General and Oral Pathology for the Dental

Hygienist 2nd Edition by Leslie Delong, Nancy

https://ebookball.com/product/general-and-oral-pathology-for-the-
dental-hygienist-2nd-edition-by-leslie-delong-nancy-burkhart-
isbn-1451131534-9781451131536-6808/

Download more ebook instantly today - Get yours now at ebookball.com

General and Oral Pathology for Dental Hygienists 1st Edition by Leslie
DeLong, Nancy Burkhart ISBN 9781451105988

https://ebookball.com/product/general-and-oral-pathology-for-
dental-hygienists-1st-edition-by-leslie-delong-nancy-burkhart-
isbn-9781451105988-7946/

Oral Pathology for the Dental Hygienist 7th edition by Olga Ibsen
9780323484442 0323484441

https://ebookball.com/product/oral-pathology-for-the-dental-
hygienist-7th-edition-by-olga-
ibsen-9780323484442-0323484441-5884/

Oral Pathology for the Dental Hygienist 7th Edition by Olga Ibsen,
Joan Andersen Phelan ISBN 0323484441 9780323484442

https://ebookball.com/product/oral-pathology-for-the-dental-
hygienist-7th-edition-by-olga-ibsen-joan-andersen-phelan-
isbn-0323484441-9780323484442-5134/

Oral Pathology for the Dental Hygienist 8th Edition by Olga A C Ibsen,
Scott Peters DDS ISBN 0323765262 9780323765268

https://ebookball.com/product/oral-pathology-for-the-dental-
hygienist-8th-edition-by-olga-a-c-ibsen-scott-peters-dds-
isbn-0323765262-9780323765268-7992/
General and Oral Pathology for Dental Hygiene Practice 1st edition by
Myers,Curran,Sandra,Alice 9780803640986 0803640986

https://ebookball.com/product/general-and-oral-pathology-for-
dental-hygiene-practice-1st-edition-by-myers-curran-sandra-
alice-9780803640986-0803640986-5868/

General and Oral Pathology for Dental Hygiene Practice 1st Edition by
Sandra Myers, Alice Curran 0803625774 9780803625778

https://ebookball.com/product/general-and-oral-pathology-for-
dental-hygiene-practice-1st-edition-by-sandra-myers-alice-
curran-0803625774-9780803625778-1578/

Oral pharmacology for the dental hygienist 2nd edition by Mea

https://ebookball.com/product/oral-pharmacology-for-the-dental-
hygienist-2nd-edition-by-mea-weinberg-cheryl-theile-james-fine-
isbn-0132559927-aeurz-978-0132559928-4920/

Community Oral Health Practice for the Dental Hygienist 4th Edition by
Christine French Beatty ISBN 0323355269 9780323355261

https://ebookball.com/product/community-oral-health-practice-for-
the-dental-hygienist-4th-edition-by-christine-french-beatty-
isbn-0323355269-9780323355261-5592/

Local Anesthesia for the Dental Hygienist 2nd Edition by Demetra

https://ebookball.com/product/local-anesthesia-for-the-dental-
hygienist-2nd-edition-by-demetra-daskalo-logothetis-
isbn-032339633x-9780323396332-5532/
Other documents randomly have
different content
 326 BEAUTY OF THE SERPENT. model of the ' line of grace
and beauty ' — has had an even larger fascination for the eye of the
artist and the poet. It is the one active form in nature which cannot
be ungraceful, and to estimate the extent of its use in decoration is
impossible, because all undulating and coiling lines are necessarily
serpent forms. But in addition to the perfections of this form —
which fulfil all the ascent of forms in Swedenborg's mystical
morphology, circular, spiral, perpetual-circular, vortical, celestial —
the Serpent bears on it, as it were, gems of the underworld that
seem to find their counterpart in galaxies. One must conclude that
Serpent-worship is mainly founded in fear. The sacrifices offered to
that animal are alone sufficient to prove this. But as it is certain that
the Serpent appears in symbolism and poetry in many ways which
have little or no relation to its terrors, we may well doubt whether it
may not have had a career in the human imagination previous to
either of the results of its reign of terror, — worship and execration.
It is the theory of Pestalozzi that every child is born an artist, and
through its pictorial sense must be led on its first steps of education.
The infant world displayed also in its selection of sacred trees and
animals a profound appreciation of beauty. The myths in which the
Serpent is represented as kakodemon refer rather to its natural
history than to its appearance ; and even when its natural history
came to be observed, there was — there now is — such a wide
discrepancy between its physiology and its functions, also between
its intrinsic characters and their relation to man, that we can only
accept its various aspects in mythology without attempting to trace
their relative precedence in time. The past may in this case be best
interpreted by the present. How different now to wise and observant
men are the suggestions of this exceptional form in nature !
 EMERSON ON IDEAL FORMS. 327 Let us read a passage
concerning it from Ralph Waldo Emerson : — ' In the old aphorism,
nature is ahvays self-similai^ In the plant, the eye or germinative
point opens to a leaf, then to another leaf, with a power of
transforming the leaf into radicle, stamen, pistil, petal, bract, sepal,
or seed. The whole art of the plant is still to repeat leaf on leaf
without end, the more or less of heat, light, moisture, and food,
determining the form it shall assume. In the animal, nature makes a
vertebra, or a spine of vertebrae, and helps herself still by a new
spine, with a limited power of modifying its form, — spine on spine,
to the end of the world. A poetic anatomist, in our own day, teaches
that a snake being a horizontal line, and man being an erect line,
constitute a right angle; and between the lines ofthis mystical
quadrant, all animated beings find their place : and he assumes the
hair-worm, the span-worm, or the snake, as the type or prediction of
the spine. Manifestly, at the end of the spine, nature puts out
smaller spines, as arms ; at the end of the arms, new spines, as
hands ; at the other end she repeats the process, as legs and feet.
At the top of the column she puts out another spine, which doubles
or loops itself over^ as a span-worm, into a ball, and forms the
skull, with extremities again : the hands being now the upper jaw,
the feet the lower jaw, the fingers and toes being represented this
time by upper and lower teeth. This new spine is destined to high
uses. It is a new man on the shoulders of the last.' 1 As one reads
this it might be asked, How could its idealism be more profoundly
pictured for the eye than in the Serpent coiled round the &^^y —
the seed out of which all these spines must branch out for their
protean variations.'' What refrains of ancient themes subtly sound
between the ^ ' Representative Men,' American edition of 1850, p.
108.
 328 THE VIPERS HEAD. lines, — from the Serpent doomed
to crawl on its belly in the dust, to the Serpent that is lifted up ! Now
let us turn to the page of Jules Michelet, and read what the Serpent
signified to one mood of his sympathetic nature. ' It was one of my
saddest hours when, seeking in nature a refuge from thoughts of the
age, I for the first time encountered the head of the viper. This
occurred in a valuable museum of anatomical imitations. The head
marvellously imitated and enormously enlarged, so as to remind one
of the tiger's and the jaguar's, exposed in its horrible form a
something still more horrible. You seized at once the delicate,
infinite, fearfully prescient precautions by which the deadly machine
is so potently armed. Not only is it provided with numerous keen-
edged teeth, not only are these teeth supplied with an ingenious
reservoir of poison which slays immediately, but their extreme
fineness which renders them liable to fracture is compensated by an
advantage that perhaps no other animal possesses, namely, a
magazine of supernumerary teeth, to supply at need the place of
any accidentally broken. Oh, what provisions for killing ! What
precautions that the victim shall not escape ! What love for this
horrible creature ! I stood by it scandalised^ if I may so speak, and
with a sick soul. Nature, the great mother, by whose side I had taken
refuge, shocked me with a maternity so cruelly impartial. Gloomily I
walked away, bearing on my heart a darker shadow than rested on
the day itself, one of the sternest in winter. I had come forth like a
child ; I returned home like an orphan, feeling the notion of a
Providence dying away within me.' ^ Many have so gone forth and
so returned ; some to 1 'L'Oiseau,' par Jules Michelet.
 UNIQUE CHARACTERS OF THE SERPENT 329 say, ' There is
no God ; ' a few to say (as is reported of a living poet), 'I believe in
God, but am against him;' but some also to discern in the viper's
head Nature's ironclad, armed with her best science to defend the
advance of form to humanity along narrow passes. The primitive
man was the child that went forth when his world was also a child,
and when the Serpent was still doing its part towards making him
and it a man. It was a long way from him to the dragon-slayer; but
it is much that he did not merely cower ; he watched and observed,
and there is not one trait belonging to his deadly crawling
contemporaries that he did not note and spiritualise in such science
as was possible to him. The last-discovered of the topes in India
represents Serpent-worshippers gathered around their deity, holding
their tongues with finger and thumb. No living form in nature could
be so fitly regarded in that attitude. Not only is the Serpent normally
silent, but in its action it has ' the quiet of perfect motion.' The
maximum of force is shown in it, relatively to its size, along with the
minimum of friction and visible effort. Footless, wingless, as a star,
its swift gliding and darting is sometimes like the lightning whose
forked tongue it seemed to incarnate. The least touch of its
ingenious tooth is more destructive than the lion's jaw. What
mystery in its longevity, in its self-subsistence, in its self-renovation !
Out of the dark it comes arrayed in jewels, a crawling magazine of
death in its ire, in its unknown purposes able to renew its youth, and
fable for man imperishable life ! Wonderful also are its mimicries. It
sometimes borrows colours of the earth on which it reposes, the
trees on which it hangs, now seems covered with eyes, and the '
spectacled snake ' appeared to have artificially added to its vision.
Altogether it is unique among natural forms, and its vast
 330 MONKEYS' HORROR OF SNAKES. history in religious
speculation and mythology does credit to the observation of
primitive man. Recent experiments have shown the monkeys stand
in the greatest terror of snakes. Such terror is more and more
recognised as a survival in the European man. The Serpent is almost
the only animal which can follow a monkey up a tree and there
attack its young. Our arboreal anthropoid progenitors could best
have been developed in some place naturally enclosed and fortified,
as by precipices which quadrupeds could not scale, but which apes
might reach by swinging and leaping from trees. But there could be
no seclusion where the Serpent could not follow. I am informed by
the King of Bonny that in his region of Africa the only serpent whose
worship is fully maintained is the Nomboh (Leaper), a small snake,
white and glistening, whose bite is fatal, and which, climbing into
trees, springs thence upon its prey beneath, and can travel far by
leaping from branch to branch. The first arboreal man who added a
little to the natural defences of any situation might stand in tradition
as a god planting a garden ; but even he would not be supposed
able to devise any absolute means of defence against the subtlest of
all the beasts. Among the three things Solomon found too wonderful
for him was 'the way of a serpent upon a rock' (Prov. xxx. 19). This
comparative superiority of the Serpent to any and all devices and
contrivances known to primitive men — whose proverbs must have
made most of Solomon's wisdom — would necessarily have its effect
upon the animal and mental nerves of our race in early times, and
the Serpent would find in his sanctity a condition favourable to '
survival and multiplication. It is this fatal power of superstition to
change fancies into realities which we find still protecting the
Serpent in various countries.
 DUBUFES PICTURE. 331 From being venerated as the
arbiter of life and death, it might thus actually become such in large
districts of country. In Dubufe's picture of the Fall of Man, the wrath
of Jehovah is represented by the lightning, which has shattered the
tree beneath which the offending pair are now crouching ; beyond it
Satan is seen in human shape raising his arm in proud defiance
against the blackened sky. So would the Serpent appear. His victims
were counted by many thousands where the lightning laid low one.
Transmitted along the shuddering nerves of many generations came
the confession of the Son of Sirach, ' There is no head above the
head of a serpent.'
 ( 332 ) CHAPTER IV. THE WORM. An African Serpent-drama
in America — The Veiled Serpent — The Ark of the Covenant —
Aaron's Rod — The Worm — An Episode on the Dii Involuti — The
Scrapes — The Bambino at Rome — Serpenttransformations. On the
eve of January i, 1863, — that historic New Year's Day on which
President Lincoln proclaimed freedom to American slaves, — I was
present at a Watchnight held by negroes in a city of that country. In
opening the meeting the preacher said, — though in words whose
eloquent shortcomings I cannot reproduce : — ' Brethren and
sisters, the President of the United States has promised that, if the
Confederates do not lay down their arms, he will free all their slaves
to-morrow. They have not laid down their arms. To-morrow will be
the day of liberty to the oppressed. But we all know that evil powers
are around the President. While we sit here they are trying to make
him break his word. But we have come together to watch, and see
that he does not break his word. Brethren, the bad influences
around the President to-night are stronger than any Copperheads.^
The Old Serpent is abroad tonight, with all his emissaries, in great
power. His wrath is great, because he knows his hour is near. He will
be in ^ A deadly Southern snake, coloured like the soil on which it
lurks, had become the current name for politicians who, while
professi"g loyalty to the Union, aided those who sought to overthrow
it.
 AFRICAN SERPENT-DRAMA IN AMERICA. 333 this church
this evening. As midnight comes on we shall hear his rage. But,
brethren and sisters, don't be alarmed. Our prayers will prevail. His
head will be bruised. His back will be broken. He will go raging to
hell, and God Almighty's New Year will make the United States a true
land of freedom.' The sensation caused among the hundreds of
negroes present by these words was profound ; they were
frequently interrupted by cries of ' Glory ! ' and there were tears ot
joy. But the scene and excitement which followed were
indescribable. A few moments before midnight the congregation
were requested to kneel, which they did, and prayer succeeded
prayer with increasing fervour. Presently a loud, prolonged hiss was
heard. There were cries — ' He's here ! he's here ! ' Then came a
volley of hisses ; they seemed to proceed from every part of the
room, hisses so entirely like those of huge serpents that the
strongest nerves were shaken ; above them rose the preacher's
prayer that had become a wild incantation, and ecstatic ejaculations
became so universal that it was a marvel what voices were left to
make the hisses. Finally, from a neighbouring steeple the twelve
strokes of midnight sounded on the frosty air, and immediately the
hisses diminished, and presently died away altogether, and the New
Year that brought freedom to four millions of slaves was ushered in
by the jubilant chorus of all present singing a hymn of victory. Far
had come those hisses and that song of victory, terminating the
dragon-drama of America. In them was the burden of Ezekiel : ' Son
of man, set thy face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy
against him and against all Egypt, saying, Thus saith the Lord
Jehovah : Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of the rivers ... I will put a hook
in thy jaws.' In them was the burden of
 334 THE VEILED SERPENT. Isaiah : ' In that day Jehovah
with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the
piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent : he shall slay
the dragon that is in the sea.' In it was the cry of Zophar: ' His meat
in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath
swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again : God
shall cast them out of his belly.' And these Hebrew utterances, again,
were but the distant echoes of far earlier voices of those African
slaves still seen pictured with their chains on the ruined walls of
Egypt, — voices that gathered courage at last to announce the
never-ending struggle of man with Oppression, as that combat
between god and serpent which never had a nobler event than when
the dying hiss of Slavery was heard in America, and the victorious
Sun rose upon a New World of free and equal men. The Serpent
thus exalted in America to a type of oppression is very different from
any snake that may this day be found worshipped as a deity by the
African in his native land. The swarthy snake-worshipper in his
migration took his god along with him in his chest or basket — at
once ark and altar — and in that hiding-place it underwent
transformations. He emerged as the protean emblem of both good
and evil. In a mythologic sense the serpent certainly held its tail in
its mouth. No civilisation has reached the end of its typical
supremacy. Concerning the accompanying Eleusinian form (Fig. 24),
Calmet says : — * The mysterious trunk, coffer, or basket, may be
justly reckoned among the most remarkable and sacred instruments
of worship, which formed part of the processional ceremonies in the
Fig. 24.— Serpent and heathen world. This was held so sacred Akk
(from a Greek , i , • , , i i • i i j. coin). that it was not publicly
exposed to view, or publicly opened, but was reserved for the
inspection
 ARK OF THE CO VENANT. 335 of the initiated, the fully
initiated only. Completely to explain this symbol would require a
dissertation 5 and, indeed, it has been considered, more or less, by
those who have written on the nature of the Ark of the testimony
among the Hebrews, Declining the inquiry at present, we merely call
the attention of the reader to what this mystical coffer was supposed
to contain — a serpent ! ' The French Benedictine who wrote this
passage, though his usual candour shames the casuistry of our own
time, found it necessary to conceal the Hebrew Ark : it was precisely
so that the occupant of the Ark was originally concealed ; and
though St. John exorcised it from the Chalice its genius lingers in the
Pyx, before whose Host 'lifted up' the eyes of worshippers are
lowered. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap, ix.),
describing the Tabernacle, says : ' After the second veil, the
tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all ; which had the golden
censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,
wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that
budded, and the tables of the covenant' But this rod of Aaron,
which, by budding, had swallowed up all rival pretensions to the
tribal priesthood, was the same rod which had been changed to a
serpent, and swallowed up the rod-serpents of the sorcerers in
Pharaoh's presence. So soft and subtle is ' the way of a serpent
upon a rock ! ' This veihng of the Serpent, significant of a great deal,
is characteristic even of the words used to name it. Of these I have
selected one to head this chapter, because it is one of the
innumerable veils which shielded this reptile's transformation from a
particular external danger to a demonic type. This general
description of things that wind about or turn {vermes, traced by
some to the Sanskrit root hvar, ' curved '), gradually came into use
to express the demon
 336 THE WORM. serpents. Dante and Milton call Satan a
worm. No doubt among the two hundred names for the Serpent,
said to be mentioned in an Arabic work, we should find parallels to
this old adaptation of the word ' worm.' In countries — as Germany
and England — where no large serpents are found, the popular
imagination could not be impressed by merely saying that Siegfried
or Lambton had slain a snake. The tortuous character of the snake
was preserved, but, by that unconscious dexterity which so often
appears in the making of myths, it was expanded so as to include a
power of supernatural transformation. The Lambton worm comes
out of the well very small, but it afterwards coils in nine huge folds
around its hill. The hag-ridden daughter of the King of
Northumberland, who crept into a hole a worm And out stept a fair
ladye, did but follow the legendary rule of the demonic serpent tribe.
Why was the Serpent slipped into the Ark or cofifer and hid behind
veils 1 To answer this will require here an episode. In the Etruscan
theology and ceremonial the supreme power was lodged with certain
deities that were never seen. They were called the Dii Involuti, the
veiled gods. Not even the priests ever looked upon them. When any
dire calamity occurred, it was said these mysterious deities had
spoken their word in the council of the gods, — a word always final
and fatal. There have been fine theories on the subject, and the
Etruscans have been complimented for having high transcendental
views of the invisible nature of the Divine Being. But a more prosaic
theory is probably true. These gods were wrapped up because they
were not fit to be seen. The rude carvings of some savage tribe,
they had been
 DII INVOLUTL 337 seen and adored at first : temples had
been built for them, and their priesthood had grown powerful ; but
as art advanced and beautiful statues arose, these rude designs
could not bear the contrast, and the only way of preserving
reverence for them, and the institutions grown up around them, was
to hide them out of sight altogether. Then it could be said they were
so divinely beautiful that the senses would be overpowered by them.
There have been many veiled deities, and though their veils have
been rationalised, they are easily pierced. The inscription on the
temple of Isis at Sais was : ' I am that which has been, which is, and
which shall be, and no one has yet lifted the veil that hides me.' Isis
at this time had probably become a negro Madonna, like that still
worshipped in Spain as holiest of images, and called by the same
title, ' Our Immaculate Lady.' As the fair race and the dark mingled
in Egypt, the primitive Nubian complexion and features of Isis could
not inspire such reverence as more anciently, and before her also a
curtain was hung. The Ark of Moses carried this veil into the
wilderness, and concealed objects not attractive to look at —
probably two scrawled stones, some bones said to be those of
Joseph, a pot of so-called manna, and the staff said to have once
been a serpent and afterwards blossomed. Fashioned by a rude
tribe, the Ark was a fit thing to hide, and hidden it has been to this
day. When the veil of the Temple was rent, — allegorically at the
death of Christ, actually by Titus, — nothing of the kind was found ;
and it would seem that the Jews must long have been worshipping
before a veil with emptiness behind it. Paul discovered that the veil
said to have covered the face of Moses when he descended from
Sinai was a myth ; it meant that the people should not see to the
end of what was nevertheless tranVOL. I. Y
 338 SERAPHS AND BAMBINO. sient. 'Their minds were
blinded; for unto this day, when Moses is read, that veil is on their
heart.' Kircher says the Seraphs of Egypt were images without any
emmency of limbs, rolled as it were in swaddling clothes, partly
made of stone, partly of metal, wood, or shell. Similar images, he
says, were called by the Romans 'secret gods.' As an age of
scepticism advanced, it was sometimes necessary that these '
involuti ' should be slightly revealed, lest it should be said there was
no god there at all. Such is the case with the famous bambino of
Aracoeli Church in Rome. This effigy, said to have been carved by a
pilgrim out of a tree on the Mount of Olives, and painted by St. Luke
while the pilgrim was sleeping, is now kept in its ark, and visitors are
allowed to see part of its painted face. When the writer of this
requested a sight of the whole form, or of the head at any rate, the
exhibiting priest was astounded at the suggestion. No doubt he was
right : the only wonder is that the face is not hid also, for a more
ingeniously ugly thing than the flat, blackened, and rouged visage of
the bambino it were difficult to conceive. But it wears a very cunning
veil nevertheless. The face is set in marvellous brilliants, but these
are of less effect in hiding its ugliness than the vesture of mythology
around it. The adjacent walls are covered with pictures of the
miracles it has performed, and which have attracted to it such faith
that it is said at one time to have received more medical fees than
all the physicians in Rome together. Priests have discovered that a
veil over the mind is thicker than a veil on the god. Such is the
popular veneration for the bambino, that, in 1849, the Republicans
thought it politic to present the monks with the Pope's state coach to
carry the idol about. In the end it was proved that the Pope was
securely seated beside
 SERPENT TRANSFORMATIONS. 339 the bambino, and he
presently emerged from behind his veil also. There came, then, a
period when the Serpent crept behind the veil, or lid of the ark, or
into a chalice, — a verysmall worm, but yet able to gnaw the staff of
Solomon. No wisdom could be permitted to rise above fear itself,
though its special sources might be here and there reduced or
vanquished. The snake had taught man at last its arts of war. Man
had sumrnoned to his aid the pig, and the ibis made havoc among
the reptiles ; and some of that terror which is the parent of that kind
of devotion passed away. When it next emerged, it was in twofold
guise, — as Agathodemon and Kakodemon, — but in both forms as
the familiar of some higher being. It was as the genius of Minerva,
of Esculapius, of St. Euphemia. We have already seen him (Fig. 13)
as the genius of the Eleans, the Sosopolis, where also we see the
Serpent hurrying into his cavern, leaving the mother and child to be
worshipped in the temple of Lucina. In christian symbolism the
Seraphim — ' burning {sdraf) serpents ' — veiled their faces and
forms beneath their huge wings, crossed in front, and so have been
able to become ' the eminent,' and to join in the praises of modern
communities at being delivered from just such imaginary fiery worms
as themselves !
 ( 340 ) CHAPTER V. APOPHIS. The Naturalistic Theory of
Apophis — The Serpent of Time — Epic of the Worm — The Asp of
M elite — Vanquishers of Time — NachashBeriach — The Serpent-
Spy — Treading on Serpents. The considerations advanced in the
previous chapter enable us to dismiss with facility many of the
rationalistic interpretations which have been advanced to explain the
monstrous serpents of sacred books by reference to imaginary
species supposed to be now extinct. Flying serpents, snakes many-
headed, rain-bringing, woman-hating, &c., may be suffered to
survive as the fauna of bibliolatrous imaginations. Such forms,
however, are of such mythologic importance that it is necessary to
watch carefully against this method of realistic interpretation,
especially as there are many actual characteristics of serpents
sufficiently mysterious to conspire with it. A recent instance of this
literalism may here be noticed. Mr. W. R. Cooper^ supposes the evil
serpent of Egyptian Mythology to have a real basis in ' a large and
unidentified species of coluber, of great strength and hideous
longitude,' which * was, even from the earliest ages, associated as
the representative of spiritual, and occasionally physical evil, and
was named Hof, Rehof, or Apophis, the 'destroyer, the enemy of the
gods, and the devoiLver of the souls of men.' ^ See his learned and
valuable treatise, 'The Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt.' Hardwicke,
1873.
 NATURALISTIC THEORY. 341 That such a creature, he
adds, * once inhabited the Libyan desert, we have the testimony of
both Hanno the Carthaginian and Lucan the Roman, and if it is now
no longer an inhabitant of that region, it is probably owing to the
advance of civilisation having driven it farther south.' Apart from the
extreme improbability that African exploration should have brought
no rumours of such a monster if it existed, it may be said concerning
Mr. Cooper's theory: (i.) If, indeed, the references cited were to a
reptile now unknown, we might be led by mythologic analogy to
expect that it would have been revered beyond either the Asp or the
Cobra. In proportion to the fear has generally beei;! the exaltation of
its objects. Primitive peoples have generally gathered courage to
pour invective upon evil monsters when — either from their non-
existence or rarity — there was least danger of its being practically
resented as a personal affront. (2.) The regular folds of Apophis on
the sarcophagus of Seti I, and elsewhere are so evidently mystical
and conventional that, apparently, they refer to a serpent-form only
as the guilloche on a wall may refer to sea-waves. Apophis (or Apap)
would have been a decorative artist to fold himself in such order.
These impossible labyrinthine coils suggest Time, as the serpent
with its tail in its mouth signifies Eternity, — an evolution of the
same idea. This was the interpretation given by a careful scholar, the
late William Hickson,^ to the procession of nine persons depicted on
the sarcophagus mentioned as bearing a serpent, each holding a
fold, all being regular enough for a frieze. ' The scene,' says this
author, ' appears to relate to the Last Judgment, for Osiris is seen on
his throne, passing sentence on a crowd before him ; and in the
same tableaux are depicted the river that divides the living from the
dead, and the bridge ^ ' Time and Faith,' i. 204. Groombridge, 1857.
 342 TIME. of life. The death of the serpent may possibly be
intended to symbolise the end of time.' This idea of long duration
might be a general one relating to all time, or it might refer to the
duration of individual life ; it involved naturally the evils and agonies
of life ; but the fundamental conception is more simple, and also
more poetic, than even these implications, and it means eternal
waste and decay. One has need only to sit before a clock to see
Apophis : there coil upon coil winds the ever-moving monster, whose
tooth is remorseless, devouring little by little the strength and
majesty of man, and reducing his grandest achievements— even his
universe — to dust. Time is the undying Worm. God having made
me worm, I make you — smoke. Though safe your nameless
essence from my stroke. Yet do I gnaw no less Love in the heart,
stars in the livid space, — God jealous, — making vacant thus your
place, — And steal your witnesses. Since the star ilames, man would
be wrong to teach That the grave's worm cannot such glory reach ;
Naught real is save me. Within the blue, as 'neath the marble slab I
lie, I bite at once the star within the sky. The apple on the tree. To
gnaw yon star is not more tough to me Than hanging grapes on
vines of Sicily ; I clip the rays that fall ; Eternity yields not to
splendours braveFly, ant, all creatures die, and nought can save The
constellations all. The starry ship, high in the ether sea, Must split
and wreck in the end : this thing shall be : The broad-ringed Saturn
toss To ruin : Sirius, touched by me, decay. As the small boat from
Ithaca away That steers to Kalymnos.^ ^ • The Epic of the Worm,'
by Victor Hugo, from ' La Legende des Siecles ' Translated by Bayard
Taylor
 ASF OF MELITE. 343 The natural history of Apophis, so far
as he has any, is probably suggested in the following passage cited
by Mr. Cooper from Wilkinson: — '.^lian relates many strange stories
of the asp, and the respect paid to it by the Egyptians ; but we may
suppose that in his sixteen species of asps other snakes were
included. He also speaks of a dragon which was sacred in the
Egyptian Melite, and another kind of snake called Paries or Paruas,
dedicated to ^sculapius. The serpent of Melite had priests and
ministers, a table and bowl. It was kept in a tower, and fed by the
priests with cakes made of flour and honey, which they placed there
in a bowl. Having done this they retired. The next day, on returning
to the apartment, the food was found to be eaten, and the same
quantity was again put into the bowl, for it was not lawful for any
one to see the sacred reptile.' ^ It was in this concealment from the
outward eye that the Serpent was able to assume such monstrous
proportions to the eye of imagination ; and, indeed, it is not beyond
conjecture that this serpent of Melite, coming in conflict with Osirian
worship, was degraded and demonised into that evil monster
(Apophis) whom Horus slew to avenge his destruction of Osiris (for
he was often identified with Typhon). Though Horus cursed and slew
this terrible demonserpent, he reappears in all Egyptian Mythology
with undiminished strength, and all evil powers were the brood ^
Bruce relates of the Abyssinians that a serpent is commonly kept in
their houses to consult for an augury of good or evil. Butter and
honey are placed before it, of which if it partake, the omen is good ;
if the serpent refuse to eat, some misfortune is sure to happen. This
custom seems to throw a light on the passage — ' Butter and honey
shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the
good' (Isa. vii. 15). — Time and Faith, i. 60. Compare the apocryphal
tale of Bel and the Dragon. Bel was a healing god of the
Babylonians, and the Dragon whom he slew may have been
regarded in later times as his familiar.
 344 NA CHASH-BERIA CH. of himself or Typhon, who were
sometimes described as brothers and sometimes as the same
beings. From the ' Ritual of the Dead ' we learn that it was the high
privilege and task of the heroic dead to be reconstructed and go
forth to encounter and subdue the agents of Apophis, who sent out
to engage them the crocodiles Seb, Hem, and Shui, and other
crocodiles from north, south, east, and west ; the hero having
conquered these, acquires their might, and next prevails over the
walking viper Ru ; and so on with other demons called 'precursors of
Apophis,' until their prince himself is encountered and slain, all the
hero's guardian deities attending to fix a knife in each of the
monster's folds. These are the Vanquishers of Time, — the immortal.
In Apophis we find the Serpent fairly developed to a principle of evil.
He is an ' accuser of the sun ;' the twelve gateways into Hades are
surmounted by his representatives, which the Sun must pass —
twelve hours of night. He is at once the 'Nachash beriach' and
'Nachash aktalon' — the 'Cross-bar serpent' and the 'Tortuous
serpent' — which we meet with in Isa. xxvii. i : 'In that day the Lord
with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the
piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent.' The marginal
translation in the English version is ' crossing like a bar,' instead of
piercing, and the Vulgate has serpens vectis. This refers to the moral
function of the serpent, as barring the way, or guarding the door. No
doubt this is the 'crooked serpent' of Job xxvi. 13, for the
astrological sense of it does not invalidate the terrestrial significance.
Imagination could only project into the heavens what it had learned
on earth. , Bochart in identifying ' Nachash-beriach ' as 'the flying
Serpent,' is quite right : the Seraph, or winged Serpent, which
barred the way to the tree of life in Eden, and in some
 THE SPY, 345 traditions was the treacherous guard at the
gate of the garden, and which bit Israel in the wilderness, was this
same protean Apophis. For such tasks, and to soar into the celestial
planisphere, the Serpent must needs have wings ; and thus it is
already far on its way to become the flying Dragon. But in one form,
as the betrayer of man, it must lose its wings and crawl upon the
ground for ever. The Serpent is thus not so much agathodemon and
kakodemon in one form, as a principle of destructiveness which is
sometimes employed by the deity to punish his enemies, as Horus
employs fiery Kheti, but sometimes requires to be himself punished.
There have been doubts whether the familiar derivation of o0i9,
serpent, from oi/r, the eye, shall continue. Some connect the Greek
word with eyi'^, but Curtius maintains that the old derivation from
o-v/r is correct,-^ Even were this not the etymology, the popularity
of it would equally suggest the fact that this reptile was of old
supposed to kill with its glance ; and it was also generally regarded
as gifted with praeternatural vision. By a similar process to that
which developed avenging Furies out of the detective dawn — Erinys
from Saranyu, Satan from Lucifer^ — this subtle Spy might have
become also a retributive and finally a malignant power. The Furies
were portrayed bearing serpents in their hands, and each of these
might carry ideally the terrors of Apophis : Time also is a detective,
and the guilty heard it saying, 'Your sin will find you out,' Through
many associations of this kind the Serpent became at an early period
an agent of ordeal. Any one handling it with impunity was regarded
as in league with it, or specially hedged about by the deity whose ^ '
Principles of Greek Etymology,' ii. 63. English translation. "See pp. 8
and 20.
 346 TREADING ON SERPENTS. ' hands formed the crooked
serpent.' It may have been as snake-charmers that Moses and Aaron
appeared before Pharaoh and influenced his imagination ; or, if the
story be a myth, its existence still shows that serpent performances
would then have been regarded as credentials of divine
authentication. So when Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, where a
viper is said to have fastened on his hand, the barbarians, having at
first inferred that he was a murderer, 'whom though he hath escaped
the sea, yet Vengeance suffereth not to live,' concluded he was a
god when they found him unharmed. Innumerable traditions
preceded the words ascribed to Christ (Luke x. 19), 'Behold, I give
unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the
power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.' It is
instructive to compare this sentence attributed to Christ with the
notion of the barbarians concerning Paul's adventure, whatever it
may have been. Paul's familiarity with the Serpent seems to them
proof that he is a god. Such also is the idea represented in Isa. xi. 8,
' The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp.' But the idea of
treading on serpents marks a period more nearly corresponding to
that of the infant Hercules strangling the serpents. Yet though these
two conceptions — serpent -treading, and serpent - slaying —
approach each other, they are very different in source and
significance, both morally and historically. The word used in Luke,
iraTelv, conveys the idea of walking over something in majesty, not
in hostility; it must be interpreted by the next sentence (x. 20), '
Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto
you (ra irvevjjbara VTrorda-creTat).' The serpent-slayer or dragon-
slayer is not of Semitic origin. The awful supremacy of Jehovah held
all the powers of destruction chained to his hand ; and to ask man if
he could draw out
 ANECDOTE OF ZINZENDORF. 347 Leviathan with a hook
was only another form of reminding him of his own inferiority to the
creator and lord of Leviathan. How true the Semitic ideas running
though the Bible, and especially represented in the legend of Paul in
Malta, are to the barbarian nature is illustrated by an incident related
in Mr. Brinton's ' Myths of the New World.' The pious founder of the
Moravian Brotherhood, Count Zinzendorf, was visiting a missionary
station among the Shawnees in the Wyoming Valley, America.
Recent quarrels with the white people had so irritated the red men
that they resolved to make him their victim. After he had retired to
his hut several of the braves softly peered in. Count Zinzendorf was
seated before a fire, lost in perusal of the Scriptures ; and while the
red men gazed they saw what he did not — a huge rattlesnake
trailing across his feet to gather itself in a coil before the comfortable
warmth of the fire. Immediately they forsook their murderous
purpose, and retired noiselessly, convinced that this was indeed a
divine man.
 ( 348 ) CHAPTER VI. THE SERPENT IN INDIA. The Kankato
na — The Vedic Serpents not worshipful — Ananta and Sesha — The
Healing Serpent — The guardian of treasures — Miss Buckland's
theory — Primitive rationalism — Underworld plutocracy— Rain and
lightning — Vritra — History of the word ' Ahi' — The Adder — Zohlk
— A Teutonic Laokoon. That Serpent -worship in India was
developed byeuphemism seems sufficiently shown in the famous
Vedic hymn called Kankato na, recited as an antidote against all
venom, of which the following is a translation: — ' I. Some creature
of little venom; some creature of great venom; orsome venomous
aquatic reptile ; creatures of two kinds, both destructive of life, or
poisonous, unseen creatures, have anointed me with their poison. '
2. The antidote coming to the bitten person destroys the unseen
venomous creatures ; departing it destroys them ; deprived of
substance it destroys them by its odour ; being ground it pulverises
them. *3. Blades of sara grass, of kiisara, of darhba, of sazrya, of
iminja, of virana, all the haunt of unseen venomous creatures, have
together anointed me with their venom. ' 4. The cows had lain down
in their stalls ; the wild beasts had retreated to their lairs ; the
senses of men were at rest; when the unseen venomous creatures
anointed me with their venom.
 KANKATO NA. 349 * 5, Or they may be discovered in the
dark, as thieves in the dusk of evening ; for although they be unseen
yet all are seen by them ; therefore, men be vigilant. ' 6. Heaven,
serpents, is your father ; Earth, your mother ; Soma, your brother ;
Aditi, your sister ; unseen, all-seeing, abide in your holes ; enjoy
your own good pleasure. ' 7. Those who move with their shoulders,
those who move with their bodies, those who sting with sharp fangs,
those who are virulently venomous ; what do ye here, ye unseen,
depart together far from us. ' 8. The all-seeing Sun rises in the East,
the destroyer of the unseen, driving away all the unseen venomous
creatures, and all evil spirits. ' 9. The Sun has risen on high,
destroying all the many poisons; Aditya, the all-seeing, the destroyer
of the unseen, rises for the good of living beings. ' 10. I deposit the
poison in the solar orb, like a leathern bottle in the house of a
vendor of spirits ; verily that adorable Sun never dies ; nor through
his favour shall we die of the venom ; for, though afar off, yet drawn
by his coursers he will overtake the poison : the science of antidotes
converted thee, Poison, to ambrosia. 'II. That insignificant little bird
has swallowed thy venom ; she does not die ; nor shall we die ; for
although afar off, yet, drawn by his coursers, the Sun will overtake
the poison : the science of antidotes has converted thee, Poison, to
ambrosia. ' 12. May the thrice-seven sparks of Agni consume the
influence of the venom ; they verily do not perish ; nor shall we die ;
for although afar off, the Sun, drawn by his coursers, will overtake
the poison : the science of antidotes has converted thee, Poison, to
ambrosia. '13. I recite the names of ninety and nine rivers, the
Welcome to Our Bookstore - The Ultimate Destination for Book Lovers
Are you passionate about books and eager to explore new worlds of
knowledge? At our website, we offer a vast collection of books that
cater to every interest and age group. From classic literature to
specialized publications, self-help books, and children’s stories, we
have it all! Each book is a gateway to new adventures, helping you
expand your knowledge and nourish your soul
Experience Convenient and Enjoyable Book Shopping Our website is more
than just an online bookstore—it’s a bridge connecting readers to the
timeless values of culture and wisdom. With a sleek and user-friendly
interface and a smart search system, you can find your favorite books
quickly and easily. Enjoy special promotions, fast home delivery, and
a seamless shopping experience that saves you time and enhances your
love for reading.
Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and
personal growth!

ebookball.com