Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-07-18
SERPENT WORSHIP.
Prominent Part Played by the Reptile In
the Faith of Millions.

That the serpent was prominent in the
religious faiths of the Americans is beyond
question, and that, to a certain extent, In
combination with phallic and solar wor-
ship, it extended from Central America to
Peru and Mexico, cannot be doubted, what
ever it's origin. Its existence in Yucatan is
shown, as in Cambodia, by sculptures on
the ruined buildings which can only be
properly designated as temples. We know
from history and art that this form of wor-
ship 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 and faith, we
are constantly forced by our Investigations
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 existed 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
meaningless, which seems an absurd posi-
ton TO hold-that in the oval embankment,
with it's central pile of burnt stones, in
combination with the serpent, we have the
three symbols everywhere regarded in the
Old World as emblems of those primitive
faiths? Here we find the inga-in-yoni of
India, or the reciprocal principles of nature
guarded by the serpent-or life, power,
knowledge and eternity.
Moreover, it's position, east and west, in
dicates the nourishing source of fertility
the 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 several
symbols which in Asia would be accepted
without question as showing the place to
be phallo-sOlar shrine combined 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
considered when comparisons are made.
This combination of natural features
probably could not be found again in any
part of the great route along which the
people must have journeyed from the Mexi-
can Gulf Is this all to be taken as mere
coincidence in the development of faith
in America and in the Old World. There
seems to be too much here to admit of such
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 useless. Ferguson, in
his ''Tree and Serpent Worship" mentions
the existence of serpent worship on some
of the Pacific islands, and refers to it's pos
sible transmission across the Pacific to
America, and says if it is proved that this
worship is indigenous to 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 confess it appears to me
that at present the evidence preponderates
the other way. When this careful author
thus expressed his views he was not &C
quainted with the details now pointed out
in the combinations of the Ohio serpent
shrine.-Professor F. W. Putnam's "The
Serpent Ground of Ohio.'