Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
glided from the tumulus of Ankises, a characteristic which seems to have always greatly
added to its sanctity; I meant that of gliding through clefts or crevices, for then often it
“casts off its slough,” which was always held by our forefathers as a very precious relic;
“if wound round a woman in labour it would insure her speedy delivery,” says Col.
Forbes Leslie in his Early Races. Serpent eggs were also very important gems in these
islands; they were called Glaine-nan-Druidhe, or Druid glass, and the pious Saint
Columba sent one to Brudeus, king of the Picts. Any water poured on these eggs
“had wonderful life-giving powers,” that is produced life. I show two probably imitations
of them called beads in Plate, No. IX.
In Boodha’s Isle, Ceylon, no one will kill a Cobra di Capello, and temples to these
are still numerous for islands are his favourite abodes. “The island of Nainstivoe,
near the coast of Ceylon has a small temple sacred to Naga-Tambiran, the Serpent
God,” where numbers of Cobras are daily fed by Pandarms (Early Races, II. 411).
Rahoo, already mentioned, is the Ceylon Boodhist planet, called the “Serpent and
Fish,” of which Upham gives us this drawing. He is both male
and female, and therefore immortal; and is “one of the houses in
which the Sun dwells;” that is, a sign of the Zodiac. Upham makes
him more like a camel-leopard than a serpent, but not having
any original. before me, I copy him. We have an abundant
litarature telling us of Rahoo; he is the holder of fertility or the fish in
one hand, and apparently of a young snake in the other, which takes
the place of one of his breasts; or else he has only one very prominent
breast. A dog as passion rests precisely where the tortoise
and serpent are seen kissing in Montfauçon’s great Hermes, and
at that suspicious place which the Serpent is “to bruise” the bko,
Akab, euphemized as Heel. His dress is kilted up and chequered exactly as in the case of
the Goddess Kandoo, or the Moon, another house of the Sun, of which more in its place.
Thus, then, we find the serpent everywhere, for Passion or Heat is as necessary
the objects on which it acts, which are nothing when bereft of it. The Lingam
Stone is nothing if it is not the Sun-Stone or Serpent-Stone, nor are Moons or
Astartes of any consequence save when influenced by this motor. Col. Forbes Leslie
sees Nagas in the ascending Nodes, in Elephants and other astronomical figures. Indra
is tame, except as Naga-Indra, or shortly, Nagendra, and so is Zeus and Juno, sky and
air. The Kelt saw a Naga in the thunderbolt, which he called Beir, and explained
to be Tein-Adhair, or Ethereal Fire; for Beither, he said, was a dragon or serpent, as
well as Lightning (Early Races. II., 415). But let us now look at him in his moun~
tain home near the southern extremities of Europe, to which, as the seat of one of
the greatest of Pythic oracles, we must devote some special attention.
As usual we must carefully study the topography of the Shrine, for it is
always this, and not signs or miracles, from or by the gods, which first attract wise
priests. Fitting scenic effect is necessary towards the success of every drama we
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Fig 124.—BOODHIST CONSTELLA-
TION, RAHOO. SERPENT AND FISH.