River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-05-08
WORSHIP OF sERPENIs.
Facts Demonstrated by the Discovery OF
the SernenI Mnn.in of OIIin.

tatts btHtopAIstteu DF the discovery OF
the Serpent MouSiG of Ohio.
That such a work. so carefully de-
signed, and constructed u Ider such diff
iculties along this narrow ridge termi
mating in the high rough cliff. was
planned and built under some powerful
influence, we can but believe. And what
other than religious motive can be
conceived? Have we not here the evil
dence of the former existence of that
ancient faith, which. rising probably in
the East, ages before historic time, held
millions of people under its terrible
sway; ana, spreading over Asia, Africa
and Europe, has not yet been wholly
supplanted, in India and Africa, by later
faiths?
That the serpent was prominent in the
religious faiths of the Americans is be-
yond question, and. that to certain
extent, in combination with phallic and
solar worship. it extended from Central
America TO Peru and Mexico, can
not be doubted, whatever its origin.
Its existence in Yucatan is shown,
as in Cambodia, by sculptures
on the ruined buildings which
can only be properly designated as tenn
plies. We know from history and art
that this form of worship existed in
Mexico down TO the time of the Spanish
invasion and conquest and that it still
survives in the rites of the Zunis and
Moquis, and probably other of the
Pueblo tribes.
To this southwestern region, with its
many Asiatic features of art aud faith,
we are constantly forced BY our investi-
cations as we look for the source of the
builders of the older works of the Ohio
valley. With these considerations in
mind, and with the knowledge that
structures similar to this in Ohio exist
ed in the Old World, where the serpent
and other early faiths had their greatest
development, will it be forcing the facts
to argue-unless all religious symbolism
is merely coincident, vague and mean
ingless, which seems an absurd position
to hold-that in the oval EN- bankment,
with its central pile of burnt stones, in
combination with the serpent. we have
the three symbols everywhere re-
gaIded in the Old World as en-
blems of those primitive faiths? Here
we find the linga-in-yoni of India, or
the reciprocal principles of nature
guarded by the serpent; or life, power,
knowledge, and eternity. Moreover, its
position, east and west, indicates the
nourishing source of fertility great
sun-god whose first rays fall upon the
altar of stones in the center of the oval.
So that here we have associated the
symbols which in Asia would be ac-
cepted without question as showing the
place TO be a phallo-solar shrine COM
bined with the serpent faith. Its very
position on the high cliff terminating
in the rough overhanging rocks, washed
by the spring torrents, and near the
three forks of the river, is to be consid-
cred when comparisons are made. This
combination of natuTal features proba-
bly, could not be found again in any
part of the great route along which the
people must have journeyed from the
Mexican Gulf Is this all to be taken
as more coincidence in the development
of faith in America and the Old
World? There seems to be too much
here to admit of such a theory; and
when other facts, in other lines,
point in the same direction, it is play
ing false with our reason to be too skep-
teal. Agreements, nay, identities,
would then mean nothing in science,
and comparative studies would be USE
less Ferguson, in his Tree and Ser
pent Worship" mentions the existence
of serpent worship on some of the Pa
cific islands, and refers to its possible
transmission across the Pacific to Amer
lea, and says if it is proved that this
worship is indigenous in the New World,
we are thrown back on the doctrine that
human nature is alike everywhere, and
that man in like circumstances and with
like degree of civilization does always
the same things, and Celebrates the
same beliefs. 1t may be so, but / con-
fess it appears to me that at present the
evidence preponderates the other way
(p. 39). When this careful author thus
expressed his views. he was not ac-
quainted with the details now pointed
out in the combinations of the Ohio SER
pent shrine. f. w. Putnam, in
Century.