then trinity, Osiris, Cneph, and Phtha, under the compound symbol of the globe, serpent and wings, and giving him the significant name of Cneph, the creator and upholder of all things. Thus was the serpent held in the profoundest veneration from time immemorial over all the earth. CHAP. V. AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. Serpents. The Frog.-Behemoth, or the Hippopotamus.-Leviathan, or the Crocodile. THE greater part of serpents are amphibious, and take to the water readily. Among these may be classed the boa, or proper dragon, who swims without fear the broad and rapid stream, and rides upon the swelling waves. One kind of large serpent, at least, certainly does exist, which has been met with at a considerable distance from land; this appears to be one which can live equally in both eleWith this species, the ancients were not unacquainted. Virgil thus describes the progress of two amphibious serpents from Tenedos to the Trojan shore: With immense orbs they stretched their lengths along the smooth surface of the sea, and with equal motion shot forward to the beach. Their breasts, erect amidst the waters, and their chests bedropped with blood, tower above the deep; ments. • Maurice's Indian Antiq. vol. ii, p. 191, 192, 291; vol. iii, p. 207, 208, 210; vol. iv, p. 228, 302, 303, 362, 364, 365; vol. v, p. 23, 95; vol. vi, p. 134, 135, 161. their other parts sweep the sea behind, and wind their spacious backs in rolling spires. Lashed by their strokes, the floods resound, the briny ocean foams: and now they are got to land, and darting fire from their glaring eyes suffused with blood, with forky tongues licked their hissing mouths. "Fit sonitus, spumante salo: jamque arva tenebant, En. lib. ii, 1. 209. The statements of the Poet are confirmed by the natural historian, who asserts on the authority of Alexander that the Red sea is infested with serpents of extraordinary length and corresponding thickness. The existence of such serpents, is attested by modern writers in the clearest terms. Baldeus informs us, that " serpents are very common all over the isle of Ceylon; the SEA SERPENTS are sometimes eight, nine, or ten yards long." "Peter Van Coerden, admiral of the Dutch fleet in the East Indies, says, that while he was at anchor on the coast of Mozambic, a boy that was washing himself by the ship's side, was seized by the middle by a serpent of enormous size, that dragged him under water at once, in the sight of the whole fleet.”—And " P. van den Broek, that at Golconda, there are serpents of prodigious size, the bite of which is instantly mortal; and observes further, that whenever these creatures are seen at sea, it is a certain sign of their being near the Indian coast.”b 66 Calmet, however, justly remarks, that serpents have been seen too far out at sea, to be supposed natives of the land; these are true hydras: but their varieties, colours, manners, and other particularities, are not well understood. b Taylor's Calmet, vol. iv. a Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. xvii, cap. 1. VOL. I. H h "We cannot doubt the existence of sea serpents, at least equal in dimensions with land serpents; but do these possess venom? However that may be, the histories quoted may justify the sacred writers in speaking of sea serpents, which they call nahash; Though they hide in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent,—nahash, and he shall bite them."" d The question whether sea serpents possess venom, has been laid to rest by recent intelligence from India. In the year 1807, a stout young man, a fisherman in the vicinity of Calicut, was bit on the point of the middle finger of the right hand, by a sea snake which had been entangled in his net. Conceiving the snake to be perfectly harmless, he threw it into the sea, and thought nothing of the bite. In less than an hour afterwards, he complained of a slight pain in the affected finger, which extended along the inside of the right arm. The pain increased continually ; he was affected with giddiness and weakness in his loins and lower extremities, which was followed by violent spasms, and he died in convulsions early in the morning after he had been bitten. Just as the medical gentleman who gave this statement had finished his account, another case of the same kind occurred. The man had been similarly employed, and was bitten on the back of the fore-finger of the right hand, about one hour before he was brought to the surgeon's house. The wound was very distinct, but attended with little pain. He placed a tight ligature upon the arm, scarified freely the wounded part, applying other remedies, as well external as internal. The patient suffered very See Literary Panorama, vol. v, p. 749, for one fifty-five feet long. d Amos ix, 3. severe pain in the affected hand, from two o'clock till about six, but was next morning quite well, though weak. The snake was described to be of the same kind with the former, but much smaller. The Frog. The aquatic frog was one of the plagues with which Jehovah smote the land of Egypt, because they refused to let his people go. For the name ('77) Tsephardim, signifies animals which live in marshes or in stagnant wa ters. The sacred historian also says, they were generated in the rivers and lakes of Egypt: " And the Lord spake unto Moses; say unto Aaron, stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds (or lakes), and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt: and Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt." After the plague ceased, we are told the frogs remained in the river only. These quotations clearly prove, that only aquatic frogs were commissioned to act against the Egyptians on that occasion. As the frog was, in Egypt, an emblem of Osiris, or the sun, the first object of idolatrous worship to the nations of the east, it is probable the Egyptians regarded it with superstitious veneration. If this conjecture is well founded, it brings into view the secret reason of the second plague; for it is perfectly consistent with the divine wisdom, to punish a nation by means of that which they foolishly revere. These vengeful reptiles were produced in the streams of the Nile, and in the lakes which were supplied from his waters, because the river was supposed, by that deluded people, to possess an uncommon degree of sanctity, and to deserve their religious veneration; it was the object of their e confidence, it was accounted the grand source of their enjoyments, and was the constant theme of their praise; it was, therefore, just to pollute those waters with an innumerable multitude of impure animals, to which the respect and confidence which were due only to the true God, the father of the rain, had been impiously transferred. Turned at first into blood, as a just punishment of their unfeeling barbarity towards the male children of Israel, they were now" a second time polluted and disgraced, to the utter confusion both of their gods and priests." The celebrated Bochart, embracing the absurd doctrine of equivocal generation, contends, that the frogs were generated of the muddy waters in the river and stagnant pools; and quotes Ælian in support of his persuasion, who declares, that he had seen frogs with their head and fore parts completely formed, and in motion, while the other parts seemed to be only passing from slimy mud into the state of animal existence. But the words of Elian do not warrant the conclusion which Bochart draws from them; for that ancient historian only says, the frogs appeared to him in the state of transformation; but the argument from appearance to reality, is quite inconclusive. In the beginning of time, the Almighty Creator commanded the waters to produce, without seminal principles, reptiles of every kind, among which the Jewish writers place the frog; but it is clear, from the words of Moses, that in succeeding ages, every creature was ordained to propagate its own species by generation; for, observes the historian," God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the These words are inconsistent with the doctrine of equivocal generation. It is also a mere gratuitous suppoe Lib. v, p. 651, 654. f De Nat. Animal. lib. ii, cap. 56. Gen. i, 22. seas."g |