Serpents in general—Signification of the Hebrew word Nachash—Various passages in which the Nachash is mentioned—The fiery Serpents of the wilderness—Explanation of the words "flying" and "fiery" as applied to Serpents—Haunts of the Serpent—The Cobra, or Asp of Scripture—Meaning of the word Pethen —The deaf Adder that stoppeth her ear—Serpent-charming in the East—principle on which the charmers work— Sluggishness of the Serpent nature—Ceremony of initiation into Serpent-charming —Theories respecting the deaf Adder—Luis of Grenada's sermon—The Cerastes, or Horned Serpent— Appearance and habits of the reptile—The "Adder in the path.”
As we have seen that so much looseness of nomenclature prevailed among the Hebrews even with regard to the mammalia, birds, and lizards, we can but expect that the names of the Serpents will be equally difficult to identify.
No less than seven names are employed in the Old Testament to denote some species of Serpent; but there are only two which can be identified with any certainty, four others being left to mere conjecture, and one being clearly a word which, like our snake or serpent, is a word not restricted to any particular species, but signifying Serpents in general. This word is nâchâsh (Pronounced nah-kahsh). It is unfortunate that the word is so variously translated in different passages of Scripture, and we cannot do better than to follow it through the Old Testament, so as to bring all the passages under our glance.
The first mention of the Nâchâsh occurs in Gen. 3, in the well-known passage where the Serpent is said to be more subtle than all the beasts of the field, the wisdom or subtlety of the, Serpent having evidently an allegorical and not a categorical signification. We find the same symbolism employed in the New Testament, the disciples of our Lord being told to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
Allusion is made to the gliding movement of the Serpent tribe in Prov. 30:1919The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. (Proverbs 30:19). On this part of the subject little need be said, except that the movements of the Serpent are owing to the mobility of the ribs, which are pushed forward in succession and drawn back again, so as to catch against any inequality of the ground. This power is increased by the structure of the scales. Those of the upper part of the body, which are not used for locomotion, are shaped something like the scales of a fish; hut those of the lower part of the body, which come in contact with the ground, are broad belts, each overlapping the other, and each connected with one pair of ribs.
When, therefore, the Serpent pushes forward the ribs, the edges of the scaly belts will catch against the slightest projection, and are able to give a very powerful impetus to the body. It is scarcely possible to drag a snake backwards over rough ground; while on a smooth surface, such as glass, the Serpent would be totally unable to proceed. This, however, was not likely to have been studied by the ancient Hebrews, who were among the most unobservant of mankind with regard to details of natural history: it is, therefore, no wonder that the gliding of the Serpent should strike the writer of the proverb in question as a mystery which he could not explain.
The poisonous nature of some of the Serpents is mentioned in several passages of Scripture; and it will be seen that the ancient Hebrews, like many modern Europeans, believed that the poison lay in the forked tongue. See, for example, Psa. 58:44Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; (Psalm 58:4): “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent" (nâchâsh). Also Prov. 23:3232At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. (Proverbs 23:32), in which the sacred writer says of wine that it brings woe, sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, redness, of eyes, and that "at the Last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
The idea that the poison of the Serpent lies in the tongue is seen in several passages of Scripture. “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips" (Psa. 140:33They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah. (Psalm 140:3)). Also in Job 20:1616He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. (Job 20:16), the sacred writer says of the hypocrite, that "he shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay hint.”
As to the fiery Serpents of the wilderness, it is scarcely needful to mention that the epithet of “fiery "does not signify that the Serpents in question produced real fire from their mouths, but that allusion is made to the power and virulence of their poison, and to the pain caused by their bite. We ourselves naturally employ a similar metaphor, and speak of a “burning pain," of a "fiery trial," of "hot anger," and the like.
The epithet of “flying " which is applied to these Serpents is explained by the earlier commentators as having reference to a Serpent which they called the Dart Snake, and which they believed to lie in wait for men and to spring at them from a distance. They thought that this snake hid itself either in hollows of the ground or in trees, and sprang through the air for thirty feet upon any man or beast that happened to pass by.
“And surely if it be lawful to conjecture what kinds of Serpents those were which in the Scripture were called Fiery Serpents, and did sting the Israelites to death in the Wilderness, until the Brazen Serpent was erected for their cure; among all the Serpents in the world, that kind of death and pain can be ascribed to none more properly than to these Cafezati, or Reddart Serpents.
“For first, the Wilderness, which was the place wherein they annoyed the people, doth very well agree to their habitation. Secondly, the Fiery Serpents are so called by figure, not that they are fiery, but, as all Writers do agree, either because they were red like fire; or else because the pain which they inflicted did burn like fire, or rather for both these causes together, which are jointly and severally found in these Red Serpents. And therefore I will conclude for my opinion, that these Serpents (as the highest poison in nature) were sent by God to afflict the sinning Israelites, whose poison was uncurable, except by Divine miracle.”
The places in which the Serpent is accustomed to lie are mentioned in various portions of the Old Testament. The habit of lying in hedges is mentioned in Ecclesiastes. “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him “(Eccl. 10:88He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him. (Ecclesiastes 10:8)). The Prophet Amos alludes to its custom of haunting the wails of houses (see v. 18, 19): “The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him." This passage refers also to the ordinary architecture of the East, the walls of con-anon houses, such as those with which a herdman like Amos would be most being little more than hurdles covered with mud. Such walls would soon fall into disrepair, and would be full of holes, in which spiders, centipedes, lizards, and serpents hide themselves.
WE will now take the various species of Serpents mentioned in the Bible, as nearly as they can be identified.
Of one species there is no doubt whatever. This is the COBRA (Naja haje), a serpent which is evidently signified by the Hebrew word pethen.
There are several passages in which this word occurs, nearly all of which contain some allusion to its poisonous nature, and one of them mentioning a characteristic which 'settles its identity beyond doubt.
In the very beginning of the Scriptural Books we find a reference to the Pethen. The first occurs in Deut. 32:3333Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. (Deuteronomy 32:33): "Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:" Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps “(pethenim).
“He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
“He shall suck the poison of asps (pethenim): the viper's (epheh) tongue shall slay him.”
These passages clearly indicate the venomous nature of the Pethen, and there is another which occurs in Isaiah, in which the same quality is inferred though not directly stated. It occurs in chap. 11., which is devoted to a prophecy of the spiritual reign of the Messiah, and in which is found that allusion to Himself which our Lord quoted in the Temple (see ver. 2). The passage with which we have now to do occurs in verse 8: "And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp (pethen), and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.”
We may also find a passage in the Psalms, in which the Pethen is classed with the lion as being equally to be dreaded by the traveler. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder (pethen), the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.”
All these passages agree in one point, namely, that the Pethen is a creature the bite of which is exceedingly venomous, but there is nothing in them to assist us in identifying it. The Pethen may be, as far as these passages are concerned, any kind of venomous Serpent. But there is just one allusion to the Pethen which enables us to decide at once as to its identity. It occurs in Psa. 58:3-53The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. (Psalm 58:3‑5): "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
“Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder (pethen) that stoppeth her ear; "Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely." The last verse is rendered rather differently in the Jewish Bible: “Which will not hearken to the voice of whisperers, the cunning master of charms.”
Here we have a clue to the identification of the Pethen. It is evidently a Serpent that was accustomed to be subjected to the action of charmers; and as we find that in the olden times and at the present day the cobra, a most venomous Serpent, was and is tamed by professional charmers, there is no doubt that the Egyptian cobra is the Pethen of Scripture. I say the Egyptian cobra, because there is a closely allied species, the cobra of India (Naja tripudians), which very much resembles the Naja haje, and which is also tamed by serpent-charmers. A passing allusion to this custom in taming Serpents is made by James in his General Epistle, chap. 3:7: "For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind:" But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
How the serpent-charmers perform their feats is not very intelligible. That they handle the most venomous Serpents with perfect impunity is evident enough, and it is also clear that they are able to produce certain effects upon the Serpents by means of musical (or unmusical) sounds. But these two items are entirely distinct, and one does not depend upon the other.
In the first place, the handling of venomous snakes has been performed by Englishmen without the least recourse to any arts except that of acquaintance with the habits of Serpents. The late Mr. Waterton, for example, would take up a rattlesnake in his base hand without feeling the least uneasy as to the behavior of his prisoner. He once took twenty-seven rattlesnakes out of a box, carried them into another room, put them into a large glass case, and afterward replaced them in the box. He described to me the manner in which he did it, using my wrist as the representative of the Serpent.
The nature of all Serpents is rather peculiar, and is probably owing to the mode in which the blood circulates. They are extremely unwilling to move, except when urged by the wants of nature, and will lie coiled up for many hours together when not pressed by hunger. Consequently, when touched, their feeling is evidently like that of a drowsy man, who only tries to shake off the object which may rouse him, and composes himself afresh to sleep.
A quick and sudden movement would, however, alarm the reptile, which would strike in self-defense, and, sluggish as are its general movements, its stroke is delivered with such lightning rapidity that it would be sure to inflict its fatal wound before it was seized. If, therefore, Mr. Waterton saw a Serpent which he desired to catch, he would creep very quietly up to it, and with a gentle, slow movement place his fingers round its neck just behind the head. If it happened to be coiled up in such a manner that he could not get at its neck, he had only to touch it gently until it moved sufficiently for his purpose.
When he had once placed his hand on the Serpent, it was in his power. He would then grasp it very lightly indeed, and raise it gently from the ground, trusting that the reptile would be more inclined to be carried quietly than to summon up sufficient energy to bite. Even if it had tried to use its fangs, it could not have done so as long as its captor's fingers were round its neck.
As a rule, a great amount of provocation is needed before venomous Serpent will use its teeth. One of my friends, when a boy, caught a viper, mistaking it for a common snake. He tied it round his neck, coiled it on his wrist by way of a bracelet, and so took it home, playing many similar tricks with it as he went. After arrival in the house, he produced the viper for the amusement of his brothers and sisters, and, after repeating his performances, tried to tie the snake in a double knot. This, however, was enough to provoke the most pacific of creatures, and in consequence he received a bite on his finger.
There is no doubt that the snake-charmers trust chiefly to this sluggish nature of the reptile, but they certainly go through some ceremonies by which they believe themselves to be rendered impervious to snake-bites. They will coil the cobra round their naked bodies, they will irritate the reptile until it is in a state of fury; they will even allow it to bite them, and yet be none the worse for the wound. Then, as if to show that the venomous teeth have not been abstracted, as is possibly supposed to be the case, they will make the cobra bite a fowl, which speedily dies from the effects of the poison.
Even if the fangs were extracted, the Serpents would lose little of their venomous power. These reptiles are furnished with a whole series of fangs in different stages of development, so that when the one in use is broken or shed in the course of nature, another comes forward and fills its place. There is now before me a row of four fangs, which I took from the right upper jawbone of a viper caught in the New Forest.
In her interesting “Letters from Egypt, "Lady Duff-Gordon gives an amusing account of the manner in which she was formally initiated into the mysteries of snake-charming, and made ever afterward impervious to the bite of venomous Serpents:" At Kóm Omboo, we met with a Rifáee darweesh with his basket of tame snakes. After a little talk, he proposed to initiate me: and so we sat down and held hands like people marrying. Omar [her attendant] sat behind me, and repeated the words as my ‘wakeel.' Then the Rifáee twisted a cobra round our joined hands, and requested me to spit on it; he did the same, and I was pronounced safe and enveloped in snakes. My sailors groaned, and Omar shuddered as the snakes put out their tongues; the darweesh and I smiled at each other like Roman augurs.”
She believed that the snakes were toothless; and perhaps on this occasion they may have been so. Extracting the teeth of the Serpent is an easy business in experienced hands, and is conducted in two ways. Those snake-charmers who are confident of their own powers merely grasp the reptile by the neck, force open its jaws with a piece of stick, and break off the fangs, which are but loosely attached to the jaw. Those who are not so sure of themselves irritate the snake, and offer it a piece of cloth, generally the comer of their mantle, to bite. The snake darts at it, and, as it seizes the garment, the man gives the cloth a sudden jerk, and so tears away the fangs.
Still, although some of the performers employ mutilated snakes, there is no doubt that others do not trouble themselves to remove the fangs of the Serpents, but handle with impunity the cobra or the cerastes with all its venomous apparatus in good order.
We now come to the second branch of the subject, namely, the influence of sound upon the cobra and other Serpents. The charmers are always provided with musical instruments, of which a sort of flute with a loud shrill sound is the one which is mostly used in the performances. Having ascertained, from slight marks which their practiced eyes easily discover, that a Serpent is hidden in some crevice, the charmer plays upon his flute, and in a short time the snake is sure to make its appearance.
As soon as it is fairly out, the man seizes it by the end of the tail, and holds it up in the air at arm's length. In this position it is helpless, having no leverage, and merely wriggles about in fruitless struggles to escape. Having allowed it to exhaust its strength by its efforts, the man lowers it into a basket, where it is only too glad to find a refuge, and closes the lid. After a while, he raises the lid and begins to play the flute.
The Serpent tries to glide out of the basket, but, as soon as it does so, the lid is shut down again, and in a very short time the reptile finds that escape is impossible, and, as long as it hears the sound of the flute, only raises its head in the air, supporting itself on the lower portion of its tail, and continues to wave its head from side to side as long as it hears the sound of the music.
The rapidity with which a cobra learns this lesson is extraordinary, the charmers being as willing to show their mastery over newly-caught Serpents as over those which have been long in their possession. Some persons have thought that all the snakes caught by the professional charmers are tame reptiles, which have been previously placed in the hole by the men, and which have been deprived of their fangs. Careful investigations, however, have proved that the snake is really attracted by the shrill notes of the flute, and that the charmers handle with unconcern the snakes which are in full possession of their fangs and poison-glands.
The allusion to the “deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears," needs a little explanation. Some species of Serpent are more susceptible to sound than others, the cobra being the most sensitive of oil the tribe. Any of these which are comparatively insensible to the charmer's efforts may be considered as “deaf adders." But there has been from time immemorial a belief in the East that some individual Serpents are very obstinate and self-willed, refusing to hear the shrill sound of the flute, or the magic song of the charmer, and pressing one ear into the dust, while they stop the other with the tail Louis of Grenada, one of whose quaint sermons has already been quoted, alludes in another discourse to this curious belief, in which it is evident that he fully concurred.
" Dominica XI. post Pent. Concio 1:
"Furor illis secundum similitudinem serpentis sicut aspidis et obturantis aures suas; quæ non exaudit vocero incantantium, et venefici incantantis sapienter.'
“Vulgo enim ferunt aspidem cum incantatur ne lethali veneno homines inficiat, alteram aurem terre affigere, alteram yero cauda in eam immissa obstruere ut ita demum veneni vis intus latentis illaesa maneat.
“Ad hoc igitur modum cum sapiens incantator, hoc est, divini verbi concionator obstinatos homines ad sanitatem perducere et lethale venenum peccati, quod in eorum mentibus residet delere contendit; illi contra (dwmone id operante) sic aures suas huir divinas incantationi elaudunt ut nihil prorsus eorum quin dicuntur advertant.”
" Eleventh Sunday alter Pentecost, Sermon 1:
"Their fury is after the likeness of the serpent, as the asp which even stoppeth her ears—which heedeth not the voice of the charmers; even of the wizard which charmeth wisely.'
“For they say commonly, the asp while she is charmed, so that she poisoneth not men with her deadly venom, layeth one of her ears to the ground and stoppeth the other by thereinto putting her tail, that so the strength of the poison which lurketh within may abide unhurt.
“After this manner, therefore, when the wise charmer—that is, the preacher of the Word of God—striveth to lead obstinate men to health, and to destroy the deadly poison of sin which dwelleth in their minds, they, on the other hand (the devil bringing this to pass), do so shut their ears to this divine charming that they heed nothing at all of these things which are said.”
In order to show how widely this idea of the snake stopping its ears is spread, I insert the following extract from a commentary on the Psalms by Richard Rolle (Hermit) of Hampole. It is taken from the MS. in Eton College Library, No. 10, date 1450. R. Rolle died just a hundred years before his commentary was translated into the Northern dialect.
Furor illis seedm͂ similitudine͂ s͂pentis: sicut aspidus surde et obturantis aures suas.' ¶ Wodnes til pase after pe lykenying of nedder: als of snake doumbe and stoppand hir erres. ¶ Rightly calles he pai͂ wode for pai haue na witt to se whider pai ga for pai louke paire eghen and rennes til pe fire paire wodnes es domested pat will not be t͂ned als of pe snake pat festes pe tane ere till pe erther and pe toper stopis with hir͂ tayle swa pai do pat here noght godes worde pai stoppe pair͂ erres with lufe of erthely thyng pat pai delite pai͂ one and with paire tayle pat es with alde synes pat pai will noght amende.”
It may be as well to remark, before passing to another of the Serpents, that snakes have no external ears, and that therefore the notion of the serpent stopping its ears is zoologically a simple absurdity.
The CERASTES, OR SHEPHIPHON OF SCRIPTURE.
THE word shephiphon, which evidently signifies some species of snake, only occurs once in the Scriptures, but fortunately that single passage contains an allusion to the habits of the serpent which makes identification nearly certain. The passage in question occurs in Gen. 49:1717Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. (Genesis 49:17), and. forms part of the prophecy of Jacob respecting his children: “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.”
Putting aside the deeper meaning of this prophecy, there is here an evident allusion to the habits of the CERASTES, or HORNED VIPER, a species of venomous serpent, which is plentiful in Northern Africa, and is found also in Palestine and Syria. It is a very conspicuous reptile, and is easily recognized by the two horn-like projections over the eyes. The name Cerastes, or horned, has been given to it on account of these projections.
This snake has a custom of lying half buried in the sand, awaiting the approach of some animal on which it can feed.
Its usual diet consists of the jerboas and other small mammalia, and as they are exceedingly active, while the Cerastes is slow and sluggish, its only chance of obtaining food is to lie in wait.
It will always take advantage of any small depression, such as the print of a camel's foot, and, as it finds many of these depressions in the line of the caravans, it is literally "a serpent by the way, an adder in the path.”
According to the accounts of travelers, the Cerastes is much more irritable than the cobra, and is very apt to strike at any object which may disturb it. Therefore, whenever a horseman passes along the usual route, his steed is very likely to disturb a Cerastes lying in the path, and to be liable to the attack of the irritated reptile. Horses are instinctively aware of the presence of the snake, and mostly perceive it in time to avoid its stroke. Its small dimensions, the snake rarely exceeding two feet in length, enable it to conceal itself in a very small hollow, and its brownish-white color, diversified with darker spots; causes it to harmonize so thoroughly with the loose sand in which it lies buried, that, even when it is pointed out, an unpracticed eye does not readily perceive it.
Even the cobra is scarcely so dreaded as this little snake, whose bite is so deadly, and whose habits are such as to cause travelers considerable risk of being bitten.