On The Mysteries Of The Early Ages As Co...

domestic serjfents in the houses of the Egyptians , which were fed and looked on as household gods . He likewise states , that there was a serpent worshipped in a tower at Melitus , a town in Egypt ; he had a priest and officers to attend him , and was served every day , upon a table or altar , with meal kneaded up with honey . Serpents are at this day honoured in Bengal , and the Brahmins look on them as sacred animals . *

In Campden ' s " Britannia " we find as follows ( p . 683 ) : — " The Druid stones put me in mind of a certain relique of their doctrine I have of late observed to be yet retained amongst the vulgar . In most parts of Wales it is a common opinion , that about Midsummer-eve it is usual for snakes to meet in companies , and that by joining heads together and hissing , a kind of bubble is formed , like a ring , about the head of one of them , which the rest , by continual

hissing , blow on , till it comes off at the tail , and then it immediately hardens , and resembles a glass ring , which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings ; and indeed it seems to me very likely , that these snake-stones ( as we call them ) were used as charms or amulets amongst our Druids in Britain , en the same occasion as the snake-eggs among the Gaulish Druids . Pliny gives us the like account of the origin of them ( Nat . Hist . L . 29 , c . 3 ) . There is besides a species of egg , in much repute amongst the inhabitants of Gaul . Innumerable snakes assemble together in the summer , and from the saliva of their mouths , and the

foam proceeding from their bodies , produce a substance called a snake-stone ( anguinum ) . The Druids say that this substance is blown up in the air by their hissing , and that it must be caught in a napkin before it is permitted to touch the ground . Whoever is in possession of this egg must mount on horseback , and ride as fast as he can , as the snakes will follow him , until the pursuit is stopped by a river . I myself have seen one of these eggs , which are held in high esteem hj the Druids . Thus we find it evident that the opinion of the vulgar concerning the generation of these adder-beads or snake-stones is no other than a relique of the superstition , or perhaps imposture of the Druids . "

"We may therefore be allowed to draw an inference , that the mysteries of the Druidical religion were derived from an Eastern source , and as such , may have owed their origin to the worship of the sun , as instituted in Egypt in honour of Isis and Osiris . It has been before stated , that in the ceremonies at Eleusis they exhibited a mysterious chest or coffer , and also the sword of Belinus ( Baal or Bel , probably ) ; and we find in the Freemasons Magazine for February

last ( p . 75 ) , — " That Typhon showed his guests a chest of the most ingenious construction , which he offered to give to any one of them who , by lying inside , would prove that his body would exactly fit the interior . Osiris placed himself in the chest , on which the conspirators closed the lid , and he was suffocated . "

The Kist-vaens of the Druids were of such small dimensions that they could but just contain a man , when laid down within at fall length , a position which will he understood allusively by the Brethren . The release from such a place of confinement may be emblematical

of the reappearance of the sun after the darkness of the night , and likewise of the resurrection of the body from the grave . Again , the sword of Belinus , or Bel , may allude to the description given of the figure of Mithras , which is supposed to be typical of the force of the sun when entering the zodiacal sign of the bull . * See " Calmet ' s Dictionary / ' on the word " Serpent . "