THE DECLINE OF SERPENT-WORSHIP.

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the globe in which we have not accounted forthe decline of serpent-worship. But, remarkableas is the coincidence—we find in America thesame agent at work which overthrew Ophiolatreiain Hindustan, in Persia, in Greece —nay, inalmost every country of the known world.

We have remarked the prevalence of serpentworship in Peru : history has preserved thecause of its extinction.

Tupac Yupanqui, the eleventh Inca , marchedagainst the Ophites who resided on the bordersof his dominions, with the avowed object of ex-termination or conversion. His success againsttwo tribes of Indians is recorded in Harris’sCollection of Voyages, vol. i. p. 784.

Huayna Capac, the twelfth Inca , in like man-ner suppressed the Ophiolatreia of the people ofManta '. It is probable that at one time theworship of the serpent was the general religionof Mexico and Peru . The Mexican hierogly-phics and statues abundantly illustrate this fact:and the popular traditions of the Peruvians res-pecting Manco Capac relate probably to thefirst successful missionary of the Sun 2 who

1 Garcilasso, lib. ix. c. 8.

2 Robertson’s America , ii. 293.

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