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.
