244. Ophites.
The Ophites must have been just such jugglers as always have existed, and still exist in the same countries; they are classed among heretics, because when Christianity became prevalent in Egypt, they made their snakes christian divinities, as they had before been demigods, and now are sheiks. St. Augustine's account of them makes this quite clear. "They have a snake (he says) whom they feed and worship, who, at the incantation of the priest, comes out of his cavern, and gets upon the altar, which is placed close thereto, and licks their oblations, and turning himself round them, returns into his hole. They then break the oblations for the Eucharist, as having been sanctified by the serpent Christ." St. Epiphanius adds, that each of them kissed the snake, who had either been tamed by charms, or by some operation of the devil.
The Jacob-Briantists believe that the devil invented snake worship, by way of commemorating his victory over Eve. They will believe any thing. The snake has been a common deity, because it is a manageable one, and that in a more extraordinary manner than any other animal.
A Malabar Bramin once played off a curious trick upon his flock. He raised money enough among them to make a golden snake and twelve golden eggs, which he carried to the pagoda in solemn procession, and there deposited, telling the people that in six weeks time the snake would be vivified, hatch the eggs, and disappear with its young to become the tutelary divinities of their country. They disappeared accordingly at the time appointed, to the infinite joy of the believers.
In those parts of Malabar where snakes are worshipped, convenience overcomes prejudice. The natives are by no means displeased when a Moor or Christian rids them of one of these venomous gods; perhaps they enjoy a double satisfaction in having the reptile destroyed, and in believing the infidel will be damned for destroying it.
In one of the volumes of the Asiatic Annual Register, there is a remarkable account of the manner in which monkies destroy snakes. The monkies in question inhabit a prodigious Banyan tree, on the banks of the Nerbudda, having three hundred and fifty large trunks, and above three thousand smaller columns;.. but the monkey colonies are annoyed by having snakes for their neighbours, and being perfectly aware of the danger to be apprehended from these enemies, and where it lies, they watch the snakes till they perceive them asleep, then creep towards them, seize them fast by the neck, haul them to the nearest flat stone, and then begin to "grind down the head by dint of violent friction, every now and then stopping to breathe a little, and to take a proper grin at the progress of their work. When the relentless operator has demolished the head so far as to be well assured that the venomous fangs are utterly destroyed, he tosses the writhing body to the young pugs for a plaything, and their exultation is conspicuous in all their motions, as they toss the unarmed reptile from one to another."