Serpent and Siva Worship : Origin of Serpent Worship

Serpent and Siva Worship
and Mythology in Central America, Africa, and Asia and the Origin of Serpent Worship (1877)

Comprehensive treatise on the Serpent Cultus.

From the Preface:
The researches and explorations of travelers, scientists and learned investigators, are every day adding to our knowledge of teh Serpent-Cultus. It is rising above the old conception of an obscure and ill-defined superstition, to the dimensions of a religion, distinctly outlined in its characteristic features, and by no means without a recondite metaphysical basis. Not only did the children of Israel burn incense to the symbolical animal from Moses til Hezehiah, but the Hamitic races " from Memphis to Babylon," and all indeed at the far East and remote West, who accepted as sacred, what Mr. Brown denominates, "The Great Dionysiak Myth."

From Page 28:
Applying our material to deal with Siva or Shiva and Kali, we find not only the former name but the latter in Africa. The connections are those of Siva. Many of the Hindu gods are decorated with snakes, for such is the inheritance of serpent-worship, but Siva is more particularly so provided.

There are two Hindu legends of the Creation, but that most popularly depicted represents Vishnu sleeping on a serpent, Ananta, on the face of the waters, after the annihilation of a former Creation. From his navel springs a long stem ending in a lotus, and from this Brahma is born, who produces Siva. The three are, however, brothers born together. Thus the belly is the seat of creation, and from the navel proceeds the stem, which must be assimilated to the snake of the bowel. We have the conformity in this main Siva-legend of the god, his wife, of the navel, and the snake. In the present state of Siva-worship we have the increments of various ages and of various races, corresponding to those which in a shorter period affected Sabazios in Phrygia and Greece.