jenjohn789
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THE SERPENT IN AFRICAN BELIEF AND CUSTOM This subject involves the preliminary difficulty of selection
and definition of terms. A survey of the literature dealing
with the serpent in relation to human beliefs and practices,
reveals a vague and inconsistent use of the word “worship.”
The majority of writers have shown themselves willing to gather
under this heading almost any form of cult or superstition relating
to the serpent.These might reasonably include ideas of a superhuman
being, a priesthood, provision of a special house or locality,
also the employment of sacrifice and ritual procedure. The word
“cult” may be used to designate beliefs and acts, whose nature
is less clearly defined than is the case with concepts and ceremonies
surrounding an act of worship. In a third category are a
large and miscellaneous assortment of superstitions. These include
a use of the fat of snakes for making medicines, wearing of amulets
to guard against snake bite, magical means, other than amuletic,
of curing snake bite or becoming immune to the poison.
The subject of serpent worship has suffered from hasty
generalizations and it lack of detailed treatment. Consequently
there has been assumption of similarities and identities where they
do not exist. All the data relating to serpent beliefs in Africa may be arranged:
1) Python worship
2) Rainbow-guardian-snakes and rain
3) The birth-snake and fecundity
4) Snake-souls, reincarnation, transmigration, totemism
Immunity, snake-medicine, general superstitions
Worship of the python is confined almost entirely to one
clan, in Budu, south Uganda. The temple, like those of Whydah,
is a large conical hut built of poles and thatched with grass. On
one side of the building is the place of the snake and his guardian,
a woman who is required to remain celibate. Over a log and a
stool, a bark cloth is stretched for the python to lie upon. In one
side of the building is a circular hole so that the python is free to
go to the banks of the river, where it feeds on tethered animals.
In addition to this diet the python is fed daily on milk from sacred
cows which are kept on an adjacent island. The python is supposed
to give success in fishing because he has power over the
river and all that is in it. Worship is at new moon, at which time
childless men and women petition for offspring. For seven days
all work is stopped in the vicinity of the temple when a time has
been arranged for the ceremonies. A priest, whose office is hereditary,
drinks from the bowl of the python, then takes a draught
of beer. The spirit of the python goes into the medium, who wriggles
on the floor like a snake, uttering strange sounds, and talking
in a language which has to be interpreted to the worshipers.
When the medium is in a state of coma an interpreter explains
to the people what they must do in order to realize their desires.
If children are born to the supplicants, they must bring an offering
to the python. The Bahima and Banyankole believe that their
royal dead enter pythons, which enjoy immunity in a special reservation.
At one time the kings of Uganda used to send messengers
to ask the sacred python to grant children to the royal house.
In East Africa, as in the West, these are many scattered beliefs
which suggest themselves as survivals of a more widespread cult.
The rainbow snake, often guardian monster of wells, has a
wide distribution that cannot be correlated with any particular
area and type of culture. The worship of pythons in Africa is fundamentally a fertility
cult, and there is a possibility that ideas of the birth snake, which
announces conception by visiting a hut, are a bye-product from
dissolution of a pristine python worship. Hesitation is justifiable
between this opinion and the idea that the birth-snake is a variant
of the snake-ancestor-visitor concept, which is definitely Hamitic
in distribution. On the whole, the idea of the snake visitor announcing
a conception, is nearer to the ancestral-snake-visitor
concept than it is to any other belief.
A survey of the data relating to transformations and reincarnations
falls into the following categories:
-Reincarnation in snakes. Of gods and demons.
-Of kings and chiefs.
-Of commoners, including women and children.
-Transformation into snakes during life:
-A living man can turn himself into a snake.
-A living man can send his soul into a snake.
-A man can command a snake to do his will.
-A man may turn another person into a snake which will then obey him. Several Egyptologists have extracted from the Book of the
Dead and other documents, a considerable amount of information
respecting the presence of snake-beliefs in early dynastic Egypt, and later. In the volumes Ancient Records ofEgypt, Breasted has given many references to the Uraeus. Dreadful is thy serpent crest among them,” “I mixed for them ointment for their serpent crests,” and many similar references, make the
reader willing to accept Petrie’s opinion that the uraeus symbolized
royal power, divine life, judgment, life giving, and knowledge.
The serpent Nehebka was one of the forty-two judges of the dead,
and, according to the Book of the Dead, this serpent points out
the way to the underworld. Amulets in serpent form were numerous.
The sun god is generally represented with the head of a
sparrow-hawk. On the top of the head is a disk representing the
sun, and around this is the fire-spitting serpent, which destroys the
sun’s enemies. Isis is represented as a serpent, and to accommodate
himself to her Osiris takes serpent form.
The song in praise of Ra illustrates the well established idea
of the serpent as a fiend. “Thou passeth through the heights of
heaven; thy heart swelleth with joy. The serpent fiend has fallen;
his arms are cut off; the knife hath cut asunder his joints.” A vignette
from the papyrus of Ani shows Ani, clad in white, spearing
the serpent fiend. The papyrus of Nu has a section on the repulsing
of serpents and worms. The serpent is mentioned among
secret names connected with magical practices. Ermann gives a
translation which reads :
As a preventive against witches, cut off the head and wings of a large scarabaeus
beetle. Cook these parts in serpent’s fat and drink the mixture.
- Quick noiseless movements which make the reptile appear and disappear.
The habit of living near graves, hollow trees, old walls, and ant hills.
-Enormous size and crushing power of the python.
-The bites of poisonous snakes have a quick, and to the native mind, magical
-Darting out of a forked tongue.
-Often brilliant colors and color phases.
-The viviparous snakes bring forth large broods. The python lays a large
number of eggs.
-Two headed snakes are of two kinds. There are those which are so called
because of the slender head and a habit of raising the tail when disturbed.
More rarely there is an anatomical malformation which causes the snake
to have two heads which bifurcate at the cervical vertebrae. Hibernation
during cold and drought. Snakes reappear with the seasonal rain;
they swim well, and pythons may be seen in forest pools.
-The habit of hissing and spreading a hood. If these points relating to structure and habit are borne in mind
in relation to rainbow snakes and rainmaking, fecundity and
phallicism, reincarnation, and snake monsters, there must follow
the feeling that there is no imperative need to search in
Egypt or elsewhere for the genesis of African snake beliefs.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 0/abstract
and definition of terms. A survey of the literature dealing
with the serpent in relation to human beliefs and practices,
reveals a vague and inconsistent use of the word “worship.”
The majority of writers have shown themselves willing to gather
under this heading almost any form of cult or superstition relating
to the serpent.These might reasonably include ideas of a superhuman
being, a priesthood, provision of a special house or locality,
also the employment of sacrifice and ritual procedure. The word
“cult” may be used to designate beliefs and acts, whose nature
is less clearly defined than is the case with concepts and ceremonies
surrounding an act of worship. In a third category are a
large and miscellaneous assortment of superstitions. These include
a use of the fat of snakes for making medicines, wearing of amulets
to guard against snake bite, magical means, other than amuletic,
of curing snake bite or becoming immune to the poison.
The subject of serpent worship has suffered from hasty
generalizations and it lack of detailed treatment. Consequently
there has been assumption of similarities and identities where they
do not exist. All the data relating to serpent beliefs in Africa may be arranged:
1) Python worship
2) Rainbow-guardian-snakes and rain
3) The birth-snake and fecundity
4) Snake-souls, reincarnation, transmigration, totemism
Immunity, snake-medicine, general superstitions
Worship of the python is confined almost entirely to one
clan, in Budu, south Uganda. The temple, like those of Whydah,
is a large conical hut built of poles and thatched with grass. On
one side of the building is the place of the snake and his guardian,
a woman who is required to remain celibate. Over a log and a
stool, a bark cloth is stretched for the python to lie upon. In one
side of the building is a circular hole so that the python is free to
go to the banks of the river, where it feeds on tethered animals.
In addition to this diet the python is fed daily on milk from sacred
cows which are kept on an adjacent island. The python is supposed
to give success in fishing because he has power over the
river and all that is in it. Worship is at new moon, at which time
childless men and women petition for offspring. For seven days
all work is stopped in the vicinity of the temple when a time has
been arranged for the ceremonies. A priest, whose office is hereditary,
drinks from the bowl of the python, then takes a draught
of beer. The spirit of the python goes into the medium, who wriggles
on the floor like a snake, uttering strange sounds, and talking
in a language which has to be interpreted to the worshipers.
When the medium is in a state of coma an interpreter explains
to the people what they must do in order to realize their desires.
If children are born to the supplicants, they must bring an offering
to the python. The Bahima and Banyankole believe that their
royal dead enter pythons, which enjoy immunity in a special reservation.
At one time the kings of Uganda used to send messengers
to ask the sacred python to grant children to the royal house.
In East Africa, as in the West, these are many scattered beliefs
which suggest themselves as survivals of a more widespread cult.
The rainbow snake, often guardian monster of wells, has a
wide distribution that cannot be correlated with any particular
area and type of culture. The worship of pythons in Africa is fundamentally a fertility
cult, and there is a possibility that ideas of the birth snake, which
announces conception by visiting a hut, are a bye-product from
dissolution of a pristine python worship. Hesitation is justifiable
between this opinion and the idea that the birth-snake is a variant
of the snake-ancestor-visitor concept, which is definitely Hamitic
in distribution. On the whole, the idea of the snake visitor announcing
a conception, is nearer to the ancestral-snake-visitor
concept than it is to any other belief.
A survey of the data relating to transformations and reincarnations
falls into the following categories:
-Reincarnation in snakes. Of gods and demons.
-Of kings and chiefs.
-Of commoners, including women and children.
-Transformation into snakes during life:
-A living man can turn himself into a snake.
-A living man can send his soul into a snake.
-A man can command a snake to do his will.
-A man may turn another person into a snake which will then obey him. Several Egyptologists have extracted from the Book of the
Dead and other documents, a considerable amount of information
respecting the presence of snake-beliefs in early dynastic Egypt, and later. In the volumes Ancient Records ofEgypt, Breasted has given many references to the Uraeus. Dreadful is thy serpent crest among them,” “I mixed for them ointment for their serpent crests,” and many similar references, make the
reader willing to accept Petrie’s opinion that the uraeus symbolized
royal power, divine life, judgment, life giving, and knowledge.
The serpent Nehebka was one of the forty-two judges of the dead,
and, according to the Book of the Dead, this serpent points out
the way to the underworld. Amulets in serpent form were numerous.
The sun god is generally represented with the head of a
sparrow-hawk. On the top of the head is a disk representing the
sun, and around this is the fire-spitting serpent, which destroys the
sun’s enemies. Isis is represented as a serpent, and to accommodate
himself to her Osiris takes serpent form.
The song in praise of Ra illustrates the well established idea
of the serpent as a fiend. “Thou passeth through the heights of
heaven; thy heart swelleth with joy. The serpent fiend has fallen;
his arms are cut off; the knife hath cut asunder his joints.” A vignette
from the papyrus of Ani shows Ani, clad in white, spearing
the serpent fiend. The papyrus of Nu has a section on the repulsing
of serpents and worms. The serpent is mentioned among
secret names connected with magical practices. Ermann gives a
translation which reads :
As a preventive against witches, cut off the head and wings of a large scarabaeus
beetle. Cook these parts in serpent’s fat and drink the mixture.
- Quick noiseless movements which make the reptile appear and disappear.
The habit of living near graves, hollow trees, old walls, and ant hills.
-Enormous size and crushing power of the python.
-The bites of poisonous snakes have a quick, and to the native mind, magical
-Darting out of a forked tongue.
-Often brilliant colors and color phases.
-The viviparous snakes bring forth large broods. The python lays a large
number of eggs.
-Two headed snakes are of two kinds. There are those which are so called
because of the slender head and a habit of raising the tail when disturbed.
More rarely there is an anatomical malformation which causes the snake
to have two heads which bifurcate at the cervical vertebrae. Hibernation
during cold and drought. Snakes reappear with the seasonal rain;
they swim well, and pythons may be seen in forest pools.
-The habit of hissing and spreading a hood. If these points relating to structure and habit are borne in mind
in relation to rainbow snakes and rainmaking, fecundity and
phallicism, reincarnation, and snake monsters, there must follow
the feeling that there is no imperative need to search in
Egypt or elsewhere for the genesis of African snake beliefs.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 0/abstract
