Christian writers have generally explained the brazen serpent to be a symbol of God, or the Savior. The writer of the article on medicine, in Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” says that even in the Talmud it is acknowledged “that the healing power lay not in the brazen serpent itself, but as soon as they feared the Most High and uplifted their hearts to the heavenly father they were healed, and in default of this they were brought to nought.” Thus the brazen serpent was symbolical only. A serpent clinging to a cross was formerly much used as an emblem of Christ. In fact, a sort of Christian serpent-worship was for a long period greatly in vogue among many besides the professed Ophitæ. In this connection it is well to say, that the _naja_ _haje_, _naia_, or _asp_, the serpent shown in the cut of the brazen serpent, was the species always, or nearly always, taken to represent the spirit pervading nature, the Agathodæmon, or Cnuphis, whom the Egyptians were wont to adore as the creator of the world. It was the Uræus or Basiliskos of the Pharaohs. It is from three to five feet in length. It is extremely venomous. In appearance, it resembles the Indian cobra de capello,[207] but has no spectacle-marking on its head. In hieroglyphics it signifies “goddess.” As to “the serpent of the burning bite which destroyed the Children of Israel,” I may say, in the words of an authoritative work, “Either the cerastes or the naja haje or any other venomous species frequenting Arabia may denote it.”[208] The _Vipera cerastes_ is small, horned, burrows in sand, and is very venomous. Herodotus was led to believe that it was “perfectly harmless,”[209]—a great mistake. It was used to represent the letter f. Says Sir Gardner Wilkinson: “As Herodotus does not notice the asp, it is possible that he may have attributed to the cerastes the honor that really belonged to that sacred snake.”[210] This mistake is still frequently made. But the association of the serpent with Æsculapius, as a remnant of serpent-worship, can be explained without going to the Egyptian Tum, or any other foreign sun-god. One has but to turn to Apollo, to whom, as in the case of, perhaps, all sun-gods, the reptile was sacred.[211] The question now is, then, what was the reason for the association of the serpent with Apollo? The usual reply is: the destruction by him of the Python, which is essentially the same as the Aub or Ob, or, as it is often given, Typhon, of the Egyptians, an evil monster which was probably taken primarily to represent harm resulting from the periodical overflow of the Nile. Homer says:— “With his shining shaft Apollo slew That ugly dragon, hideous to the view, Which grew, long nourished in its slimy den, A monster horrible, the dread of men.”[212]