Beliefs and superstitions relating to snakes are exceedingly common. These reptiles, by their graceful and sinuous movements and the terror of their bite, appear at once to command reverence and awe. The worship of the tree and the serpent was a cult of aborigines of India, the Turanians; and evidences of ophilolatry, or snake worship, appear in other parts of the world. Kneph, the grand serpent of Egypt, is the father of Hephæstus, the god of metals; and Hi, the serpent god of Chaldea, the master of all wisdom, is also guardian of treasures.[1] In the mythology of several peoples of the Old World the serpent is associated with the guardianship of golden treasures and mines. The god serpent of Greece, Cadmus, was regarded as the first miner, and he was, according to Pliny, the first workman in gold.[2]
Stories are extant of an exchange of form between human beings and snakes, an interesting example of which was at one time currently reported in South Whitehall, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Further reference to this will be made presently.
A very common belief is to the effect that if one kills the first snake met with in the spring, no others will be observed during the remainder of the year. In Swabia, tales are still told of home snakes which appear to bring good luck, but which must under no circumstances be killed. These snakes come to the children and sip milk with them out of their bowls. Tales of this class were common a score of years ago, and I remember hearing of a child eating bread and milk from a saucer, while a huge black snake drank freely from the same dish, but at short intervals the child would playfully tap its spoon upon the snake's head, saying, "Du musht men mŏk'ka fres'sa," to cause it to drink less milk and to eat more of the bread.
Occasionally we hear of black snakes found in pastures where they suckle cows, so that these animals daily resort to certain localities to secure relief from a painful abundance of milk.
Some of these house and farm snakes wear crowns, and are then termed king snakes. Such were reported from several localities in Lehigh County, one of which was said to abide in a large pile of rocks near Macungie. It was seldom, however, that this golden-crowned serpent was seen; still, the greater number of residents thereabout were firm believers in the truth of the report.
As an illustration of the belief in the transformation of human beings into serpents, I will relate a circumstance said to have occurred during the first half of the present century. Near Trexlertown, Lehigh County, dwelt a farmer named Weiler. His wife and three daughters had, by some means or other, incurred the
