Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

684 TEEES AND ANIMALS.
REPTILES. Snakes, by the beauty of their shape and the terror
of their bite, seem above all animals to command awe and rever
ence. A great many stories tell of an exchange of form between
men and snakes : an almost infallible sign of their having been
worshipped. Beings that had passed out of human into animal
shapes, and were able to return into the former at need, these
heathenism was inclined to regard as sacred ; it worshipped kind
beneficent snakes, whilst in Christian opinion the notion of snakes
being malignant and diabolic predominates.
The same Vita Barbati, which we had to thank for information
on the tree-cultus of the Lombards (p. 649), tells us likewise of
a worship of snakes : His vero diebus, quamvis sacra baptis-
matis unda Langobardi abluerentur, tamen priscum gentilitatis
ritum tenentes, sive bestiali mente degebant, bestiae simulachro,
debite suo de-
quae vulgo vipera nominatur, flectebant collet, quae
bebant flectere Creatori. . . . Praeterea Romuald ejusque
sodales, prisco coecati errore, palam
se solum Deum colere fate-
bantur, et in abditis viperae simulachrum ad suam perniciem
adorabant. During the king s absence, Barbatus beseeches his
consort Theodorada to procure for him that image of the snake.
veraciter scio me
Illaque respondit : Si hoc perpetravero, pater,
inorituram/ He perseveres and at last persuades her as soon
;
as the image is in his hands, he melts it down, and delivers the
metal to goldsmiths to make out of it a plate and a chalice. 1
Out of these golden vessels the Christian sacrament is adminis
tered to the king on his return, and then Barbatus confesses that
the holy utensils were made by melting down the idol. Repente
unus ex circumstantibus ait : Si mea uxor talia perpetrasset, nullo
interposito momento abscinderem caput ejus/ A passage in the
other Vita also is pertinent here : Quinetiam viperam auri
metallo formatam summi pro magnitudine dei supplici devotione
venerari videbantur. Unde usque hodie, sicut pro voto arboris
Votum, ita et locus ille Census, devotiones 2 ubi viperae reddebantur
dignoscitur appellari. About votum I expressed my
mind, p. 650n. ; census signifies the Goth, gild, gilstr, OHG.
kelt, kelstar (p. 38-9 and RA. 358). The two words voturn and
1 As the gold of the swan-rings was made into pots, and what remai
was the goldsmith s profit.
2 Printed text : locus ille census devotionis, ubi viperae reddebantur.