;
Deane's _Worship of the Serpent_, p. 80. From a notion of the mysterious
inflation produced by the presence of the divine spirit, those who had the
spirit of Ob, or Python, received the names of Ob, or Pythia; according to
the not unusual custom for the priest or priestess of any god to take the
name of the deity they served. See Selden, _De Dis Syris_, Synt. 1. c. 2.
It is a curious coincidence, that as the Witch of Endor is called "Oub,"
and the African sorceress "Obi," from the serpent-deity _Oub_, so the old
English name of a witch, "hag," bears apparent relationship to the word
_hak_, the ancient British name of a species of snake. In Yorkshire,
according to Stukeley, they call snakes "hags" and "hag-worms," (Abury, p.
32.).

In the Breton language, _Belech_ is "Priest," and may similarly indicate a
priest of Bel-the-Dragon.

From the Hebrew _Ob_, the Greek [Greek: ophis] was probably derived; for
the same word, in Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek, which denotes "divination"
denotes a "serpent." "Nachash,"[4] "ilahat,"[5] "[Greek: oionizesthai],"[6]
have the same double signification as if the serpent were recognised as the
grand inspirer of the heathen prophets. See Faber's _Horae Mosaicae_, vol. i.
p. 98.

The word "Ob" was translated by the LXX. [Greek: engastrimuthos], "a
ventriloquist," in {310} accommodation to the received opinions respecting
the Pythian priestess. See the Notes to Creech's _Lucretius_, book v.;
Jones's (of Nayland) _Physiolog. Disquis._ p. 290. The deception practised
by the Witch of Endor, and by the damsel mentioned in Acts xvi. 16., was of
this description. See Wierus de _Praestig. Daemon._ p. 203.; and Reginald
Scot's _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, p. 148.

The serpent, which with heathen mythologists had various acceptations (see
Vossius, _Theologia Gent. et Physiologia Christ._), was also understood as
a natural symbol or hieroglyphic of the air. Can any of your learned
correspondents furnish materials illustrative of this figurative relation
between the serpent and the elements?

T. J.

[Footnote 4: See Parkhurst.]

[Footnote 5: Dickinson's _Delphi Phoenic._, p. 10.]

[Footnote 6: Stillingfleet's _Orig. Sacrae_, book iii. c. iii. s. 18.]

_Meaning of Peep_ (Vol. ii., p. 118.).--You have already told us the
meaning of the word _peep_ in the phrase "Wizards that _peep_ and that
mutter;" in confirmation I may add that the noise made by the queen bee in
the hive previous to swarming i