Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

Serpent Faith.
i^g
honoured the serpent. All over Africa, the vast regions of
Tartary and China, the hills and plains of India, the whole
extent of America, the Isles of the Pacific, alike in swelteringtropics
and ice-bound coasts, is the same tale told.
Civilized man,—whether beside the Nile, the Euphrates, or
the Indus,— on the deserts of Arabia, the highlands of Persia,
the plains of Syria, or the Islands of Greece,— among the
tribes of Canaan, the many named peoples of Asia Minor,
the philosophers of Athens and Alexandria, the mariners of
Phcenicia, or the warriors
of Rome,—bowed to the serpent
god. All religions, past and present, recognize the creature.
The Rev. Dr. D'Eremao, in the Serpent of Eden, sees
direct serpent worship in " the worship of the serpent as a
god, in
himself, and for his own sake"; but indirect worship
in " the use and veneration of the serpent, not for himself,
but merely as the symbol or emblem of some one or more
of the gods." He esteems the Egyptians indirect worshippers.
The Greeks had it as a symbol of Apollo, Minerva,
and Juno. The Ophites, of early Christendom, saw in it a
s}'mbol of Christ, or the mundane soul.
The creature spoke from under the tripod of Delphi ;
it
moved about the holy bread on the altar of the Gnostics ; it
was a living and moving symbol in Egypt ; it had a place
of honour in the temples of Tyre, Cyprus, Babylon, and
India ;
it crawled in the sacred cave of Triphonius, and its
eyes glistened within the shadows of Elephanta.
As the Apophis, pierced by the god Horus, and as the
emblem of Typhon, it was the evil spirit of Egypt
; but in
the uraeus of Oriris, it was the good one. The Egyptian
faith several thousand years before Christ also included
serpent worship. The serpent symbol distinguished Sabaism.
It was in Egypt the illustration of a new birth, as it
cast its skin, and thence gave to man a hope of the
Resurrection.
In the Book of the Dead,d,\\d other Egyptian