Show WHY of superstitions H KINQ reassembling SNAKE A SNAKE known as the joint snake can be cut into pieces which pieces will reunite into a living snake this belief Is general through out the united states in some sec alons they have a variation of this to the effect that if any snake Is cut into two pieces the part that contains the head will swallow the tall part which will grow on again and the snake be as good as new those who believe in this reassembling snake su believe in it very thorough ly and regard it not as superstition but as an accepted fact in natural his tory question one of these closely and while he has never seen the re assembling operation himself he al ways knows of some one who has which some one Is generally either dead or moved away or it accas sible proves not really to have wit hessed the phenomenon but has it on the best authority this super Is evidently an echo of the old mythological story of that great ser pent called by the egyptians set or apepe and by the greek s the representative and embodiment of the powers of evil in the egyptian story apepe Is the great enemy of osiris the representative of the beneficent powers and Is at war with him the myth in its egyptian form Is varied and inconsistent in many ways the in their religion were con tent to let contradictions and incon stand calmly side by side but the gist of the story appears to be with regard to the great serpent that while he was slain by diorus cut up say some of the accounts he reassembled and coming to life again renewed the war of evil against right here Is a truth set forth in fable by egyptian priests thousands of years ago and as the conflict of evil with good still endures so in the guise of a popular superstition still lingers the myth in which the priests of osiris clothed it by mcclure newspaper syndicate |