musical instrument, serving as a bass to the cornet, or small shawm, to sustain a chorus of fingers in a large edifice. It has its name serpent from its figure, as consisting of several folds or wreaths, which serve to reduce its length, which would otherwise be six or seven feet.

It is usually covered with leather, and consists of three parts, a mouth-piece, a neck, and a tail. It has six holes, by means whereof it takes in the compass of two octaves.

Merlenius, who has particularly described this instrument, mentions some peculiar properties of it, e.g., that the sound of it is strong enough to drown 20 robust voices, being animated merely by the breath of a boy, and yet the sound of it may be attempted to the softness of the sweetest voice. Another peculiarity to this instrument is, that great as the distance between the third and fourth hole appears, yet whether the third hole be open or shut, the difference is but a tone.

mythology, was a very common symbol of the sun, and he is represented biting his tail, and with his body formed into a circle, in order to indicate the ordinary course of this luminary, and under this form it was an emblem of time and eternity. The serpent was also the symbol of medicine, and of the gods which presided over it, as of Apollo and Æsculapius: and this animal was the object of very ancient and general worship, under various appellations and characters. In most of the ancient rites we find some allusion to the serpent, under the several titles of Ob, Ops, Python, &c. This idolatry is alluded to by Moses, (Lev. xx. 27.) The woman at Endor who had a familiar spirit is called Oub, or Ob, and it is interpreted Pythonifera. The place where she resided, says the learned Mr Bryant, seems to have been named from the worship then instituted; for Endor is compounded of En-ador, and signifies fons Pythiæ, “the fountain of light,” the oracle of the god Ador, which oracle was probably founded by the Canaanites, and had never been totally suppressed. His pillar was also called Abbadir, or Ab-adir, compounded of ab and adir, and meaning the serpent deity Addir, the same as Adorus.

In the orgies of Bacchus, the persons who partook of the ceremony used to carry serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams call upon Eva! Eva! Eva! being, according to the writer just mentioned, the same as epha, or opha, which the Greeks rendered ophis, and by it denoted a serpent. These ceremonies and this symbolic worship began among the Magi, who were the sons of Chus; and by them they were propagated in various parts. Wherever the Ammonians founded any places of worship, and introduced their rites, there was generally some story of a serpent. There was a legend about a serpent at Colchis, at Thebes, and at Delphi; and likewise in other places. The Greeks called Apollo himself Python, which is the same as Opis, Oupis, and Oub.

In Egypt there was a serpent named Thermuthis, which was looked upon as very sacred; and the natives are said to have made use of it as a royal tiara, with which they ornamented the statues of Isis. The kings of Egypt wore high bonnets, terminating in a round ball, and surrounded with figures of apes; and the priests likewise had the representation of serpents upon their bonnets.

Abaddon, or Abaddon, mentioned in the Revelations xx. 2, is supposed by Mr Bryant to have been the name of the Ophite god, with whose worship the world had been so long infected. This worship began among the people of Chaldea, who built the city of Orphis upon the Tigris, and were greatly addicted to divination, and to the worship of the serpent. From Chaldea the worship passed into Egypt, where the serpent deity was called Canoph, Caneph, and Cacaph. It had also the name of Ob or Oub, and was the same as the Basilisk or royal serpent, the same as the Thermuthis, and made use of by way of ornament to the statues of their gods. The chief deity of Egypt is said to have been Vulcan, who was styled Opas. He was the same as Cnus, the Sun, and hence was often called Ob-el, or Pytho-sel; and there were pillars sacred to him, with curious hieroglyphical inscriptions bearing the same name; whence among the Greeks, who copied from the Egyptians, every thing gradually tapering to a point was styled obelos, or obeliscus.

As the worship of the serpent began among the sons of Chus, Mr Bryant conjectures, that from thence they were denominated Ethiopians and Aithopians, from Ath-ope or Ath-opes, the god whom they worshipped, and not from their complexion; the Ethiopians brought these rites into Greece, and called the island where they first established them Ellopia, Solis Serpentis insula, the same with Euboea, or Ouboea, i.e., "the serpent island." The same learned writer discovers traces of the serpent worship among the Hyperboreans, at Rhodes, named Ophiuia, in Phrygia, and upon the Hellespont, in the island Cyprus, in Crete, among the Athenians, in the name of Cecrops, among the natives of Thebes in Boeotia, among the Macedonians, in Italy, in Syria, &c., and in the names of many places, as well as of the people where the Ophites settled. One of the most early heresies introduced into the Christian church was that of the Ophites. Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, vol. i. p. 43, &c. p. 473, &c.