Research Items

Abstract

Serpent Worship.—Mr. Wilfrid D. Hambly, assistant curator of African ethnology in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, has made a study of serpent worship in Africa which appears as Publication 289 (vol. 21, No. 1 Anthropological Series) of the Museum. The study of serpent worship hitherto has been confused, but a classification of the ideas which it embodies is suggested. (1) Python worship, of which there are two unquestionable areas, one in West Africa and a smaller region in Uganda; (2) the serpent in relation to fecundity, transmigration of souls, and totemism; the only one of these with a clear geographical distribution being the reincarnated ancestor concept, which occurs continuously from the Cape to Lake Rudolph; ideas of transformation are spread over the whole continent; (3) the rainbow snake, that is, a number of stories and legends relating to snake monsters of which the basic thought is that the snake is a guardian of water, woods, ruins, or grain; (4) immunity and snake-medicines, dependent on the idea of a human soul being in communion with the snake. Evidence relating to cures of snake-bite show that the treatment is by no means entirely magical. The examination of African python worship in relation to cults and beliefs from other parts of the world provides no evidence that Africa received snake worship from extraneous sources, nor is there more than a superficial resemblance between the snake beliefs of Africa and ancient Egypt. The most fundamental ideas of all kinds of African snake belief are those of reincarnation and fecundity. The idea of the snake ancestor visiting the dwelling has a strong and clearly defined distribution from the Suk to the Zulu. Sometimes the visiting snake ancestor announces a conception. In other cases conception is inferred from the visit of any snake.