practised by the Edonian women near mount
Haemus in Thrace; and carried on to a degree of madness. Olympias copied
them closely in all their frantic manoeuvres. She used to be followed with
many attendants, who had each a thyrsus with [459]serpents twined round it.
They had also snakes in their hair, and in the chaplets, which they wore;
so that they made a most fearful appearance. Their cries were very
shocking: and the whole was attended with a continual repetition of the
words, [460]Evoe, Saboe, Hues Attes, Attes Hues, which were titles of the
God Dionusus. He was peculiarly named [Greek: Hues]; and his priests were
the Hyades, and Hyantes. He was likewise styled Evas. [461][Greek: Euas ho
Dionusos.]

In Egypt was a serpent named Thermuthis, which was looked upon as very
sacred; and the natives are said to have made use of it as a royal tiara,
with which they ornamented the statues of [462]Isis. We learn from Diodorus
Siculus, that the kings of Egypt wore high bonnets, which terminated in a
round ball: and the whole was surrounded with figures of [463]asps. The
priests likewise upon their bonnets had the representation of serpents. The
antients had a notion, that when Saturn devoured his own children, his wife
Ops deceived him by substituting a large stone in lieu of one of his sons,
which stone was called Abadir. But Ops, and Opis, represented here as a
feminine, was the serpent Deity, and Abadir is the same personage under a
different denomination. [464]Abadir Deus est; et hoc nomine lapis ille,
quem Saturnus dicitur devorasse pro Jove, quem Graeci [Greek: baitulon]
vocant.--Abdir quoque et Abadir [Greek: baitulos]. Abadir seems to be a
variation of Ob-Adur, and signifies the serpent God Orus. One of these
stones, which Saturn was supposed to have swallowed instead of a child,
stood, according to [465]Pausanias, at Delphi. It was esteemed very sacred,
and used to have libations of wine poured upon it daily; and upon festivals
was otherwise honoured. The purport of the above history I imagine to have
been this. It was for a long time a custom to offer children at the altar
of Saturn: but in process of time they removed it, and in its room erected
a [Greek: stulos], or stone pillar; before which they made their vows, and
offered sacrifices of another nature. This stone, which they thus
substituted, was called Ab-Adar, from the Deity represented by it. The term
Ab generally signifies a [466]father: but, in this instanc