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So implicitly was this believed by his subjects; that when the Spaniards appeared on the coast they were joyfully hailed as the returning god and his companions. Alas! they came only to destroy them and their institutions. If all the evidences bearing on this legend were thoroughly sifted by some one competent to the task, I feel confident they would result in’an historical residuum ; and if so, it would throw great light on one of the most perplexing problems connected with the civilization of the New World. As we shall see presently, Serpent Worship was the faith of a great and prosperous kingdom in Cambodia at the time just indicated as the age of the Mexican prophet; and it is more than probable that the wokship prevailed in China and the islands to the eastward at that time. Is it possible that it may have crossed the Pacific, and * Squier’s Serp@nt Symbol in America, p. 162. { Gama, Deseripcion Historica y Cronologica de las pédras de Viceies, 1832, P. 39. 38° INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. landed on. the western coast of America, and, finally, bloomed in Anahuac? If such a solution were possible, it would explain many similarities between the religion - and arts of the Old World and the New, which are now extremely puzzling, for want of some such evidence ‘of intercommunication. On the other hand, if we may trust the antiquaries of the United States, there are great serpent, mounds formed of earth, 1,000 feet long and more,* which would seem to prove that before the present race of Red Indians inhabited the states Ohio and Iowa, a race of Serpent Worshippers occupied their places, and they have been the ancestors of the Toltecs. When, however, we remember. With what curious credulity Stukeley manufactured: a Dracontium out of Avebury, and Bathurst Deane saw a serpent seven miles long in the groups of Menhirs at Carnac, we must pause before we feel sure that these American mounds ‘do really represent serpents at all. This point cannot be settled without much more accurate surveys and more cautious. observers than have yet turned their attention to the subject. If it should turn out that these are really representations of the great serpent, . and that this worship is indigenous in the New World, we are thrown back on the doctrine that human nature is alike everywhere, and that man in like circumstances and with a like degree of civilization does always the same things, and elaborates the same beliefs. It may be so, but I confess it appears to me that at present the | evidence preponderates the other way. It should be mentioned, however, that in America the snake that is worshipped is always the indigenous rattlesnake. “Whether | as separate images or as adorning the walls of the temples of Yucatan, this charac- teristic seems invariable, and in so far would favour the local origin of the faith. The greatest difficulty of the investigation arises from almost absolute destruction of all the monuments of the capital by its barbarous conquerors, and. the consequent paucity of real-reliable ‘data on which to found our conclusions. It seems, however, impossible to read the numerous evidences which Millert .has collected together with so much industry not to feel convinced that Serpent Worship did prevail all over the continent. In Peru apparently with qualities similar to those of the Serpents: in the Old World.t But in Mexico, and among the North American Indians, occasionally with attributes of terror. which were never ascribed to him on this side of the Atlantic. Quetzalcoatl is always an exception to this inference; and on ‘the whole it seems more reasonable to suppose that these characteristics are to be. ascribed more to the horror of the Christian narrators than to the feclings of the © worshippers. We have no native accounts, and depend consequently wholly on those who looked on the worship. from an outside and antagonistic point of view. If, however, we may trust Bernal Diaz, he tells us that living rattlesnakes were kept in the great temple at Mexico as sacred and petted objects. They were kept in a cabin of diversified form, in which a quantity of feathers had been strewed, and there they laid their eggs and nursed their snakelings. They were fed with the bodies of the sacrificed, and with dogs’ meat.§ The same author tells us that on * Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 1. ‘tf Miiller, p. 366. See also Squier’s Serpent Symbol, p. 137 to 141. § Bernal airide translated aes Lockhart, i, 238, } Amerikanische Urreligionen. Basel, 1855. : AMERICA, . 39 Cortes’ march to. Mexico they arrived at a place called Terraguca, which the Spaniards called the Town of Serpents, on account of the enormous figures of these reptiles which they found in the temples, and. which the natives worshipped as gods.* But though it is impossible to read any of the narratives of the conquerors without being struck with the frequency ‘with which sacred Serpents and Serpent Worship are spoken of, it is always as a thing accursed, and to be avoided; never as an object worthy of attention, or to be imquired into, and their narratives consequently throw very little light on the subject.- The Sculptures would do more; but it will require a long and patient investigation by some one competent person on the spot before their evidence can be considered as available; at present we know very little of what they may contain. . It need hardly be remarked that human sacrifices were found accompanying Serpent ‘Worship in America almost to as great an extent as in Dahomey. Even. here, however, it is probable we must make a distinction which may be of some importance. In Africa the sacrificial rites seem to be purely ancestral. In America — they were made to propitiate gods, not apparently the ancestors of the reigning family, nor nearer to them in time than Quetzalcoatl. The principal object seems always to have been augury to-obtain from the gods an indication of their will, which does not seem to have been the case in Dahomey. It was also no doubt considered that the Sacrifice itself was agreeable to the deity, and it was expected that the oracle, which was the declaration of his will, would be favourable in proportion to the number of the victims. It is. by no means improbable that when looked for, Tree Worship will also be found to have prevailed extensively in the New World. Mr. Tylor mentions two instances that came under his notice.t The first was a venerable deciduous cypress, with a stem sixty fect in circumference near its root, and with a fountain gushing up within the hollow of the trunk itself. It was hung all over with votive offerings, besides luundreds of locks of hair, teeth, and bits of ribbon. The other was treated in the same manner, and had the valuable property for whoever touched it, that all fecling of weariness left him. Miller also finds traces of Tree Worship all over the continent of America, and generally in juxtaposition, if not in actual connexion, with thot of the Serpent.{ But here again we must pause for further information before attempting to generalize. * p. 125. See also pp. 3. 7. ft Anahuac, 215, 265. { Amerikanische Urreligionen, 494. See also 107, 124, 264, e¢ seg. 40 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. PART TI.—EASTERN ASIA. PERSIA. Tur Eastern branch of our subject has been even less investigated by European scholars than those divisions noticed in the previous pages. This has arisen partly from a less degree of familiarity with Eastern tradition, but more probably because until the very recent discoveries in Cambodia and at Amravati no very tangible data existed on which any satisfactory conclusions could be based. The subject is now, - however, assuming a very different aspect, and before long it may be hoped that great light will be thrown on the Tree and Serpent Worship of the ancient world, from a study of those forms of that faith which we now know existed at one time in India. ' With Persia the case is slightly different. We have no material remains of Snake, Worship in that country, and very little native history. The Zend-Avesta is the work from which we might hope most, not only from its antiquity, but because of its doctrinal character. It is, however, of very little use for, our present purposes, inasmuch as. it, like the Vedas, embodies the religious belief only of the Aryan, or as they are called here, the Iranian branch of the Persian people, and it need hardly be repeated here that they are not, and never were, serpent worshippers anywhere. If, indeed, there is one point which comes out more clearly than another in the course of this investigation, it is that Serpent Worship is essentially that of a Turanian, or at least of a non-Aryan people. In the present state of the enquiry it would be too bold a generalization to assert that all Turanian races were Serpent Worshippers; and still less can it be affirmed that all who looked on the Serpent as a God belonged to that family of mankind. It is safe, however, to assume that the whole tendency of the facts hitherto brought to light, lies in that direction; and. it seems probable that eventually the worship of the Serpent may become a valuable ethnographic test of the presence of Turanian blood in the veins of any people among whom it is found to prevail. oe At the time when the Greeks became acquainted with Persia, the whole country, -under the influence of the Achewmenian kings, had been brought to acknowledge Zoroasterism with its elemental Fire Worship as their principal form of faith. This religion in its purity,—if we know it in that state,—was the faith which the Iranians. brought with them from their original seats when they separated from the Indian Aryans, and was practically their common faith both in India and in Persia. In the latter country, however, in the time .