The Python God Selwanga
“Among the Baganda the python god Selwanga had his temple on the shore of the lake Victoria Nyanza, where he dwelt in the form of a live python. The temple was a hut of the ordinary conical shape with a round hole in the wall, through which the sinuous deity crawled out and in at his pleasure. A woman lived in the temple, and it was her duty to feed the python daily with fresh milk from a wooden bowl, which she held out to the divine reptile while he drained it. The serpent was thought to be the giver of children; hence young couples living in the neighbourhood always came to the shrine to ensure the blessing of the god on their union, and childless women repaired from long distances to be relieved by him from the curse of barrenness.”
—J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, part 1 (The Golden Bough, vol. V, 1914, pp. 85-86)
Photograph from The Baganda (1911), by John Roscue. Frazer drew the above account of Selwanga from that book, and was personally acquainted with its author, the Rev. Roscue, a Christian missionary in Uganda.
(Source: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons)