came to him in the form of a snake to heal his illness (Bunn1967:617).In Serer cosmogony and religion, the serpent is the symbol of the pangool, the saints and ancestral spirits of the Serer people of West Africa. When a person dies, the Serer believe that their soul must make its way to Jaaniiw (a place where good souls go). Before the soul can reach Jaaniiw in order to reincarnate (ciiɗ in Serer), it must transform into a black snake. During this transformation, the snake hides in a tree. For this reason, it is taboo in Serer culture to kill snakes. A great degree of respect is afforded to snakes in Serer culture, as they are the very embodiment and symbol of their saints and ancestral spirits.Gravrand, Henry, La civilisation sereer, "Cosaan: les origines", vol.1, Nouvelles Editions africaines (1983), p 33, Thiaw, Issa Laye, Mythe de la création du monde selon les sages sereer, pp. 45−50, 59−61 [in] "Enracinement et Ouverture" – "Plaidoyer pour le dialogue interreligieux", Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (23 and 24 June 2009), Dakar (Retrieved: March 18, 2020) Like their Serer counterparts, the Dogon people of Mali also have great reverence for the serpent. The serpent plays an active role in Dogon religion and cosmogony. The mythology of the Dogon's primordial ancestor Lebe, it based almost entirely on a serpent mythology. In their traditional African religious belief, they say that the Serpent Lebe guided the Dogon people from Mandé to the Bandiagara Escarpment (their current home) when they decided to migrate to flee Islamization and persecution. The Dogon believe that Lebe is the very reincarnation of the Dogon's first ancestor—who was resurrected in the form of a snake.Imperato, Pascal James, Dogon Cliff Dwellers: The Art of Mali's Mountain People, L. Kahan Gallery/African Arts (1978), pp. 15, 23 In the Sumerian culture snakes were also very important as a healing symbol. In Hammurabi’s Law Code (c. 1700 BC) the god Ninazu is identified as the patron of healing, and his son, Ningishzida, is depicted with a serpent and staff symbol (Bunn 1967:618) Creation myths Snakes were a common feature of many creation myths, for example many people in California and Australia had myths about the Rainbow Snake, which was either Mother Earth herself giving birth to all animals or a water-god whose writhing created rivers, creeks and oceans. In ancient Indian myth, the drought-serpent Ahi or Vritra swallowed the