Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

184 Old Irish Religions.
in the mouth of the serpent. The Pythia, or Serpent of
Delphi, was the priestess. Snake offerings were made to
Bacchus. The phalHc character is exhibited in the serpent
at Mayence, with the apple of love in its mouth, upon
which creature the Virgin is represented as treading.
France was not without its snake destroyers.
In Brittany,
St. Suliac, watching the emergence of a great serpent from
its cave, put his stole round its neck, and cast it into the
sea. Up to 1793, a procession of the clergy of St. Suliac
annually took place, when a silver
cross was lowered into
the serpent cavern of La Guivre.
M. About tells of a serpentine dance he witnessed in
Greece. A number of women and children formed the
tail of a serpent, w^hich incessantly revolved round itself,
without the extremities ever joining.
In ancient ornaments,
an Q.g^ is seen with a serpent coiled round it, as if to
fertilize
it.
All readers of Welsh Druidism are aware of the part
played therein by this creeping creature.
It was the Celtic
dragon Draig. It was the gliding god. Ceridwen is associated
with a car and serpent. Abury gives us the serpent
of the sun. The Glain neidr, or serpent's ^gg, was a great
mystery of the Druids.
Serpent worship has been taken up to the heavens,
where constellations have been named after
the creeping,
silent creature. There is the Hydra, killed by Hercules,
but not till it had poisoned him by its venom. There are
the voluminous folds of Draco. There is that one held
by Ophiuchus, w^hich sought to devour the child of Virgo.
There is the seven-headed Draco, each head forming a star
in the Little Bear. Thus we may exclaim with Herschel,
''
The heavens are scribbled over with innumerable snakes."
Classical mythology tells
of a Python, which sought to
devour the offspring of Latona, whose child, Apollo, be-