Ophiolatreia Part 7

In a poem of Taliessin, translated by Davies, in his Appendix, No. 6, is the following enumeration of a Druid's t.i.tles:--

"I am a Druid; I am an architect; I am a prophet; I am a serpent"

(Gnadr).

From the word "Gnadr" is derived "adder," the name of a species of snake.

Gnadr was probably p.r.o.nounced like "adder" with a nasal aspirate.

The mythology of the Druids contained also a G.o.ddess "Ceridwen," whose car was drawn by serpents. It is conjectured that this was the Grecian "Ceres;" and not without reason, for the interesting intercourse between the British and Gaulish Druids introduced into the purer religion of the former many of the corruptions ingrafted upon that of the latter by the Greeks and Romans. The Druids of Gaul had among them many divinities corresponding with those of Greece and Rome. They wors.h.i.+pped Ogmius (a compound deity between Hercules and Mercury), and after him, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, or deities resembling them. Of these they made images; whereas. .h.i.therto the only image in the British wors.h.i.+p was the great wicker idol into which they thrust human victims designed to be burnt as an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of some chieftain.

The following translation of a Bardic poem, descriptive of one of their religious rites, identifies the superst.i.tion of the British Druids with the aboriginal Ophiolatreia, as expressed in the mysteries of Isis in Egypt. The poem is ent.i.tled "The Elegy of Uther Pendragon;" that is, of Uther, "The Dragon's Head;" and it is not a little remarkable that the word "Draig" in the British language signifies, at the same time, "a fiery serpent, a dragon, and the Supreme G.o.d."[19]

In the second part of this poem is the following sacrificial rites of Uther Pendragon:--

"With solemn festivity round the two lakes: With the lake next my side; With my side moving round the sanctuary; While the sanctuary is earnestly invoking The Gliding King, before whom the Fair One Retreats upon the veil that covers the huge stones; Whilst the Dragon moves round over The places which contain vessels Of drink offering: Whilst the drink offering is in the Golden Horns; Whilst the golden horns are in the hand; Whilst the knife is upon the chief victim; Sincerely I implore thee, O victorious Bell, etc., etc."

This is a most minute and interesting account of the religious rites of the Druids, proving in clear terms their addiction to Ophiolatreia: for we have not only the history of the "Gliding King," who pursues "The Fair One," depicted upon "the veil which covers the huge stones"--a history which reminds us most forcibly of the events in Paradise, under a poetic garb; but we have, likewise, beneath that veil, within the sacred circle of "the huge stones," the "Great Dragon, a Living Serpent," moving round the places which contain the vessels of drink-offering; or in other words, moving round the altar stone in the same manner as the serpent in the Isiac mysteries pa.s.sed about the sacred vessels containing the offerings.

The Golden Horns which contained the drink offerings were very probably of the same kind as that found in Tundera, in Denmark.

The sanct.i.ty of the serpent showed itself in another very curious part of the superst.i.tion of the British Druids, namely, in that which related to the formation and virtues of the celebrated _anguinum_, as it is called by Pliny, or _gleinen nadroeth_, that is, "snake-stones," as they were called by the Britons. Sir R. C. h.o.a.re in his _Modern Wilts.h.i.+re_, Hundred of Amesbury, gives an engraving of one, and says: "This is a head of imperfect vitrification representing two circular lines of opaque skylight and white, which seem to represent a snake twined round a centre which is perforated." Mr. Lhwyd, the Welsh antiquary, writing to Ralph Thornley says:--"I am fully satisfied that they were amulets of the Druids. I have seen one of them that had nine small snakes upon it. There are others that have one or two or more snakes."

A story comes to us, on Roman authority (that of Pliny), that a knight entering a court of justice wearing an anguinum about his neck was ordered by Claudius to be put to death, it being believed that the influence would improperly wrest judgment in his favour.

Of this anguinum (a word derived from _anguis_, a snake,) Pliny says: "An infinite number of snakes, entwined together in the heat of summer, roll themselves into a ma.s.s, and from the saliva of their jaws and the froth of their bodies is engendered an egg, which is called 'anguinum.' By the violent hissing of the serpents the egg is forced into the air, and the Druid destined to secure it, must catch it in his sacred vest before it reaches the ground."

Information relative to the prevalence of this superst.i.tion in England will be found in Davies' _Myths of the Druids_, Camden's _Britannia_, and Borlase's _Cornwall_.

Perhaps the most remarkable of all British relics of this wors.h.i.+p are to be found on the hills overlooking the village of Abury, in the county of Wilts.h.i.+re. There, twenty-six miles from the celebrated ruins of Stonehenge, are to be found the remains of a great Serpentine Temple--one of the most imposing, as it certainly is one the most interesting, monuments of the British Islands. It was first accurately described by Dr.

Stukeley in 1793 in his celebrated work ent.i.tled _Abury, a Temple of the British Druids_. It was afterwards carefully examined by Sir R. C. h.o.a.re and an account published in his elaborate work _Ancient Wilts.h.i.+re_. Dr.

Stukeley was the first to detect the design of the structure and his conclusions have been sustained by the observations of every antiquary who has succeeded him.

The temple of Abury consisted originally of a grand circ.u.mvallation of earth 1,400 feet in diameter, enclosing an area of upwards of twenty-two acres. It has an inner ditch and the height of the embankment, measuring from the bottom of the ditch, is seventeen feet. It is quite regular, though not an exact circle in form, and has four entrances at equal distances apart, though nearly at right angles to each other. Within this grand circle were originally two double or concentric circles composed of ma.s.sive upright stones: a row of large stones, one hundred in number, was placed upon the inner brow of the ditch. Extending upon either hand from this grand central structure were parallel lines of huge upright stones, const.i.tuting, upon each side, avenues upwards of a mile in length. These formed the body of the serpent. Each avenue consisted of two hundred stones. The head of the serpent was represented by an oval structure consisting of two concentric lines of upright stones; the outer line containing forty, the inner eighteen stones. This head rests upon an eminence known as Overton, or Hakpen Hill, from which is commanded a view of the entire structure, winding back for more than two miles to the point of the tail, towards Bekhampton.

_Hakpen_ in the old British dialects signified _Hak_, serpent, and _pen_, head, _i.e._, Head of the Serpent. "To our name of _Hakpen_," says Stukeley, "alludes _ochim_, called 'doleful creatures' in our translation." Isa. (13 v. 21), speaking of the desolation of Babylon, says: "Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of _ochim_, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there." St. Jerome translates it "serpents." The Arabians call a serpent _Haie_, and wood-serpents _Hages.h.i.+n_; and thence our _Hakpen_; _Pen_ is "head" in British.

"That the votaries of Ophiolatreia penetrated into every part of Britain is probable from the vestiges of some such idolatry even now to be found in Scotland and the western isles. Several obelisks remain in the vicinity of Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth, upon which appear devices strongly indicative of Ophiolatreia. They are engraved in Gordon's _Itinerarium Septentrionale_. The serpent is a frequent and conspicuous hieroglyphic.

From the Runic characters traced upon some of these stones it is conjectured that they were erected by the Danes. Such might have been the case; but the Danes themselves were a sect of Ophites, and had not the people of the country been Ophites also, they might not have suffered these monuments to remain."

Remains indicating the presence of Serpent Wors.h.i.+p in Ireland are extremely scarce, but we must remember the story prevalent in the country, accepted as truthful by a large majority of its inhabitants, that St.

Patrick banished all snakes from Ireland by his prayers. After all, this may mean nothing more than that by his preaching he overturned and uprooted the superst.i.tious practices of the serpent wors.h.i.+ppers of his times.

CHAPTER X.

_India conspicuous in the history of Serpent Wors.h.i.+p--Nagpur-- Confessions of a Snake Wors.h.i.+pper--The gardeners of Guzerat--Cottages for Snakes at Calicut--The Feast of Serpents--The Deity Hari--Garuda--The Snake as an emblem of immortality._

In the course of this work we have had occasion frequently to allude to India as the home of the peculiar wors.h.i.+p before us, and perhaps that country may fairly be placed side by side with Egypt for the mult.i.tude of ill.u.s.trations it affords of what we are seeking to elucidate.

Mr. Rivett-Carnac from whose paper in the journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society we have already quoted, says:--"The palace of the Bhonslahs at Benares brings me to Nagpur, where, many years ago, I commenced to make, with but small success, some rough notes on Serpent Wors.h.i.+p. Looking up some old sketches, I find that the Mahadeo in the oldest temples at Nagpur is surmounted by the Nag as at Benares. And in the old temple near the palace of the Nagpur, or city of the Nag or cobra, is a five-headed snake, elaborately coiled. The Bhonslahs apparently took the many-coiled Nag with them to Benares. A similar representation of the Nag is found in the temple near the Itwarah gate at Nagpur. Here again the Nag or cobra is certainly wors.h.i.+pped as Mahadeo or the phallus, and there are certain obvious points connected with the position a.s.sumed by the cobra when excited and the expansion of the hood, which suggest the reason for this snake in particular being adopted as a representation of the phallus and an emblem of Siva.

"The wors.h.i.+p of the snake is very common in the old Nagpur Province where, especially among the lower cla.s.s, the votaries of Siva or Nag Bhushan, 'he who wears snakes as his ornaments,' are numerous. It is likely enough that the city took its name from the Nag temple, still to be seen there, and that the river Nag, perhaps, took its name from the city or temple, and not the city from the river, as some think. Certain it is that many of the Kunbi or cultivating cla.s.s wors.h.i.+p the snake and the snake only, and that this wors.h.i.+p is something more than the ordinary superst.i.tious awe with which all Hindus regard the snake. I find from my notes that one Kunbi whom I questioned in old days, when I was a Settlement Officer in camp in the Nagpur Division, stated that he wors.h.i.+pped the Nag and nothing else; that he wors.h.i.+pped clay images of the snake, and when he could afford to pay snake-catchers for a look at a live one, he wors.h.i.+pped the living snake; that if he saw a Nag on the road he would wors.h.i.+p it, and that he believed no Hindu would kill a Nag or cobra if he knew it were a Nag. He then gave me the following list of articles he would use in wors.h.i.+pping the snake, when he could afford it; and I take it, the list is similar to what would be used in ordinary Siva Wors.h.i.+p. 1--Water. 2--Gandh, pigment of sandal-wood for the forehead or body. 3--Cleaned rice. 4--Flowers.

5--Leaves of the Bail tree. 6--Milk. 7--Curds. 8--A thread or piece of cloth. 9--Red powder. 10--Saffron. 11--Abir, a powder composed of fragrant substances. 12--Garlands of flowers. 13--b.u.t.temah or grain soaked and parched. 14--Jowarri. 15--Five lights. 16--Sweetmeats. 17--Betel leaves.

18--Cocoa nut. 19--A sum of money (according to means). 20--Flowers offered by the suppliant, the palms of the hands being joined.

"All these articles, my informant a.s.sured me, were offered to the snake in regular succession, one after the other, the wors.h.i.+pper repeating the while certain _mantras_ or incantations. Having offered all these gifts, the wors.h.i.+pper prostrates himself before the snake, and, begging for pardon if he has ever offended against him, craves that the snake will continue his favour upon him and protect him from every danger."

In the _Oriental Memoirs_ by Forbes, we are told of the gardeners of Guzerat who would never allow the snakes to be disturbed, calling them "father," "brother," and other familiar and endearing names. The head gardener paid them religious honours. As Deane says, "here we observe a mixture of the original Serpent Wors.h.i.+p, with the more modern doctrine of transmigration."

Still more striking is the information in Purchas's _Pilgrims_, that a king of Calicut built cottages for live serpents, whom he tended with peculiar care, and made it a capital crime for any person in his dominions to destroy a snake. "The natives," he says, "looked upon serpents as endued with divine spirits."

Then there is the festival called "The Feast of the Serpents," at which every wors.h.i.+pper, in the hope of propitiating the reptiles during the ensuing year, sets by a portion of his rice for the hooded snake on the outside of his house.

The deities of India and the wonderful temples and caves, as those at Salsette and Elephanta, as may be seen in Maurice's _Indian Antiquities_, Moor's _Hindu Pantheon_, _The Asiatic Researches_, Faber's _Pagan Idolatry_ and numerous other works, are universally adorned with, or represented by this great symbol. Thus we have the statue of Jeyne, the Indian aesculapius, turbaned by a seven-headed snake; that of Vishnu on a rock in the Ganges, reposing on a coiled serpent whose numerous folds form a canopy over the sleeping G.o.d; Parus Nauth symbolized by a serpent; Jagan-Nath wors.h.i.+pped under the form of a seven-headed dragon.

Hari, appears to be one of the t.i.tles of Vishnu--that of the deity in his preserving quality--and his appearance on the rock, as just mentioned, is thus noticed in Wilkins' _Hitopadesa_: "Nearly opposite Sultan Ganj, a considerable town in the province of Bahar, there stands a rock of granite, forming a small island in the Ganges, known to Europeans by the name of 'the rock of Ichangiri,' which is highly worthy of the traveller's notice for the vast number of images carved upon every part of its surface. Among the rest there is Hari, of a gigantic size, rec.u.mbent upon a coiled serpent, whose heads (which are numerous) the artist has contrived to spread into a kind of canopy over the sleeping G.o.d; and from each of its mouths issues a forked tongue, seeming to threaten instant death to any whom rashness might prompt to disturb him. The whole lies almost clear of the block on which it is hewn. It is finely imagined and is executed with great skill. The Hindus are taught to believe that at the end of every _Calpa_ (creation or formation) all things are absorbed in the Deity, and that in the interval of another creation, he reposeth himself upon the serpent Sesha (duration) who is also called Ananta (endlessness)."

Moor says Garuda was an animal--half bird, half man--and was the _vahan_ or vehicle of Vishnu, also Arun's younger brother. He is sometimes described in the manner that our poets and painters describe a griffin or a cherub; and he is placed at the entrance of the pa.s.ses leading to the Hindu garden of Eden, and there appears in the character of a destroying angel in as far as he resists the approach of serpents, which in most systems of poetical mythology appears to have been the beautiful, deceiving, insinuating form that sin originally a.s.sumed. Garuda espoused a beautiful woman; the tribes of serpents, alarmed thereat, lest his progeny should, inheriting his propensities, overpower them, waged fierce war against him; but he destroyed them all, save one, which he placed as an ornament about his neck. In the Elephanta cave Garuda is often seen with this appendage; and some very old gold coins are in existence depicting him with snakes or elephants in his talons and beaks. Destroyer of serpents, Naganteka, is one of his names.

He was of great use to Krishna in clearing the country round Dwarka (otherwise Dravira) from savage ferocious animals and noxious reptiles.

Vishnu had granted to Garuda the power of destroying his as well as Siva's enemies; also generally those guilty of constant uncleanness, unbelievers, dealers in iniquity, ungrateful persons, those who slander their spiritual guides, or defiled their beds; but forebade him to touch a Brahman, whatever was his guilt, as the pain of disobedience would be a scorching pain in his throat, and any attack on a holy or pious person would be followed by a great diminution of strength. By mistake, however, Garuda sometimes seized a priest or a religious man, but was admonished and punished in the first case by the scorching flame, and was unable, even when he had bound him in his den, to hurt the man of piety.[20] To Rama also, in the war of Lauka, Garuda was eminently useful: in Rama's last conflict with Ravana the latter was not overcome without the aid of Garuda, sent by Vishnu to destroy the serpent-arrows of Ravana. These arrows are called "Sharpa-vana" (in the current dialect _Sarpa_ a snake, is corrupted into _Saap_ or _Samp_, and _vana_, an arrow, into _ban_) and had the faculty of separating, between the bow and the object, into many parts, each becoming a serpent. Viswamitra conferred upon Rama the power of transforming his arrows into "Garuda-vanas," they similarly separating themselves into "Garuda's," the terror and destroyer of the _Sarpa_.

Some legends make Garuda the offspring of Kasyapa and Diti. This all-prolific dame laid an egg, which, it was predicted, would preserve her deliverer from some great affliction. After a lapse of five hundred years Garuda sprung from the egg, flew to the abode of Indra, extinguished the fire that surrounded it, conquered its guards, the _devatas_, and bore off the _amrita_ (ambrosia), which enabled him to liberate his captive mother.

A few drops of this immortal beverage falling on the species of gra.s.s called "Kusa," it became eternally consecrated; and the serpents greedily licking it up so lacerated their tongues with the sharp gra.s.s that they have ever since remained forked; but the boon of eternity was ensured to them by their thus partaking of the immortal fluid. This cause of snakes having forked tongues is still popularly in the tales of India attributed to the above greediness; and their supposed immortality may have originated in some such stories as these; a small portion of _amrita_, as in the case of Rahu, would ensure them this boon.

In all mythological language the snake is an emblem of immortality: its endless figure when its tail is inserted in its mouth, and the annual renewal of its skin and vigour, afford symbols of continued youth and eternity; and its supposed medicinal or life-preserving qualities may also have contributed to the fabled honours of the serpent tribe. In Hindu mythology serpents are of universal occurence and importance; in some shape or other they abound in all directions; a similar state of things prevails in Greece and Egypt. Ingenious and learned authors attribute this universality of serpent forms to the early and all pervading prevalence of sin, which, in this identical shape, they tell us, and as indeed we all know, is as old as the days of our greatest grandmother: thus much as to its age, when there was but one woman; its prevalence, now there are so many, this is no place to discuss.

If such writers were to trace the allegories of Sin and Death, and the end of their empire, they might discover further allusions to the Christian dispensation in the traditions of the Hindus than have hitherto been published--Krishna crus.h.i.+ng, but not destroying, the type of Sive, has often been largely discussed. Garuda is also the proverbial, but not the utter destroyer of serpents, for he spared one, they and their archetype being, in reference to created beings, eternal. His continual and destined state of warfare with serpent, a shape mostly a.s.sumed by the enemies of the virtuous incarnations or deified heroes of the Hindus, is a continued allegory of the conflicts between Vice and Virtue so infinitely personified. Garuda, at length, appears the coadjutor of all virtuous sin-subduing efforts, as the vehicle of the chastening and triumphant party, and conveys him on the wings of the winds to the regions of eternal day.

CHAPTER XI.

_Mr. Bullock's Exhibition of Objects ill.u.s.trating Serpent Wors.h.i.+p._

Upwards of sixty years ago, there was opened at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, what was described as the "Unique Exhibition called Ancient Mexico; collected on the spot in 1823, by the a.s.sistance of the Mexican Government, by W. Bullock, F.L.S., &c., &c." The ill.u.s.tration attached to a published description of this collection shows that it contained reproductions of some of the most remarkable of the serpent deities to be found in the temples of the western parts of America, and the following extract will prove interesting to our readers.

"The rattlesnake appears to have been the most general object of wors.h.i.+p, veneration, and fear; indeed it occurs in some manner combined with almost every other, and is still found in many of the Indian villages. It remains at Tezcuco, quite perfect at the present time. Broken fragments may be met in the exterior of the houses in Mexico in several places; the great head placed at the left of the sacrificial stone is cast from one in the corner of the fine building used for the Government Lottery Office, and exposed to the street. It must have belonged to an idol at least seventy feet long, probably in the great temple, and broken and buried at the Conquest.

They are generally in a coiled up state, with the tail or rattle on the back, but they vary in their size and position. The finest that is known to exist, I discovered in the deserted part of the Cloister of the Dominican Convent opposite the Palace of the Inquisition. It is coiled up in an irritated erect position, with the jaws extended, and in the act of gorging an elegantly dressed female, who appears in the mouth of the enormous reptile, crushed and lacerated, a disgusting detail withal too horrible for description.

"Turning to a letter from Cortes to Charles V., as given by Humboldt, we read, 'From the square we proceeded to the great temple, but before we entered it we made a circuit through a number of large courts, the smallest of which appeared to me to contain more ground than the great square in Salamanca, with double enclosures built of lime and stone, and the courts paved with large white cut stone, very clean; or, where not paved, they were plastered and polished. When we approached the gate of the great temple, to which the ascent was by a hundred and fourteen steps, and before we had mounted one of them, Montezuma sent down to us six priests and two of his n.o.blemen to carry Cortes up, as they had done their sovereign, which he politely declined. When we had ascended to the summit of the temple, we observed on the platform as we pa.s.sed the large stone whereon were placed the victims who were to be sacrificed. Here was a great figure which resembled a dragon, and much blood fresh spilt.

Cortes then addressing himself to Montezuma requested that he would do him the favour to show us his G.o.ds. Montezuma, having first consulted his priests, led us into a tower where there was a kind of saloon. Here were two altars highly adorned, with richly wrought timbers on the roof, and over the altars gigantic figures resembling very fat men. The one on the right was Huitzilopochtli their war G.o.d, with a great face and terrible eyes, this figure was entirely covered with gold and jewels, and his body bound with golden serpents, in his right hand he held a bow, and in his left a bundle of arrows. The little idol which stood by him represented his page, and bore a lance and target richly ornamented with gold and jewels. The great idol had round his neck the figures of human heads and hearts made of pure gold and silver, ornamented with precious stones of a blue colour. Before the idol was a pan of incense, with three hearts of human victims which were then burning, mixed with copal. The whole of that apartment, both walls and floor, was stained with human blood in such quant.i.ty as to give a very offensive smell. On the left was the other great figure, with a countenance like a bear, and great s.h.i.+ning eyes of the polished substance whereof their mirrors are made. The body of this idol was also covered with jewels. These two deities it was said were brothers; the name of the last was Tezcatepuca, and he was the G.o.d of the infernal regions. He presided, according to their notions, over the souls of men. His body was covered with figures representing little devils with tails of serpents, and the walls and pavement of this temple were so besmeared with blood that they gave off a worse odour than all the slaughter-houses of Castille. An offering lay before him of five human hearts. In the summit of the temple, and in a recess the timber of which was highly ornamented, we saw a figure half human and the other half resembling an alligator, inlaid with jewels, and partly covered with a mantle. This idol was said to contain the germ and origin of all created things, and was the G.o.d of harvests and fruits. The walls and altars were bestained like the rest, and so offensive that we thought we never could get out soon enough.

"'In this place they had a drum of most enormous size, the head of which was made of the skins of large serpents. This instrument when struck resounded with a noise that could be heard to the distance of two leagues, and so doleful that it deserved to be named the music of the infernal regions; and with their horrible sounding horns and trumpets, their great knives for sacrifice, their human victims, and their blood besprinkled altars, I devoted them and all their wickedness to G.o.d's vengeance, and thought that the time would never arrive that I should escape from this scene of butchery, horrible smells, and more detestable sights.