^ . , ,„ ..^, , curved, pointed tooth,
P()isou-b;ig and Faugot Cobra, i- i • I i i , tk„c.„ ^ ^ which IS tubular, i hese
two teeth, or fangs, are capable of being erected by a
muscular apparatiis under the power of the animal, when
they project at nearly a right angle from the jaw.
The manner in which the deadly blow is inflicted is remarkable, and is- alluded to in Scripture. When the rage of the snake is excited, it commonly throws its body into a coil- more or less close, and raises the ante- rior part of its body. The neck is now flattened and dilated, so that the scales, which ordinarily lie in close contact, are separated by wide interspaces of naked skin. The neck is bent more or less back, the head projecting in a horizontal position. In an instant the whole fore part of the animal is launched forward to- wards the object of its anger, the erected tooth is forci- bly struc-k into-the flesh, and withdrawn with the veloc- ity of a thought. No doubt the rage wliicli stimulates the action calls forth an increased action of tlie jwison- glands, by which the store-sac is filled with the secre- tion. The muscular contraction which gives the rapid blow compresses at the same instant the sac; and as the acute point of the fang enters the flesh, the venom is forced through the tubular centre into the wound.
III. Scripture History. — It was under the form of a serpent that the devil seduced Eve; hence in Scripture
Satan is called " the old serpent" (Rev. xii, 9, and comp. 2 Cor. xi, 3). On this metaphorical use of the word, see the Jour, of Sac. Lit. Jan. 1852, p. 351 sq. ; comp. Biblioth. Sacra, Jan. 1864.
The part which the serpent played in the transaction of the fall must not be passed over without some brief comment, being full of deep and curious interest. First of all, then, we ha%'e to note the subtlety ascribed to this reptile, which was the reason for its having been selected as the instrument of Satan's wiles, and to com- pare with it the quality of wisdom mentioned by our Lord as belonging to it, " Be ye wise as serpents" (Matt. X, 16). It was an ancient belief, both among Orientals and the people of the Western world, that the serpent was endued with a large share of sagacity. The He- brew word D1"i", translated "subtile," though frequent- ly used in a good sense, implies, it is probable, in this passage, "mischievous and malignant craftiness," and is well rendered by Aquila and Theodotion by Ttavovp- yoQ, and thus commented upon by Jerome, " Magis ita- que hoc verbo calliditas et versutia quatn sapientia de- monstratur" (see Rosenmuller, Schol. ad loc). The an- cients give various reasons for regarding serpents as being endued with wisdom, as that one species, the cerastes, hides itself in the sand and bites the heels of animals as they pass, or that, as the head was consid- ered the only vulnerable part, the serpent takes care to conceal it under the folds of the body. Serpents have in all ages been regarded as emblems of cunning crafti- ness. The particular wisdom alluded to by our Lord refers, it is probable, to the sagacity displayed by ser- pents in avoiding danger. The disciples were warned to be as prudent in not incurring unnecessary persecu- tion.
It has been supposed by many commentators that the serpent, prior to the fall, moved along in an erect attitude, as Milton {P. L. ix, 496) says —
"Not whh indented wave Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear, Circular base of.risinj; folds thai towei'd Fold above fold, a surging mnze."
Comp. also Josephus {Ant. i, 1, 4), who believed that God now for the first time inserted poison urtder the ser- pent's tongue, and deprived him of the use of feet, causing him to crawl low on the ground by the un- didating inflections of the body {Kara Tr\Q yi]C i\v(nro}- IKvov). Patrick {Comment, ad loc.) entertained the ex- traordinary notion that the serpent of the fall was a winged kind {saraph), and Adam Clarke has been the laughing-stock of exegetes ever since for maintaining that the serpent of the garden was an orang-outang {Comment, ad loc).
It is quite clear that an erect mode of progression is utterly incompatible with the structure of a serpent, whose motion on the ground is so beautifully effected by the mechanism of the vertebral column and the mul- titudinous ribs, which, forming as it were so many pairs of levers, enable the animal to move its body from place to place ; consequently, had the snakes before the fall moved in an erect attitude, they must have been form- ed on a different plan altogether. It is true that there are saurian reptiles, such as the Savrophis teiradactylus and the Chamtesaura anguimi of South Africa, which in external form are very like serpents, l)ut with (juasi- feet; indeed, even in the boa- constrictor, underneath the skin near the extremity, there exist rudimentary legs. Some have been disposed to believe that the snakes before the fall were similar to the Saurophis. Such a hypothesis, however, is untenable, for all the fossil Ophidia that have hitherto been found differ in no essential respects from modern representatives of that order: it is, moreover, beside the mark, for the words of the curse, " upon thy belly shalt thou go," are as characteristic of the progression of a saurophoid ser- pent before the fall as of a true ophidian after it. There is no reason whatever to conclude, from the lan- guage of Scripture, that the serpent underwent any