it were, the fossil remains of an extinct religion, wheréas-in Africa not only does Serpent Worship flourish at the present day, but it exists in conjunction with all those peculiarities of which only . traces can be found elsewhere. Ancestral worship, accompanied by human sacrifices on the most lavish scale, is the leading characteristic of the Dahoman religion, and’ with it we have the institution of a female warrior class, which .we -have hitherto only known through the beautiful Amazonian fictions of the Greeks or the legends of the Hindoos, as to the Stri-rdjya, but in Dahomey the institution exists to this day in all its hideous savagery. . The three gods worshipped in Whidah, or to speak more correctly, the three classes of gods, are Serpents, Trees, and the Ocean;{ the same trinity as was established in the Erechtheum, in the Akropolis of Athens, more than three thousand .years ago. Of these, the serpent called Danh gbwe, or the earthly serpent, is the first. ‘It ‘is esteemed the supreme bliss and general good.- It has 1,000 Danh-si, or “ snake wives, married and single votaries, and its influence cannot. be meddled with “ by the two others, which are subject to it.”§ The ancestor of the present race of serpent gods is said to have deserted from the Ardrah people ages ago, in consequence of their wickedness, on the eve of a - battle, and to have been received by the Whidah people with the highest honours.| Ie is reported to be still alive, as all these gods are immortal, though it need. hardly be added, no European has seen him, but his descendants seem to be among the most. . beautiful, and certainly are among the most harmless of their kind. ‘Des Marchais gives a full description of. the worship addressed to this god, and a picture of a procession, in which the king, the king’s wives, and all-the nobles took part,§] bearing presents and offerings to the serpent god. Prayers are addressed to him on-every occasion, and answers are returned by the snakes in conversation with the high priest.