ence to America of these Old World ideas of
the serpent. Right on the route taken by the main stream of cultural
diffusion across the Pacific we still find in their fully-developed form
the old beliefs concerning the good Mother Serpent of the ancient
civilizations (C. E. Fox and F. H. Drew, _op. cit. supra_, p. 139). She
could be re-incarnated as a coconut: she controlled crops; she was
associated with the coming of death into the world, with the
introduction of agriculture and the discovery of fire. Like her
predecessors in the West she was also a Mother Pot or Basket that
never emptied.

All the _hiona_ or _figona_ (_i.e._ spirits) of San Cristoval have a
serpent incarnation from Agunua the creator, worshipped by every one, to
Oharimae and others, only known to particular persons. Other spirits,
called _ataro_, might be incarnate in almost any animal. Agunua, who
took the form of a serpent, was good, not evil (p. 134). Very many
pools, rocks, water-falls, or large trees were thought to be the abode
of _figona_. These serpent spirits could take the form of a stone, or
retire within a stone, and sacred stones seem to be connected with
_figona_ rather than with _ataro_ (p. 135). Almost all the local
_figona_ are represented as female snakes, but Agunua is a male snake
(p. 137).

As the real significance of the snake's symbolism originated from its
identification with the Great Mother in her destructive aspect, it is
not surprising that the snake is the most primitive form of the evil
dragon. The Babylonian Tiamat was originally represented as a huge
serpent,[453] and throughout the world the serpent is pre-eminently a
symbol of the evil dragon and the powers of evil.

The serpent that tempted Eve was the homologue both of the mother of
mankind herself and also of the tree of paradise. It was the
representative of the dragon-protector of pearls and of other kinds of
treasure: it was also the goddess who animated the sacred tree as well
as the protector who attacked all who approached it. It was the evil
dragon that tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit which brought
her mortality.

The identification of the Great Mother with the lioness (and the
secondary association of her husband and son with the lion) was
responsible for a widespread relationship of these creatures with the
gods and goddesses in Egypt and the Mediterranean, in Western Asia, in
Babylonia and India, in Eastern Asia [tiger] and America [ocelot,