In the third chapter of Hebrew history according to Moses (Genesis III), we have an unmistakable allusion to phallic worship in the use of the serpent in the myth of man's temptation and fall. The serpent was an almost universal symbol of priapic adoration throughout Egypt and Assyria; it achieved this distinction, in all probability, from its resemblance to the _instrumentum masculinum generationis_.[U] In a beautiful bronze plaque, representing Nergal, the Chaldean god of Hades, the _glans penis_ of the god is distinctly the head of the snake. A splendid drawing of this plaque by Faucher-Gudin is given in Maspero's _Dawn of Civilization_.[62] It may be stated here that the uræus, or asp, which was so prominently in evidence as one of the principle signs of Egyptian royalty, was also the symbol of the life-giving principle of Ra, the sun-god. [U] The author is fully aware of the fact that writers on phallic worship ascribe other reasons for the adoption of the snake as one of the chief symbols of the worship of the generative principle. He believes, however, that the primitive originators of this cult were, psychically, too immature to evolve any other than simple and objective ideas in regard to this subject; hence he considers the above as the true origin of this symbol. Furthermore, this belief is strengthened by the appearance of the snake in the myths and folklore tales of race-preservation in all peoples where the serpent was a familiar object. [62] _Op. cit._, p. 691.