Topic: OUTLINES OP THE HISTORY OF RELIGION 1877 C.Tiele

[Prometheus]

FOREWORD


OUTLINES
OP
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION
TO THE
SPREAD OF THE UNIVERSAL
RELIGIONS.


1877

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more versions up to 1892 -1905  available

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By C. P.TIELE,

[Prometheus]

OUTLINES
OP
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION
TO THE
SPREAD OF THE UNIVERSAL
RELIGIONS.


1877

https://archive.org/details/outlineshistory01carpgoog 


more versions up to 1892 available

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By C. P.TIELE,



PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

TO

THE ENGLISH EDITION.

What I give in this little boot are outlines, pencil-
sketches, I might say,—nothing more. In the present
state of our knowledge about the ancient religions, this
only can be reasonably expected from the students of this
branch of science, this only can be attempted with some
hope of success. The time for writing an elaborate His-
tory of Religion, even of Religions, has not yet come. Not
a few special investigations must be instituted, not a few
difficult questions elucidated, before anything like this can
be done. But it is useful, even necessary, from time to
time to sum up the amount of certain knowledge, gathered
by the researches of several years, and to sketch, be it here
and there with an uncertain hand, the draught of what
may at some time become a living picture. This is what
I propose to do. The interest of what is called by the
unhappy name of Science of Religions, let us say of Hiero-
PREFACE.

viii

logy, is increasing every day. Now, I think there is great
danger that so young a science may lose itself in abstract
speculations, based on a few facts and a great many dubi-
ous or erroneous statements, or not based on any facts at
all. For the philosopher who wishes to avoid this danger,
for the theologian who desires to compare Mosaism and
Christianity with the other religions of the world, for the
specialist who devotes all his labours and all his time to
one single department of this vast science, for him who
studies the history of civilisation—none of whom have
leisure to go to the sources themselves, even for him who
intends to do so, but to whom the way is as yet unknown,
a general survey of the whole subject is needed, to serve
as a kind of guide or travelling-book on their journey
through the immense fairyland of human faith and hope.
My book is an attempt to supply what they want. In a
short paragraph-style I have written down my conclusions,
derived partly from the sources themselves, partly (for no
man can be at home everywhere) from the study of what
seemed to me the best authorities: and I have added some
explanatory remarks and bibliographical notices on the
literature of the subject—very short where such notices
could easily be found elsewhere, more extensive and as
complete as possible where nothing of the kind, so far as I
knew, yet existed.

I am the more anxious to state this character of my
work as one of my critics (my friend and colleague Dr. H.
Oort, in his interesting notice of my work in the Dutch
Review de TydspierjeV) seems to have wholly forgotten it.
PREFACE.

ix

He sets up an ideal of a History of Religion, and then
tries my simple and modest outlines by that elevated
standard. Of course they are not able to fulfil sueh
great expectations, and they were not intended to
do so.

I lcnow that even this slight sketch is incomplete, and
it is so on purpose. I have limited myself to the ancient
religions, those which embrace a tribe, a people, or a race,
or have grown into separate sects, and I have left out the
history of the universal religions, Buddhism, Christianity,
and Islam. Only the origin of these religions is men-
tioned, as they form a part of the history of the religions
out of which they sprang, and which culminate in them.
A thorough study of this more modern religious history
would have occupied me for several years, and would have
deferred the publication of my little book for a long time.
So I have narrated the History of Religion “ till the spread
of the universal religions,” of Buddhism in Eastern, Islam
in Western Asia, and of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
As Buddhism only reigned supreme in Hindostan and
Dekhan now and then for a while, and was finally driven
out from both parts of the Indian peninsula, with the sole
exception of Ceylon, I could not break off the history of
Brahmanism at the foundation of the great rival church,
but had to relate what became of it in the centuries after
that event. I confess that this part of my sketch leaves
much to be desired, the sources being still very defective,
and the conclusions of Lassen, whom I have followed in
the main, being still very uncertain. Perhaps I may find
X

PREFACE.

occasion some time to give a better and more trustworthy
account of this period.

Not only the universal religions, but even some ancient
religions are passed over altogether. I have not said a
word on the old Keltic and the national Japanese reli-
gions. This, too, is an intentional omission. What is
commonly regarded as the history of those two religions
seems to me so very dubious and vague that I preferred
to leave them out entirely rather than to be led astray
myself, or to propagate mere conjectures, which might
prove errors after alL

But though mere outlines, my history is one of reli-
gion, not of religions. The difference between the two
methods is explained in the Introduction. It is the same
history, but considered from a different point of view.
The first lies hidden in the last, but its object is to show
how that one great psychological phenomenon which we
call religion has developed and manifested itself in such
various shapes among the different races and peoples of
the world. By it we see that all religions, even those of
highly civilised nations, have grown up from the same
simple germs, and by it, again, we learn the causes why
these germs have in some cases attained such a rich and
admirable development, and in others scarcely grew at all.
Still I did not think it safe to found my history on an a
priori philosophical basis. Dr. Oort is of opinion that I
ought to have started from a philosophical definition of re-
ligion. In this I do not agree with him. Such a definition,
quite different from that which I give in my first para-
PREFACE.

xi

graph, ought not to be the point of issue, but must be one
of the results of a history of religion. It forms one of the
principal elements of a philosophy of religion; in a history
it would be out of place.

Lastly, I may add a few words on this English edition.
It is thoroughly revised and corrected. Some of these
corrections I owe to my friend and colleague Dr. H. Kern,
who knows all, or nearly all, about ancient India, and who
has made such a profound study of German mythology
(see his kind notice of my work in the Dutch Review
de Gids). My own continued study of the religions of
Western Asia and Northern Africa has led to other correc-
tions and additions.

C.   P. TIELE.

LuiDEtr, September 1877.
CONTENTS,

PaoK

Introduction ......   i

1.   Object of the History of Religion   .   - i

2.   Fundamental Hypothesis of Development   .   2

3.   Order of the abstract Development of the Religious

Idea ......   3

4.   Genealogical connection and Historic Relations of

Religions......   4

5.   Divisions of this History ....   5

6.   Religion a universal Phenomenon ...   6

CHAPTER I.

Religion under the Control op Animism ...   7

I. Animism in its Influence on Religion in General .   .   7

7.   Religion of Savages the Remains of Earlier Religion   8

8.   Animism ......   9

9.   Characteristics of Religions controlled by Animism   10

10.   Place of Morality and Doctrine of Immortality .   11

II.   Peculiar Developments of Animistic Religion among

different Races .   ,   .   .   .12

11. Causes of Different Forms of Development .   15
XIV

CONTENTS.

non

12.   Influence of National Character   .   ,   .16

13.   And of Locality and Occupation   .   .   .   17

14.   Effects of the Mingling of Nations   .   .   .17

15.   Original Religions of America   .   ,   ,18

16.   The Peruvians and Mexicans .   .   ,20

17.   The Finns ...   ...   23

CHAPTER II.

Religion among the Chinese   .   .   .   -25

18.   Religion of the Old Chinese Empire .   .   27

19.   Doctrine of Continued Existence after Death .   28

20.   Absence of a Priestly Caste .   .   .29

21.   Reforms of Kong-fu-tse   .   .   .   .30

22.   His Religious Doctrine   .   .   .   .31

23.   Religious Literature   .   .   .   .   32

24.   Meng-tse ......   33

25.   The Tao-sse   ....   -35

26.   Lao-tse ......   36

27.   Later Writings of the Tao-sse .   .   .37

28.   The Chinese and Egyptian Religions   .   .   38

CHAPTER III.

Religion among the Hamites and Semites.   •   .   39

I. Religion among the Egyptians .   39

29.   Sources of our Knowledge ....   44

30.   Ancient Animistic Usages ....   45

31.   Polytheistic and Monotheistic Tendencies.   .   46

32.   Triumph of Light over Darkness .   .   .47

33.   Doctrine of Creation .   .   .   .49

34.   Religion under the First Six Dynasties   .   .   50
CONTENTS.

xv

PACK

35. Under the Middle Empire .   .   .   .52

36. Conception of Amun-Ed   .   .   .54

37.   Modifications under Influence of Greece .   .   55

38.   African, Aryan, and Mesopotamian Elements   .   57

II. Religion among the Semites   .   ...   60

a. The Two Streams of Development   .   .   .60

39.   Southern and Northern Semites   .   .   .61

40.   Primitive Arabian Religion   .   .   .63

41.   Contact of Northern Semites with the Akkadians 65

42.   Religion of the Akkadians .   .   .   .67

b.   Religion among the Babylonians and Assyrians   .   69

43.   Relation of Babylonians and Assyrians .   .   71

44.   Their Religion .....   73

45.   Akkadian Origin of Astrology and Magic .   .   75

46. Different Developments of Religion   .   .   76

47.   The Mesopotamian Semites reach a higher Stage .   78

48.   The Sabeans   .....   79

c.   Religion among the West Semites .   .   .79

49.   Its Mesopotamian Origin   .   .   .   .81

50.   Sources of Cosmogony and Myths   .   .   .83

51.   Special Character of Phenician Religion .   .   84

52.   The Religion of Israel .   .   .   .84

53.   Growth of Yahvism   .   .   .   .86

54.   Adoption of Native Elements   .   .   .87

55.   The Prophets .....   88

56.   National Character of their Monotheism .   .   88

57.   Influence of Persia, Greece, and Rome .   .   90

d.   Isl&m .   .   .   .   .91

58. Religion in Arabia before Mohammed   .   .   92

59.   His early Career .....   94
xvi

CONTENTS.

1>*0*

60. His Conquests and Death .   .   .   .95

61.   The Five Pillars of Islam—the Unity of God   .   97

62.   Gloomy Conceptions of the World   .   .   99

63.   The Divine Mission of Mohammed   .   .   100

64.   Theocratic Character of Islamism .   .   .   101

65.   Its Position among other Religions   -   .102

CHAPTER IV.

Religion among the Indo-Germans,excluding the Greeks

and Romans .   .   .   .   .   .105

I.   The Ancient Indo-German Religion and the Aryan Re-

ligion “proper ......   105

66.   Religion of the Ancient Indo-Germans   .   .   106

67.   Formation of Separate Nations .   -   .   108

68.   The Aryan Religion ....   109

II. Religion among the Hindus   .   .   .   .110

a.   The Vedie Religion .   .   .   .   .111

69. The Religion of the Rigveda   .   .   .112

70.   Indra and Agni .   .   .   .   .113

71.   Different Forms of the Sun-God   .   .   .114

72.   Rise of the Brahmans   .   .   .   .115

73.   Ethical Character of the   Yedic   Religion .   .116

b.   Pre-Budhhistic Brahmanism   .   .   .   .117

74.   Stages in the History of Brcthmanism .   .   117

75.   The Four Castes .   .   .   .   .119

76.   Increasing Influence of the Brahmans .   .   120

77.   Religious Literature   .   •   .   .   122

78.   Need of a Supreme God ....   124

79.   Sacrifices .   .   .   .   .   .126
CONTENTS.   xvii

PAGE

80.   Moral Ideal of the Brahmans -   .   .127

81.   Their Social Ideal .   .   .   .   .129

c.   The Conflict of Br&hmanism with Buddhism .   .   130

82.   Origin of Buddhism   ....   131

83.   Historical Foundation of the Legend of the Buddha 134

84.   Relation of Buddhism to Br&hmanism   .   .   135

85.   Spread of Buddhism   .   .   .   .137

86.   Its Decline .   .   .   .   .   .139

87.   The Jainas ......   140

d.   The Changes in Brdhmanism under the Influence of its

Conflict with Buddhism .   .   .   .142

88.   Necessity of Modifications in Brahmanism   .   143

89. Rise of Vishnu Worship ....   143

90. Doctrine of the Avataras ....   145

91.   Krishna Worship .   .   .   .   .147

92.   Vishnu as Rudra and Siva ....   I49

93.   Ganesa, Hari-harau, and the Trimdrti   .   .152

94.   The Puranas and the Two Great Epics   .   .   153

95.   Doctrine of the Authority of the Veda   .   .   154

96.   The Six Philosophical Systems   .   .   .   155

97.   The Vaishnava and Saiva Sects   .   .   .   157

98.   The S&kta Sects   .   .   .   .   .158

II. Religion among the Er&nian Nations—Mazdcism   .   160

99.   The Religion of Zarathustra .   .   .163

100.   The Zend-Avesta and the Bundehesh .   .165

101.   Doctrine of Ahura Mazdao   .   .   .166

102.   The Amesha Spenta ....   168

103.   Mithra and Anahit..   .   .   .   .170

104.   The Yazatas   .   .   .   .   -171

105.   The Fravashis   .   .   .   .   .172
CONTENTS.

xviii

V10E

106.   Dualism of Paxsism .   .   .   .173

107.   Its Influence on Worship and Life   .   .   175

108.   Its Eschatology .   .   .   .   .176

109.   Foreign Elements in later Zarathustrianism   .   177

IV.   Religion among the Wends or Letto-Slavs   .   .179

no. Position among the Indo- Germanic Religions   .   179

in. Doctrine of the Soul ....   181

112.   Doctrine of Spirits among the Old Russians   .   182

113.   Deities worshipped by Letts and Slavs   .   .184

114.   Relation between Man and the Higher Powers   .   186

V.   Religion among the Germans   .   .   .   .188

115.   Superiority over that of the Wends   .   .188

116.   Its Cycle of Gods .....   190

117.   Odhinn, Th6rr, and Loki ....   192

118.   Ethical Character of Germanic Religion   .   .   194

119.   The Drama of the World   .   .   .   195

12a Doctrine of the Soul, and Cultus .   .   ,   198

CHAPTER V.

Religion among the Indo-Germans under the Influence

of the Semites and Hamites   .   .   .   .201

I. Religion among the Greeks   .   .   .   .201

121.   The Religion of the Pelasgi .   .   .   202

122.   Causes of Development of Greek Religion   .   205

123.   National and Foreign Elements .   .   .   207

124.   Poetic Treatment of Nature-Myths   .   .   210

125.   Civilisation of Asia Minor and Crete   .   .   212

126.   The Homeric Theology   .   .   .   .213

127.   Approach to Monotheism .   .   .   .214

128.   Growing Connection of Morality and Religion .   215
CONTENTS.

xix

PAOE

129.   Influence of Delphi ....   216

130.   Position of the Delphic Priests   .   .   .   219

131.   Decline of their Power .   .   .   .221

132.   Cultus of Dionysos and Athena   .   .   .   222

133.   Effect of Poetry and Sculpture   .   .   .   224

134.   Sokrates and the Decline of Hellenic Religion .   225

II. Religion among the Romans ....   228

135.   Personification of Abstract Ideas .   .   .   228

136.   Continued Development of this Character .   231

137.   Transition from Polydsemonism to Polytheism .   233

138.   Fusion of Different Elements   .   .   .   235

139.   Importance of the Cultus ....   236

140.   Jupiter Optimus Maximus   .   .   .   240

141.   Introduction of Foreign Deities .   .   241

142.   Decline of the State Religion   .   .   •   243

143.   The Deification of the Emperors   .   .   .   246

144.   Rise of Christianity ....   248

[Prometheus]


INTRODUCTION.

Literature.—Of the older works on the general history
of religion, the following may still be named: Meiners,
Allgeme'me kritische Geschichte der Beligionen, 2 vols.,
Hanover, 1806-7 (neither general nor critical): Benj.
Constant, De la Religion consider^ dans sa source, ses
formes et ses developpements, 5 vols., Paris, 1824-31. The
doctrines of ancient religion are treated by F. Creuzek,
Symbolik und Mythologie der alien Volker, 4 vols., with
Atlas, Leipzig and Darmstadt, 1819-21, and F. C. Baue,
Symbolik und Mythologie, od. die Naturrel. des AUerthums,
2 vols., 3 parts, Stuttgart, 1824-25. (Both works are
now antiquated. Their speculations are for the most
part founded on very imperfect or incorrect data.) L.
Noack, Mythol. und Offenbarung. Die Religion in ihrem
JFesen, Hirer geschichtl. Entwiclcel., &c., 2 vols., Darm-
stadt, 1845, more systematic than historic. A. VON
Colln, Lehrb. der vorchristl. Religionsgeschichte, Lemgo
& Detmold, 1853, still useful in some parts. J. H.
Scholten, Geschiedenis der Godsd. en Wijslegeerte, Leiden,
1863. 0. Peleiderer, Die Religion, ihr Wesen und Hire
Geschichte, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1869. Comp, also F. Max
Muller, Chips from a German Workshop, vols. i. and il,
London, 1867.

1.   The history of religion is not content with describing
special religions (hierography), or with relating their vicis-
7   A
2

HISTORY OF RELIGION.

situdes and metamorphoses (the history of religions); its
aim is to show how religion, considered generally as the
relation between man and the superhuman powers in
which he believes, has developed in the course of ages
among different nations and races, and, through these, in
humanity at large.

The definition of religion as the relation between man
and the superhuman powers in which he believes is by
no means philosophical, and leaves unanswered the ques-
tion of the essence of religion. The powers are designedly
not described as supersensual, as visible deities would
thus be excluded. They are superhuman, not always in
reality, but in the estimation of their worshippers.

2.   The hypothesis of development, from which the his-
tory of religion sets out, does not determine whether all
religions were derived from one single prehistoric religion,
or whether different families of religions sprang from as
many separate forms, related in ideas, but independent
in origin—a process which is not improbable. But its
fundamental principle is that all changes and transforma-
tions in religions, whether they appear from a subjective
point of view to indicate decay or progress, are the results
of natural growth, and find in it their best explanation.
The history of religion unfolds the method in which this
development is determined by the character of nations
and races, as well as by the influence of the circumstances
surrounding them, and of special individuals, and it
exhibits the established laws by which this development
is controlled. Thus conceived, it is really history, and
not a morphologic arrangement of religions, based on an
arbitrary standard, •
INTRODUCTION.

3

Compare J. I. Doedes, De Toepassing van de Ont-
viTckelingstheorie niet aantebevelen voor de Geschiedenis der
Godsdiensten, Utrecht, 1874. On the opposite side, C. P.
Tiele, “De Ontwikkelingsgeschiedenis van den Gods-
dienst en de hypotheze waarvan zij uitgaat,” Gids, 1874,
No. 6. In reply, J. I. Doedes, “Over de Ontwikkelings-
liypotlieze in verband met de Geschiedenis der Godsdien-
sten; ” Stemmen voor Waarheid en Vrede, 1874. Further, 0.
Pfleiderer, “ Zur Frage nach Anfang und Entwickelung
der Religion,” Jahrbiicher fur Protest. Theologie, 1875,
Heft i. In reply, C. P. Tiele, “ Over den Aanvang en
de Ontwikkeling van den Godsdienst. Een verweer-
schrift,” Theol. Tijdschrift, 1875, P- I7°> s11- On the
laws which control the development of religion, see
C. P. Tiele, “ Over de Wetten der Ontwikkeling van
den Godsdienst,” Theol. Tijdschrift, 1874, p. 225, sqq.

3.   It is on various grounds probable that the earliest
religion, which has left but faint traces behind it, was
followed by a period in which Animism generally pre-
vailed. This stage, which is still represented by the so-
called Nature-religions, or rather by the polydiemonistic
magic tribal religions, early developed among civilised
nations into polytheistic national religions resting upon
a traditional doctrine. Not until a later period did poly-
theism give place here and there to nomistic religions,
or religious communities founded on a law or holy
scripture, and subduing polytheism more or less com-
pletely beneath pantheism or monotheism. These last,
again, contain the roots of the universal or world-
religions, which start from principles and maxims. Were
we to confine ourselves to a sketch of the abstract
development of the religious idea in humanity, we should
have to follow this order.
4

HISTORY OF RELIGION.

The polytheistic religions include most of the Indo-
Germanic and Semitic religions, the Egyptian, and some
others. The nomistic religions comprise Confucianism,
Taoism, the Mosaism of the eighth century B.c., and
the Judaism which sprang from it, Brahmanism, and
Mazdeism. The universal religions are Buddhism,
Christianity, and Mohammedanism. The pre-Islimic
religion of the Arabs was certainly not a nomistic
religion, but without Judaism, to say nothing of Chris-
tianity, Islitm would never have been founded.

4.   But in actually describing the general history of
religion, we are compelled to take into account, also, the
genealogical connection and historical relation of religions,
which gave rise to different streams of development, in-
dependent of each other, whose courses in many instances
afterwards met and joined. It is inexpedient, for the sake
of a systematic arrangement, to divide these historic groups.

By genealogical connection we mean the filiation of
religions, one of which has obviously proceeded from
the other, or both together from a third, whether
this be known to us historically or must be referred
to prehistoric times. Thus the Vedic and old Eranian
religions sprang from the Aryan, Confucianism and
Taoism from the ancient Chinese religion, Buddhism
from Brahmanism, &c.   In the course of history,

moreover, religions which are not allied by descent
come into contact with each other, and if their mutual
influence leads to the adoption by one of them of
customs, ideas, and deities belonging to the other, they
are said to be historically related. This is the case, for
example, with the north Semitic religions in reference to
the Akkadian, with the Greek in reference to the north
Semitic, and with the Roman in reference to the Greek.
INTRODUCTION.

5

5.   For these reasons we divide our history in the fol-
lowing manner:—

(i.) From the polydfemonistic magic tribal religions
of the present day we shall endeavour to become ac-
quainted with Aqimism, this being the form of religion
which must have preceded the religions known to us by
history, and served as their foundation. The example of
the more civilised American nations (Mexicans and Peru-
vians) and of the Finns will show us what an advanced
development may be attained under favourable circum-
stances by an animistic religion, even where it is left to
itself. This forms the transition to the proper history of
religion, which will be treated in the ensuing order:—
(2.) Eeligion among the Chinese :

(3.) Among the Egyptians, the Semites proper, and the
northern Semites or Mesopotamians, in connection with
whom the Akkadian religion, which dominates all the
north Semitic religions, will be discussed :

(4.) Among the Indo-Germans who came little, or not
at all, into contact with the Semites, the Aryans, Hindus,
Eranians, Letto-Slavs, and Germans :

(5.) Among the Indo-Germans in whose religion the
national elements were supplemented and blended with
others of north Semitic or Hamitic origin, viz., the
Greeks and Eomans.

The history of the internal development of the univer-
sal religions and their mutual comparison lie beyond our
plan; they require separate study, and are too vast to be
included here. The • third division, however, will trace
the development of Islam out of the Semitic religion;
the fourth, that of Buddhism from Brahmanism ; and the
6

HISTORY OF RELIGION.

fifth -will indicate how European Christianity arose out of
the fusion of Semitic and Indo-Germanie religions.

A description of the. so-called nature-religions, which
belongs to ethnology, is excluded from our design for
obvious reasons. They have no history; and in the
historic chain they only serve to enable us to form an
idea of the ancient prehistoric animistic religions of
which they are the remains, or, it may be said, the
ruins. It must suffice, therefore, to recount here a
few of their chief features. Of the Japanese no men-
tion is made, because the history of the present form
of their religion belongs to that of Buddhism, and the
investigation of the old national religion (designated by
a Chinese name, Shinto, the way or doctrine of spirits,^
and perhaps itself derived from China) has not yet led
to any sufficiently satisfactory results. The latter remark
also holds good of the religion of the Kelts, which we
have also left out of consideration for the same reason.

6.   The question whether religion is as old as the
human race, or whether it is the growth of a later stage,
is as little open to solution by historical research as
that of its origin and essence; it can only be answered
by psychology, and is a purely philosophical inquiry;
The statement that there are nations or tribes which
possess no religion, rests either on inaccurate observation,
or on a confusion of ideas. Ho tribe or nation has yet
been met with destitute of belief in any higher beings;
and travellers who asserted their existence have been
afterwards refuted by the facts. It is legitimate, there-
fore, to call religion in its most general sense a universal
phenomenon of humanity.
( 7 )

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER I.

RELIGION UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANIMISM.

I.

ANIMISM IN ITS INFLUENCE ON RELIGION IN GENERAL.

Literature.—Tylor, Primitive Culture, 2 vols., London,
1871, and Researches into the Early History of Mankind,
London, 1865; Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation,
London, 1874; Fritz Schultze, Der Fetischismvs, ein
Beitrag zur Anthropologic und Religionsgeschichte; Theod.
Waitz, Anthropologic der NatwrvSlker, vol. i., “ITeber die
Einheit des Menschengeschlechtes und den Naturzustand
des Menschen,” Leipzig, 2d ed., 1877; Oscar Peschel,
The Races of Man, translated from the German, London,
1876, a book of the highest importance, and written in
attractive style. Much useful material may be found in
Caspari, Die Urgeschichte der Menschheit mil RucksicM avf
die natiirliche Entwickdung des friihesten Geisteslebens, 2 vols.,
Leipzig, 1873, 2d ed. ibid., 1877, and in (Rabenhausen)
Isis. Der Mensch und die Well, 4 vols., Hamburg, 1863. The
notions of Georg Gerland, in his “ Betrachtungen fiber
die Entwickelungs- und Urgeschichte der Menschheit,”
in Anthropologische Beitrdge, i., Halle, 1875, are altogether
peculiar, often hypothetical, but not always to be re-
jected. Adolf Bastian, of whose numerous works we
only name under this head Der Mensch in der Geschichle,
3 vols., Leipzig, i860, and Beitrdge zur vergleichenden
8

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

Psychologic (“ Die Seele und ihre Ersclieinungsweisen in
der Ethnographie’’), Berlin, 1868, and whose ideas
deserve consideration, heaps up an ill-arranged mass
of examples, from all periods and nations, and nowhere
names a single authority, which almost prevents his
writings from being used. To this, however, his Besuch
an San Salvador makes a favourable exception. Compare
further M. Oarriere, Die Anftinge der Cultur und das
Oriental. Alterlhum, 2d ed., 1872 ; L. F. A. Maury, La
Magic et VAstrologie dans I’Antiquite et au Moyen Age, Paris,
i860, and C. P. Tiele, De Plaats van de Godsdiensten der
Natuurvolkeninde Godsdienstgeschiedenis, Amsterdam, 1873.

7.   The belief that the religions of savages, known to
us from the past or still existing, are the remains of the
religion which prevailed among mankind before the
earliest civilisation flourished, and are thus hest fitted to
give us an idea of it, rests on the following grounds:—

(1.) The most recent investigations indicate that the
general civilisation had then reached no higher stage
than that of the present savages, nay, it had not even
advanced so far; and in such a civilisation no purer
religious beliefs, ideas, and usages are possible, than
those which we find among existing communities.

(2.) The civilised religions whose history ascends to
the remotest ages, such as the Egyptian, the Akkadian,
the Chinese, still show more clearly than later religions
the influence of animistic conceptions.

(3.) Almost the whole of the mythology and theology
of civilised nations may be traced, without arrangement
or co-ordination, and in forms that are undeveloped and
original rather than degenerate, in the traditions and
ideas of savages.
ITS ANTIQUITY.

9

(4.) Lastly, the numerous traces of animistic spirit-
worship in higher religions are best explained as the
survival and revival of older elements. We must not,
however, forget that the present polydaemonistic religions
only imperfectly reproduce those of prehistoric times;
since even they have not stood still, but have to some
extent outgrown their earlier form, which has conse-
quently not been preserved unimpaired^

8.   Animism ,is not itself a religion, but a sort of .
primitive philosophy, which not only controls religion, l
but rules the whole life of the natural man. It is the
belief in the existence of souls or spirits, of which only
the powerful—those on which man feels himself depen-
dent, and before which he stands in awe—acquire the
rank of divine beings, and become objects of worship.
These spirits are conceived as moving freely through earth
and air, and, either of their own accord, or because con-
jured by some spell, and thus under compulsion, appearing
to men (Spiritism). But they may also take up their
abode, either temporarily or permanently, in some object, y
whether living or lifeless it matters not; and this object,
as endowed with higher power, is then worshipped, or em-
ployed to protect individuals and communities (Fetishism).

Spiritism, essentially the same as what is now called
Spiritualism, must be carefully distinguished from
Fetishism, but can only rarely be separated from it. It
is difficult to determine which of the two appears first:
in history they are equally old. Fetishism comes from
feilifo, agreeing not with fatum, chose fie (De Brosses), but
with fadilius, “ endowed with magic power,” from which
come the Old French faitis, and the Old English fetys,
IO

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

i.e., well-made, neat (Tylor). Both are only different
aspects of the same thing, and to express their unity
I have chosen the word Animism, which is elsewhere
generally employed to indicate what I call Spiritism.
The derivation of the two last terms is sufficiently plain.

9 The religions controlled by Animism are character-
ised, first of all, by a varied, confused, and indeterminate
doctrine, an unoiganised polydaemonism, which does not,
however, exclude the belief in a supreme spirit, though
in practice this commonly bears but little • fruit; and in
the next place, by magic, which but rarely rises to real
worship. Yet,—or rather precisely from this cause, the
power possessed by the magicians and fetish priests is
by no means small, and in some cases they are even
organised into hierarchies. Moreover, among races the
most widely separated, the Negroes, Polynesians, and
Americans, there exist certain secret associations, types
of the later mysteries and sacred orders, which exercise a
most formidable influence.

Magic may be said to prevail where it is the aim of a
cultus not to worship the spirits, although homage may
also be offered to appease them, but to acquire power
over them by spells, and thus cripple their dreaded
influence. As higher conceptions are formed of the
divine beings, these enchantments give way to efforts to
propitiate them, or to calm their wrath. Among the
Brahmanic Hindus, however, the old conception may
still be traced in the well-known doctrine that it is
possible for man by violent and continuous penances to
force the devas into obedience to his will, and to strip
them of their supremacy. The tapas (literally, “ fire,”
“ heat,” and thence the glow of self-renunciation and self-
ITS CONNEXION WITH MAGIC.

II

chastisement) has here taken the place of magic, with
which it was at first confounded, It is a striking
example of the way in which a very primitive conception
has survived in an otherwise highly-developed religion.

Secret associations both of men and women exist
in great numbers among the Negroes. Among the
North American Indians the three secret societies Jossa-
kied, Meda, and Wabeno, seem, like the Greek mys-
teries, to transmit a certain doctrine of immortality;
their members, at any rate, are regarded as born again.

See Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturuolker, iii. p. 215,
sqq. The Areoi of Tahiti are of a peculiar constitution
—a body of distinguished men who preserve and propa-
gate the old traditions; they are regarded already as
gods upon earth, and are supposed to be elevated above
all the laws of morality. See Gerland in "Waitz, op. cit.,
vi. pp. 363-369.

10.   In the animistic religions fear is more powerful |
than any other feeling, such as gratitude or trust. The
spirits and their worshippers are alike selfish. The evil
spirits receive, as a rule, more homage than the good, the
lower more than the higher, the local more than the
remote, the special more than the general. The allot-
ment of their rewards or punishments depends not on
men’s good or bad actions, hut on the sacrifices and gifts
which are offered to them or withheld. With morality *
this religion has little or no connection, and the doctrine
of immortality consists almost entirely in the representa-
tion that the earthly life is continued elsewhere (theory
of continuance), while of the doctrine that men will j
receive hereafter according to their works (theory of
recompense), only the first beginnings are to be traced.
12

[Prometheus]

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

II.

PECULIAR DEVELOPMENTS OF ANIMISTIC RELIGION AMONG
DIFFERENT RACES.

Literature. — General sources: Th. Waitz, Antlvro-
pologie der Nalurvolker, vol. i., 2d ed., Leipzig, 1877;
vols. ii.-v. part i., Leipzig, 1860-65; vols. v. (part ii.) -vi.,
continued by G. Gerland, 1870-72, an indispensable
work, evincing great industry and clear-sightedness.
The data, including those relating to religion, are always
to be trusted; not so constantly, the theories founded
on them by the writer. In this respect Waitz is far
surpassed by Gerland, especially in vol. vi. Fried.
Muller, Allgemeine Ethnographic, Vienna, 1873, very
brief, but generally to be trusted in everything con-
cerning religion. Peschel, Races of Man, London, 1876,
p. 245, sqq.

Separate races :—The Australians. Gerland-Waitz,
vi. pp. 706-829. George Grey, Journals of Two Expe-
ditions of Discovery in North-Western and Western Australia,
2 vols., London, 1841; of. Tylor, Primitive Culture,
i. p. 320, sqq.

Papuans and Melanesians. Gerland-Waitz, vi.
pp. 516-705 ; see the literature, ibid., p. xix., sqq. A.
Goudzwaard, De Papoeiva’s van de Geelvinksbaai, Schie-
dam, 1863. Van Boudijck Bastiaanse, Voyages Faits
dans les Moluques, a la Nouv. Guinee, &c., Paris, 1845.

Malays. Malays proper, Waitz, v. part i.; Micro-
nesians and North-West Polynesians, ibid., v. part ii.;
Polynesians, ibid., vi. pp. 1-514. Literature, ibid., v.
pp. xxvi-xxxiv; and vi. pp. xix-xxii. Oberlander,
Die Inseln der Siidsee, Leipzig, 1871, gives a good sum-
ITS DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTS.

13

mary. C. Schirren, Die Wandersagen der Neuseelander
und dcr Mauimythos, Eiga, 1856; and Sir George Grey
(see above under Australians), Polynesian Mythology and
Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race,
London, 1855 ; both works much to be recommended.
See also W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South
Pacific, with preface by Max Muller, London, 1876.

Negro Eaces and allied peoples. Waitz, vol. ii. ;
literature, ibid., pp. xvii-xxiv. A. KaufmanN, Schil-
derungen avs Central Afrika, Brixen, 1862. An excellent
summary will be found in Ed. Sciiauenburg, Reisen
in Central Afrika von Mungo Park bis auf Dr. Earth und
Dr. Vogel, 2 vols., 1859-65 ; while Vogel’s travels are
described by H. Wagner, Schilderung der Reisen und
Entdeclcungen des Dr. Ed. Vogel, Leipzig, i860. W. Bos-
nian, Nauickeurige Reschrijving van de Guinese Goud- land-
en slavekust, 2d ed., 1709; very instructive and charac-
teristic. J. Leighton Wilson, History and Condition of
JVestern Africa, Philadelphia, 1859, excellent. Much
useful material in Brodie Cruickshank, Eighteen Years
on the Gold Coast, London, 1853. Important for the
knowledge of the priestly hierarchy, T. E. Bowditcii,
Mission to Ashantee, London, 1819. J. B. Douville,
Voyage au Congo et dans Vlnterieur de VAfrique Eguinoxiale,
3 vols., Paris, 1832, not to be trusted in the least. The
travels of Barth, Speke and Grant, and Sir Samuel Baker,
contain very few notices of religion. Comp, also Cameron,
Across Africa, 2 vols., London, 1877.

On the Kaffirs, Hottentots, and Bosjesmans, the first
authority is the admirable work of G. Fritsch, Die
Eingeboretien Sud-Afrika’s, ethnograph. und anatom, beschrie-
ben, Breslau, 1872. E. Casalis, Les Rassoutos, Paris,
i860, attractive.

American Eaces. Waitz, vols. iii. and iv.; literature,
14

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

ibid., iii. pp. xix-xxxii; and iv. pp. vii, viii. The much-
used work of J. G. Muller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen
Urrdigimen, Basel, 1855, contains abundance of material,
and ideas and explanations which are sometimes very 4
just; but the writer’s abortive attempt to distinguish
everywhere a northern belief in ghosts or spirits from a
southern sun-worship, leads him occasionally to place the
facts in a false light. D. G. Brinton, The Myths of the
New World, New York, 1868, original, but one-sided.
The works of BrAsseur de Bourbourg, Catlin, and
Schoolcraft (see the literature in Waitz, to which may
be added Catlin, A Religious Ceremony of the Mandans)
still deserve to be consulted. H. H. Bancroft, The
Native Races of the Western Slates of America, 5 vols.,
London, 1873-75. For Ethnology, see further, H. E.
Ludewig, The literature of American Aboriginal Lan-
guages, with additions by Turner, edited by N. Trub-
ner, London, 1857.

On the religion of the Finns, see M. Alex. Castren,
Vorlemngen iiber die Finnische Mythologie, aus dem Schwed.
mit Anmerkk. von A. Schiefner, St. Petersburg, 1853.
Id., Kleinere Schriften, herausgegeben von Schiefner, St.
Petersburg, 1862 (containing an essay “ Ueber die
Zauberkunst der Finnen,” and also “ Allgemeine Ueber-
sicht der Gbtterlehre und der Magie der Finnen wahrend
des Heidenthums Compare further, A. Schiefner,
Ileldensagen der Minussinschen Tataren, rythm. bearbeitet,
St. Petersburg, 1859. The most complete edition of the
Kalevala is by El. Lonrott in 1849 (under the sanc-
tion of the University of Helsingfors. The second
edition contains 50 Bunes, as against 32 in the first
edition of 1835); translated by A. Schiefner, Kalewala,
das National-Epos der Finnen, nach der 2ten Ausg. ins
Deutsche iibertr., Helsingfors, 1852.
ITS DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENT,$.   15

11.   The question of the relation in which the religions
of savages stand to the great historic families of religions,
has only just been opened; and not till it has been
solved with some degree of certainty, will it be possible
for the separate nature-religions to take their proper
places in the history of religion. At present they only
serve to give some idea of the religions which preceded
those of civilised nations, and their description does not
belong to this place. But while animistic religion is,
in its nature, and even in its ideas and usages, with
slight modification everywhere the same, it is necessary
to point out the special causes which have led to its
development among different races in such different forms
and degrees. Of these the principal are (1) the different
characters of these races, (2) the nature of their home and
occupations, and (3) the historic relations in which some
of them stood to their neighbours.

The question of the relation of the religions of savages
to those of the great historic families of religions, amounts
briefly to this:—Are the former entirely independent, or
is there reason for regarding them as the backward and
imperfectly-developed members of larger groups, to which
the recognised families of religion (such as the Semitic or
Indo-Germanic) belong ? There is real agreement between
the civilisation and religion of the Negroes, and those of
the Egyptians. Similar correspondences exist between the
Red Indians and Turanians. The Polynesians and Indo-
Germans, also, exhibit so many points of contact, that
Bopp even endeavoured, however fruitlessly, to prove the
original unity of their languages. Gerland {Anthropclog.
Beitrage, i. p. 396) has lately combined all the African
nations, Negroes, Bantu tribes (Kaffirs), Hottentots,
j6

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

Berbers, Gallas, &c., together with Egyptians ar.d
Semites into one great race, which he names the Arabic-
African. "Were this conjecture to he established, we
should have to incorporate all the African religions with ,
those of the Egyptians and Semites. Without going so
far as this, E. Von Hartmann, Die Nigritier, vol. i., 1877,
endeavours to prove the unity of all the African races,
but he marks off the Semites from them very decidedly.
His demonstration rests at present chiefly on physical
grounds, but in the second volume, which has not yet
appeared, he promises to establish the unity of these
races in language and religion as well. But the inquiry
is still in its first stage, and it must be carried to much
more assured results before we may venture to make use
of it in the history of religion.

12.   The joyous careless disposition of the sensual
Negro is reflected in Iris religion as clearly as the sombre
melancholy character of the American Indian in his.
If the latter is endowed with much more poetic feeling
than the former, whose mythology is of the poorest order,
and in this resembles that of the Semites, he is surpassed
by the poetic genius of the Polynesian, which displays
itself in his rich mythology. The great influence of
national character on religion is specially apparent among
peoples, which, though living in the same climate and
engaged in the same occupations—like the Papuans, the
Melanesians, and Polynesians—stand at such different
stages of development: while the religion of the Americans,
on the other hand, though they are spread over a whole
quarter of the globe, and diverge so widely in civilisation,
exhibits everywhere the same character, and is every-
where accompanied by the same usages.
ITS DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTS.

17

13.   The influence of the locality and the occupation
of the different peoples must also be taken into account.
Lowest in the scale stands the religion of the root-
digging Australians, who do, indeed, engage in hunting,
but show little skill in it, and that of the Bosjesmans,
who live largely by plunder. The religion of the Koikoin
or Hottentots, and of the Kaffirs, who are both for the
most part pastoral tribes, is mild, that of some of the
war-loving Negro tribes sanguinary and cruel; while
among those Negroes who are engaged chiefly in industry
and commerce, without neglecting cattle-breeding and
agriculture, a much more humane and civilised worship
prevails, in which however the spirit of trade shows itself
in a certain cunning towards the spirits. The myths of
the Polynesians at once betray that they have sprung up
among a people of husbandmen and fishermen, and their
religious customs correspond entirely to the beneficent
nature which surrounds them.

14.   Even at this point of development, the mingling,
or even simply the mutual intercourse of nations, brings
about a transfer of religious ideas and institutions from
the one to the other. The mixed race of the Melanesians
may still be distinguished in many respects from the
Polynesians, but they adopted the religion of the latter,
though in a very degraded form. The Abantu or Kaffirs,
who are very near to the Negroes, but are only distantly
related to the Koikoin or Hottentots, borrowed from the
latter various religious conceptions.

That the Melanesians derived their religion from the
Polynesians is denied by Gerland in Waitz, vi. p. 675.
The statement is not strictly accurate, but the Melanesians

r   b
i8

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

are a mixed race of Polynesians and Papuans, among
whom the religion of the former maintained the ascendant
and was independently developed. Their supreme god
Ndengei is only a degenerate form of Tangaloa, the god
universally worshipped by the Polynesians, though the
Melanesians apply to him their own peculiar myths, which
are unknown to the Polynesians. From these they are
distinguished by their greater rudeness, and want of
poetic capacity, while on the other hand they are less
luxurious and unchaste. Their customs correspond much
more with those of the Papuans.

The religion of the Kaffirs bears a greater resem-
blance in character and conceptions to that of the
Hottentots than to that of the Negroes. The myth of
Unkulunkulu, “the great-grandfather,” the Creator, does
not in fact differ from that related by the Hottentots of
their chief deity, the Moon-god Ueitsi-eibib. The word
Utixo, moreover, the Kaffir designation of the highest
god, has been adopted from the Hottentots.

15.   The original religions of America exhibit religious
Animism at every stage of development. In one and
the same race, whose religions possess everywhere the
same distinctive character, and have certain peculiar usages
in common, the richest variety of religious development
may he found. Among some tribes, such as the Shoshonee
and Comanches in North America, the Botokuds and Oto-
maks, the Pampas Indians, some of the Brazilian savages,
and the Terra-del-Fuegians of South America, hardly any-
thing more than the first germs of a cultus is to be traced.
A higher stage has been reached by the tribes of the
north-west of North America, by the Caribbees of
Central America, and, among the closely-allied Hyper-
boreans, by the Esquimaux. But they are far surpassed
AMONG THE AMERICANS.

19

by the savages of North America, on the east of the
Missouri, and the south of Canada. In mythology,
religion, and usages, these have attained about the same
point of development as the Polynesians; their worship
is directed for the most part towards spirits of a lower
rank, especially towards those which they fear, yet they
all acknowledge a great Spirit, Creator of everything
which exists. The Natchez, a small tribe at the con-
fluence of the Mississippi and Eed Eiver, had even
founded a theocracy, based on sun-worship, and appear
to have exerted great influence by their religion on the
neighbouring tribes.

The character of the American with his sombre ear-
nestness, his sagacity and silence, his passionateness
combined with a self-mastery which expresses itself out-
wardly in gravity and at least apparent indifference, and
enables him to endure the most terrible torments with a
smile, is reflected in his religion. This is characterised by
severe self-tortures and bloody ceremonies, which do not
give way even before a higher civilisation. The myth
of the hero avho is worshipped as the founder of this
civilisation (originally a sun-god) appears alike among
savage tribes and among peoples already settled, and the
national heroes everywhere resemble one another. The
following usages may be regarded as universal: the use
of the steam-bath for producing ecstasy, the sacred game
at ball, and enchantment with a rattle. The most
widely-separated peoples retain the practice of drawing
blood out of certain parts of the body, which are regarded
as the seat of the soul, a custom which probably served
as a substitute for human sacrifices, and among the
Cherokees, Aztecs, Mayas, and Peruvians, baptism ac-
companies the naming of children. This large agreement
20

[Prometheus]

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

renders the differences in development more remarkable,
especially when it is remembered that the nearest connec-
tions of the highly-civilised Aztecs in Mexico are the
Shoshonee and Comanches, tribes which stand “nearer
to the brutes than probably any other portion of the
human race” (Report of the Comm, of Indian Affairs, 1854,
p. 209).

The great Spirit, who is primus inter pares, is unques-
tionably of native origin.

The religion of the Natchez is raised by its organisa-
tion alone above that of their neighbours, but it is no-
thing more than an organised Animism. The absolute
sovereign was the brother of the sun and high priest,
and to all fire, even to that which served for house-
hold purposes, but especially to that which was always
kept burning in the temple, a special sanctity was at-
tached. In this case also religious progress seems to
be connected with the introduction of agriculture.

16.   The mingling of various races by migration and
conquest, the transition from the wandering life of
hunters and fishermen to the settled tasks of agriculture,
and the establishment of regular states, resulted among
the Muyscas or Chibchas (of New Granada) and the
Mayas (of Central America, particularly Yucatan), but
above all among the Peruvians and Mexicans, in a great
advance, which did not leave religion behind; an ad-
vance which cannot be ascribed, as some writers have
endeavoured to prove, to the influence of foreign colonists.
The beings whom these nations worship, are as yet
no gods in the strict sense, i.e., supernatural beings,
they are hardly more than spirits: they are, however,
the representatives of the higher powers and phenomena
AMONG THE AMERICANS.

21

of nature. Their usages, also, their cultus and their
doctrine of immortality, are, in reality, animistic. Yet
in their conception of the higher powers, and in the
relation in which they imagined themselves to stand
to them, it is impossible not to recognise the begin-
nings of a purer and more rational view. There were
even princes, both in Peru and Mexico, who ventured to
introdirce important reforms, a sign of great activity of
thought. However imperfect their success may have
been at first, they would probably have become after a
time the bases of a new order of things, if the course of
the independent development of these nations had not
been checked by the Spanish conquest. The religions of
Mexico and Peru certainly reached, if they did not pass
beyond, the extreme limits of Animism.

That the Mexican and Peruvian civilisation owed its
origin to foreign colonists, has been asserted by many
writers. The foolish suppositions that the Ten Tribes
of Israel, or Welsh princes, or Phoenician merchants,
may have wandered off to America, deserve no refuta-
tion. More likelihood attaches to the conjecture that
East Asiatics may have landed in Mexico. This was
suggested by Humboldt, Anskhten dcr Natur, i. p. 214.
From the Chinese work Ndn-ssu, i.e., “ History of the
South,” De Guignes, Paravey, and Neumann inferred that
the Chinese were acquainted with America about 458

A.D.; but this conclusion is disputed by Klaproth, Non-
velles Annales des Voyages, 1831. All the material for tho
discussion of the question is given by Ch. G. Leland,
Fusang; or, The Discovery of America ly Chinese Buddhist
Priests in the Fifth Century, London, 1875. The state-
ments about this land Fusang, however, are for tho
22

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

most part not applicable to America, while they are
altogether appropriate to Japan. The proofs adduced
by G. d’Eichthal, Btude sur les Origines Bouddiques de
la Civilisation Amiricaine, ie partie, 1865, are also ex-
tremely feeble.

The names by which these nations designate the gods
in general, teotl among the Mexicans, guacas among the
Peruvians, signify nothing more than spirits. These feed
on human flesh, and are drunken with blood, the human
sacrifices in Mexico being counted by thousands. The
mild deity of the Toltecs, Quetzalcoatl, to whom no
human sacrifices were offered, forms an exception. Some
expressions have been supposed to indicate the beginnings
of monotheism, but they are extremely uncertain. But
it is remarkable that the sun-spirit was called simply
teotl, “the spirit” par excellence. It is also said that
all the spirits die when he appears. The splendid ad-
dresses made, according to some writers, on solemn occa-
sions by official speakers, and which teach a fairly pure
morality, inspire no great confidence, especially when
it is reflected that the Mexican hieroglyphics are of a
very indefinite kind, and give scope for arbitrary ex-
planations. Attempts at reform, however, were not
wanting. Various noble princes, the Toltecs in Mexico,
Netzalcuatl in Tezcuco, and the Incas in Peru, attempted
to set limits at all events to the grossest licentiousness,
and to human sacrifices. In 1440 A.D. the Inca Tupac
Yupanqui, at the consecration of a temple of the sun
at Cuzco, proclaimed a new deity, Illatici-Viracocha-
Pacliacamac, to whom the sun-god was subordinated, and
he founded a temple to him at Callao containing no images,
in which no human sacrifices might be offered. A similar
advance was made by Netzalcuatl, prince of Tezcuco; he
built a temple nine stories in height, which contained no
AMONG THE FINNS.

23

image and might be polluted by no blood, in honour of
the deity who, as cause of causes, was enthroned above
the nine heavens. But neither this deity, nor that of
the Inca, whose triple name is a combination of the
terms for the three vital principles thunder-cloud (i.c., the
hidden receptacle of the thunder), sea-foam (i.e., the fire
hidden in the waters), and the earth-soul, ever became
national gods, and the temple of the latter soon had its
images and horrible paintings.

17.   Over a large extent of Asia and Europe the
Aryans, and perhaps also the Semites, were preceded
by Turanian peoples, and the oldest civilisation which
we can trace was derived if not from them, at any rate
from a race very closely connected with them, of which
the Akkadians in Mesopotamia are the chief representa-
tives. Most of their religions have been supplanted by
Buddhism, Islam, or Christianity; but the remarkable
religion of the Finns, compared with that of the kindred
Siberian tribes and of the Tatars, proves how high a
development they were capable of attaining. Their
mythology and cultus were, it is true, completely under
the influence of the belief in magic, and they are thus
purely animistic. All the spirits which they worship,
even the highest, are nature-beings of more or less
might, but chiefly eminent for their magical power, and
rarely endowed with moral qualities—a sort of inde-
pendent patriarchs, differing in power, not in rank. High
above all the other spirits, however, stands Ukko (the
old man, father, grandfather, the venerable), the Creator
('luoya) and deity (gum&la) par excellence, the ancient one
in heaven, mightier than the mightiest enchanter, whose
24

ANIMISTIC RELIGION.

aid is invoked by all heroes and spirits. Only one step
remained for the Finns to take in order to rise from
pol ydsemonism to polytheism. Their epic poems, col-
lected under the name of Kalevala, the subject of which
is not a moral or national conflict, but simply the contest
of the powers of nature personified, affords proof of their
great poetic gifts.

The ethical element is almost entirely deficient. Even
in the representation of Ukko I have not succeeded in
discovering it. Evil spirits and good cry to him for
help, and he grants it, alike when the powers of darkness
are being resisted, and when the nine spirits which plague
mankind are born. He is the highest and mightiest of
the spirits, but not even the lesser are dependent on
him.

Tumdla, which signifies, according to Castr&i, “the
place of thunder/’ i.e., the sky (?), was originally, in his
opinion, the name of a distinct god of the sky. It is,
however, an appellative of the divine beings in general,
used parallel with lumja, but often employed to designate
the highest god, and subsequently applied to the god of
the Christians.

The worship of spirits (the chief of whom are called
Haltia) and the doctrine of immortality are not developed
any further among the Finns than among the Nature-
peoples.

The three great heroes of the Kalevala, "Wainamoinen,
Ilmarinen, and Lemminkainen, are certainly ancient
spirits of heaven, fire, and earth, and correspond to
Odhinn, Loki, and Hunir, the German triad of gods,
although the working out of their character and the
description of their deeds have a character entirely
their own.
( 25 )

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER II.

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE

Literature.—General; J. E. R. Kauffer, Geschkhte
von Ost - Asien, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1858-60; id., Das
Chineskche Volk, Dresden, 1850. Gutzlaff, Geschkhte
des Chines. Rekhs, herausgegeben von K. F. Neumann,
Stuttgart, 1847. A number of essays by J. H. Plath,
in the Sitzungsberichte der Baierischen Akademie, of which
the following deserve to be named here: “ Chronol.
Grundlage der alten Chines. Geschichte,” 1867, ii. 1;
“ Ueber die Quellen der alten Chines. Geschichte,” 1870,
i. i ; “ China vor 4000 Jahren,” 1869, i. 2, 3, ii. 1 ;
“Ueber Schule und Unterricht bei den alten Chinesen,”
1868, ii. 1. G. Pauthier, Chine, ou Description historique,
geograpliique, et littiraire, &c.; id., Chine modeme, ou
Description, &c., Paris, 1853. In The Origin of the
Chinese, London, 1868, J. Chalmers loses himself in
very hazardous conjectures.

Religion of the Old Empire. J. H. Plath, Die Reli-
gion und der Cultus der alten Chinesen, Miinchen, 1862, in
two parts, (r) Die Religion; (2) Der Cultus. Ed. Biot,
Le Tcheou-li, ou Rites des Tcheou, 2 vols., Paris, 1851.

Confucianism. J. H. Plath, Confucius und seiner
Schuler Leben und Lehren, (i.) Histor. Einleitung, Miinchen,
1867 ; (ii.) Leben des Confucius, i., ibid., 1870; (iii.) Die
Schuler des Confucius, ibid., 1873 ; (iv.) Sdmmlliche Aus-
spruche des Confucius und seinen Schiilem, systematisch
geordnet, i., ibid., 1874. Absolutely indispensable, J.
26

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

Legge, The Chinese Classics, with a Translation, Critical
and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and copious Indexes,
Hongkong and London, 1861, and following years; in
7 vols., of which there have appeared—vol. i., Life of
Confucius, and the first three classical books; vol. ii.,
the works of Mencius; vol. iii., i. and ii., the Shu-
king; vol. iv., i. and ii., the Shi-king, and other
poetical pieces. Vols. i. and ii. have been published
without the text in a small edition, The Life and
Teachings of Confucius, third ed., London, 1872, and
the Life and Works of Mencius, ibid., 1875. The Liin-gil
has been translated into German by W. Schott, vol i.,
Halle, 1829; vol. ii., Berlin, 1832. Pauthier, Les
Livres Sacres de VOrient, Paris, 1840, contains a trans-
lation of the Shu-king and of the classical books. Other
translations are enumerated in the Notices Bibliogra-
phiques, Pauthier, op. cit., p. xxviii, and in the history
of Kauffer named above, i. p. 83, sqq., and ii. p. 17.
As samples of the profane literature of the Confucianists
we may specify, D’Hervey de St. Denys, Lc Li-sao,
poeme du 3“' siecle avant noire ere, Paris, 1870. Stanisl.
Julien, Contes et Apologues Indiem suivis de Fables et de
Poesies Chinoises, 2 vols., Paris, i860.

Taoism. Lao tseu Tao te King, Le Litre de la Vote et de la
Vertu, trad. &c.,par Stanisl. Julien, Paris, 1842. Lad-
tse’s Tad te King, iibersetzt u. s. w. von V. VON Strauss,
Leipzig, 1870, follows Julien closely. Only an arbitrary
paraphrase will be found in Lao-tse Tao-U-king, iibers. und
erklari von E. von Planckner, Leipzig, 1870. Le Ltvre
des Recompenses et des Peines, trad, par A. ELmusat, Paris,
1816. A. Pfizmaier, Die Losung der Leichname und
Schwerler, dn Beitr. zur Kenntniss des Taoglaubens, Vienna,
1870; id., Die Taolehre von den wahren Menschen und den
Unsterblichen, ibid., 1870. W. Eotermund, Die Ethik
IN THE OLD EMPIRE.

27

Lao-tse’s mit lesonderer Bezugnahme auf der Buddhistischm
Moral, Gotha, 1874.

18.   The religion of the old Chinese Empire, as it
existed certainly from the twelfth century B.C., and pro-
bably at a much earlier period, is best described as a
purified and organised worship of spirits, with a pre-
dominant fetishist tendency, combined into a system
before it was possible for a regular mythology to de-
velop out of it. The sole objects of worship are the
spirits (shin), which are divided into heavenly, earthly, and
human, and, as a rule, are still closely connected with the
objects of nature. Heaven (Thian), who, when conceived
as a personal being, is called the supreme emperor (Shang-
ti), stands at the head, and in co-operation with the earth
has produced everything. His will is fate, and he
rewards and punishes. He is one; hut he has five
emperors beside him, and an innumerable multitude of
spirits beneath him, among which those of the sun,
moon, stars, and constellations are pre-eminent. The
spirit of the earth (lleu-thu), though not sharply per-
sonified, is for the most part conceived as of female
nature. The spirits of the mountains, streams, &c.,
belong to her realm. Besides these, the spirits are with-
out number. They are perceived, hut are neither heard
nor seen, though they reside in visible objects, and for
the most part assume the forms of animals. It may be
regarded as a great advance that there is no mention of
essentially evil spirits, that all spirits are exalted
servants of Shang-ti, and in their intercourse with men
esteem moral qualities above everything else.
28

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

The twelfth century B.C. is the era of the establish-
ment of the Tshow dynasty, whose cultus we know from
the book Tshow-li. Plath objects to the conception of
the joint working of heaven and earth as a marriage,
and describes the earth as a male feudal prince. But
the great power which they exert is called “ generation ”
(seng), and in the Yi-king they are frequently repre-
sented as husband and wife, as father and mother.
The same idea occurs also in the Shirking. See the
passages cited by Plath himself, lid. der alten Chinesen,
pp. 36-38 and 73. To treat this as a type of parental
care is inappropriate. The two original principles Yang
and Yin, which Plath regards as the fruit of later
philosophical reflection, make their appearance as early
as 1100 B.c. in the Tshow-li, op. cit., vii. 3, and ix. 10, 11;
and in the same work it is not the chief vassal of the
empire, but the principal wife of the emperor who is
named after the earth. The old and generally diffused
myth of the marriage between heaven and earth certainly
lies at the foundation of Chinese mythology also, though
the philosophers afterwards disguised it past recognition.

•   19. The doctrine of continued existence after death

I among the Chinese entirely accords with that of the

j Nature-peoples. Man has two souls, one of which

ascends after death to heaven, while the other descends

into the earth, after vain attempts have been made to

recall them both. Of the doctrine of retribution no

*

certain traces axe to be found, but we do find the idea that
it is possible by sacrificing life to save a sick person.
The souls of ancestors were worshipped with great pomp
and earnestness, and were, it was supposed, present at tbb
sacrifices.
IN THE OLD EMPIRE.

29

Though no distinct traces of the doctrine of retribu-
tion after death can be discovered among the ancient
Chinese, it must be remembered in this connection
that all the books which are the sources of our
knowledge of their religion before Kong-tse, have passed
through the hands either of himself or his followers,
and he always refused to express an opinion on souls and'
their destiny. The doctrine of retribution was held by
the sect of the Tao-sse, and reached among them a very
elaborate form, so that it maybe regarded as probable that
it was not unknown to the religion of the old empire.

20.   The Chinese are remarkable for the complete
absence of a priestly caste. Their worship, which was
regulated down to its minute details, was entirely a civil
function. It was placed under the control of one of the
six ministers who directed all the officials connected with
religion, including the musicians and dancers. To Tliian,
the spirit of heaven, only the emperor might sacrifice; to
the spirits of the earth and the fruits of the land, only
the emperor and the feudal princes; to the five house
spirits, only the high officials, and so on in strict order.
Of the sacrifices, which originally included also human
victims, that part was presented which was regarded as
the seat of the soul or of life. The greater number of the
temples were consecrated to the dead, while the emperor
himself performed his sacrifices under the open sky.
Prayer, even when addressed to Tliian, was permitted
to all, but at the court, regular officials were appointed
for the purpose. Even the magicians, soothsayers, and
spirit-charmers, though numbered among the state func-
tionaries, formed no priestly order. Great value, how-
30   RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

ever, was attached to the oracles procured by their in-
strumentality, especially to those obtained by means of
the plant Shi, and by the burning of furrows on a tortoise-
shell (pu).

The most important source of our knowledge of the
early worship of the Chinese is the book Tshow-li, written
in the twelfth century B.c. by Tshow-Jcung, brother of the
founder of the Tshow dynasty. From his family, six
centuries later, came Kong-tse.

21.   A reform of this religion was carried out in the
(sixth century b.c. by Kong-fu-tse (Master Kong, Con-
.fucius), though he himself did not wish to be regarded as
doing anything more than transmit and preserve the
doctrine of the Ancients. Born in 550 (or 5 51) B.c. in
the principality of Lu, of a distinguished family, he began
at the age of two-and-twenty years to give instruction as
a teacher or sage. Labouring sometimes as an official,
and once appointed to a high civil post, but for the most
part living without office, and often compelled by the
disturbances in his native country to go into exile, he saw
himself always surrounded by a large number of disciples,
consulted by the most eminent personages, and highly
honoured even during his life. He died in the year 478.

Kong-tse' had a high sense of his calling, and attached
great value to purity of morals, though he detested the
life of the hermit. Accused without cause of insincerity,
he hated all false show, but he was inordinately puncti-
lious about all forms, and perhaps not wholly free from
superstition. If he thus appears somewhat narrow-
minded, whoever judges him by the age in which he lived
and the nation to which he belonged, notes the powerful
CONFUCIANISM.

31

impression which he made upon friends and foes, and
observes, above all, bis intercourse with his disciples, will
recognise in him a man of rare qualities, endowed with a
noble heart and a penetrating spirit.

22.   The religious doctrine of Kong-tse is ethical natu-
ralism, founded on the state religion of the Tshow. He
engaged in supernatural questions with as much reluctance
as in practical affairs, and expressed himself very cautiously
and doubtfully on religious points. Even of heaven lief
preferred not to speak as a personal being, but he quoted its
example as the preserver of order, and he would allude to
its commands, ordinances, and purposes. But the actions
of men also help to determine their destiny. The doctrine
that good and evil are rewarded on earth by prosperity
and adversity was firmly maintained by him. To prayer
he ascribed no great value. He did not believe in direct
revelations, and be regarded forebodings and presentiments
simply as warnings. Eatber than express an opinion on
the nature of spirits and souls, be insisted that they should
be worshipped faithfully and the old usages maintained;
but he laid the greatest stress on reverence, and urged that1
the spirits should not be served in barbarous fashion, and
that, in times of scarcity, for instance, honour should not
be paid to the dead at the expense of the living.



I speak of the state-religion of the Tshow, having in
view the book named Tshow-li already quoted, which
appears to have established a new order of things, and
with the prescriptions of which Kong-tse always perfectly
accords. That this book does not reproduce the old
popular religion, and that Kong-tse only retained a portion
of the earlier doctrines of his nation, will become apparent
32

[Prometheus]

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

by and by, on the consideration of Taoism. In ancient
times he was always worshipped next to Tshow, which
proves that the connection between their reforms con-
tinued to be felt.

23.   Kong-tse devoted much attention to religious
literature. He studied zealously the Yi-hing, an ob-
scure hook of magic. The Shu-king, an historical work,
was perhaps recast by himself, it is certainly written in
his spirit. The Shi-king is a collection of songs chosen
by him out of a large number, from which all mytho-
logical expressions have probably been eliminated. The
Li-hi, a ritual work, was enlarged by him. These books,
with the addition of a chronicle written entirely by him,
entitled Tshiin tsiew, and not of a religious nature, con-
stitute the five Kings, regarded by the followers of Kong-
fu-tse as the canonical hooks. In the Liin-Yu (“ Arranged
ConversationsLegge, “ Analects ”) the remarkable utter-
ances of the Master addressed to his followers were
collected by his disciples’ disciples. Others attempted
in the Ta-hio (“ the Great InstructionLegge, “ the
Great Learning ”) and the Tshung-yung (“ the Doctrine of
the Mean”) to supply a philosophical basis for his
doctrine. These works form three of the four Shu, or
classical books. The fourth, comprising the works of
the sage Meng-tse (§ 24), was added to the collection
at a much later period.

Yi-king signifies “Book of Changes.” Shu means
writings, and the Shu-king is regarded as the Book of books.
It is commonly assumed that this work was put into its
present form by Kong-tse, or at any rate modified by
him in accordance with his views, but this is questioned
MENCIUS.

33

by Legge. It is certain that it has been revised by some
one belonging to his school This is plain from a com-
parison of it with the so-called Bamboo-books found in
the grave of King Seang of Wei, who died in 295 B.C.;
these books contain a dry chronicle, with numerous
fabulous additions, giving a totally different representa-
tion of the history. The object of the Shu-king is not so
much to narrate a history, as to impart moral and poli-
tical instruction, based on historical facts. Sid are poems,
of which the Shi-Hng contains about three hundred, chosen
out of several thousand. The source of the Li-ki (“ rituum
commemoratio ”) is the Tshow-li. Tshiin-tsiew, signifying
“ Spring-Autumn,” is a chronicle of the principality
of Lu from the year 723 to 479 B.c. The Ta-hio is
ascribed to the sage Tsang-sin, or his disciples, or also,
like the Tshung-yung, to Kong-tse’s grandson Tsze-sse.

From the word Shu, “ writings,” is derived the term
Shu-kiao, the name of the doctrine or sect of Kong-tse.

24.   Immediately after Kong-tse’s death, a temple was
erected to him by the Prince of Lu, and his worship,
though not yet recognised on the part of the Govern-
ment, at first increased. Towards the commencement of
the fourth century B.C., during the serious disturbances
which led to the fall of the Tshow dynasty, new doctrines
of all kinds arose. These threatened to undermine the
authority of the Master. This tendency was resisted
with great emphasis by the learned Meng-tse (Mencius,
371-288 B.c.) In his teaching, which was principally
political and moral, or, more accurately, perhaps, anthro-
pological, the religious element retires still further into
the background than in that of Kong-tse. Less modest

and disinterested, he was more independent in character,
7   c
34

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

and a more powerful reasoner. By liis instruction and
writings he acquired great influence, triumphing over all
the opponents of Kong-tse, who was in his eyes the most
eminent of men. It is probably owing to his labours
that even the great persecution under the Ts’in dynasty
(212 B.c.), and the favour displayed by some emperors of
the Han dynasty (after 201 B.c.) towards the followers
of Lao-tse (§ 26), did not succeed in eradicating Confu-
cianism. From the year 57 of our era the worship of
Kong-tse by the side of Tshow was practised by the
emperors themselves as well as in all the schools; and
since the seventh century Kong-tse has been worshipped
alone. For the great majority of the Chinese he is the
ideal of humanity, which even the adherents of other
systems may not despise.

The persecution, begun in 212 B.C., lasted only a short
time; but it seems to have been very severe. Orders
were issued for the burning of all the canonical books
with the exception of the Yi-king, and on one occasion,
even, four hundred and sixty literati were buried alive
in pits. The persecutor was the founder of the Ts’in
dynasty himself, called Hoang-ti, like the great Emperor
so much revered by the Taoists. It was he who replaced the
feudal system by a more centralising government; he was
the first proper Emperor of China, and he was checked in
his reforms by the opposition of the Confucian sages,
who stood up for the old institutions. The occasion of
the persecution was political rather than religious,
although between these two spheres no sharp distinc-
tion can be made in China. The stern emperor, how-
ever, died within three years, and his dynasty also was
soon replaced by that of the Han. Confucianism was ex-
THE TAO-SSE.

35

posed to more danger through the many new doctrines,
alike those of the pessimist Yang-tshu, and those of Mill-
teih, the preacher of universal love, and others, which
found acceptance with many. They were obstinately
resisted by Meng-tse.

25.   The humane but prosaic Confucianism might satisfy
the majority of cultivated Chinese, but it did not meet
all wants. This not only becomes apparent at a later date
through the introduction of Buddhism, but it is also clearly
proved by the permanence of the ancient sect of the
Tao-sse, which constantly endeavoured to vie with the
ruling religion. This religious community represents
rather the spiritist side of Animism. As a religious
tendency it existed from the earliest times, and even tried
to derive its origin from the ancient Emperor Hoang-ti,
whose name is erased from the canonical books of the
Confucians. It owed its rise as an association, however,
to the necessity of offering vigorous resistance to the
teaching of Kong-tse, and to the influence of the teach-
ing of his great rival Lao-tse, whom it reveres as its
saint. It enjoyed the temporary favour of some
emperors, and it is even now very widely diffused. But
it did not succeed in gaining the ascendency in the
empire, or in making its way among the ranks of learn-
ing and distinction. The cultivated Chinese now regard
it with unmixed contempt.

Although the history of Hoang-ti, the Yellow Emperor,
is obscured by all kinds of myths, so that we might
be disposed to consider him as a mythical being,
the majority of Sinologues regard him as an historical
personage. In fact, similar myths are related of per-
36

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

sons indisputably historic, such as Lao-tse himself. The
Bamboo-books supply many details about him; in the
Shu-king his name is designedly omitted. He was
connected with Lao in the same way as Tshow with
Kong. Taoism is even called “ the doctrine ” or “ the
service of Hoang-Lao.”

/ 26. Lao-tse, bom in the principality of Thsu, 604

B.C., was highly renowned even in his lifetime as a pro-
found philosopher. Kong-tse visited him in order to
consult him as an older and celebrated sage, and esteemed
him highly, but the tendency of Lao was entirely different
from his own, leading to mystic reflection and the con-
templative life. Not much is known of his history,
but the story of his journey to India must be rejected as
unworthy of belief. He wrote the famous Tao-te-King,
which became the most sacred book of the sect, although
its adherents, at any rate at the present day, certainly do
not understand it. Tao, a term in use with Kong-tse’s
followers also, and employed by the Chinese Buddhists in
the sense of wisdom or higher enlightenment (bodhi),
possesses among the Tao-sse, who derive their name from
it, a mystic significance, and is even worshipped by them
as a divine being. Lao-tse distinguishes in his book
between the nameless, supreme Tao, which is the ultimate
source, and the Tao which -can be named, and is the mother
of everything. To this, and to the power or virtue pro-
ceeding from it (te=virtus), the highest worship, according
to him, is due, and in this does the sage find his ideal.
To withdraw entirely into himself and free himself from
the constraints of sense, in order, thus, without action or
speech, to exercise a blessed power, must be his aim.
THE TAO-SSE.

37

This is the best philosophy of life and the best policy. The
often obscure system developed in the Tao-te-King is purely
Chinese, and is incorrectly derived from the influence of
Indian philosophy, with which it agrees rather in form
than in spirit. From the Buddhist doctrine it is essentially
different. It is marked by a morbid asceticism, and takes
up an attitude of hostility towards civilisation and pro- ^
gress, but it is distinguished by a pure and sometimes
very elevated morality.

It is altogether erroneous to regard Tao, with Eemusat,
as the primeval Reason, the \6yog, and worse still to call the
Tao-sse the Chinese rationalists. This character fits them
least of all, and they do their utmost to be as unreason-
able as possible. The name would be much more appro-
priate to their opponents. The ordinary meaning of the
word is “ way,” in the literal and the metaphorical sense,
but always “ the chief way.” In the mysticism of Lao the
term is applied to the supreme cause, the way or passage
through which everything enters into life, and at the
same time to the way of the highest perfection.

27. The later writings of the Tao-sse, among which
the Book of Rewards and Punishments occupies a pro-
minent place, show that they did not maintain this
morality at the same elevation, but gradually lost them-
selves in confused mysticism and an unreasoning belief
in miracles. To gain long life and immortality by means J y/
of self-chastisement, prayer, and watching, as well as by
the use of certain charms, was their highest endeavour.

But many remains of the ancient Chinese mythology,
banished by Kong-tse, and transformed by Lao-tse into
38

RELIGION AMONG THE CHINESE.

philosophical reflections, were preserved nearly unaltered
in their dogmas.

28. The ancient Chinese religion, which, with vast
differences in character, stands at the same point of
development as the Egyptian, in some respects took a
higher flight than the latter. By Tshow and Kong-tse
it was purified from many superstitions, which in Egypt
lasted till the fall of the Empire. The feudal system, as it
prevailed in China, amid all its faults possessed one virtue,
in that it permitted a much more independent develop-
ment of personality and a freer influence on the part of
the sages, than the theocratic absolutism which in Egypt
crippled all intellectual movement.

When the feudal system in China was obliged to give
way before another form of government, the two sects
were too firmly rooted to be involved in the ruin of the
old polity, yet they proved too purely national for either
of them to become a universal religion. It was only when
Chinese civilisation made its way complete, as in Corea
and Japan, that the Chinese religion, especially the doctrine
and worship of Kong-tse, was adopted with it.
( 39 )

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER in.

RELIGION AMONG THE HAMITES AND SEMITES.

Compare F. Lenormant, Les Premieres Civilisations, tom. i.,
“ Archseol. pr6historique,” Egypte; tom. ii., “ Chaldee et
Assyrie, Phenicie,” Paris, 1874. G. Rawltnson, The
Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, 3 vols.
(3d edition), London, 1873. Oppert, Memoire sur les
Rapports de VEgypte et de VAssyrie dans I’Antiquite, Paris,
1869, “ Progrfes des Etudes relatives h l’Egypte et a
rOrient.” Etudes Egypt., par E. de Roug£ ; Dechiffr. des
Ecrit. cuneif, par De Saulcy ; Etudes Semitiques, par
Munk j Langue et Lilt. Arab., par Reynaud, &c., 1867.
Transacts of the Soc. of Bill. Archeology, London, 1872, sqq.
P. Pierret, Melanges d’Archceol. Egypt, et Assyr. (in con-
tinuation of De Rouge’s Recueil de Travaux, &e., of which
one part appeared in 1870), Paris, 1872, sqq. Lepsius’
Zeitschrift (see below) also contains Assyrian studies.

I.

RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

Literature.—A. General Works.—The great collections
of plates after the monuments, inscriptions, and ancient
texts, such as those of Champollion, Rosellini, Leemans,
Lepsius, Sharpe, Dumichen, Mariette, Pleyte, are only
accessible to those who are familiar with the writing and
language of the Egyptians. An accurate general survey
of the history of the decipherment of hieroglyphics and
of Egyptian literature is given by J. P. Mahaffy, Pro-
40 RELIGION AMONG HAMITES AND SEMITES.

legomem to Ancient History, London, 1871. Compare
Chajipollion le JEUNE, Precis du Systeme hieroglyphique
des Anciens Egyptiens, 2d ed., with a vol. of plates, Paris,
1828, systematised in his Grammaire Egyptienne. Horapol-
linis Niloi Hieroglyphica, ed. C. Leemans, Amsterdam,
1835. Strongly to be recommended, H. Brugsch, Hiero-
glyph. Grammatik sum Nutzen der stvdirenden Jugend,
Leipzig, 1872. A useful Egyptian Grammar has been
published by P. le Page Renouf,'London, 1875. Un-
finished, E. de Roucfi, Chrestomathie Egyptienne, Abrege
grammatical, fasc. 1, Paris, 1867; fasc. 2, 1868. H.
Brugsch, Hieroglyph. - demotisches Worterbuch, 4 Bde.,
Leipzig, 1867-68. C. C. J. Bunsen, Aegyptens Stdle in
der JPeltgeschichte, 6 vols.: i.-iiL, Hamburg, 1844-45;
iv.-vi., Gotha, 1856-57. Of the English translation,
Egypts Place in Universal History, vols. i.-v., London,
1848-6 7, the fifth volume, translated by C. H. Cottrel, is
indispensable; it contains numerous additions by S. Birch,
among them being a Translation of the Booh of the Dead,
a Dictionary of Hieroglyphics, and a Grammar. Sir G.
Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Andent Egyptians,
1st series, 3 vols., London, 1837 (2d ed. of vol. i., 1842);
2d series, 2 vols., with one vol. of plates, London, 1841.
Valuable contributions will be found in the Revue ArcMo-
logique, and in the Zeitschrift fiir Aegypt. Sprache und Alter-
ihumskunde, edited by Lepsius and Brugsch, Leipzig,
1863, sqq. The following catalogues may be consulted
with profit: C. Leemans, Description Iiaisonnee des Monu-
mens Egyptiens du Musee d’Antiquites des Pays-basd Lade,
Leiden, 1840. E. de RoUGri, Notice des Monuments
Egyptiens du Musee du Louvre (ire 6d., 1849), 5me &L, Paris,
1869. H. Brugsch, Uebersetz. und Erhldr. Aegypt. Denh-
mdler des Mus. zu Berlin, Berlin, 1850. Th. Deveria,
Notice des Antiquites Egypt. duMusie deLyon, Lyons, 1857.
AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

4i

A.   Mariette-Bey, Notice des Principaux Monuments du
Musee d, Loulaq, Paris, 1869. Th. Dev£ria, Catal. des
Manuscr. Egypt, au Mush Egypt, du Louvre, Paris, 1874.

B.   Travels. — Champollion, Lettres Ecrites dEgypte
ct de Nubie en 1828 et 1829, Paris, 1833. Compare the
same author’s Notices Descriptives conformes aux Manuscr.
Autogr., Paris, 1844. E. Lepsius, Briefe aus Aegypten,
Berlin, 1852. AY. Centz, Briefe aus Aegypt. und Nub,,
Berlin, 1853. H. Brugsch, BeisebericMe aus Aegypten,
Leipzig, 1855. G. A. Hoskins, A JFinter in Upper and
Lower Egypt, London, 1863. J. J. Ampere, Voyage
en Egypte et Nubie, Paris, 1867. A. Mariette-Bey,
Itineraire de la Haule-Egypte, Alexandrie, 1872. H.
Brugsch, Wanderung nach den Tiirkis-Minen und der Sinai-
Ealbinsel, 2d ed., Leipzig, 1868.

G. History.—E. Lepsius, Konigsbuch, Berlin, 1858.
H. Brugsch, Histoire <T Egypte dbs les Premiers temps de
son -existence jusgu’d nos jours, ira partie (to Nectanebos),
Leipzig, 1859; 2de ed., ir° partie (to the end of the seven-
teenth dynasty), Leipzig, 1875. A complete German edi-
tion by the author has appeared, 1877. It contains some
additions and corrections, but the proper names are
given in transcription only. E. DE Eouge, Becherches
sur les Monuments qu’on pent altribuer aux six premieres
Dynasties, Paris, 1866. Lepsius, “Ueber die zwolfte Aegypt,
Konigsdynastie ” (Alcad. der JFiss., BerL, Jan. 5, 1852).
F. Chabas, Les Pasteurs en Egypte, Amsterdam, 1868.
Id., Becherches pour servir a VHistoire de la XIXe Dyn.,
Chalons et Paris, 1873. M. Budinger, Zur Aegyptische
Forschung Herodots, Vienna, 1873. S. Sharpe, History of
Egypt, 2 vols., 6th ed., London, 1876, must be used with
caution in regard to Egyptian religion. Compare M.
Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums, voL i. F. Lenor-
mant, Manual of the Ancient History of the East, London,
42 RELIGION AMONG HAMITES AND SEMITES.

1869, vol. i. Philip Smith, The Ancient History of the
East, London, 1871, vol. i. G. Maspero, Histoire An-
cienne des Peuples de 1’Orient, 2de ed., Paris, 1876.

On Chronology.—R. Lepsius, Einleit. zur Chronol. der
Aegypt., Berlin, 1848. J. Lieblein, Aegypt. Chronol.,
Christiania, 1863. F. J. C. Mayer, Aegyptens Vorzeit und
Chronol., Bonn, 1862. J. DuMichen, Die erste sichere
Angabe iiber die Regierungszeit eines Aegypt. Konigs aus dem
alien Reich, Leipzig, 1874. Unsatisfactory, C. Piazzi
Smith, On the Antiquity of Intellect. Man, Edinburgh, 1868.

D.   Texts with translation, and translated texts.—R.
Lepsius, Das Todtenbuch der Aegypter, nach dem hierogl.
Pap. in Turin, Leipzig, 1842; translated by Birch in
Bunsen’s Egypt's Place, &c., see above; by Brugsch in
the Zeitschr. fiir Aegypt. Spraehe, 1872, sqq. (not yet
finished); and quite erroneously by G. SEYFFARTH in
Theol. Schriften der alien Aegypter, Gotha, 1855. Compare
Pleyte, Etudes Egyptologiques, Leiden, 1866, sqq. Eug.
Lefebure, Traduction comparee des Ilymnes au Soleil
compos, le xif chapitre du Rit. fun. Egypt., Paris, 1868.
Lepsius, Adteste Texte des Todtenbuchs nach SarJcofagen
des altaegypt. Reichs, Berlin, 1867. F. Chabas, Le Papy-
rus magique Harris, publ. et trad., Chalons, i860. Id.,
Melanges Egyptologiques, ie-3e serie, Chalons et Paris.
1862, sqq. Id., Le Calendrier des Jours fastes et nefastes
(Pap. SaJlier IV.), trad, compl., ibid., no date. G. Maspero,
Essai sur Vinscript, dedie. du temple d’Abydos, Paris, 1867.
Id., Hymne au Nil, publ. et trad., Paris, 1868. Records of
the Past, vols. iL and iv., containing Egyptian texts,
London, 1874-75. C. W. Goodwin, The Story of Saneha,
an Egypt. Tale, trand. from the hieratic Text, London,
1866. W. Pleyte, “ Een lofzang aan Ptali ” (Evangelie-
spiegel, and “De Veldslag van Rainses den Groote
tegen de Cheta,” Theol. Tijdschr., 1869, p. 221, sqq.
AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

43

Louis Menard, IlermJes Trismegiste, trad, compl., Paris,
1S66.

E.   Religion. — C. P. Tiele, Yergel. Geschiedenis der
Egypt, en Mesopot. Godsdd., Amsterdam, 1869-72; first
book, Egypie. Ciiampollion’S Pantheon Egyptien remains
unfinished. Plutarch, Ueber Ids und Odris, edited by G.
Parthey, Berlin. Lepsius, Ueber den ersten Aegypt.
Gotterkreis und seine geschichtlich-mythologische Entstehung,
Berlin, 1851. Id., Ueber die Goiter der vier Elemente bei
den Aegypt., Berlin, 1856. Pleyte, Lettre sur quelques
monuments relaiifs au dieu Set, Leiden, 1863. Id., Set dans
la barque du Soldi, ibid., 1865. Ed. Meyer, Set-Typhon,
cine relig.-geschichtl. Studie, Leipzig, 1875. Bkugsch, Die
Sage von der geflugelten Sonnenscheibe, Gottingen, 1870.
(Comp. E. Naville, Textes relaiifs au Mythe d’lloros dans
le temple d’Edfou, Geneva and Basle, 1870.) Sir Ch.
Nicholson, “ On the Disk-Worshippers of Memphis,” in
the Transactt. of the Roy. Soc. of Literature, 2d ser. vol. ix.
pt. ii. p. 197, sqq. M. Uhlemann, Das Todtengericht bei
den alien Aegyptern, Berlin, 1854. P. Pierret, Le Dogme
de la Resurrection chez les anciens Egyptiens, Paris, no date.
G. Parthey, Das Orakel und die Oase des Ammon, Berlin,
1862. Eug. Plew, De Sarapide, Koningsberg, 1868.
Brugsch, Die Adonisklage und das Linoslied, Berlin, 1852.
Dumichen, Ueber die Tempel und Graber im alien Aegypt.,
Strassburg, 1872. Id., Bauurkunde der Tempel-anlagen
von Dendera, Leipzig, 1865. Id., Der Aegypt. Felsentempel
von Abu-Simbel, Berlin, 1869. Brugsch, Die Aegypt.
Graberwelt, Leipzig, 1868. The treatise of 0. Beaure-
gard, Les Divinites Egyptiennes, Paris, 1866, must be
regarded as a complete failure.

F.   Egyptian Eeligion in relation to other religions.—
Fleyte, La Religion des Pre-Israelites, Recherches sur le
Dieu Seth, Utrecht, 1862. W. G. Brill, Israel en Egypie,
44

[Prometheus]

RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

Utrecht, 1857. Uhlemann, Israeliten und Hyksos m
Aegypt., Leipzig, 1856. F. J. Latjth, Moses der Ebraer,
nach Aegypt. Papyrus-Urhmdm, Munich, 1868. A. Eisen-
LOHR, Der grosse Papyrus Harris, ein Zeugniss fur die
Mosaische Peligionssliflung enthallend, Leipzig, 1872. (The
results in all these treatises are still very uncertain.) G.
Ebers, Aegypten und die Bucher Mose’s, vol. i. (publica-
tion not continued), Leipzig, 1868, thoroughly scientific.
Sharpe, Egyptian Mythology and Egypt. Christianity, Lon-
don, 1863, deficient in its treatment of the ancient
Egyptian religion, yet not •without value for the rela-
tion of its later forms to Christianity. E. Roth, Die
Aegypt. und Zoroastr. Glaubenslehre als die allesten Qudlen
unserer specvlativen Idem (the first part of the Geschichte
unser. Abendl. Philosophie), Mannheim, 1862, rendered use-
less, in spite of its learning, by wrong method. It has
been imitated and outdone by J. Braun, Naturgeschichle
der Sage, Euckfiihrung aller relig. Ideen u.s.w. auf ihren
gemeinsamen Stammbaum, two vols., Munich, 1864.

29. Among the sources of our knowledge of the ancient
Egyptian religion, the first and principal place belongs to
the so - called Book of the Dead, or “ Book of the
going forth on the Day,” a collection of texts partly
ancient, and partly of later date, intended by their magic
power to secure the victory for the soul on its journey
to the abodes of eternity. To the same class belong
certain magic papyri, except that these were to serve
in the contest against evil spirits upon earth. All
these books, on which fresh light is being constantly
thrown, are inexhaustible mines for Egyptian mythology.
Further, both these and others include religious hymns of
the highest importance. The historical and literary works,
ANIMISTIC USAGES.

45

also, the numerous inscriptions on temples, tombs, and
other monuments, contain not a little hearing on re-
ligion. Though much yet remains to he investigated
and explained, all this material, when compared with the
statements of the Greeks, enables us to form a very
fair conception of the belief and the worship of the ancient
Egyptians. The history of this religion, however, can
only be sketched in its main outlines.

30- In Egypt the old elements were not replaced by
those of later growth, but always remained standing by
their side. Thus through every period of Egyptian
history we find different usages of animistic origin
retained, though perhaps with changed significance, along
with very elevated religious ideas, which are by no means
in accord with them. Among these may be ranked the
cultus of the dead, the deification of the kings, and the 1/
worship of animals, which reached the same height among
no other people. The dead were worshipped in sepul-
chral chapels and temples; the kings, even in their life-
time, were regarded as the deity upon earth; and certain
animals, among which the sacred bulls occupied the most
prominent place, originally no doubt worshipped as
fetishes, received homage as the incarnations of a higher
being. Fetishism also was the root of the custom by
which the innermost sanctuary of the temple contained
no image, but only a symbol of the chief god. That the
Egyptian religion, like the Chinese, was originally nothing
but an organised animism, is proved by the institutions of
worship. Here, too, existed no exclusive priestly caste.
Descendants sacrificed to their ancestors, the officers of
state to the special local divinities, the king to the deities
46

RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

of the whole country. Not till later did an order of
scribes and a regular priesthood arise, and even these as
a rule were not hereditary.

The worship of animals is said to have been introduced
by Kaiechos (Kakau, of the second dynasty) ; but if this
statement deserves any credit, and is not founded on his
name, which may signify “ the bulls,” it can only be re-
ferred to an official recognition of the animal-worship as
a state institution. Such usages cannot be imposed by
authority: they grow up among the people. The bull-
gods chiefly honoured were the black Apis (Hapi, to be
distinguished from the Nile-god H&pi) of Memphis, and
the white or yellow Mnevis (Mena) of Heliopolis. Of the
first, Chamus, son of Ramses II., the builder of the
Serapeum, was an ardent worshipper. Even centuries
later the people were so deeply attached to this cultus
that the gift of a new Apis by Darius Hystaspes reconciled
them for a time to the hated Persian rule.

The absence of an image in the inmost sanctuary of the
temple, sometimes regarded as an evidence of a certain
spirituality, is only a proof of the devotion of the
Egyptians to ancient customs. There were images every-
where, but in the naos only the ancient fetish, dead or
living, now perhaps, though this cannot be affirmed with
certainty, regarded as a symbol.

31.   It is altogether erroneous to regard the Egyptian
religion as the polytheistic degeneration of a prehistoric
monotheism. It was polytheistic from the beginning, but
it developed in two entirely opposite directions. On the
one hand, the world of gods, through the addition of-
the local religions and the adoption of foreign deities,
grew richer and richer. On the other hand, a gradual
TRIUMPH OF LIGHT AND LIFE.

47

and tentative approach was made to monotheism, without
attaining clear and unequivocal expression of it. The
scribes harmonised the two, by representing the plurality
of deities as the manifestations of the one uncreated hidden
god—as his members, created by himself.

32.   The Egyptian mythology reproduces in varying
forms two leading ideas. The first is the belief in
the triumph of light over darkness, and of life over
death. This is exhibited by the sun-myths. The
victory of light, conceived for the most part physi-
cally, is represented in the conflict of Ka, the god of
Heliopolis (An) and the chief god of Egypt, with
the serpent Apap. The triumph of life over death is
rather the subject of the myth of Osiris, the other chief
god of the empire, specially worshipped in Thinis-Abydos.
Osiris, slain by his brother Set—lamented by his wife and
sister Isis and Xephthys—endowed by Thut, the god of
science and literature, with the power of the word—is
avenged by his son Horos, and, while himself reigning in
the kingdom of the Dead, lives again in him on earth.
This mythic representation of the death and reawakening
of the life of nature which was observed in the succession
of day and night and of the seasons, was very early, and
more closely than the myth of Ea, brought into connec-
tion with the doctrine of the resurrection. Each man, at
his death, became identified with Osiris. As with the
body of the god, his also was mourned, embalmed, and
buried. As the soul of the god shines in Orion in the
sky, so that of the departed lives likewise among the stars.
As the shade of the one conquers in the world of the
48

RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

Dead, so that of the other sustains there a series of trials
in order at last to pass in and out freely with the god of
light, and he united with him for ever.

The belief in the victory of light and life was ex-
pressed in the very name, nuteru, “those who renew them-
selves,” which is the general designation of the gods, and
in the constantly recurring triads of father, mother, and
son. That the son is no other than the father himself
alive once more, appears from the formula, “husband
of his mother (ka mut-f),” which is applied to several
Egyptian deities.

Though certainly regarded originally as independent
gods, the other chief gods of Heliopolis must be viewed
as forms of Rt. Such were the visible Harmachis (Ed
Harmachuti, Ra-Horos on the two horizons), the hidden
Turn (A turn, the nightly sun-god), Chepra, the creator,

“ he who continually renews himself,” symbolised by a
beetle. Less closely connected with him was his ally
Shu, of whom two varying representations exist, founded
on two different meanings of his name. As the “out-
spread ” or “ out-stretching,” he is the god of the sky ; as
the “ consuming,” he is the god of the scorching heat of
the sun.

The meaning of the names of Osiris (Asar, Asm), Set
(Set or Suti), and Thut (Thuti) is uncertain. The two
first are the two hostile sun-gods, whom we find among
the Semites. The last was once a moon-god, and then
became the god of numbers, of weights and measures, and
subsequently of literature and science. Isis (As) is the
“ancient,” the “venerable,” or better, the “exalted;”
Nephthys (Nebt-ha) the “ mistress of the house,” goddess
of the underworld. Horos (Her, the “ uppermost,” “ he .
who is above ”) is the god of the sun by day, and has a
DOCTRINE OF CREATION.

49

number of forms. It would seem that it was not till the
myth of Osiris was so closely united with the belief in
the resurrection, that Anubis (Anup or Anpu), the con-
ductor of souls, was taken into it. In the oldest tombs
it is with his image that we generally meet, and not
with that of Osiris, as at a later date.

33.   The other leading idea is that of creation by
the supreme uncreated god with his assistant spirits, of
which the eight personified cosmic powers are the chief.
The work of creation is ascribed, indeed, to all the
principal deities, but especially to the gods of fire and
the element of moisture. At the head of the first
stands Ptah, the god of Memphis, who himself personi-
fies the cosmic fire, as the soul of the universe; just
as his “ great beloved ” Sechet represents its destroying
and purifying power, and Neith of Sais—often united with
him—its mysterious hidden operation, while his form Bes
with his consort Bast symbolise its beneficent warmth and
cheering glow. That Chnum the architect, god of the
waters—originally the wind which moves and fertilises
them—and consequently the soul of the universe, and
Hapi the bTile-god, should also be regarded as creative
deities, needs no further explanation.

The eight cosmic powers (Semenu or Sesenm, from
whom the city of Thut, Hermopolis, derived its Egyptian
name), always united with Thut, but nevertheless to be
distinguished from his seven assistants, constitute four
pairs: Nun and Nunt, the celestial ocean, the abyss ;
Ilch and Held, time (without end); Kek and Kekt, dark-
ness ; Nerd and Nenit, breath, spirit, or wind. These are
the four personifications of the ideas embodied in the well-
7   D
RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

So-

[Prometheus]

So-

known doctrines of creation, “ In endless duration ” (or
“ in the beginning ”) “ was darkness on the abyss, and the
waters of the primeval ocean were moved by the wind,
the breath of the deity,” cf. Gen. i. The myth, if not
adopted from Semites, is clearly another form of the
later Semitic representation.

Ptah (from patahu) signifies “ former,” “ sculptor,” an
appropriate name for the god of fire. Sechet, a name
generally transcribed Pacht (Pecliet), denotes “ kindling
fire ” (causative of diet. “ flame ”); Pechet is “ the de-
vourer,” especially the lion. Keith (Net or Nit) is the
Egyptian virgin mother, yet in a purely cosmogonic-
theological sense. Bes is the ascending flame ; he has a
twofold nature as god of joy, music, and dancing, and as
warrior. His consort Bast, the beneficent, is the gentle
counterpart of the violent Sechet.

Chnum is the deity who was formerly, under the name
of Ivneph, regarded by some scholars as the supreme god
of the Egyptian pantheon. He is one of the oldest gods,
and his worship remained very sensual. By his side
stand Sati, the generative power, and Arnica, “the em-
bracing.” These three personify the wind, flowing water,
and the earth.

34.   It is not surprising that in the earliest history of
Egyptian religion much still remains obscure. When,
however, we note that the Egyptians themselves called
the prehistoric period the age of the Horus-followers,
and that there was no place of importance which had not
its Horns and its Hathor, we are justified in concluding
that the chief gods adored above all others in the earliest
period were these two gods of the light of heaven.

Under the first six dynasties, besides Osiris and Eft
Ptah of Memphis was chiefly worshipped, as the deity
ITS EARLY PHASES.

Si

who effected the union of the two divisions of the king-
dom under one sceptre. It was probably in this period
that the cultus of animals was raised to a state institution.
The deification of the kings was carried, in the days of
the builders of the pyramids, to the greatest extreme;
and the three worships, of Osiris, Ra, and Ptah, were
blended, perhaps imperceptibly, together. Such are the
gradual stages of ascent from the visible gods to the higher
and invisible. The simplicity of the tombs in this period
is worthy of note. Rarely are the gods represented in
them; and though the deceased already bear religious
titles, the walls of the sepulchral chapels exhibit only
the scantiest allusions to theological subjects. Religious
feeling appears to have been vivid and deep, but the
power of priests and scribes was certainly still small.

“ Horus-followers ” or “ Horus-worshippers ” seems the
best translation of the often-recurring Har-shesu. The
name Horus has been already explained. In later times
this name also was employed as a general designation for
the deity : was it so originally 1 It is not improbable.
Hathor (Hathar) would signify literally “the house of
Horus; ” but she is without doubt the same as the
Assyrian Istar, the Phenician Ashtoreth (cf. the South
Arabian A/htar), and the only question is on which side
lies the priority. Is the Egyptian Hathar a corrup-
tion of Istar, or the reverse 1 This point deserves further
investigation. The great antiquity, however, to which the
cultus of Hathor may be traced in Egypt, long before the
time when there was any possibility of Semitic influence,
renders only two interpretations tenable—either that
Istar is the Egyptian Hathor in Semitic guise, or that
both are forms, modified in accordance with varying
$2 RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

national genius, of a goddess originally invoked under a
similar name by the common forefathers of the Hamites
and Semites.

35.   The gods worshipped under the Middle Empire
(the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Dynasties) correspond
altogether to the character of the period, which was dis-
tinguished both by conquests and by the flourishing con-
dition of agriculture and the arts of peace. Now that
the centre of gravity of the kingdom was transferred from
Memphis in Lower Egypt to the Thebais in Upper Egypt,
the gods of this latter region, as so often happened in
antiquity, were elevated to the highest rank. The
principal deities are Munt, the god of war; Chem or
Min, the god of fertility and agriculture, with whom must
also be named, even at this early period, Arnun, the god of
the city of Thebes, as yet'but slightly different from Chem,
and far from being the great king of the gods, which he
was only destined to become in later years. These three
are in fact only different forms of the same divine being.
It is not surprising that in an age so rich as this in the
products of industry, Ptah, the former, and Chnum, the
architect, were the objects of special veneration; and it is
equally natural that a prince of the Thirteenth Dynasty,
to whom Egypt owed a new canal system, and who by this
means added a whole province to his dominions, should be
zealously devoted to the Nile-god Sebak, god of the water
which at once served for drinking and fertilised the land.
Thus do the forms of religion undergo modification with the
progress of civilisation. The kings of this period promote
external religion, but as uncontrolled masters and not as
yielding obedience to priests. Their inscriptions exhibit an
UNDER THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.

S3

ethical tone. Literature is mostly secular, hut the scribes
are already beginning to apply themselves to the ex-
planation of ancient texts. The tombs of this period
indicate as yet no great development of the belief in
immortality. It is brought, indeed, into closer connec-
tion with religion than under the Old Empire, but the
future life is still regarded only as the continuation of the
present, without reference to the doctrine of retribution.

If the history of Egypt is divided into two parts, the
Middle Empire must be classed along with the Old. It
forms the transition between the Old and the New.

That Min (also named Chem, “ the ruler ”), whose
chief temple was at Koptos, Munt of Hermonthis, and
Amun of Thebes, are essentially the same, appears (among
other reasons) from their names, which are all derived
from the same root, and originally indicated their cha-
racter as gods of fertility. Chem is often named simply
Amun-KiL Subsequently, the meaning of the name Amun
was modified.

Sebak, who was probably derived from Ethiopia, was
no god of evil. This character was not ascribed to him
till later, through a confusion with Set, to whom likewise
the crocodile belonged. Sebak is the god of the inunda-
tion, and is sometimes interchanged with H&pi. The
crocodile was his body, since it was asserted to deposit
its eggs every year just at the limit to which the inun-
dation would that year extend.

36.   Of the religious condition of the Egyptians under
the sway of the Arab Shepherd-Princes (the Hyksos) we
know nothing. The conquerors had combined the reli-
gion of Lower Egypt with their own, and worshipped Set
whom they named Sutech, together perhaps with Ptah.
54

RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

One of them even proposed to the contemporary Thehan
king, to elevate Sutech and Amun-Ra to he the sole gods
of Egypt. After their fall Amun-Ra of Thebes became
the chief god, to whom all the others were subordinated,
and after whose type the rest of the chief gods were
transformed. An attempt made by Amun-hotep IV.
(Chunaten) to substitute the exclusive worship of Aten-
Ra, the sun-disc, for that of Amun-Ra, had no permanent
success. After his death the whole pantheon, with
Amun-Ra at its head, was speedily restored.

Amun-Ra, the hidden creator, has now become the
king of the gods, and the lord of the thrones of the
world. In him the Egyptians expressed the most compre-
hensive and consequently the highest and most elevated
religious conception which they were in a position to
form. He unites in himself the nature of Min or Chem,
the god of fruitfulness, and of the war-god Hunt, hut he
possesses, besides, the characteristic qualities of all the
principal deities. Sun-god and Nile-god, lord of the
visible and the invisible worlds, he was the mysterious
soul of the universe which reveals itself in light. His
consort, Mat, “ the mother,” and Chonsu, his son, had the
same composite character.

Among the many shapes peopling this world of deities,
which was enriched just at this time with a number of
strange forms, an endeavour was now made to introduce
a certain order, whilst a monotheistic tendency was
clearly gaining strength. The doctrine of immortality,
now under the control of the dogma of retribution, becomes
the centre of religion. Magic rises rapidly in importance,
the influence and power of the priests increasing along
ITS DECLINE.

55

?with it; and the priests make themselves more and more
independent, and finally occupy the place of the king.
The high priest of Thebes seizes the sovereign power,
and himself founds a dynasty.

The name Sutech, applied to Set, seems to me an attempt
to reproduce in Egyptian form the Semitic divine name,
§edeq, “ the righteous.” At any rate, if the form Sutech
is older, the reason why the Arabians made choice of this
particular Egyptian god as their own, must be sought in
the resemblance of this name to Sedeq.

Amun is, properly speaking, not the name of the
Theban chief god, but the abbreviation of the formula,
“He whose name is hidden” (Brugsch, TForterb., p. 71).
Ra signifies “ creator.” As well as with the gods already
named, he is chiefly identified with Chnum, and qualities
of Ptah, Shu, Turn, Osiris, and others, are transferred to
him. Mat, “ the mother,” is really a sort of abstraction
of all Egyptian mother-goddesses, that is, the chief god-
desses of the country. For this reason her worship was
less actively pursued. Chonsu, whose name has not yet
been explained, received so much the more homage. He
seems to have been originally a moon-god.

[Prometheus]

37.   The last period of Egyptian religion bears marks
of profound decline. Lower Egypt throws off the yoke
of the priest-kings of Thebes, who retreat to Ethiopia
(Meroe). To this region, and also to the oasis of Ammon,
they carry Egyptian civilisation and the worship of
Amun; but they continually attempt, and occasionally
for a time with success, to re-establish their authority,
and with it the orthodox faith, over Egypt. The reign
of the Saitic princes is a period of restoration. But the
country is for the most part the prey of foreign conquerors
RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS,

S6

—Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks, whom the people
only resist when they pay no reverence to the national
religion. This religion lives on for centuries, but it sub-
sists only upon the past. It undergoes, however, some
modifications, which must be ascribed in part to the in-
fluence of the Greek spirit, and in part, perhaps at an
earlier date, to that of the Persian. Thus it may have
been the Persian type which imparted its ethical signifi-
cance to the contest between Osiris and Set, until the
latter, as a deity morally evil, was driven out of the
pantheon. The Hathar of this period, whose splendid
temple at Dendera was restored under the care of the
Ptolemies, has not a few features in common with the
Greek Aphrodite. One of these princes brought the
Semitic god Serapis, already worshipped by many Greeks,
to Egypt, where his worship was fused with that of
Osiris-Apis. One circumstance in particular is a certain
sign of decline, viz., that the goddesses now occupy a
much higher position than the gods. At last, the equili-
brium between the local worships is entirely broken ; and
of the remarkable Egyptian civilisation there remains
nothing but monuments which are only destined once
more to yield up their meaning when fifteen centuries
have passed away.

The conflict of the Ethiopian priest-princes, such as
Pianchi Meriamun, Sabako, Tahraka, with the North
Egyptian dynasties which had subjugated Upper Egypt,
was in part national, that of Ham with Shem, but in
part, and indeed chiefly, religious. Thebes was always
ready to receive them; nay, the prophets of this city
invited Tahraka to advance as their liberator (De Boug6,
ITS DECLINE.

57

Mil. d’Archeol., i. p. 1i, sqq.), while he declared that he
fought against the blasphemers of Amun-B& (Prisse,
Monum., pi. xxxi. a.) to deliver the god (ibid., pi. xxxii.
d.) They were, however, driven out; and in Ethiopia
itself Egyptian civilisation sank lower and lower, till
beneath native additions the worship of Amun was no
longer to be recognised.

Under the Saitic kings (Necho, Psamtik, Amasis) art
flourished, and the chief objects of worship were Ptali
and Neith. Homage was still paid to the Theban triad
at Silsilis; but Thebes itself had fallen into such deep
decline that one of its principal temples was already
employed as a burial-place.

Darius Hystaspis was the only king who adopted a
policy of reconciliation. Kambyses attempted the same
course before his defeats. For their want of respect for
the mysteries, Xerxes and his son were driven out of
the palace at Sais (Brugsch, Zeitsehr., 1871, 1, sqq.) This
intolerance resulted in the fall of the Persian supremacy
in Egypt. The Ptolemies acted with much more pru-
dence.

It is uncertain whether it was the first or the second
Ptolemy who introduced the god Serapis from Sinope in
Asia Minor. Plew (op. eit.) regards the deity as of Baby-
lonian origin. The name signifies “ serpent,” and is the
same as that of the Hebrew Seraphim. As the name can
only be explained from the Indo-Germanic (serpens), the
god was probably derived by the Semites from the
Aryans.

By the edict of Theodosius, 381 A.D., the Egyptian
religion was abolished.

38.   It is not yet possible to enumerate with certainty
all the elements which co-operated to lift the Egyptian
58

RELIGION AMONG THE EGYPTIANS.

religion out of Animism and place it on so lofty an emi-
nence. African usages, such as circumcision, may be
observed in it; the myth of the sun-god Ea has an
Aryan character; and even the language contains not
a few Aryan roots. The myths of Osiris, Amun, and
Hathor, the cosmogony, and a number of customs, exhibit
a large accordance with conceptions and practices like
those which grew up in Mesopotamia out of the blending
of the Semitic religion with that of the original inhabit-
ants of the country, the Akkadians. The influence of the
Semites in Egypt increases century by century, and the
Semitic pushes the national element more and more into
the background. Conversely, however, the Egyptian
religion exerts a preponderating influence on the Canaan-
ite races, though less upon the Hebrews than on the
Phenicians. First by their means, and then directly, it
reached the Greeks, made its way finally through the
whole Eoman Empire, and even furnished to Eoman
Catholic Christendom the germs of the worship of the
Virgin, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and
the type of its theocracy.

The Semitic gods of light and fire contend with con-
suming and destroying sun-gods, as Osiris does with Set.
Ea, like the Aryan gods of light, fights with the powers

of darkness.

Parallelisms between Egyptian and Mesopotamian
myths may be seen in (i) the abyss, from which every-
thing proceeds, Egyptian {dau, Assyr. tihavti; (2) Osiris,
Egypt. Asar, and Assyr. Asar, the under-world; (3)
Isis, Egypt. As, Ast, and Assyr. Asa, Asat, also As, a
surname of Istar, Accad. Isi, the earth; (4) Hathar nelie-
ITS VARIOUS ELEMENTS.

59

man = Semit. Ashtoreth ndamah; (5) the doctrines of the
god who is husband of his mother, and the god who is
self-created, appear both in Egypt and in Babylonia, &c.
The names of Thut and Nabu possess no resemblance,
hut their myths and their attributes are in remarkable
agreement.

Astarte, Qadesh, Qen, Reshpu, Anith, and Tauith
were introduced into Egypt at a later period.
( 6o )

[Prometheus]

II.

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

A. The Two Streams of Development,

Literature.—E. Renan, Histoire generate et systeme com-
pare des langues Semitiques, ist part, 2d ed., Paris, 1858.
Id., Nouvelles considerations sur le caractere general des peoples
Semitiques et en partimlier sur leur tendance au monothdsme,
Paris, 1859. (Criticised "by C. P. Tiele, “De Oorsprong
van het Monotheisme bij de Israelieten,” Gids, Feb. 1862.
From the supernatural standpoint, R. F. Grau, Semiten
und Indogermanen in Hirer Beziehung zu Religion und
IFissenschaft, Stuttgart, 1864. Totally different, J. G.
Muller, Die Semiten in ikrem Verhaltniss zu Chamilen und
Japhetiten, Basel, 1872.) Renan, De la part des peoples
Semitiques dans Vhistoire de la civilisation, 5th ed., Paris,
1867. A sharp distinction is made between Indo-Germans
and Semites by Fried. Muller, Indogermanisch und
Semitisch, Vienna, 1870, although in his Allgem. Ethno-
graphic, p. 437, sqq., he places them, together with the
Basques and Caucasians, in the family occupying the
“ Mediterranean Lands.” D. Chwolson, Die Semit. Fol-
ker; Versuch drier Charakteristik, Berlin, 1872. See above
all, E. Schrader, “Die Abstammung der Chaldaer und
die Ursitze der Semiten,” in Zdtschr. der Deutsch. Morgen-
land. Gesellsch., xxvii., 1873, Hft. iii. p. 397, sqq.

On the ancient Arabian religion, Caussin de Perceval,
Essai sur VHistoire des Arabes avant VIslamisme, 3 parts,
Paris, 1847. L. Krehl, Ueber die Religion der Forislami-
schen Amber, Leipzig, 1863. Osiander, “ Studien iiber
RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

61

die Vorisl. Eelig. der Araber,” Zeitschr. der D. M. G.,

1853-

On the Akkadian civilisation and religion see the works
on Assyriology named further on. The following deal
exclusively with the Akkadian language : F. Lenormant,
Etudes Accadiennes, vol. i. 1st part, “ Introduction gram-
inaticale ; ” 2d part, “ Eestitution des Paradigmes ; ” 3d
part, “ Repertoire des caracteres : ” vol. ii., “ Choix de
textes avec traductions interim.” (Lettres Assyriologiques,
2d series), Paris, 1873-74. Id., La MagiechezlesChaldeens
et les origines Accadiennes, Paris, 1874, and Etudes sur quel-
qites Parties des Syllabaires cuneif, Paris, 1876. The exist-
ence of the Akkadian language is denied hy J. IIal£vy,
“ Observations critiques sur les pretendus Touraniens de
la Babylonie,” in Journ. Asiat., Juin 1874. Completely
refuted (except on the point of the Turanian origin of the
Akkadians) by F. Lenormant, La Langne primitive de la
Chaldk et les idiomes Touraniens, and by E. Schrader,
“1st das Akkad, der Keilinschriften eine Sprache oder
eine Schrift 1 ” in the Zeitschr. der D. M. G., xxix. i. 1875.

On cuneiform writing in general, L. DE Rosny, Les
Ecritures Figuratives et Hieroglyphiques, Paris, i860. J.
Menant, Les Noms propres Assyriens, Paris, 1861. Id.,
Les Ecritures Cuneiformes, Paris, 1864. P. Glaize, Les
Inscriptions CunZif. et les Travaux de M. Oppert, Metz, Paris,
1867. J. M£nant, Le Syllabaire Assyrien, 1st part, 1869,
2d part, 1873. George Smith, The Phonetic Values of
the Cuneiform Characters, London, 1871. Of the highest
value, E. Schrader, “ Die Basis der Entzifferung der
Assyrisch-Babylonischen Keilinschriften,” in Zeitschr. der
1). M. G., xxiii. iii. 1869.

39.   Among the Semites, who are closely connected with
the Hamites, hut are also, in the opinion of many scholars,
62

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

more or less closely connected with the Indo-Germanic
races, two streams of development may be clearly distin-
guished, alike in language and in religion, which may be
designated as the Southern and the Northern. The
common though not the most ancient home of the whole
race was probably in the northern and central regions of
Arabia. It must, however, have been abandoned at an
early period by all the Semitic peoples, with the excep-
tion of the Arabs, who spread over the whole peninsula,
and the Ethiopians, who subsequently crossed over to
Africa. These form the group of the Southern Semites.
With the exception of the Sabeans or Himyarites (see
§ 46), the Arabs, through the position of their country,
remained the longest excluded from intercourse with
civilised nations. From this cause they preserved the gen-
uine Semitic family character and the national religion in
their purest forms. It is from the little that we know
of the latter that we must gather what was the nature
of Semitic religion in its original simplicity. To the
Northern Semites belong the Babylonians and Assyrians,
the Arameans, Canaanites, Phenicians, and Israelites.
Their amalgamation with the oldest civilised inhabitants
of Mesopotamia produced important modifications in
their religion, which developed with greater speed and
richness. The study of religion among the Semites is of
the highest consequence, because two of the three universal
religions, Christianity and Islam, proceeded from them.

That all the Semites once dwelt together in Northern
Arabia, and that the Arabs preserved the Semitic charac-
ter in the purest form, appears to me to have been
convincingly proved by Schrader in the essay already
PRIMITIVE ARABIAN RELIGION,

63

cited. Against his main thesis, at any rate, there is little
objection to be raised, however we may differ from him
in detail. The vast difference in civilisation and religion
existing between Northern and Southern Semites can be
explained in no other way. Whether their original home
is to be sought, as most scholars suppose, in the neigh-
bourhood of that of the Indo-Germans, or as Gerland
(Anthropol. Beitr., p. 396, sgq.) maintains, in Africa, is a
question which requires further investigation, but the
answer to it is of only secondary importance for our
present purpose.

40.   The ancient religion of the Arabs rises little
higher than animistic polydsemonism. It is a collection
of tribal religions standing side by side, only loosely
united, though there are traces of a once closer con-
nection. The names Ilfth and Shamsh, the sun-god,
occur among all the Semitic peoples; Allat, or Alilat and
AbUzza, as well as the triad of moon-goddesses to which
these last belong, are common to several, and the deities
which bear them are reckoned among the chief. The
names of the remaining Arab gods do not reappear among
the other Semites. Sun-worship was practised by all
the tribes, and the stars also, particularly the Pleiades
(Turayyd), were the objects of special homage, but there
was no cultus of the planets as such, a fact which indi-
cates that astronomy was but little developed. This cul-
tus was in truth scarcely much more than Fetishism; and
their worship of trees, and especially of stones and moun-
tains, which were regarded as occupied by souls, belongs
to precisely the same order, just as spiritism expressed
itself also among them in the worship of ancestors. The
64

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

image-worship which prevailed among them at the time
of Mohammed, was introduced, according to the Arabic
writers, at a later period from Syria or Mesopotamia. It
may very easily, however, have sprueg out of the worship
of stones. The few human sacrifices which they offered
appear to have been of another kind from those which the
Northern Semites borrowed from the Akkadians. The
sanctuaries of the various spirits and fetishes had their
own hereditary ministers, who, however, formed no priestly
caste; but the Seers were generally regarded with great
reverence, and were much consulted. But among the
Arabs these last never became priests, as was the case
among other Semites.

In that which constitutes the distinctive characteristic of
a religion, the relation conceived to exist between man and
the deity, they agreed entirely with their kindred. They,
likewise, stood towards God as the servant (‘abd) towards

his master.

Ildh, Assyr. Hu, Hebr. and Canaanite, Jll. The later
Allah is a contraction of al-il&h. Sprenger, Leben und
Lehre des Mohammad, i. p. 286, sqq., regards Allah as
made up of Idh, “ mirage,” “ shining,” with the article
al, and thus as different from U&h.

The three moon-goddesses—All&t, the light moon; Man&t,
the dark moon; and Al'Uzza, the union of the two—re-
appear amongtheBabylonians and Assyrians with partially-
altered names. Some of the planets, such as Jupiter and
Yenus, the greater and the lesser fortune, were worshipped
by the Arabs as by all Semites, but their movements were
not distinguished from those of the fixed stars. The
sacred number swen, applied among the Northern Semites
to the five planets with the sun and moon, was derived
PRIMITIVE ARABIAN RELIGION.   65

among the Southern Semites from the Pleiades, to winch,
together with the Hyades (Aldabaran) and Sirius, they
paid special veneration.

Very noteworthy is the absence of the chief myth of
the Northern Semites, the so-called Adonis myth, among
the Arabs. Krehl (op. cit.) and F. Lenormant (Lettres
Assyriol., ii. p. 241) have supposed that traces of it are,
nevertheless, to be found among them also, but upon
very insufficient grounds.

The only human sacrifices which are known with
certainty to have existed among them, accord with
those of savages. This was the offering of little girls
at Melcka, against which Hanyf Zai'd vigorously con-
tended. See Sprenger, Leben und Lehre des Mohammad,
i. p. 120. The service of the idols was limited to particu-
lar families. The seers of the highest rank were called
Kahtn, the same word as the Hebrew Koh&n, priest. This
last meaning, which the word never acquired among the
Arabs, is regarded by Sprenger, i. p. 255, as the derivative;
but other scholars (Fleischer, Von Ivremer, Cheyne)
declare this to be incorrect.

41.   The Northern Semites advanced far beyond this
standpoint. For this they were indebted without doubt
to a longer or shorter sojourn in Mesopotamia, to which
their own traditions point, and from which the majority
of them again migrated to the north-west. In Mesopo-
tamia they found an ancient non-Semitic civilisation, which
had a decisive influence on their development. This
civilisation belonged to a people classed by some with
the Turanians, certainly related to the Elamites and non-
Aryan Medes, and generally called Akkadians. They were
the fathers of astronomy, the first beginnings of which de-
7   E
66

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

veloped themselves among them out of astrology, and the
inventors of cuneiform writing, which was adopted from
them by various other nations, and was employed hy
them not only for royal inscriptions, but also for daily
use, and for the record of a rich, scientific, historic, poetic,
and religious literature, which has been recovered partly in
the original texts and partly in Assyrian translations.

For the Phenician tradition, see Herod., vii. 89; Strabo,
vii. 98, &c. According to the Hebrew, Abram came from
Ur-Kasdim, the present Mugheir in Southern Chaldea.
Of. the author’s Fergelijk. Geschied. der Egypt, en Mesopot.
Godsdd., p. 426, sqq. See, however, § 52, further on.

The name Turauian is here used to designate the so-
called Ural-Altaic race, of which the Mongols, Turks,
Magyars, Finns, and Samoyedes are the chief branches.
Many scholars, among whom is Schrader, have expressed
doubts whether the Akkadians are rightly classed with
these, as Lenormant proposes. That they are closely
related, however, with these peoples, and must cer-
tainly be placed among the “ Mongoloid races ” of
Pesohel, appears both from their language and their
religion. They assuredly belong to the same race with
the Elamites and non-Aryan Medes. They are generally
called Akkadians on the supposition that in the constantly-
occurring formula “ king ” or “ land ” “ of the Sumirs
and Akkadians,” the Semitic population is designated by
the first name, the non-Semitic by the second; J. Op-
pert (Journ. Asiat., 1875, v- 2> P- 272> s22-) maintains that
the reverse is the truth. F. Delitzsch, also, in Smith’s
Chald. Genesis, ilbersetzt von H. Delitzsch, p. 291, sq.,
proves on other grounds that the name Sumirs denotes
the pre-Semitic population of Babylonia. The question
is of subordinate importance.
THE RELIGION OF THE AKKADIANS.

67

Specimens of their astronomical knowledge may be
found in the tablets published by A. H. Sayce in the
Transactions of the Soc. of BiU. Archmol., iii. i. 1874, pp.
145-339. (Translation alone in Records of the Past, vol. i.

p. 151, sqq-)

The cuneiform character is, like the Chinese, the modi-
fication of a hieratic character, of which a few characters
still remain, and which in its turn must have arisen out
of hieroglyphics. The two facts, that these have entirely
disappeared, and that even on the oldest monuments the
hieratic character only occurs here and there, prove the
high antiquity of the Akkadian civilisation. The cunei-
form character is also found among the Elamites, the non-
Aryan Medes, and Armenians (Alarodians), and among
the Persians, among whom, however, it was altogether
modified. It is certain that both the last-named nations,
and probable that the two first also, derived it from the
Akkadians.

42.   The religion of the Akkadians was the type of the
richest and most complete development of the exclusive
worship of the spirits and elements of nature. The
host of spirits was innumerable. They were ranged in
classes, and even the highest deities were classed with
them. The ranks of these last included Ana, the highest
heaven regarded as a divine being; Mulge and Ninge,
the lord and lady of the hidden heaven beneath the earth,
the abyss; and fia or Hea, the god of the atmosphere and
of moisture, with his consort Dav-Kina, the lady of the
earth. To this supreme triad corresponded a lower
group, consisting of the moon-god Uru-ki, the sun-god
Ud, and the wind-god Im. Nindar or Ninib, the lord of
generation, the son of Mulge, was the god of the nightly
68

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

or hidden sun, the Mesopotamian Heraldes, a war-god
like Nilgai, who finds a nearer representative in Mars.
Mediating between Hea and mankind, in which capacity
he was regarded as the benefactor of the latter, stood
Amar-utuki, the brightness of the sun, the great god of
the city of Babylon. The system further included a
goddess who corresponds to the Semitic Istar, and bears
the hitherto-unexplained name Sukus. Fire played an
important part among the Akkadians, and their worship
consisted, though not exclusively, of magic. For it was
chiefly concerned with combating the evil spirits, which
were set in sharp dualistic contrast with the good. This
conflict had, however, a very subordinate ethical signifi-
cance ; and the underworld, also, it would seem, was not
yet, in the theology of the Akkadians, a place of recom-
pense ; but all encountered there the same destiny. The
war of the gods of light -with the powers of darkness had
already furnished material for a rich epic literature, from
winch some important productions have been brought
to light in Assyrian translations. The great importance
of the investigation of this religion lies chiefly in the
fact that it exercised so powerful an influence on the
Semitic religion, and indirectly on that of the nations
of the West.

The name of the highest class of spirits (Anab, abbre-
viated to Ana, An), almost equivalent to gods, seems to
be derived from that of the heaven-god; at any rate it
entirely accords with it. Ea or Hea signifies “ the
house,” “ the abode.” The triad of deities corresponds
with the three worlds into which the Akkadians divided
the universe.

[Prometheus]

AMONG THE BAB YLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS. 69

The moon-god also bears various other names, such as
Aku (perhaps from aka, to “lift up,” to “exalt”); Enu-
zuna, “ lord of growth ” (the crescent moon), &c. ;
Uru-ki signifies “ overlooker or protector of the earth ; ”
Ud means “light;” and Im or Iv, “wind,” “storm.”
Nir-gal (although the name as it is spelled could only
signify “great-foot”) signifies “great prince,” and the
full form of the name Nir-unu-gal, certainly means
“prince of the great abode,” by which the underworld
is probably denoted. See West. Asian Inscrr., ii. 59 rev.,
1. 37, d and e. The ingenious conjectures of Delitzsch,
Ghald. Genesis, p. 274, are therefore unnecessary. Amar-
utuki, literally, “ brightness with the sun,” “ light which
accompanies the sun ” (ud), is exactly the fitting medi-
ator between God and men. As such, he is called Silik-
mulu-chi, “ He who ordains good (chi) for men (mvlu)
in the Akkadian texts he is designated almost exclusively
by this epithet.

B. Religion among the Babylonians and Assyrians.

Literature.—Language.—Grammars by MAnant, 1868,
and Sayce, 1875 ; Comparative Grammar by Sayce, 1872.
Assyrian Dictionary by E. Norris, parts i.-iii. 1868-72,
the best refutation of Hitzig’s doubts in his Sprache
und Sprachen Assyriens, Leipzig, 1871. See in reply E.
Schrader “ Die Assyr.-Babyl. Keilinschriften,” in the
Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Morgenl. Gescllsch., xxiv. i. and ii.
1872. Texts: without translation, Rawlinson, Norris,
and Smith, West. Asian Inscrr., and Lenormant, Choix,
&c.; with translation, Oppert et MAnant, Les Fastes de
Sargon (“ Grande Inscr. des Salles du Balais de Khorsa-
bad ”), Paris, 1863. MiNANT, Inscrr. des Revers de Plaques
du Palais de KJmsabad, Paris, 1865. Id., Inscriptions
de llammourali, Roi de Babylone (defective), Paris, 1863.
70

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

George Smith, History of Assurbanipal, London, 1871.

E.   Schrader, Die Hdllenfakrt der Istar, nebst Proben Assyr.
Lyrik, Giessen, 1874; also in his treatise Die Keilin-
schriflen wnd das Alte Testament, Giessen, 1872. Trans-
lated texts in Records of the Past, vols. i. and iii. Essays
on the inscriptions (including the Himyaritic) by Lenor-
mant, Lettres Assyriologiques et Epigraphiques, vols. i. and
ii., Paris, 1871-72.

Archeology.—Besides the larger collections of plates
after the monuments by Botta, Layard, &c., and
Oppert’s Expedition en Mesopotamia, 2 parts, the following
are of most importance for consultation : Layard, Nineveh
and its Remains, London, 1848, and Discoveries among the
Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1853. Compare
L. F. Janssen, Over de ontdekkingen van Nineveh, Utrecht,
1850. F. Finzi, Ricerche per lo studio dell’ Antichitii
assira, Turin, 1872. George Smith, Assyrian Discoveries;
an Account of Explorations in 1873-74, London, 1875.

History.—J. Kruger, Geschichte der Assyrier und
Iranier, vom bis sum 5“* Jahrh. v. 0., Frankfort,
1856 (wholly untrustworthy). Rawlinson, Outlines
of Assyrian History, from the Inscriptions of Nineveh,
London, 1852. J. Oppert, Hisloire des Empires de Chaldee
et d’Assyrie d’apres les Monuments, Versailles, 1865. \V.
Wattenbach, Nineveh und Babylon, Heidelberg, 1868.

F.   Lenormant, Manual of the Ancient History of the
East, vol. i., London, 1869. J. MfiNANT, Annales des
Rois d’Assyrie, Paris, 1874. Id., Annales des Rois de
Babylone, ibid., 1875. G. Smith, Assyria from the Earliest
Times to the Fall of Nineveh, London (1875). Compare
F. Justi, Ausland, No. 30.

Religion.—F. Munter, Religion der Babylonier, Copen-
hagen, 1827. E. Hincks, On the Assyrian Mythology,
Dublin, 1835 (Transactions of the Roy. Irish Acad., Nov.
THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS.

7i

1854, vol. xxiii.) Tiele, Vergdijk. Geschiedenis van de
Egypt, en Mesopot. Godsdiensten, 2* stuk., Amsterdam, 1870.
F. Lenoemant, Essai de Commentaire des Fragm. Cosmogon.
de Berose, Paris, 1872. Id., La Legendede Semiramis, ibid.,
1873 (Acad, de Belgique, Smo Janv. 1872). Id., Le Deluge
et VEpopee Bdbylonienne (Extr. du Correspondant), Paris,
1873. (Compare G-. Smith, Chaldean Account of the Deluge,
two photographs, with translation and text, London,
1872.) Id., La Divination et la Science des Presages chez les
Chaldeens, Paris, 1875. Oppert, L’Immortalite deVAme
chez les ChaldSens (Annales de Philosophie Chretienne, 1874),
Paris, 1875. G. Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis,
London, 1875.   (I11 accordance with the writer’s own

warning, his results, which are only provisional, must be
used with caution. Compare A. H. Sayce, Academy, 1st
Jan. 1876.) German translation by H. Delitzsch, with
annotations and additions by Fried. Delitzsch, Leipzig,
1867.

On the Sabeans, see the works cited in my Vergdijk.
Geschied., p. 400, sqq. Hal£vy has since discovered and
published several more texts. See Lenormant’s Lettres
Assyriol., ii., and the journals already referred to, passim.

43.   Out of the amalgamation of Akkadians and Semites
arose the Chaldean people, generally called Babylonians,
after their most famous city and its province. The
Assyrians, who derived their name from their ancient
capital and their god Asur, were a Chaldean colony,
which had established itself at an early period in the
north of the land of the Two Rivers, and there gradu-
ally grew to a powerful monarchy. The two nations
differed but slightly in language and religion; the differ-
ence was greater in civilisation and character. In arts
72

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

and sciences the Babylonians were the predecessors and
masters of the Assyrians, but their empire appears to have
been rather a feudal theocracy than a compact monarchy,
in which two states, Babylonia proper (Kardunyas ?) and
Chaldea (Kaldu) on the Persian Gulf, took the lead.
Involved in endless wars with Assyria, which had in the
meantime become independent, it grew weaker and
weaker, and was at last completely conquered. But the
humiliated Babylon avenged itself. Nabupalusur (Nabo-
polassar), allied with the Medes, laid Nineveh in ruins,
and founded the new-Babylonian empire, which derived
its greatest glory from his son Nabu-kudur-usur (Nebu-
kadresar), and through him ruled for a time the civilised
world. Maruduk and Hahn, the local deities of Babylon,
whose worship, however, had also spread long before into
Assyria, now occupied the place at the head of the world
of gods, which had been so long held by the chief god of
the Assyrians, whose name now disappears entirely—a
change exactly analogous to that which took place in
Egypt.

The Babylonians were the teachers of the Assyrians,
as the Akkadians had before taught them. The library
of Sargina I. (placed conjecturally about 2000 b.C.) con-
sisted, according to what we know of it through Asur-
banipal, of a collection of texts, partly in Akkadian and
partly translated from Akkadian. Extensive ruins bear
witness to the great power of the oldest kings, and
choicely-cut scab indicate the advance of art in early
times. As artists, however, the Assyrians stood higher.

Nabupalusur was an Assyrian general, who, after
having put down a rising in Chaldea, was appointed
viceroy of Babylon.
THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS.

73

44.   Tlie religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians,
hitherto known only imperfectly from the statements of
the ancients and the fragments of Berosus, has received
new light through the decipherment of the cuneiform
character. This has rendered the actual sources them-
selves accessible, and the monuments prove conclusively
that the Mesopotamian Semites adopted the religion of
the original occupants of the country almost entirely, and
fused it with their own.

All the principal gods of the Akkadians reappear in
the Babylonio-Assyrian pantheon, the original names
being sometimes preserved, sometimes partially modified
in accordance with Semitic idiom, and sometimes trans-
lated. Old-Semitic deities to which counterparts were
found among the Akkadians, were amalgamated with the
latter. Among these may be named Samas, the sun-god,
among the Semites (Originally a goddess; Sin, the moon-
god ; and Xabu, the prophet, the god of revelation, of let-
ters and arts. Others were simply placed by the side of
the corresponding Akkadian deities, the three Semitic
moon-goddesses, for example, unknown to the Akkadians,
being set beside Sin, perhaps also Dagan, the god of
fertility, beside Bel of the underworld. The origin of
Istar lies in obscurity, but she likewise, though under
another name, existed already as an Akkadian goddess,
who played an important part in the old mythology. For
the Akkadian generic names of the gods a Semitic

A

parallel was found in Ilu (El), who at a later date, like
the supreme Bel, was sometimes placed at the head of all.
The Assyrians assigned this elevated position to their
national god Asur.
74

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

Hea and Nirgal passed almost without any change from
the Akkadian system into the Semitic. Nisruk is prob-
ably, and Salmanu is certainly, a Semitic surname of Hea.
Ana, the heaven-god, becomes Anu, “ the hidden,”Amar-
utuki is contracted into Mardwk. The transformation of
Nindar, the god of the solar fire and of generation, into
Adar, “the shining,” “the exalted,” would exhibit a
greater change if this reading, which is almost universally
adopted, were at all certain. The Semites named him
Samdan. The Semitic pronunciation of Yam or Yiv is
uncertain; it is possibly Yav, according to others, Bin;
the name which he bore among the Semites was Bamanu.
Mul-ge and Nin-ge were translated into Bel and Belit
iihavit, but the old characters were left unchanged. Sin
and Xabu occur, apparently, in Sinai and Nebo, in North
Arabia, and seem accordingly to be Semitic deities:
their names have neither the sound nor the meaning of
the corresponding Akkadian gods; they perhaps arose
under Egyptian influence (Aah and Thut). This is also
true of Istar, whose worship, but little practised in Baby-
lonia, was much more developed in Assyria, and who is
certainly the same as Hathor. The agreement with the
Bactrian glare, “star” (dialectic igtar), on which I still
laid stress in my Vergelijk. Geschied., p. 348, seems to be
accidental.

For the sign AN the Assyrians read Ilu, alike when it
was employed for the Akkadian generic name of the gods,
Ana or Anal, or for the name of the supreme god Dingir
(in the full form Dingira and Dingiri). The correctness of
the latter reading is doubted by Oppert without adequate
grounds. See Syllabary, p. 14, Transactions Soc. Bill.
Archceol., iii. 2, p. 508, and Norris, Assyrian Dictionary,
s. v. An.
THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS.

75

45.   Star-worship was not unknown to the Semites,
hut the highly-developed astrology and magic which we
find among the Babylonians and Assyrians were derived
from the Akkadians, and the more easily because their
own religion was not wanting in points of connection. Of
Akkadian origin also was the regularly-organised priest-
hood, to whose learning and moral influence the triumph of
the religion of the conquered nation over that of the con-
querors must certainly he in the first place ascribed. The
Babylonians, moreover, built their temples on the model
furnished by their instructors, namely, in the form of ter-
raced pyramids such as were erected also in Elam and
among the oldest inhabitants of Media and India, to
which class belonged the famous tower of Babel. In
Assyria temples were also built on another plan.

The majority of the Assyrian priestly titles are pure
Akkadian, Sakan and Sakannakku, the “high priest;”
ratesi, the “ vicar ” or “ lieutenant of the gods; ” Emga
(literally, “ the illustrious,” “ the glorious ”), “ the
Magi an,” &c.

The principal sanctuaries everywhere were terraced tem-
ples of this kind, representations of the mountain of the
gods in the north, i.e., of the heavenly spheres. The number
of terraces varied, being either three, as at Ur, after the
second triad of gods or the three worlds; or five, as at
Kalach, after the five planets; or seven, as at Barzipa (near
Babylon), at Chorsabad (Dur-Saryukin), and elsewhere,
after the five planets with the sun and moon. The terraces,
like those also at Ecbatana in Media, were of different
colours. At the top stood a square chapel, containing
an image. The opinion of Lenormant, that the Assyrian
Zikurats, as these structures were called, served not as
76

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

temples, but for the observation of the stars, is contra-
dicted by an inscription of the Assyrian king Raman-nirari,
in -which he says of the god Nabu that he dwells in the
temple of Bit-Zida in the midst of Kalach, and this was a
terraced temple. See West. As. Inscrr., i. pi. 35, No. 2.

46.   Our sources do not yet enable us to trace the
internal development of the Babylonio-Assyrian religion,
although it is possible to point out which were the domi-
nant gods in each of the three great periods of its his-
tory. Even while it was subject to Assyria, Babylon
remained the religious centre, the holy city par excellence;
and whatever hostility might exist between the monarchs
of the two provinces, the gods of the city, so far as they
were still unknown to the Assyrians, were readily ac-
cepted by them, and received equal honour with their
own highest deities. Outwardly, there was no more
difference between their religion and the Babylonian
than might be expected to result from their early migra-
tion to the north. Inwardly, however, there were varie-
ties of development in the two kindred nations, because
the Assyrians, with their rougher climate and on their
barren soil, grew into a race quite unlike the highly-
civilised but somewhat effeminate Babylonians who were
bathed in abundance.

It is not surprising, therefore, that of the two chief
sacrifices which their religion prescribed, and which were
probably both practised among the Akkadians, the sacri-
fice of chastity was more in vogue in Babylon, and
human sacrifices prevailed among the Assyrians. By
the latter people the gods of war. by the former those
of knowledge and civilisation, were the most zealously
THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS.

7 7

[Prometheus]

served. The same deity ?who was feared at Nineveh and
Kalach especially on account of the destructive violence
of his storms, Ilamanu (Yav), the god of wind and spirit,
was chiefly worshipped at Babylon as the god of under-
standing. In short, the Babylonian religion, being that of
a people principally devoted to agriculture, industry, and
learning, was distinguished by its luxurious character
and influential hierarchy; the Assyrian, on the other
hand, as that of a war-loving, conquering nation, by
rude conceptions and cruel usages.

In the oldest times Ur, Uruch, Agane, and other cities
were the principal royal residences of Chaldea. The
greatness of Babylon, at any rate, as a Semitic city, does
not begin till the reign of the famous ‘ Hammuragas, who
established his residence there, probably in the eighteenth
century B.C., and erected the great temple to Marduk.
Neither this god nor Nabu appears on older Babylonian
monuments, and for centuries after they are not found
among the chief Assyrian gods, not even in the list of
them given by Tuklat-palasar, 1130 B.C. It is not till 882
and 857 B.c. that they are named among the twelve
or thirteen chief gods of Asurnazirpal and Salmanasar,
and from that time onwards they were worshipped by the
Assyrians with quite as much enthusiasm as by the Baby-
lonians, especially after the marriage, about 800 B.C., of
an Assyrian sovereign with a Babylonian princess. The
kings of Assyria often offered sacrifices in the temples of
Babylon, Barzippa, and other Chaldean cities.

The difference which we have noted in religious de-
velopment between the two nations, must not, therefore,
be conceived too sharply. It is only a matter of degree.
Assur was constantly endeavouring to tread in the foot-
7 8

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

steps of Babylon. The luxurious worship of the Chal-
deans proved full of attraction for the Assyrians, and
Nineveh became a centre of it as early as the thirteenth
century B.C., alternating after the tenth century with
Kalach. The last but one of the Assyrian kings, Asur-
banipal, was a protector of civilisation, science, and
letters.

47.   Largely, however, as the Mesopotamian Semites
borrowed from their predecessors, their religion reached a
really higher stage. What they adopted, they developed;
and on all foreign elements they impressed the stamp of
their own spirit. The nature-beings whom they invoked
in imitation of the Akkadians, became among them real
gods, raised above nature and ruling it, as they had never
done before. Above the highest triads they placed a god
whose commands all the others reverenced, as the head
of an unlimited theocracy. If magic and augury re-
mained prominent constituents of their ceremonial reli-
gion, they practised besides a real worship, and gave
utterance to a vivid sense of sin, a deep feeling of man’s
dependence, even of his nothingness before God, in prayers
and hymns hardly less fervent than those of the pious
souls of Israel.

Such a supreme god was Bilu-Bili, “ the Lord of Lords,”
at Babylon, and Asur in Assyria, both being sometimes
called briefly Ilu, “ god.” The Akkadian Dingira, with
whom he was identified, appears in general not to have
occupied so high a position. The prefect of Kalach, under
King Eaman-nirari, even says in an inscription, “Put
your trust in Nabu, and trust in no other god ! ”

Examples of Assyrian prayers and hymns may be
TIIE SABEANS.

79

found in my Vergelijk. Geschied., p. 391, sqq., and in
Schrader, Die Ilollenfalirt der Istar, Nos. 2-9.

48.   In the religion of the Sabeans of South Arabia,
made known to us by the decipherment of the Himyaritic
inscriptions, by the side of the national gods of a genuinely
Arabic character—such as the principal god Al-makah
(“ the god who hearkens ”), the female sun-deity Shamsh,
and others—we meet with a number of purely Babylonio-
Assyrian gods, but always under their Semitic names or
surnames. Among these are included the supreme Bel,
the moon-god Sin, the goddess Istar in two forms, the
male Af/itar and the female Af/ttaret, and Simdan, .which
can only be the Assyrian name of Nindar. These
instances of agreement, to which must be added others in
the territory of art, may not be invoked as proof that
the religion of the Sabeans is a branch of the Assyrian,
but receive their best explanation from commercial rela-
tions between Chaldea and South Arabia, which were
already at an early period, as is well known, exceedingly
active.

It must not be forgotten that the Himyaritic inscrip-
tions with which we are acquainted are all of a relatively
late date, from the first centuries of our era. Whether
the South Arabic god Nasr, the “ eagle,” is a modification
of Nisruk, as Hea was surnamed, is uncertain, and appears
to me doubtful.

C.   Religion among the West Semites.

Literature.—On the Phenicians, see the Inscriptions
edited and translated by Hamaker (antiquated), Geseniuo
8o

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

(.Monumcnta Pham.), Renan (Mission en Phenic.), De
Voouil (Insert. Semit.), Meier (Erklarung Phceniz. Sprach-
denkmale, i860, and. Ueber die Nabat. Inschrr., 1863,
neither of them deserving of much confidence), and others.
M. A. Levy, Phonizische Studim, 4 parts, Breslau, 1856-
70 (the first part containing a translation of the great
Sidonian inscription), indispensable. Id., Siegel und Gem-
men mit Aram. Phonk., &c., Inschriften, ibid., 1869. On
the great Sidonian inscription, K. Schlottmann, Die
Inschrift Eshmunazars Kon. der Sidonier, Halle, 1868, and
the literature on the subject, ibid., p. 9, sqq. The essay
by H. Ewald, in the Abhandl. der Konigl. Gesellsch. der
Wissenschaften in Galling., 1856, leaves much to be desired.
See further De Vogue, Melanges d’Archceol. Orient., Paris,
1868.

On Sanchoniathon, Bunsen, Egypt’s Place, &c., v. p. 793,
sqq. Ewald, Abhancll. iiber die Phon. Ansicht von der
Weltsch'dpfung und der geschichtl. JFerth Sanchon., Gottingen,
1851. Renan, “ M6moire sur l’Origine et le Caract. V6rit.
de 1’ Hist. Ph6n. de Sancli.,” Mem. Acad. Inscr. et Belles
Lettres, xxiii. 1858, p. 241, sqq. Yf. W. Graf Baudissin,
“ Ueber die Relig. GeschichtL Worth der Phonic.
Geschichte Sanchoniathon’s ” in the Studim, cited below,
pp. 1-46. Sanchoniathon’s Urgeschichte der Phonic., by
Wagenfeld, Hanover, 1836, is a literary fraud.

The treatise of F. C. Movers, Die Phdnizier, vol. i.,
TJntersuchungen iiber die Religion, und die Gottheiten der
Phon., Bonn, 1841, vol. ii., Das Phonk. Alterth., 3 parts,
Berlin, 1849-56, and his article “Phcenizien” in Ersch
and Gruber’s Allg. Encyclopaedic, xxiv. pp. 319-443,
must still be consulted, in spite of his adventurous
hypotheses. On the Phenician religion, see farther
Munter’s Religion der Karthager, and Der Tempel der
Himmlischen Gotlin zu Paphos, Copenhagen, 1824. C. P.
THE WEST SEMITES.

8 r

Tiele, Vtrgelijk. Gesch., p. 415, sqq. Al. Muller,
“Astarte” {Silzungs Berichte der Wiener Ahad., April 10,
1861), and “ Esmun ” (ibid., February 24, 1864).

It is unnecessary to give a list here of the extensive
literature on the ancient history and religion of Israel,
which may easily be found elsewhere. Of the recent
works on Hebrew mythology and polytheism, I name
only H. Oort, Be Dienst der Baalim onder Israel, Haar-
lem, 1864. Id., Het Menschenoffer in Israel, ibid., 1865.
A. Bernstein, The Origin of the Legends of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, transl. from the German, London (no date).
W. G. Com. de Baudissin, Jahve et Moloch, sive de ralione
inter Deum Israelitarum et Molochum intercedenle, Leipzig,
1874. Id., Sludien mir Scmit. Ileligionsgesch., part i., Leip-
zig, 1876. I. Goldziher, Mythology among the Hebrews,
transl. by Russell Martineau, M.A., London, 1877. M.
Schultze, Handbuch der Ebraischen Mythologie, Nord-
hausen, 1876, full of the most hazardous conjectures and
the wildest combinations.

49.   The religion of the Western branch of the
Northern Semites, the Arameans, Canaanites, and Phe-
nicians, bore quite a different relation to the Babylonio-
Assyrian from that of the Sabeans. They did indeed
occasionally adopt, even in historical eras, the worship
of one or another deity from the Assyrians, hut the
resemblances between their mythology and the Meso-
potamian date from prehistoric times, and confirm the
tradition that they themselves also once dwelt in the land
of the Two Rivers. They must have quitted it before
the fusion of the religious system of the Akkadians with
the Semitic was so complete, as we already find it among
the early Babylonians. At any rate, neither the two
S2   RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

triads nor the Akkadian deities belonging to them,
neither Samdan nor Marduk, occur among them. Only
of the -worship of Sin and Nahu do any clear traces
present themselves around and in Canaan; hut these
deities appear to have been already the property of the
Semites before their entry into Mesopotamia. The names
Ba'al and Ba'alith, however, applied to their principal
gods, ‘Ashtoreth, perhaps also Asher and Ashera and
‘Anatli, can only have been brought by Canaanites
and Plienicians from Chaldea.

That Ba‘al and Ba'alith were generic names of the prin-
cipal deities, or rather simple epithets, only occasionally
applied in later times for brevity to a particular god, has
been proved, in my judgment, in my Vergelijk. Geschkd.,
pp. 452-458. I have, indeed, seen it denied (for ex-
ample, by Graf Baudissin in his Jahve et Moloch, p. 35),
but not refuted. I observe with satisfaction that Dr.
Matthes, in liis article “ Mytlien in het O.T.” in the
Theol. Tijdschr., 1877, No. ii., accords with my views.
Further investigation has confirmed me in this belief.
Schrader’s correct observation that the Babylonian Bel
and the Phenician Ba‘al are not identical, I would
rather express by saying that the principal deities of
the Babylonians and Phenicians do not correspond,
except in the circumstance that they both of them bore
the title of Bel-Ba‘al, “ Lord.”

‘Ashtoreth is no other than Istar with a feminine
termination, in accordance with the Phenician idiom.
Asher and Ashera correspond tolerably well with the
Assyrian Asir and Asirat, the first being probably the
original form of the name of the god Asur (the “pro-
pitious,” the “giver of prosperity”), and the second a
THE CANAANITES AND PHEN1CIANS. $3

surname of Istar. But I do not offer this as more than
a conjecture.

50.   The same remarks hold good in still higher mea-
sure of their cosmogony, and of many of their myths.
Myths such as those of the fighting and dying sun-god
(Melqarth, Samson), of the spring-god who likewise dies
(Adonis, Tammuz), their legends of Paradise and the Mood,
and several other of their ideas and usages, were all Ak-
kadian in origin, and could only have attained their
Semitic form in Mesopotamia. From the Akkadians, in
like manner, were probably derived the cruel and unchaste
forms of worship which distinguished them from the other
Semites, as well as the consecration of the seventh day as
a Sabbath or day of rest, the institution of which cannot
therefore be ascribed to Moses.

On the myth of Samson, which was applied in Phenicia
both to Melqarth and to Eshmun, see Kuenen, The Reli-
gion of Israel, i. p. 307. Schwartz, Sonne, Mond und
Sterne, pp. 130, sqq., 221, sqq. Steinthal, in the Zeitschr.
fiir Volkerpsych. und Sprachwissensch., ii., p. 129, sqq.,
translated in the appendix to Goldziher’s Mythology
among the Helrews, p. 392, sqq. Meyboom, Raadselachtige
Verhalen, and Godsd. der Noormannen, p. 270. The god
is no other than the Assyro-Akkadian Herakles, Nindar,
or Samdan, the dead sun-god, represented as a giant
who strangles a lion. The Adonis myth, also, in which
the youthful god of the spring, the beloved of Istar,
dies, and is mourned by her, has now been discovered
in the Akkado-Babylonian epos. See Lenormant, Le
Deluge, pp. 25, 29. G. Smith, Daily Telegraph, Sept.
20, 1873. Schrader, in the Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Mor-
genldnd. Gesellsch., xxvii. p. 424, is of opinion that even
84

RELIGION AMONG THE SEMITES.

the name Tammuz was not unknown in Mesopotamia.
This view is also shared by Lenormant.

That the Sabbath, the rest-day, on the seventh day of
the week, passed to the Semites from the Akkadians, was
conjectured by Oppert and Schrader, and has now been
proved from the texts by Sayce, Academy, Nov. 27, 1875,
p. S54, cf. Trans. Soc. Bill. Archceol., 1874, p. 207. In
the JFest. Asian Inscrr., ii. 32, 16, the very word sa-
bahiv occurs in a vocabulary, with the explanation, “ a
day of rest for the heart.”

51.   The development of this religion among the Phe-
nicians possessed a special character of its own. An
industrial, seafaring, and commercial people, they gave a
national form to the Mesopotamian myths, and moulded
the god Eshnrun with the Kabiri, and Ba'al ‘Hamman, the
god of the solar fire, with his consort Tanith, into the
representatives and propagators of Phenician civilisation.
In many respects their theology agrees with that of the
Israelites. In later times they seem to have been com-
pletely dominated by Egyptian influence, and, in their
eagerness to imitate the Hamitic civilisation, to have
brought even their religion, at any rate externally, into
concord with it.

Perhaps even Eshmun and the Kabiri were derived
from Egypt. These last I formerly regarded erroneously
as the gods of the seven planets. They rather corre-
spond with the seven helpers of the creative deities Ptah
and Chnum, with whose functions we have become better
acquainted through monuments recently deciphered.
Asmunu, however, occurs in the Babylonian inscriptions.

52.   The culminating - point of the religion of the
THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL.   S$

Northern Semites was reached in that of Israel. During
the thirteenth century before Christ a considerable por-
tion of Canaan was gradually conquered by this small
nation. They entered the country on different sides,
possessing, a religion of extreme simplicity, though not
monotheistic. It did not differ in character from the
Arabian, and approached most nearly, it would seem, to
that of the Qenites. Their ancient national god bore
the name of El-Shaddai, but it is not without reason that
their great leader Moses is supposed to have established
in its place before this period the worship of Yahveh.
To him also was ascribed the composition of a funda-
mental religious and moral law, the so-called Ten Words.
Undoubtedly this deity, by whatever name they may have
designated him, was the dreadful and stern god of the
thunder, whose character corresponded to the nature
which surrounded them and the life which they led.

The history of the development of the Israelite religion
requires to be studied independently. I state here only
what is necessary to bring out clearly the relation in
which it stands to kindred forms of worship. Moreover,
the brief summary here presented needs no detailed
explanation, since ample expositions of the subject will be
found in Kuenen’s Religion of Israel, my own Vergelijkende
Geschiedenis, and other recent works.

The latest discoveries in the field of ancient Babylonian
literature give rise to the question whether the traditions
of the Israelites about their origin really belonged to
them, or whether they appropriated them from the
Canaanites. Does the tradition of Abraham’s migration
from Ur of the Chaldees, and of the sojourn of the
patriarchs in Canaan and Egypt, really furnish us with
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