Demonology and Devil-Lore

ORDEAL BY FIRE AND WATER

It is, indeed, probably inaccurate to speak of the worship of sticks and stones, weeds and plants original: "stock and stone, weed and wort", insects and reptiles as "primitive" in the sense of being original. There are many signs that no race of people considered these things inherently sacred. They were not truly worshipped until the reasons for their sanctity were forgotten. Even today—centuries after their prophetic or symbolic meaning has been lost—the superstitions that survive around these small objects suggest they were originally associated with the movements and wonders of the sky.

At first glance, no two religions could seem more different than the worship of the serpent and the worship of the glorious sun. Yet, many ancient temples are covered in symbols that combine the sun and the snake. In Egypt, few forms are more common than the "solar serpent"—a snake standing upright on its tail with rays of light surrounding its head.

This elevated status of the worshipped reptile is not only found in places where it might be dismissed as a simple leftover from primitive original: "savage" symbolism or ethnic mixing. William Craft An African American who, after escaping slavery, became a famous author and traveler; he visited the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1860s., who lived for some time in the Kingdom of Dahomey A powerful West African kingdom located in present-day Benin, which existed from approximately 1600 to 1904., told me about an incident he witnessed there.

The sacred serpents are kept in a magnificent building, which they occasionally leave to crawl around the surrounding grounds. One day, a man from a distant region came across one of these animals and killed it. When the local people learned that one of their gods had been slain, they seized the stranger. Having surrounded him with a circle of brushwood, they set it on fire. The poor man broke through the circle of flames and ran, chased by the crowd who beat him with heavy sticks. Stinging from the burns and the blows, he rushed into a river. But as soon as he entered the water, the chase stopped. He was told that because he had passed through both fire and water, he was now purified and could come out safely. Thus, even in that remote and primitive...