The _Gadelglas_ of the ancient Irish was precisely similar to this _Culebra_ of the Americans: _gad_ signifying a snake, or tortuosity: _el_, god; and _glas_, green--in all, the _green snake-god_! And conformably with this import, we are assured by a man who knew very little as to the _reason why_, but whose testimony is here valuable in a matter of _record_, not of _opinion_; namely, that the “Milesians, from the time they first conquered Ireland, down to the reign of Ollamh Fodhla, made use of no other _arms of distinction in their banners_ than a _serpent twisted round a rod_, after the example of their Gadelian ancestors.”[596] You have now the _proof_ of “_who puts the snakes_ upon our _ancient crosses_?” And, independently of such proof, the antiquity itself of all the traditions associating the _serpent_ with the early memoirs of our ancestors was so great as to appal even the _monks_! And as they could not, in their system of _transferring_ our history, _bring down_ this serpent to the era of the _saints_, they resolved, at all events, to have him in their dispensation, and so made _Moses_ the hero! This they contrived by inventing the name of _Gadel_ for one of our forefathers, and then transplanting him to the coast of the Red Sea, just as the Legislator of the Jews was conducting them out of Egypt! They then very unsacerdotally make a serpent bite him in some part of the heel, but very graciously afterwards restore him to sanity by Moses’s interposition! with a stipulation, however, that the former _sore_ should ever appear _glass_ or _green_! And thus was he called _Gadelglas_, or _Gadel the Green_!!! In truth, it was from this _green_ snake-god, above explained, that the island obtained the designation of _Emerald_; and not from the _verdure_ of its soil, which is not greater than that of other countries. The Arabians have a tradition, that Enoch was the first who, after Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, wrote with a pen, in the use of which he instructed his children, saying to them additionally, “O, my sons, know that ye are _Sabians_!” Although the substance of the _religion_, couched under this designation, has been already explained, yet the origin of the name itself remains yet to be unfolded. Then be it known, that in the _sacred_, _i.e._ _Irish_ language, the word _Sabh_,[597] has three significations--firstly, _voluptuousness_, or the _yoni_; secondly, a _snake_, or sinuosity; and, thirdly, _death_ or life! And in accordance with this triple import, if you roll back the leaves as far as p. 229, you will find in the plate inserted there, and which has been transcribed from the sculptures of the ancient Palencian city before alluded to, those three symbols, viz. the _yoni_, the _serpent_, and _death_, all united in design, and illustrating my development of that mysterious scene wherein-- “Eve _tempting_ Adam by a _serpent_ was stung.”[598]