The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

that vindictive god.
IN AMERICA. 197
Round the idol were a great num-
22
ber of emblematical figures."
The System of the Mexicans was barbarous and bloody
in the extreme. Their Temples were covered with representations
of monstrous serpents, 23 and all sorts
tigers
23 Rel. Cerem. of Various Nations, p. 316.
23 The temples of religion in most nations were decorated with
serpents to indicate their sacred character. (Pers., Sat. i., 113, and
see Signs and Symb., Lect. 3.) From the general use of this hierogly-
trace its introduction into the
phic in systems of idolatry, we may
legends of romance. For this idea I am indebted to Mr. Faber, and
shall transcribe from his elaborate work, on the Origin of Pagan Idolatry,
a passage in support of the "
proposition. In British fiction, we
have a Lady of the Lake, who is said to have been the sister of King
Arthur, and who is celebrated by the name of Morgana, or Viviana.
Boiardo represents her as gliding beneath the waters of an enchanted
lake, while she caresses a vast serpent, into which form she had
metamorphosed one of her lovers. And other romance writers de-
scribe her as the perfidious paramour of Merlin, who was wont to
denominate her the White Serpent. Her character has been taken
from that of the White Goddess, who presided over the Sacred Lake,
and who, as the navicular serpent, was the diluvian vehicle of the great
universal Father." (Fab. Pag. Idol., vol. iii., p. 321.) And again, in
the Arabian Tales, contests between the good and evil demons are
very frequently introduced, and sometimes they are represented in the
form of serpents, agreeably to the universal belief of all the east. In
one of these tales, the malignant serpent, or an evil genius in that
form, is represented as endeavouring to destroy the beneficent genius,
depicted also as a winged snake. The passage is as follows, and is an
extraordinary incident which occurred to Zobeide, after her sisters
had cruelly thrown her overboard, and she had miraculously succeeded
in gaining the land.
u
I laid myself down," said she to the caliph of
Bagdad, " in a shade, and soon after I saw a winged serpent, very large
and long, coming towards me, wriggling to the right and to the left,
and hanging out his tongue, which made me think he had got some
hurt. I arose and saw a larger serpent following him, holding him by
the and tail, endeavouring to devour him. I had compassion on him,
and, instead of flying away, I had the boldness and courage to take
up a stone that by chance lay by me, and threw it with all my strength
at the great serpent, whom I hit on the head and killed him. The other,
finding himself at liberty, took to his wings and flew away. I looked
a long while after him 'in the air, as an : extraordinary thing but he
flew out of
sight, and I lay down again in another place in the shade,
and fell- asleep.
When I awaked, judge ho\v I was surprised to see by
me a black woman, of a lively and agreeable complexion. I sat up
and asked her who she was. I am, said she, the serpent whom you
delivered not long since from my mortal enemy," &c., &c. Mr. Faber,
whose opinions are entitled to considerable respect, thus endeavours
to account for that universal degeneracy of principle which induced
mankind to offer the rites of divine worship to this disgusting symbol.
4t
Serpents," he says, " were accounted the greatest of gods, and the