. Medical symbolism in connection with historical studies in the arts of healing and hygiene . may addthat Hea sprang from tiie PersianGulf, and was regarded as the godof waters as well as of life. A great deal has been writtenon serpent-worship, the first vari-ation, says Br3ant, from thepurer Sabaism;* and the numberof suggested explanations of thecurious cultus is almost legion. I hesitate about touching on the subject; but some state-ments on it are called for, to render the treatment ofthe matter on hand reasonably complete. In a recent able work, Mr. C. F. Keary, of the BritishMuseum, pr
. Medical symbolism in connection with historical studies in the arts of healing and hygiene . may addthat Hea sprang from tiie PersianGulf, and was regarded as the godof waters as well as of life. A great deal has been writtenon serpent-worship, the first vari-ation, says Br3ant, from thepurer Sabaism;* and the numberof suggested explanations of thecurious cultus is almost legion. I hesitate about touching on the subject; but some state-ments on it are called for, to render the treatment ofthe matter on hand reasonably complete. In a recent able work, Mr. C. F. Keary, of the BritishMuseum, presents some interesting facts and inferenceson the origin of the worship. He maintains that thetree, mountain, and river were the three great primitivefetich-gods, and forcibly argues that a serpent was thesymbol of the last, which, it may be noted, is nearly » Dr. Brinton gives the name as Michabo. He gives an interestingaccount of this great Algonkin myth in his American Hero-Myths. Phila-delphia, » Partly true. ^ Indian Myths, p. 45. Boston, 1884. * Mythology, vol. ii, p. Fig. 8.—Manabozho. T2 Medical Symbolism. always a life-giving power, an early and substantial typeof i\\Qi fontaine de jouvence. Without pretending to ac-count for tlieir original worship, he takes it for certainthat, at a very early time, rivers became tlirough sym-bolism confounded with serpents.^ Remnants of the three fetich-gods of Mr. Keary arepreserved in later and more abstract cults, and may belargely found in Indo-European mythologies. The Greeksand Romans ai)pear to have regarded rivers and mount-ains with particular favor, while the Celts and Teutonswere more especially devoted to trees. The wells ofknowledge and of magic and the fountains of youthwhich are met with in myth and legend are simply thenarrowing to particular instances of the magic, the sacred-ness, and the healing gifts which were once universallyattributed to streams. The monstrous python whichApollo encountered an
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