for existence. Then why hover in the dream-land of a prehistoric connexion with the Aryans ?

When the Arabian traditionary stories are once subjected to etymological treatment, it will appear how far Semitism is from utter deficiency of Mythology. In certain instances I have taken occasion to demonstrate this with reference to Arabian tradition in the course of this work (e.g. p. 182 et seq., p. 334 et seq.). In other cases no reference to the etymological meaning of the proper names is required to recognise true Arabian myths. Instances are found especially in the stories about the constellations. Al-Meydânî informs us that the old Arabs say that the star al-Dabarân wooed the Pleiades, but the latter constellation would have nothing to do with the suitor, turned obstinately away from him, and said to the Moon, What must I do with that poor devil, who has no estate at all?' Then al-Dabarân gathered together his Ķilâs (a constellation in the neighbourhood of al-Dabarân), and thus gained possession of an estate. And now he is constantly following after the Pleiades, driving the Ķilâs before him as a weddingpresent.' 'The constellation Capricorn killed the Bear (na'sh), and therefore the daughters of the latter (binât na'sh) encircle him, seeking vengeance for their slain father.' 'Suheyl gave the female star al-Jauza a blow; the latter returned it and threw him down where he now lies; but he then took his sword and cut his adversary in pieces.' The southern Sirius (al-Shi'ra al-yamânîyyâ) was walking with her sister the northern Sirius (al-Shi'ra al-shâmîyyâ); the latter parted company and crossed

1

1 See Ibn Ya'îsh's Commentary on the Mufaşṣal of Zamachsharî, p. 47, in which the name of the constellation al-'Ayyûk (Auriga, 'The Hinderer') is imported into this story, as hindering al-Dabarân from coming up with his beloved.

the Milky Way, whence her name (al-Shi'ra al-‘abûr). Her sister, seeing this, began to weep for the separation, and her eyes dropped tears; therefore she is called the Wet-eyed (al-gumeyşâ).' The existence of similar Hebrew myths may be inferred from the names of constellations in the Book of Job (XXXVIII. 31, 32), especially from the Fool (kesîl, Orion) bound to heaven. Are not these genuine Nomads' myths, produced through contemplation of the constellations and their relations to one another?

In conclusion, I must observe that in many passages, especially of the later chapters, a fuller citation of literary apparatus would have been desirable. The want of this is to be ascribed in part to the peculiar design of the book, and in part to the deficiency of aid from libraries for the exegetical department in my dwelling-place.

1al-Meydânî, Majma' al-amthâl (ed. of Bûlâķ), II. 209.

2 See Nöldeke in Schenkel's Bibellexikon, 2nd ed. IV. 370.

MYTHOLOGY AMONG THE HEBREWS.

CHAPTER I.

ON HEBREW MYTHOLOGY.

§ 1. AT the very foundation of the investigations to which this book is devoted, we find ourselves in opposition to a wide-spread assumption: that in regard to Mythology nations may be divided into two classes, Mythological and Unmythological, or in other words, those which have had a natural gift for creating Myths, and those whose intellectual capacity never sufficed for this end. It is therefore desirable to lay down clearly our position in regard to this assumption, before we advance to the proper subject of our studies.

The Myth is the result of a purely psychological operation, and is, together with language, the oldest act of the human mind. This has been shown conclusively by the modern school of mythologists who are also psychologists. Assuming then, what can scarcely be called in question, that the same psychological laws rule the intellectual activity of mankind without distinction of race, we cannot a priori assume that the capacity for forming myths can be given or withheld according to ethnological categories. As there is only one physiology, and every race of mankind under the influence of certain conditions produces the same physiological functions in accordance with physiological laws, so it is also

with the psychological functions, given the stimulus necessary to their production. And this stimulus acts upon mankind everywhere alike. For it is clearly proved that the Myth tells of the operations of nature, and is the mode of expressing the perception which man at the earliest stage of his intellectual life has of these operations and phenomena. These form the substance of the Myth. Consequently, wherever they act as attractions to the youthful human mind, the external conditions of the rise of Mythology are present. Not unjustly, therefore, it seems to me, has a recent psychologist spoken of the 'Universal Presence and the Uniformity' of myths.1 Undoubtedly the direction of the myth will vary with the relation of natural phenomena to mankind; the myth will take one direction where man greets the sun as a friendly element, and another where the sun meets him as a hostile power; and in the rainless region the rain cannot act the same part in Mythology which it plays in the rainy parts of the earth. The manners and usages of men must also exercise a modifying influence on the subject and the direction of the Myth. As in the course of our further inquiries we shall recur to this point, I will here only refer to one example of the latter. It is well known that in the Aryan mythology, 'the milking of cows' is a frequently recurring expression for the shining of the sun, or as some say for the rain. In tribes which do not milk their cows, like some Negro peoples,2 or the American natives, this mythical expression can of course not arise.

§ 2. There are two points of view, from which the Mythical faculty has been denied to certain sections of the human race on the one side a linguistic, on the other an ethnological. As to the first, we must especially name Bleek, the distinguished investigator of the South African languages, who, in the introduction to his work

1 Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, 1869, VI. 207. 2 Theodor Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, II. 85.