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Article OPHIOLOGY AND SERPENT SYMBOLISM. ← Page 7 of 9 →
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Ophiology And Serpent Symbolism.
in no other mythology can Ave find any traces of such qualities insisted upon . The Christian fathers , hoAvever , bring from natural history certain facts , which if fully proved , would surely establish for the creature a certain degree of cunning . It is said , AA'hen he has grown old he has the secret of grOAving young againby squeezing himself between two rocksand thus
, , divesting himself of his old age covering — certainly apocryphal ; that he will assault a naked man , but glide from one jDrotected by clothing from his bite ; that when attacked his chief care is to defend his head , as the heart is concealed near it ; that Avhen he drinks he first ejects all his poison , for fear of poisoning himself , which scarcely needs refutation . But there
is another cause Avhich naturalists have still to test , that the cerastes burroAvs in the sand in horse tracks , that he may by attacking the horse in the fetlock make him throAv his rider , whom the serpent can then easier assault ; a belief that must be very ancient , since Jacob ( Gen . xlix . 7 ) alludes to it : " Dan shall be a serpent by the way , an adder in the path , that biteth the horses' heels , so that the rider shall fall backward . "
CHINA AND INDIA . The peculiar sinuous form of the serpent eminently fitted it for a pendant and a signal , and it is therefore found amongst most martial nations as a military ensign . The Scythians and Parthians carried the image of a serpent or a dragon upon the top of a spear as a ralling point to their armies . For the
y Roman legions it hung pendulous with open hissing mouth , exactly as found on the columns of Trajan . The winged serpent , the fabulous dragon , seems to have found greater favour in countries which could have known nothing of it , if existing , but from report ; their want of a natural prototype permitted every exaggeration ; our Chinese importations of porcelainour
, screens from Japan , shoAV that they have Used this license to excess , though scarcely beyond what the mediajval illustrators of the Apocalypse alkwed themselves ; the red dragon of King Arthur and his Paladins had all the terror of fire and the mysticism of colour ; and if we fancy the Zinitra of the Avends found at Rhetrain Mecklenburg { vide Maschi ' s Allerthumer der
Obo-, triten ) , like it , Avere joined the horrors of a Cayman ' s triple I * OAV of fangs to the sinuous tail and forked poisonous barb . The relations of its mythological observances would carry us through all the intricacies of Hindoo faith in Bramah , or the Avide-spread heresy of Budh ; amongst the former , their indication of poAver by multiplication , as in attribution of numerous
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ophiology And Serpent Symbolism.
in no other mythology can Ave find any traces of such qualities insisted upon . The Christian fathers , hoAvever , bring from natural history certain facts , which if fully proved , would surely establish for the creature a certain degree of cunning . It is said , AA'hen he has grown old he has the secret of grOAving young againby squeezing himself between two rocksand thus
, , divesting himself of his old age covering — certainly apocryphal ; that he will assault a naked man , but glide from one jDrotected by clothing from his bite ; that when attacked his chief care is to defend his head , as the heart is concealed near it ; that Avhen he drinks he first ejects all his poison , for fear of poisoning himself , which scarcely needs refutation . But there
is another cause Avhich naturalists have still to test , that the cerastes burroAvs in the sand in horse tracks , that he may by attacking the horse in the fetlock make him throAv his rider , whom the serpent can then easier assault ; a belief that must be very ancient , since Jacob ( Gen . xlix . 7 ) alludes to it : " Dan shall be a serpent by the way , an adder in the path , that biteth the horses' heels , so that the rider shall fall backward . "
CHINA AND INDIA . The peculiar sinuous form of the serpent eminently fitted it for a pendant and a signal , and it is therefore found amongst most martial nations as a military ensign . The Scythians and Parthians carried the image of a serpent or a dragon upon the top of a spear as a ralling point to their armies . For the
y Roman legions it hung pendulous with open hissing mouth , exactly as found on the columns of Trajan . The winged serpent , the fabulous dragon , seems to have found greater favour in countries which could have known nothing of it , if existing , but from report ; their want of a natural prototype permitted every exaggeration ; our Chinese importations of porcelainour
, screens from Japan , shoAV that they have Used this license to excess , though scarcely beyond what the mediajval illustrators of the Apocalypse alkwed themselves ; the red dragon of King Arthur and his Paladins had all the terror of fire and the mysticism of colour ; and if we fancy the Zinitra of the Avends found at Rhetrain Mecklenburg { vide Maschi ' s Allerthumer der
Obo-, triten ) , like it , Avere joined the horrors of a Cayman ' s triple I * OAV of fangs to the sinuous tail and forked poisonous barb . The relations of its mythological observances would carry us through all the intricacies of Hindoo faith in Bramah , or the Avide-spread heresy of Budh ; amongst the former , their indication of poAver by multiplication , as in attribution of numerous