supposed to be the offspring of Cihuacohuatl, the great mother.* These figures are probably the human, as fire and earth or fire and water are the terrestrial, representatives of the two principles, symbolized as the male and female serpent, the supreme Tonacatlecoatl and his wife Cihuacohuatl.

We have here the key to the whole system of Aztec mythology. We can, however, pursue the subject only so far as it relates to the present inquiry, viz., the connection of the Serpent Symbol with American Mythology.

The fact that it was a conspicuous symbol, could not escape the attention of the most superficial of observers of the Mexican and Central American monuments, and mythological paintings. The early Spaniards were particularly struck with its prominence.

"The snake," says Dupaix, "was a conspicuous object in the Mexican mythology, and we find it carved in various shapes and sizes, coiled, extended, spiral, or entwined with great beauty, and sometimes represented with feathers and other ornaments. These different representations," he continues, "no doubt denoted its different attributes."

And the editor of Kingsborough's great work observes: "Like the Egyptian sphynx, the mystical snake of the Mexicans had its enigmas, and both are beyond our power to unravel."

Dissenting from the conclusion of the latter authority, we proceed with our inquiries.

* Sahagun defines Cihuacohuatl, etymologically, to mean "the wife or woman of the serpent," and says that she was also called "the woman who brought forth two infants at a birth, a girl and a boy."

NOTES TO CHAPTER V.

(K.)

THAT Kneph was symbolized by the ancient Egyptians, under the form of a serpent, is well known. It is not, however, so well established that the act of creation was allegorically represented in Egypt by the symbolic serpent thrusting from its mouth an egg, although no doubt of the fact seems to have been entertained by the various authors who have hitherto written on the Cosmogony and Mythology of the primitive nations of the East. With the view of ascertaining what new light has been thrown upon the subject, by the investigations of the indefatigable Champollion, and his followers,-whose researches among the monuments and records of Ancient Egypt have been attended with most remarkable results, the following inquiries were addressed to GEORGE R. GLIDDON, Esq., (long U. S. Consul at Cairo,) a gentleman distinguished for his acquaintance with Egyptian science, and his zeal in disseminating information on a subject too little understood:

"Do the serpent and the egg, separate or in combination, occur among the Egyptian symbols? and if they occur, what significance seems to have been assigned them? Was the serpent, in Egypt, in any way associated with the worship of the sun, or the kindred worship of the Phallus ?"

To these inquiries, Mr. Gliddon replied as follows:

"In respect to your first inquiry;

"I concede, at once, that the general view of Greco-Roman antiquity, the oriental traditions collected, often indiscriminately, by the Fathers, and the concurring suffrages of all occidental Mythologists, attribute the compound symbol of the SERPENT combined with the MUNDANE EGG to the Egyptians. Modern criticism, however, coupled with the application of the tests furnished by Champollion le-Jeune, and his followers since 1827, to the hieroglyphics of Egypt, has recognised so many exotic fables, and so much real ignorance of Egyptology, in the

accounts concerning that mystified country, handed down to us by the schools of Alexandria and Byzantium, that, at the present hour, science treads doubtingly, where, but a few years ago, it was fashionable to make the most sweeping assertions; and we now hesitate before qualifying, as Egyptian in origin, ideas that belong to the Mythologies of other eastern nations. Classical authority, correct enough when treating on the philosophy and speculative theories of Ptolemaic and Roman Alexandria, is generally at fault, when in respect to questions belonging to anterior or Pharaonic times. Whatever we derive through the medium of the Alexandrines, and especially through their successors, the Gnostics, must, by the Archæologist, be received with suspicion. "Alexandrie," observes the accurate Ampère, "fut très Grecque, assez Juive, peu Romaine, et presque point Egyptienne.”

"After this exordium, you will not be surprised if I express doubts as to the existence of the myth of the Serpent and Egg, in the Cosmogony of the early Egyptians. It is lamentably true, that, owing to twenty centuries of destruction, so fearfully wrought out in the last thirty years by Mohammed Ali, we do not up to this day possess a tithe of the monuments or papyri bequeathed to posterity by the recording genius of Khime. It is possible that this myth may have been contained in the vast amount of hieroglyphical literature now lost to us. But the fact that, in no instance whatever, amid the myriads of inscribed or sculptured documents extant, does the symbol of the Serpent and the Egg occur, militates against the assumption of this, perhaps Phoenician myth, as originally Egyptian. "The worship of the Serpent," observes Ampère, "by the Ophites, may certainly have a real connection with the choice of the Egyptian symbol by which Divinity is designated in the paintings and hieroglyphics, and which is the Serpent URAEUS (Basilisk, royal, of the Greeks, the seraph set up by Moses, (Numb. xxi. 3; John iii. 14.) SE RA PH is the singular of seraphim, meaning, Semiticé, splendor, fire, light, emblematic of the fiery disk of the sun, and which, under the name of Nehush-tan," Serpent-Dragon," was broken up by the reforming Hezekiah, 2 Kings, xviii. 4., Cf. Lanci, Sagra Scritura," 1827, and "Paralipomené," 1845,) or with the serpent with wings and feet, which we see represented in the Funeral Rituals: but the serpent is everywhere in the Mythologies and Cosmogonies of the East, and we cannot be assured that the serpent of the Ophites (any more than that emitting or encircling the Mundane Egg) was Egyptian rather than Jewish, Persian, or Hindustanee." These remarks hold equally good in respect to the symbolical emblem of the Serpent and Egg combined.

"The monumental absence of this symbol in Egyptian Hieroglyphics is confirmed by the various significations of Serpents and Eggs recognized by the Champollionists, in those instances where either or both occur, which never have the slightest apparent relation to universal creation. I subjoin a list, leaving aside all palpable variants, of the commonest forms of serpents found in Egyptian sculptures, referring you to my authorities.

"(Birch. Sketch of Hierog. Dict." p. 9,) or the same deceased, with the sacrificial knives sticking in carcass, (Champollion Dict. Egyptienne, p. 176,) the giant serpent by name APaP, or Apophis, a form of Typhon, emblem of darkness, brother and enemy of the Sun or Light. Typhon or Python overcome by Hercules, the myth of the twelve labors of the solar orb in zodiacal revolutions. ("Bonomi and Arundale," Gallery of Art, B. Museum, pp. 2, 57.)

FIG. 36.

FIG. 37.

"The asp; OURO. Uraeus; Basiliskos, Royal Serpent figurative of Sovereignty. (Birch. p. 10, Champ. Dict. p. 169.) These also occur surmounted with helmets, feathers, disks, horns, and other solar or regal emblems. Idem, with his tail coiled under him, symbolical sign for the word Goddess. This is generally FIG. 38. determined grammatically by the egg and segment of a circle; phonetically ST, or TS, marks the feminine gender. (Champ. Gram. p. 294 Dict. p. 166.) This egg has no connection with Cosmogony.

"Idem, slightly varied, a phonetic sign expressing the articulation K. (Champ. Gram. p. 39; Dict. p. 170; Bunsen.)

66

The Cerast, or horned snake, equivalent to the letters F. B., etc.

"The serpent with ram's head, symbolical name of the God Ne F. Nu M; or Kueph or Cunphis. (Champ. Dict. p. 172.)

66

'Phonetic sign equivalent to the consonants T, Th. All the above, with their variants, have specific meanings attached to them; for which it is merely necessary to make reference to the works of Birch, Bunsen, Champollion, and others, to separate them from Cosmogony.

&

FIG. 39.

FIG. 40.

FIG. 41.

FIG. 42.

ia

"Is a symbolical sign, which the old writers have, owing to erroneous copies, and their mystical theories, confounded with the Serpent and the Egg. It is nothing but the disk of the Sun encircled by the serpent Uraeus, meaning the FIG. 43.

"KING SUN," or "Royal Sun," (Champ. D. p. 8; G. pp. 306, 480,) as it often surmounts the persons of Egyptian monarchs, confirmed by the emblem of Life depending from the Serpent's neck. I accept the very ingenuous suggestion of Mr. Birch, that, in this form of the three symbols, Asp, Sun, and Life combined, we may read P-RA-OUNк, the Sun Living; and thus account for the terminal n, in the Greek and Arabic preservations of the title.

Thus no serpents found in the hieroglyphic bear, so far as I can perceive, any direct relation to the ovine myth, nor have Egyptian eggs any direct connection with the Cosmogonical Serpent. The egg, under certain conditions, seems to denote the idea of a human body. It is also used as a Phonetic sign S, and when combined with T, as above stated, is the determinative of the feminine gender; in which sense exclusively it is sometimes placed close to a serpent in hieroglyphical legends.

My doubts apply in attempting to give a specific answer to your specific question; i. e., the direct connection, in Egyptian Mythology, between the Serpent and the cosmogonical Egg. In the "Book of the Dead," (LEPSIUS, Todtenbuch, C. 56, and C. 76,) according to a MS. translation favored me by the erudite Egyptologist, Mr. BIRCH, of the British Museum, allusion is made to the "great mundane Egg' addressed by the deceased, which seems to refer to the winds, or the atmosphere," —again, the deceased exclaims, "I have raised myself up in the form of the great Hawk, which comes out of the Egg (i. e. the Sun.)"

I do not here perceive any immediate allusion to the duplex emblem of the EGG combined with the SERPENT; the subject of your query.

Yet a reservation must be made in behalf of your very consistent hypothesis (supported, as I allow, by all oriental and classical authority, if not, possibly by the Egyptian documents yet deciphered) --which hypothesis is Euclidean. "Things which are equal to the same are equal to one another." Now, if the " Mundane Egg" be, in the papyric Rituals, the equivalent to Sun, and that, by other hieroglyphical texts, we prove the Sun to be, in .Egypt as elsewhere, symbolized by the figure of a Serpent, does not the "ultima ratio" resolve both emblems into One? Your grasp of this Old and New World question renders it superflous that I should now posite the syllogism. I content myself by referring you to the best of authorities. (Cf. BIRCH, on the "Archæological criteria," etc. of Mummies, Otia Egyptium, p. 83.) One point alone is what I would venture to suggest to your philosophical acumen, in respect to ancient " parallelisms" between the metaphysical conceptions of radically distinct nations (if you please," species" of