Flying Snake

Palestine, or the Holy land: from the earliest period to the present time

1837-By Michael Russell

 There is mention made in Holy Scripture of the fiery flying serpent a creature about whose existence and qualities naturalists have entertained a considerable difference of opinion It is now generally admitted that in Guinea Java and other countries where there is at once great heat and a marshy soil there exists a species of these animals which have the power of moving in the air or at least of passing from tree to tree Niebuhr relates that at Bazra also there is a sort of serpents called heie sursurie They commonly live on dates and as it would be troublesome to them to come down one high tree and creep up another they hang by the tail to the branch of one and by winging that about take advantage of its motion to leap to that of a second These the modern Arabs call flying serpents hcit thidre I do not know whether the ancient Arabs were acquainted with any other kind of flying serpent Near Batavia there are certain flying snakes or dragons as they are sometimes called They have four legs a long tail and their skin speckled with many spots their wings are not unlike those of a bat which they move in flying but otherwise keep them almost unperceived clc se to the body They fly nimbly but cannot hold out long so that they only shift from tree to tree at about twenty or thirty yards distance On the outside of the throat are two bladders which being extended when they fly serve them instead of a sail t

An essay on aërial navigation, with some observations on ships, by J.McS. 1844

Cicero in his work de Natura Deorum speaks of Ibis in Egypt destroying flying snakes volucres angues brought by the wind from the desert of Libya speaks also in the same passage of the Crocodile and the Ichneumon so that it was evident that he was ignorant of the natural history of Egypt He was of the most accomplished men of his age and if snakes were entirely fabulous it is difficult to that a man of his great acquirements could have into such a mistake There was intercourse by ships between Rome and Egypt at the time so that he opportunities of knowing a deal about Egypt If it admitted that Dragons existed in the historical period why not admit the existence of the Pterodactyle in same period and that this creature was brought occasionally into Egypt by the wind But it may be said that Pterodactyle resembled a lizard more than a snake this it may be answered that the ancients were not so precise as the moderns in the nomenclature of animals from its long n eck the Pterodactyle might have been a snake by ancient writers Tacitus appears to use words anguis and draco in the same sense in of a fabulous matter favor plebis acrior in loco preesagii acceptus est vulgabaturque infantia dracones in modum custodum fabulosa et miraculis assimulata nam ipse huadquaquam sui detractor unam omnino anguetn in cubiculo vision solitus est Taciti Annal Lib XI The Ibis by lacerating the membranous wings of the Pterodactyle in the air could cause it to fall curious bird the Dodo has become extinct in the historical period There is thus some reason to suppose that flying snake of the ancients was the Pterodactyle

DRACONTIUM or SERPENTINE TEMPLE and TEMPLAALAT

Specimen of an Etimological Vocabulary 

or Essay By Means of the Analitic Method

to Retrieve the Antient Celtic Specimen

Written by: John Cleland, in 1768

DRACONTIUM or SERPENTINE 

TEMPLE and TEMPLAALAT 

A The modern names of Dracontium and of Alta temple the one meaning simply a circle or church the other a winged circle were purely owing like so many others to such mistakes of ancient Words as arose from similarity of sound the rectifying of which throws on the antiquities of Britain a light that cannot be but satisfactory to those those who prefer the simplicity of truth to the marvellousness of falsity For the word Dracontium then there were two coinciding reasons First The circles or churches for they are syno rilmous were originally formed or built by the Druids Among their names for they had many was that of Drac or circle maker this also signisied a Dragon One reason this for the word Dracontium Another Such circles had commonly sanctuaries Lechs Cromlechs Meyns or Minsters belonging to them these were called Naids and with the particle tor annexed expressive of the precinct ground or verge of their influence this would give Naid tor Now Naidr signifying a snake can there be any thing forced in the presuming that as the Druid churches became exploded by Christianity the name of Snake temples as the more invidious or contumelious might supplant the real one of Sanctuary temples of The circle's representing the coil of a snake either in its outline or inward circular partitions I might adduce as a further reason but I think it rather too quaint too forced to be the principal cause though it might contribute to give still more foundation for the misnomer and help to fix it As to the Alata templa I take this to be obviously a mistake of the like nature
 The collegiate circles of the Alburys or Cant ah burys had collaterally to them a range or ranges of Heills or Halls both for the instruction of youth and the administration of justice These were called Heils or Halls thence our I Les of a church Thence in Gaul they were stiles Ailis wings a term conspired by some affinity of form answering to the Wilton of the Greeks and in time generalized to signify the out buildings of any fabric sacred or profane This was however not unlikely the origin of the Alata templa of the Druids and indeed of those of Christianity la these wings metaphorically given to the serpentine temples you have most probably the genuine origin of that absurd impersonation of them in the winged serpent dragons or griffins Cir effins a word expressing a snake temple especially too as in those temples it was of old customary to deposit consecrated treasures I would be loth to be too positive that Strabo did not mistake Lecbs or Cromlechs for the Latin Lacus and thence translated it and why not as well as some historians took the Celtic hatchets for ace tum vinegar A single rock unluckily fallen a cross a pathway on the Alps was enough to obstruct Hannibal's whole army this a few Celtic hatchets would clear away in a few instants which a thousand tons of vinegar acetum if he had had so much in his camp would hardly have effectuated in as many years As these Leeks then were Kit miens lap-ides custodies in every sense and in that quality not only safe guards of men but of treasures whether consecrated or deposited there for safety might not the word Lech by its found impose on Strabo a Greek Who can conceive that lakes were not more proper reservoirs for such than for treasure It is barely possible but very improbable that they were put to such an unexampled use
The lands on which the Leches or Asylums stood might-be sold by the Roman conquerors but Lakes were not commonly objects of property The great temple of Tho louse which Strabo mentions belonged doubtless to a Lech or Cromwell not to a Lake and was some such Minster as the other Mayans or Fanes of Britain or Gaul M Bourguet in his dissertation on the Etruscan alphabet p I c takes notice of an extremely rare Greek word Ext in the signification of Temple which he thinks may be the etimon of the Venetian Zecca or mint This rather comes from Z ick to strike a coin But if Exx in the sense of Temple or Fane dismisses its idiomatic tetminative and assumes the common Celtic prepositive or 1 it gives precisely our British Lech the import of a Cromlech itself the Fane or Meyn and giving the name of Temple to the whole precinct or Church Most of the Greek words on a fair analisis will be found purely Celtic The Druids or Dr acs were officially the guardians of such treasures Thence the antient siction of assigning the guard of precious things to Dragons In lhort the winged dragons and their uard ng treasures may very well take rank with the hippagnfHns with fairy dances in a ring on the green and TheThe N of the Greeks for a temple I take to have an origin though purely Celtic different from our word Nave or Nef to express the body of the church This rather derives from the connection of the circle or main spot to the Hoff or Hab the head Con hoff Con hab this was the with other productions of fancy and chimera most of them to be traced to such mistakes or childish play of words which have not been the less seriously believed in the times of barbarism and ignorance Naos for temple I take to be by a contraction frequent h the Greek and Latin languages to stand for Ketaws in which the Ken does not the less for its not being at all Greek enter into the composition of that language This is the case of many other monosillables of the elementary language
They are not Greek but they contribute to form the Greek The Celtic car for heart is not Greek but it forms KapJia Ks is one of the old Celtic words for bead in which sense it enters into Tivomo I ken or kenoiv know In Naos for Ke aof it means a head place If the reader mould here think I take an unwarrantable liberty in presuming the elliptic letters I offer to his own consideration the following examples Take the Latin words Nascor Watus Natura and the French Ne for born Analize them and you will sind that A cor being but a frequentative Atus a common idiomatic termination Atura the fame e the fame This reduces all these words to this single initial letter n which offers no sense Restore the two elliptic letters ge cut off by the usual tendency of languages to contraclion or to euphony you have gena cor genatus genatura gene in which gen the radical of generative of kind of beginning &c and of hundreds more gives a clear fense nor will it escape the reader that Ken head and Gen generative have so great an analogy as to be at bottom the fame word Nor is this the only word by many Notus in Latin has the fame origin as the Greek Tuoaxa of which only the sirst Iota is elliptic in rW t The postulate then of variation of the fame words stands incontestable Even in proper names where one would the least suspect it it is astonishingly great Alfred Galfred Aubrey Jeffrey Ambrose Alvarez and very possibly Abarii are at bottom all the same name though some of them preserve so little of the family likeness They all derive from Allury or Amlry headhead head sanctuary or altar piece collateral to this Nave were the I les or Wings the Heils or Halhi Such was the disposition of the Druidical collegiate churches which gave them the name of Alata There is if I mistake not the remains of a Druid serpentine temple in Westmorland called the Shap a contraction of The Ab the head Here be it observed that even the word Nef signisied antiently a serpent as if every thing had concurred to this denomination This head Hofs or Cove was specisically the place of the sacred Stone Lech or Meyn which was considered as the capital part of the whole precinct whether an Albury or a Cantalbury It is now represented by the altar piece and chancel And here I must entreat the reader's retrospect to page 52 where Conwont or Coffwont it is the fame word is represented in its true connection with theantient word Minster which I have so much reason to think it is so far from deducible from the Greek that on the contrary itself gave birth to that barbarous and false Hellenism And surely the more he considers the circumstance of convents having been so familiarly multi plied in Europe so very early after the prevalence of Christianity he will be the less ready to believe that monasteries could derive their original of living in the society of collegiate life from the example of the solitaries or hermits of the Thebaid in Egypt it is even a contradiclion in terms unless you will force the word w from single life allusively to celibacy a word never in that fense made use of in Greek where ay or a ytx Aril & was at once so much more expressive and so obvious to conception What likelihood is there that unless the conventual or collegiate life of the Druids had smoothed the way for the institution of Christian convents convents they should have all at once and in those countries especially where the Druids had confessedly the greatest or rather exclusive sway the notion of convents and that it should be so familiar as it appears to have been in the earliest ages of Christianity Besides which the distinction was always kept up between hermits and collegiates not only in the name but in the thing As to the Druid monks they formed a class apart which I have precedently explained But they offer to me here an opportunity of retrieving the lost fense of an antient British word which will greatly corroborate my proposition of the priority of Druid Minjlers to Christian Monasteries Its degree of weight or validity I submit to any judge of literature the severer the better You will sind that the modern Welsh make a promiscuous use of the words Corphlan and Myn went to express a church yard for which they are justly reprehended by the learned Dr Wotton the editor of Howell Dha's laws He proves very clearly from the text of the laws themselves compiled in or about the year 942 and probably the most of them much more antient that Mynwent and Corphlan have essentially different signisications Corphlan he makes very naturally come from Corph corpse and llan inclosure but as to Myn vent it is plain from his own showing that he Corflan & Corphlan apud hodiernos Wallos Corflant & Mynuaent pro cœmeterio vulgo usurpantur In Legibus dit ersa sunt Mynuuent suit Atrium Ecclefiii adjacent Corphlan exte rius suit Atrium interius illud undiquaque ambiens in quo Ca davera sepeliebantur Vide How Dha lib ii cap viii 6 Corphlan a Corph Corpus & Llan septum Myn voent dicitur quasi Monumentum Ccemeteria erant extra Atria ne corrupta ca davera sidelibus in ecclesia congregatis incommodo essent Sed hæc omnia acompluribus ab hinc feculis confysaSi indistintla sunt Wotton mistakes sanctuary precinct not content with impowering friars to go about the country to beg in their behalf they even indulged them the liberty of going about their own affairs beyond the sanctuary limits without fear of molestation from their prosecutors or from officers of justice provided that they carried with them some authenticated mark a bough of evergreen for example delivered to them by a Druid conventualist the producing which maintained their title to sanctuary though caught out of the lawful bounds It was a kind of day rule to them This testimonial was called Crair contractedly from Cir ayer the bough or warrant from the church or hallowed circle But when Christianity prevailed under the dispensation of which it was very natural for the ecclesiastics in their care for the prerogative of the church not to give up so material a one as the right of sanctuary they retained this privilege of Naid or sanctuary with no difference but that of substituting to the crair or bough the relicks of some saint which relicks however retained metonimically the antient name of Crair and Naid y Craireu was called the fro teclion of the relicks By these the antient Christianized Britons used to swear as they formerly did on the altar or the sacred bough instead of kissing the book as is now practised

Historical Book Artwork, on Dragons

 There are thousands of books upon the dragon, although none of them quite have the same taste of artwork as those from the later era. The only problem though is that they are all in pig Latin, which is impossible to solve unless your a mason of course. So because where not, we are destined to view the images. These following images, are from the book of:

The XVIth Century: A Large Collection of Valuable Books on ..

That was written in 1520 AD.

 

 

England: Dragon Hill

Dragon Hill:

A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer, Volume 1

By: George Newenham Wright

1834

The first historical book reference we will begin with, was written in 1834 by  By George Newenham Wright.  A man of high nobility and honor within his homeland of Ireland. George was born in 1794, very little is known about his life, other than he was a clergyman for the Anglican Church as well as a well noted writer of his era. 
George had written 7 books within his lifetime, with the following book being his second to last. The following segment comes from the book A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer, Volume 1, (Gazetteer : geographic reference book: a dictionary or index of places, usually with descriptive or statistical information).

" The hills of Surrey and Hampshire an extensive prospect and the eminences on the W command a prospect over Gloucester Wilts and Oxford The extreme length of the co that is from Old Windsor to Buscot is 48 m and its extreme breadth is between Witham and Sandhurst Pop 145,380 The area contains 472,270 acres which are divided naturally into 1 The White Horse vale extending from Bus cot to Streatley bounded on one side by Thames on the other by the White Horse hills by 2 The Chalk hills which occupy the part of the county 3 The vale of Kennet 4 The Forest division commencing E of I odd on and extending the whole way across the co to Old Windsor The chief rivs are the Thames Kennet Loddon Lambourn Ock Aubourn Emme and Broadwater The soil in general reclines upon chalk and calcareous matter sometimes on a mixture of gravel and clay The vale is uniformly fertile the prevailing soil being a strong grey calcareous loam in which vegetable mould is intimately mixed with cretaceous earth Amongst the chalk hills fertile spaces intervene where the surface con sists of vegetable mould mixed up with chalk flint and gravel The hills are everywhere clad with verdure and form excellent sheep walks a species of peat is found in the vale of Kennet used both as fuel and manure Near Reading is a bed of chalk 30 feet in thickness reclining upon flint above the chalk is a stratum of sandy clay covered by a layer of oyster shells two feet in depth A species of ochre is found depth species here echini fossil shells sharks teeth marine remains of infinite varieties pipe clay potters clay and shell marl in Kennet vale Chalybeate springs exist at Cumnor Sunning hill and Gorrick well The soil produces wheat and barley superior in quality and profuse in quantity and malting is a trade pursued extensively Large dairy farms occupy White Horse vale and the Berkshire sheep large tall with black faces and long tails are much esteemed and fatten easily The swine here are also famous poultry are reared in great numbers at Oakingham timber chiefly oak and beech are grown here and constitute a good trade The manufactures consist of sail cloth woollen and paper At Bisham are very extensive copper works Berkshire is divided into copper works twenty hunds namely Beynhurst Bray Charlton Compton Cookham Faircross Faringdon Ganfield Hormer Kirilbury Eagle Lambourn Moreton Ock Reading Ripplesmere Shriveo ham Sonning Theale Wantage Wargrave besides the boroughs of Abingdon returning member Reading two Wallingford one and Windsor two members The co returns members and the boroughs together six There are twelve mkt tns in Berkshire namely Abingdon Faringdon Hungerford East llsley Lambourn Maidenhead Newbury Oakingham Reading Wallingford Wantage and Windsor This co is also distinguished as containing the royal residence of the kings of England viz Windsor Cast le besides rovalpalaces atFrogmore Cumberland lodge and Iran bourn Lodge The advantages arising to the inhabitants from inland navigation here are very considerable of one dist of a triangular shape no part is distant 12 m from water carriage on the Thames on the Kennet on the Wilts and Berks canal or on the Basingstoke navigation The Kennet and Avon canal runs parallel to the Kennet river until it enters Wiltshire in the vicinity of Hungerford Berkshire includes the ancient British principality occupied by the Attribatii originally from Gaul Upon Constantine's division of the island in the year 310 into provs this par was included in Britannica Prima under the Saxon Heptarchy it was comprehended in the kingd of the West Saxons and when Alfred a native of Wantage in this co ad 889 divided England into cos hunds and pars this was lor the first time named Berocshirc or Berkshire There are many evident traces still subsisting of Roman and Danish occupation The Roman Watling street enters Berkshire a Streatley between Wallingford and Reading and crosses the county to Marlborough Another Roman road enters from Hampshire and at Newbury divides one branch extending to Marlborough the other to Cirencester A branch also from the Icknield street extends from Wallingford to Wantage Several Roman encampmetits metits may be traced the most obvious remain aie at Wantage East Harapstead Oakingham White Horse hill Siuodun hill and Pusey UAingham castle is supposed to be Danish Deal White Horse hill is the monument of a Danish chief slain by Alfred and Dragon hill is believed to be the burial place of Jther Pen dragon There is a figure of a horse distinctly marked in the front of the chalky hill called from this curious resemblance which is supposed to have been formed by the ancient Britons and to have some connexion in customs or superstitions with a similar figure observed upon ancient British coins Berkshire has been the scene of military operations from the time of king UHa to the period of the revolution BERKS".

Cross of Cong

The Celtic Records and Historic Literature of Ireland:

The Cross of Cong

Written By: J.T. Gilbert

1838

 

The Cross of Cong (Irish: An Bacall Buí, "the yellow baculum") is an early 12th-century Irish Christian ornamented cusped processional cross, which was, as an inscription says, made for Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair (d. 1156), King of Connacht and High King of Ireland to donate to the Cathedral church of the period that was located at Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. The cross was subsequently moved to Cong Abbey at Cong, County Mayo, from which it takes its name. It was designed to be placed on top of a staff and is also a reliquary, designed to hold a piece of the purported True Cross. This gave it additional importance as an object of reverence and was undoubtedly the reason for the object's elaborate beauty.
The cross is displayed at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, having previously been in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. It is considered one of finest examples of metalwork and decorative art of its period in Western Europe.
The cross consists of an oak cross, covered in gold, silver, niello, copper, bronze, brass, enamel, coloured glass, and other ornamentation.^[2] In addition to traditional Irish design features from Insular art, the cross also displays some Viking and Romanesque influences,^[1] including 'strapwork' decoration in the Urnes style. It has been suggested that the older Insular stylistic elements may be deliberate revivalism. The decoration includes minute golden filigree work in an intertwined pattern called on front and back. From the base heads of beasts on each side grip the cross in their mouth, a feature also found in German crosses. The overall shape of the cross was thought to be Romanesque, but recent discoveries have shown very similar shapes in much earlier Irish pieces.^[3] Some of the original precious stones and glass pieces that studded the cross are now missing.
There is a large polished piece of rock crystal in the centre of the cross. Under this was placed the relic (sent from Rome around the year A.D. 1123) of what at the time was believed to be the True Cross. The relic is since lost, and was a small fragment of wood only. The crystal is semi-transparent, once enabling the relic to be partially seen by the viewer.

The cross is 30 inches high and the arms are 18 ¾ inches in breadth.^[4]
As a processional cross, the cross was carried mounted on its staff at the head of a religious procession by one of the officiating clergy or altar-servers. Often such crosses were then removed from their staff and placed on the altar during the ceremony.

 According to Irish annals, supported by the inscriptions on the cross itself (which refer to known historical personages), the cross was made in County Roscommon. In the annals, the cross is sometimes called in the Irish language "an Bacall Buidhe", which translates as "the yellow staff" — a reference to its golden color.

The cross was commissioned by King Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair.
In A.D. 1123, according to the Irish annals, a small piece of the purported True Cross arrived in Ireland from Rome and was enshrined at Roscommon.^[5] The cross then appears to have moved to Tuam. At an early date, probably in the mid-12th century, the cross was moved from Tuam to Cong Abbey, an abbey founded by the Augustinians on a much earlier Christian site.

In later centuries, the exact location of the cross in the Cong area is uncertain but it appears to be have been hidden by locals and ecclesiastics in their homes because of religious persecution against Catholics, which reached its peak in Ireland under the penal laws.

In 1680, Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh, the historian from County Galway, saw the cross (which he referred to as the "Abbot of Cong's Cross") and copied inscriptions from it. Edward Lhuyd of Wales,^[6] Ó Flaithbheartaigh's friend, recorded this fact in his "Archaeologia Britannica", published in 1707.^[7]

In the 19th century, George Petrie, the Irish antiquarian, was aware that Lhuyd's book mentioned the cross, though he partly misinterpreted the details. In 1822, Petrie had seen the cross himself when he passed through Cong on a tour he made of Connacht.^[8] Petrie told his friend, Professor James MacCullagh (of Trinity College, Dublin), about the cross and of its historical value.^[8] MacCullagh, using his own money, though not a rich man, afterwards purchased the cross from the Parish Priest of Cong — Fr. Michael Waldron.^[9] Fr. Waldron had succeeded Fr. Patrick Prendergast as Parish Priest of Cong, when Fr. Prendergast died in 1829, and discovered the cross amongst his belongings. Fr. Patrick Prendergast, an Augustinian, was also considered to be the last Abbot of Cong Abbey. Fr. Prendergast had discovered the cross hidden in an old oak chest kept in a house in the village, where it was said to have been kept since about the mid-17th century (the time of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland). Fr. Prendergast then kept the cross in his house, named 'Abbotstown', located on a farm in the townland of Ballymagibbon (or Ballymacgibbon), which is close to Cong.^[10] William Wilde, who was from this part of Ireland, had seen the cross in his childhood in Fr. Prendergast's possession and stated that at that time (the early 19th century) the cross was used at Cong chapel at the festivals of Christmas and Easter, when it was placed on the altar during mass.^[11] MacCullagh presented the cross in 1839 to the Royal Irish Academy, where it was for a long period one of its most treasured artefacts.^[12][13]
About 1890, the cross was transferred to the newly opened National Museum of Science and Art, Dublin, which was the predecessor of the National Museum of Ireland, and remained in the same building when the National Museum of Ireland was founded in 1925. Today, the cross remains in the National Museum of Ireland, although it was on display in the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, from 31 March 2010 for one year, while the Dublin museum was being renovated.^[14] This was the first time the cross had left Dublin since the 1830s.^[15]

Inscriptions

The cross has inscriptions on it^[2] — all of which are in the Irish language, with the exception of one which is in Latin.

Latin

The Latin inscription occurs twice — once on each side of the shaft — in one case the letters of the sixth word are "Pahus", and in the other, "Pasus"; it should be "Passus". A facsimile engraving (taken from a rubbing) of one of these inscriptions is shown below,
In modern Latin this is rendered as

"Hac cruce crux tegitur qua pas[s]us conditor orbis",^[16]

which has been translated as

"With this cross is covered the cross on which suffered the Maker of the World."^[2]

or, with similar meaning, as

"In this cross is preserved [or conserved] the cross on which the Founder of the world suffered."^[16]

Irish

In addition, the translated Irish language inscriptions read as follows:

A prayer for Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair, for the King of Ireland, for whom this shrine was made.^[17]

Pray for Muireadhach Ua Dubhthaigh, the Senior of Erin.

Pray for Domnall mac Flannacáin Ua Dubthaig, Bishop of Connacht and Comarb [Successor] of [Saints] Comman and Ciaran, under whose superintendence the shrine was made.^[18]

Pray for Mael Isu mac Bratdan O Echan, who made this shrine.^[4]