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Avid to this his longevity, which, though not so great as was often supposed, is still sufficient to make the superstitious forget how long an individual may have been reverenced in order that they may ascribe to him immortality. Though these qualities, and others that will be noted in the sequel, may have suificed to excite curiosity and obtain respect; it is probable that the serpent never would have become a god but for his exceptional. power. The destructive powers of tigers or crogodiles are merely looked upon as ordinary exaggerations of a general law, but the poison fang of the serpent is something so exceptional, and so deadly in its action, as.to — excite dread, and when we find-to how few of the serpent tribe it is given, its presence is only more mysterious. Even more terzible, however, than the poison of the Cpbra is the flash-like spring of the Boa—the instantaneous embrace aid the crushed-out ‘life—all accomplished faster almost than the eye can follow. It is hardly: to be wondered at that ‘such poiver should impress people in an carly stage’ of civilization with feelings of awe; and with savages it is probably true that most religions sprung from a desire to propitiate by worship those powers from whom-they fear that injury may be done to themselves or their property. Although, therefore, fear might seem to suffice to account for the prevalence of the woxship, on looking closely at it we are struck with phenomena of a totally different character. When we first meet Serpent Worship, either in the Wilderness of Sinai, the Groves of Epidaurus, or in the Sarmatian huts, the Serpent is always the Agathodzemon, the bringer of health and good fortune. He is the teacher of wisdom, the oracle of future events. His worship may have origi- nated in fear, but long before we become practically acquainted with it, it had passed to the opposite extreme among its votaries. Any evil that ever was spoken of the serpent, came from those who were outside the pale, and were trying to depreciate what they considered as an accursed superstition. If fear were the only or even the principal characteristic of Serpent Worship, it might be sufficient, in order to account for its prevalence, to say, that like causes produce like effects all the world over; and that the serpent is so terrible and so unlike the rest - of creation that these characteristics are sufficient to explain everything. When more narrewly examined, however, this seems hardly to be the case. Love and admiration, * Sanchoniathon quoting Taatus ap Eusebium, Prep. Evangel. 40, ‘HUMAN SACRIFICES. 5) more than fear or dread, seem ‘to be the main features of the. faitli, and there are so many unexpected features which are at the same time common: to it. all the world over, that it seems more reasonable to suspect 4 common origin. In the present state of our knowledge, however, we are not in a position to indicate the locality where it first may have appeared, or the time when it first became established among mankind. In so far as sych- ‘glimmerings as we possess enable us to guess the locality of its origin, I would feel haclined to say that it came from the mud of the Lower Euphrates, among a people of Turanian. origin, and spread, thence as from a centre to. every * country or-land of the Old World.in which a Turanian people settled. Apparently ‘no Semetic, or no people of Aryan race, ever adopted it as a form of faith. It is true we find it in Judea, but almost certainly it was there an outcrop from the older ynder-- lying strata of the population. We find it also in Greece, and in Scandinavia, among people whom we know principally as Aryan, but there too it is like the tares of a previous crop springing up among the stems of a badly-cultivated field of ‘wheat. The essence of Serpent Worship is as diametrically opposed to the spir it of the Veda or of the Bible as is possible to conceive two faiths to be; and with varying degrees of dilution the spirit of these two works pervades-in a greater or less extent all the forms of the religions of the Aryan or Semetic races. On the other hand, any form of animal worship is perfectly consistent with the lower intellectual status of the Turanian races, and all history tells us that it is among them, and essentially among them only, that Serpent Worship is really found to prevail. HUMAN SACRIFICES. The almost universal association of human sacrifices with the practice of Serpent Worship would render it extremcly desirable to ascertain, if it were possible, how far the connexion petween the two is real, or to what extent the juxtaposition may be only accidental. The subject is, however, very seriously complicated by the circumstance of the very different form which the rite took in various ages, and the different points of view from which it must consequently be at times regarded. In its earliest and simplest form, human sacrifice seems merely to lave beent regarded in the nature of a tithe. A: cannibal savage shared with his cannibal god the spoils of victory as he did the products of the chase, or he sought to sanctify his revenge or his sensuality by making his deity a participator in his crimes. Another form arose from the idea that death was only a change, and that the future state was little more than a continuation of this ‘world. It became consequently necessary for his enjoyment of it, that a man should be accompanied by his cattle, and his slaves, male andjfemale, and in its most refined form the wife voluntarily sacrificed herself to rejoin her beloved husband. A third form sprung froma higher and more religious motive: it arose from a conviction of man’s. own unworthy and sinful nature as com- pared with the greatness and goodness of God, and the consequent desire to atone for the one by the sacrifice of whatever was most dear, and to propitiate the favour of the deity by offering up whatever was most precious and most beloved—even one’s own, and it might be only, child. A fourth form, equally compatible with the highest civilisation, was the national sacrffice of one to atone for the sins of the many. - Serpent Worship is associated in a greater or less degree with all these forms of the human rite, and so much a, A2 4 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. so that it is nearly correct to say that wherever human sacrifices prevailed, there Serpent W. orship is found also, though the converse does not appear so capable of proof. Serpent Worship did continue to exist when, at least, human sacrifices had ceased to be performed, though even then it is not quite clear whether it was not only from the disuse of one part of what had once been associated. In Egypt human sacrifices never assumed the position of a religious or domestic institution. The victorious king dedicated the prisoners taken in war to the gods, but beyond this it does not seem to have been carried; and Serpent Worship in Egypt seems likewise to have. been sporadic and of little importance. . In Judea, so* ‘long as ahy traces of Serpent Worship prevailed, the idea of human . sacrifices seems to have been familiar, but after Hezekiah’s time we simultaneously lose all traces of either. : So long as Greece was Pelasgio, Serpent Worship ai human sacrifices went hand in hand, but. with the-return of the Heraclids, the latter went out of fashion, though the former still lingered long, but in a modified form. In Rome, on the other hand, as we shall presently see, the worship of the Serpent was a later introduction, but as it — strengthened, so did the prevalence of human sacrifices; and till Christianity put a stop to them they certainly were considered an important means of appeasing the wrath or propitiating the favour of the gods. It may, in Rome, have been to some extent derived from Etruria, or encouraged ‘by the example of Carthage, where human sacrifices coreualy prevailed till the destruction of the city, ‘and wherever Moloch— horrid king ” —was ‘worshipped ; and in all these instances the pee seems to have risen aad fallen with Serpent Worship. In Mexico and Dahomey, wlfete in modern times human sacrifices have been practised to an extent not known elsewhere, there. too Serpent Worship was and is the typical and most important form -of propitiation; while in India, there can be little doubt but that the. two existed together from the earliest time. The sacrifice of ymen could , not, however, stand before the intellectual acumen of the Aryan, and was utterly antagonistic to the mild doctrines of the Buddhist. It consequently was abolished wherever it, was possible to do so; but the more innocent worship of the Serpent cropped up again and again wherever neglected, and remained in many places long after the sister form had practically lost its meaning. Both still exist im India at the present day, but not apparently practised together or by the same tribes. It is not, however, by any means clear whether the dissociation is real, or whether we merely assume it is so in consequence of our ignorance of the subject. Human sacrifices, especially among the Khonds, have attracted: the attention both of governments and of individuals. No one has turned his attention~to the modern forms of Serpent Worship. Notwithstanding all these coincidences—and they might easily be extended—it must not be overlooked that nowhere .can we trace any direct connexion between the two forms of faith. No human sacrifice was anywhere made to propitiate the serpent, nor was__ it ever pretended that any human victim was°ever devoured by the snake god. -In* all instances the serpent is the Agathodsemon, -the ‘briiger of health or good fortune, the protector of men or of treasure, and nowhere was if sought to propitiate him by sacrifice of life beyond what was necessary for food, or to appease him by blood offerings.