Ælian relates many strange stories of the aspt, 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 (Metelis?); and another kind of snake called Parias, or Paruas, dedicated to Esculapius. ¶ The serpent of Melite had priests and ministers, a table and a bowl. It was kept in a tower, and fed by the priests with cakes ** made of flour and honey, which they placed there in the 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. On one occasion a certain elder of the priests, being anxious to behold it, went in alone; and having deposited the cake withdrew, until the moment when he supposed the serpent had come forth to its repast. tt He then entered, throwing open the door with great violence; upon which, the serpent withdrew in evident indignation, and the priest shortly after * Ælian, x. 31., xi. 32., and iv. 54. He even makes it in love, without being complimentary to Egyptian beauty. † Vide also Plin. viii. 23. § Ælian, xi. c.17. Elian, x. 31. It is evident from Pausanias (Att. 21.) that the dragon of the Greeks was only a large kind of snake with, as he says, "scales like a pine cone.' ¶ Ælian, viii. c. 19. ** Cakes seem to have been usually given to the snakes of antiquity; as to the dragon of the Hesperides. Virg. Æn. iv. 483. tt Conf. Ovid, lib. ii. Amor. Eleg. 13. to Isis. "Labatur circa donaria serpens." CHAP. XIV. THE ASP. 241 became frantic, and having confessed his crime expired. According to Juvenal*, the priests of Isis, in his time, contrived that the silver idols of snakes, kept in her temple, should move their heads to a supplicating votary; and extravagant notions connected with serpents are not wanting in the paintings of the tombs of the kings at Thebes, and are traced in the religions of all nations of antiquity. The Egyptian asp is a species of Cobra de capellot, and is still very common in Egypt, where it is called Náshir, a word signifying "spreading," from its dilating its breast when angry. It is the same which the Hawee, or snake-players, the Psylli‡ of modern days§, use in their juggling tricks: having previously taken care to extract its fangs, or, which is a still better precaution, to burn out the poison bag with a hot iron. They are generally about three or four feet long, but some are considerably larger, one in my possession measuring exactly six feet in length; and Elian scruples not to give them five cubits. They are easily tamed. Their food is mice, frogs, and various reptiles; and they * "Et movisse caput visa est argentea serpens." Juv. Sat. vi. 537. † Coluber, or Naja Haje. Vide suprà, p. 124. Vide Elian, i. 57. 64 Ælian, speaking of the power of the Egyptians over snakes and birds, says, They are said to be enabled by a certain magical art to bring down birds from heaven, and to charm serpents, so as to make them come forth from their lurking places at their command." (lib. vi. c. 33.) He thinks that no one ever recovered from the bite of an asp (vi. 38.); though he modifies this opinion in another place (ii. 5.). Elian, Nat. An. vi. 38. He mentions dragons of thirteen and fourteen cubits (20 feet), brought from Ethiopia to Alexandria. This was for Esculapius. "Deus intersit." (xvi. 39.) mostly live in gardens during the warm weather*, where they are of great use: the reason, probably, of their having been chosen in ancient times as a protecting emblem.† In the winter they retire to their holes, and remain in a torpid state, being incapable of bearing cold, as I had reason to observe with two I kept in the house at Cairo, which died in one night, though wrapped up in a skin and protected from the air. The size of the asp necessarily suggests the question, why should Cleopatra have chosen so inconvenient a serpent? It is, however, probable that this name was sometimes applied, like our term viper, to many venemous serpents of different species; and another kind of poisonous snake of a much more convenient and portable size, common in Lower Egypt, may have been the one used by her, and have been miscalled by the Greeks an asp. Mummies of the asp are discovered in the Necropolis of Thebes. THE HOUSE SNAKE. This harmless serpent, from its destroying mice and various reptiles in their dwellings and outhouses, was looked upon with great respect by the Egyptians. Though used to represent Eternity, * Conf. Ælian, v. 52. † Ammianus (xxii. 15. p. 338.) says, "the asp exceeds all others in size and beauty." His acontia is perhaps the tyar, "flyer," of modern Egypt. Vide Plin. viii. 23. "Jaculum ex arborum ramis vibrari." The Echis pavo. and sometimes occurring in the mysterious subjects of the tombs, it does not appear to have been sacred to any of the great deities of Egypt; and if it belonged to any, it was probably only to those of an inferior order, in the region of Amenti. It is doubtful if the snake with its tail in its mouth was really adopted by the Egyptians as the emblem of Eternity. It occurs on papyrit, encircling the figure of Harpocrates; but there is no evidence of its having that meaning, and I do not remember to have seen it on any monuments of an early Egyptian epoch. The snake, in former times, played a conspicuous part in the mysteries of religion; many of the subjects, in the tombs of the Kings at Thebes in particular, show the importance it was thought to enjoy in a future state; and Ælian ‡ seems to speak of "a subterraneous chapel and closet at each corner of the Egyptian temples, in which the Thermuthis asp was kept," as if it were the universal custom throughout the country to keep a sacred serpent. That the asp was universally honoured, appears to be highly probable; but other serpents did not enjoy the same distinction, and one was looked upon by the Egyptians as a type of the Evil Being, under the name of Aphôphis, "the giant." It was represented to have been killed by Horus; and in this fable may be traced that of Apollo and Pytho, as * Macrobius (Sat. i. 5.) says it was a Phoenician mode of representing the world. A papyrus in the Berlin museum has this emblem. well as the war of the Giants against the Gods, in Greek mythology.* By the serpent the Jews also typified the enemy of mankind. And such is the aversion entertained for snakes by the Moslems, that they hold in abhorrence every thing which bears a resemblance to them; and a superstitious fancy induces them to break in two every hair that accidentally falls from their beards, lest it should turn to one of these hateful reptiles. The notion mentioned by Pliny t, of snakes being produced from the marrow of the human spine, is not less ridiculous and unaccountable; and no animal has enjoyed so large a share of the marvellous as the snake, which, from the earliest times, excited the wonder, the respect, or the abhorrence of mankind. says Some venerated it with unbounded horrors: it was an emblem of the world, which Eusebius was sometimes described by a circle intersected by a serpent passing horizontally through it some Gods were accompanied by it as a type of wisdom; and several religions considered it emblematic both of a good and bad Deity. The Hindoo serpent Caliya, slain by Vishnoo, in his incarnation of Crishna (which corresponded to the Python and Aphophis of the Greek and Egyptian mythologies), was the enemy of the Gods, though still looked upon with a religious feeling; the Mexicans and Scandi * Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 435. Plin. x. 66. Elian, i. 51. Elian seems to consider snakes the food of the stag, as asses of the wolf, bees of the merops, and cicadas of the swallow (viii. 6. and ii. 9.). |