OF ESSEROM AS CHIMNEY. 183 vilify the monks would be readily grasped at, and the coincidence of the name of Esserom to the Sooty designation of Rus came in opportunely to give point to the tale, and a lasting endurance to the slander. The earliest use of Rauschen for rush I have found is in Hans Sachs: "Dus wüthend Heer der kleinen Dieb": Indem der Arm von mir verschwind Hin rauschet wie eei scharpfer wind. 184 CHAPTER XI. "Der fliegende Drache oder ziehende Alp, die fliegende Funken, die springende oder hüpfende Ziegen, die brennende Facheln und Balkan sind an sich einerlei."-Emele," Grab des Aberglaubens," vol. i., p. 146. "The origin of vulgar superstitions is a very curious subject, which, leading us often into the most remote antiquity, lays open the early history of nations, and is generally obscure in proportion to its antiquity."—Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxv. IN a former chapter (vol. i., p. 104) we have already treated of the Bogs, or Baugs, as serpents, under which form, when signifying the good principle, they are represented; and to which we reserved a future mention. The general figure of a Roman genius is a serpent encircling an altar,* and apparently tasting the offerings upon it, in accordance with the still prevalent belief on the Continent, as formerly in our own country, that the highest proof their "The image of * Burton, in his Itinerary, says, p. 51:the genius was sometimes exhibited by a Boy's visage—most commonly by a serpent ;" and Servius, in Æn. v. 85," Nullus locus sine genio qui per anguem plerumque ostenditur." THE BAUG AS A SERPENT. 185 Pece can give of their satisfaction and humanity is by enjoying the food, more especially milk, placed for their acceptance; a feeling so general that Pope has found a place for it in his Universal Prayer, and thus beautifully expressed it, though the idea is carried out more generally, and extended also to mankind : "The blessings thy free bounty gives, Let me not cast away; For God is paid when man receives— But this beautiful last sentence is also applicable to Pixies and Pucks leaving when any remuneration is offered. Other bas-reliefs give to the representations of their genius every pleasing form and attribute-as a beautiful youth crowned with flowers, and bearing the cornucopia on his arms; but the serpent, as an accompaniment, is rarely omitted. On this point, too, Hebrew, Egyptian, Celt, and Goth, were all agreed whether their works of art were gross or spiritual, vulgar or refined. The annexed wood-cut (p. 186), which has already appeared in vol. i., gives the representation of these serpents as genii of the altar, or temple, of which it formed part, to the topical deity Baug, as more particularly explained at vol. i. p. 106. It had, doubtless, a similar symmetrical disposition of these two agathademons at the broken head of the stone, a position that we again meet with in the caduceus, as originally belonging to Apollo, the God of Medicine, and by him exchanged with 186 HENCE THE POWER OF THE CADUCEUS Mercury for the lyre: that symbolical staff primarily designated the sanative power generally attributed tiful ode to Mercury, lib. i. 10., gives a charming picture of the rod : "Tu pias lætis animas reponis Amongst the Hebrews it is generally, however, AND THE SUBTILTY OF THE SERPENT. 187 taken as an evil and dangerous animal, though the erecting the brazen serpent by Moses as a refuge, which image was continued unmolested to the reign of Hezekiah, would argue an inclination and belief amongst that people that it could be resorted to in distress and difficulties; and its wisdom passed into a proverb with them, as with almost all nations. Epiphanius, a doctor of the Church, born about 310, at Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, in his Physiology, containing moral reflections on the properties of animals, gives the opinion of his times on the subtlety of the serpent, founded on four curious reasons:-"When aged, he can renovate his youth by stripping off his old cuticle by squeezing himself through the narrow of two rocks.* 2nd. He never attacks a man but when he can have him at a disadvantage, and naked; a clothed person is safe from his assaults. 3rd. When attacked himself, he principally guards his head, as his vulnerable part, and to this the text in Scripture is supposed to allude, wherein it is said, 'Thou shalt bruise his (the serpent's) head.' 4th. When he drinks, he first throws up his own venom, that he may not poison himself:" * Whether the principle is copied from this animal, or originally planted in our nature, may be doubtful, but the practice of passing the body through narrow natural clefts, or artificial chinks, prevails in all countries; we have, amongst innumerable instances, only to mention St. Patrick's Purgatory in Ireland, St. Wilfrid's Needle at Ripon, the Auld Wife's Lift in Scotland (vide Wilson's Pre-historic History), and" das Nadelohr" on the Hartz mountains, which every young waggoner must squeeze himself through on foot, passing it for the first time, or pay a forfeit. |