lEiijrarp of ©dental Stubies A SELECTION OF THE PAPERS READ BEFORE 2Ii)e ©rirntal (Ului) of Iftilabrlpijia 1888=1894 BOSTON GINN & COMPANY 1894 lUOO The present volume is issued by the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, to mark the successful termination of the first five years of its existence. It contains a selection of the papers prepared by the members for the monthly meetings; and in laying before a larger audience of scholars these results of studies conducted in various fields, the Club hopes to make a modest contribution to Oriental philology and archaeology. The papers are published in the order in which they were received by the Publication Committee. Each author contributing to this volume assumes the responsibility for his views. Philadelphia, May, i8g^. (3) CONTENTS. PAGE Preface 3 The Oriental Club of Philadelphia 7 Officers 11 L,isT OF Members r2 LrisT OF Meetings and Papers 14 The Physical Geography of India 17 Morton IV. Easton. An Interpretation of Psalms lyXXIII and XC. . 35 Marais Ja straw. IvITerature of Chinese IvAborers . . 52 Stewart Culm. The Alphabets of the Berbers 63 D. G. Drintoyi. Who Were THE Ancient Ethiopians? 72 IV. Max Mailer. Native Israelitish Deities 86 George A. Barton. (5) 6 CONTENTS. PACJI-: A Legal Document OF Babylonia ii6 Morris Jastrow, Jr. A Numerical Fragment from Nippur 137 H. V. Hilprecht The Holy Numbers of the Rig-Veda 141 Edward Washburn Hopkins. The Change from Surd to Sonant in Japanese Compounds 160 Benjamin Smith Lyman. The Aryan Name OF THE Tongue 177 H. Collitz. The Feather and the Wing in Early Mythology. 202 Sara Yorke Stevenson. The Book of Ecclesiastes 242 Paul Haupt. THE ORIENTAL CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA. BY THE SECRETARY, - - The Oriental Club, of Philadelphia, was organized April 30th, 1888, at an informal meeting held at the house of Mr. Talcott Williams, in response to a circular letter in which those invited "were requested to co- operate in forming an Oriental Society in Philadelphia, that shall bring together those interested in the several fields of Oriental study, for the interchange of ideas, and the encouragement of Oriental research." This invitation, signed Henry Clay Trumbull, Benjamin Smith Lyman, John P. Peters, Morris Jastrow, Jr., Herman V. Hilprecht, Edward W. Hopkins, Talcott Williams and Stewart Culin, was very generally ac- cepted, the following persons being present at the meeting : Tatsui Baba, Stewart Culin, George Dana Boardman, Joseph F. Garrison, M. W. Easton, Herman V. Hilprecht, J. Rendel Harris, jMorris Jastrow, Jr. Edward W. Hopkins, Benj. Smith Lyman, Philip H. Law, Isaac Myer, E. Y. McCauley, R. W. Rogers, John P. Peters, Mayer Sulzberger, John Stronach, Talcott Williams, . Henry Clay Trumbull. (7) 8 THE ORIENTAL CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA, Letters were read from the Rev. Dr. Corcoran, of St. Charles' Seminary, Overbrook, William Goodell and Paul Haupt and Cyrus Adler, expressing an interest in the proposed Society. After a general discussion of the advisability and objects of the proposed Society, a com- mittee was appointed to prepare a form of organization, and to nominate officers. Upon their report, the following Constitution was agreed upon: CONSTITUTION. Section i. The name of this organization shall be the " Oriental Club of Philadelphia," and its object shall be the pro- motion of Oriental studies by friendU' intercourse between students, and such other means as may from time to time be determined. Sec 2. The Officers of this Club shall be a President, Secre- tary and Treasurer, elected annually at the meeting nearest June ist, who shall constitute an Executive Committee to transact all the business of the Club, including the election of members and the fixing of dues. At a meeting held at the house of Mr. Lyman on the 14th of the following month, it was agreed that all who attended the first meeting, together with those who accepted the invitation by letter, be regarded as mem- bers of the Club. It was ordered that each member shall pay to the Treasurer a sum not exceeding one dollar per year for the current expenses of the Club. It was also agreed that the Council of the Club shall receive all nominations for membership, and after com- municating them to the Club, shall in a reasonable time thereafter proceed to pass upon them. At a subsequent meeting, it was decided that the number of members shall not exceed 30, including those who resided outside of the city. THE ORIENTAL CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA. 9 Benj. Smith IvVmaii, who had been appointed a dele- gate of the Chib to the meeting of the American Oriental Society at Boston, reported that he had had the honor of announcing the formation of the Club to that Society, and that there was a prospect of its hold- ing its next meeting in Philadelphia, in the autumn of the present year. At a meeting of the Club held on the i8th of October of the same year, the death of Mr. Philip Howard Law was announced as having taken place in Philadelphia on the 22d of May, in the 50th year of his age. Mr. Talcott Williams called the attention of the Club to the importance of preparing a card catalogue of tlie Oriental manuscripts and texts in the public and private libraries of this city. The ninety-sixth regular session of the American Oriental Society was held in Philadelphia on October 31st and November ist of this year, the members of the Oriental Club generally participating in the meetiug. A luncheon was given by the Oriental Club to the members of the Oriental Society, at the Bellevue Hotel on the second day, and in the evening a reception was given by Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, as President of the Club, to meet the members of the American Oriental Society. At a meeting of the Club held on the 13th of Decem- ber, the death of the Rev. John Stronach was an- nounced as having taken place in this city on the 29th of October, and of Mr. Tatsui Baba, also in this city, on the ist of November, in the 39th year of his age. At a meeting of the Club held on the i8th of February, 1892, the death of the Rev. Dr. Joseph F. Garrison was announced as having taken place in Camden, N. J., on lO THE ORIENTAL CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA. the 29th of January, in the 70th year of his age. The death of another member, the Rev. Dr. William J. Mann, which took place on June 20th, 1892, was announced at the meeting held November loth of that year. At a meeting of the Club held on the 9th of February, 1893, the question of publishing a volume containing papers read before the Club was discussed, a committee on this publication was appointed consisting of Daniel G. Brinton, Morris Jastrow, Jr. and E. W. Hopkins. This committee was subsequently increased by the addition of .Stewart Culin. The total membership of the Club during the five years of its existence has been thirty-one; of whom five have died, two removed and two resigned, leaving at present twenty-one members. Forty meetings have been held, comprising one special business meeting and thirty-eight meetings for the read- ing of papers and discussions. Thirty-six papers have been read before the Club. OFFICERS, 1888-1889. Pr-esideai—WElsiRY CLAY TRUMBULL. Secrefaty— STEW ART CULIN. 'Jrt'asurer—UO'R.rO:^ W. EASTON. 1S89-1890. Fresidenl -HURMA-N V. HILPRECHT Secre/ary—ST-EW ART CULIN. Treasi/irr— MAYER SULZBERGER. 1890-1891. Fresideni— MAYER SULZBERGER. Secretary— STEWART CULIN. Treasnre7-~-BE^]. SMITH LYMAN. 1891-1892. Fresideni—BEy:]. SMITH LYMAN. Secretary— STEW ART CULIN. 7>Ya5«;rr— MORRIS JASTROW, Jr. 1892-1893. Freside f I t—TAhCOTT WILLIAMS. Secretary— STEWART CULIN. Treasmrr— MORRIS JASTROW, Jr. 1893-1894. Fresideiii— EDWARD W. HOPKINS. Secretary— STEWART CULIN. 7;rrt.?/^;-d'/-— BENJ. SMITH LYMAN. (") LIST OF MEMBERS. Cyrus Abler, Ph.D. Founder. Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Tatsui Baba. Founder. Died November i, 1888. G. A. Barton, Ph.D. Elected December 17, 1891. Associate in Biblical Literature and Semitic Languages, Brj-n Mawr College, Brj'n Mawr, Penna. George Dana Boardman, D. D., LL.D. Founder. Resigned De- cember 12, 1889. Daniel G. Brinton, M. D., LL.D., Sc.D. Elected October 18, 1888. Professor of American Archfeology and Linguistics, L'niversity of Pennsylva- nia, Philadelphia. Hermann Collitz, Ph.D. Elected December 13, 1888. Associate Professor of German and Teutonic Philology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Penna. Stewart Culin. Founder. Director of the Museum of Archceology and Palaeontologj', University of Pennsylvania. Morton W. Easton, Ph.D. Founder. Professor of English and Comparative Philology, University of Pennsylvania. Joseph F. Garrison, D. D., LD.D. Founder. Died January 29, 1892. William Goodell. Founder. Resigned November 13, 1890. J. Rendell Harris, A. M. Founder. Removed. Herman V. HilprECHT, Ph.D. Founder. Professor of Assyrian, University of Pennsylvania. Paul Haupt, Ph.D. Founder. Professor of Semitic Languages, Johns Hopkins University', Baltimore. Edward W.\shburn Hopkins, Ph.D. Founder. Professor of Greek, Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Penna. ( 12 ) LIST OF MEMBERS. I3 Marcus Jastrow, Ph.D. Founder. German town, Philadelphia. Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph.D. Founder. Profes.sor of Semitic Languages, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Philip Howard Law. Founder. Died May 22, 1888. J. Peter Lesley, LL.D. Elected October 18, 1888. 1008 Clinton Street, Philadelphia. Benj. Smith Lyman, M. E. Founder. 708 South Washington Square. William J. Mann, D. D. Elected December 13, 1888. Died June 20, 1892. Admiral E. Y. McCauley, U. S. N. Founder. 334 South 9th Street, Philadelphia. W. Max MtJLLER, Ph.D. Elected December 11, 1890. 4543 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Isaac Myer. Founder. 21 East 60th Street, New York City. John P. Peters, Ph.D. Founder. 225 West 99th Street, New York City. Robert W. Rogers, Ph.D. Founder. Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J. John Stronach, D. D. Founder. Died October 29, 1888. Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson. Elected January 15, 1891. IJon. Curator PIgyptiau Section, Museum of Archseology, University of Penn- sj'lvania. Mayer Sulzberger, M. A. Founder. 1303 Girard Avenue, Philadelphia. SwAMEE Bhaskara Nand SaraswaTEE. Elected February 13, 1890. Removed. Henry Clay Trumbull, D. D. Founder. 1031 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Louis Vossion. Founder. Consul de P'rance, Philadelphia. Talcott Williams, M. A. Founder. 331 South Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia. LIST OF MEETINGS AND PAPERS. The papers marked with a * are published in the present volume of the Oriental Club. 1888. April 30. May 14. Dec. 13. 18S9. Jan. 17. March 14. April 25. May 28. Nov. 26. Dec. 12. 1S90. Jan. 9. Feb. 13. March 13. Organization. Organization. Discussion opened by John P. Peters of the plans for the proposed University of Pennsylvania Expedition to Babylonia. Paper by Morris Jastrow, Jr. : "Fragment of Brick with Cuneiform Inscription, from the Library of Asurban- apal." ' Paper by Morton W. Easton : "Primitive Conditions." Paper by Stewart Culin : " Chinese Games with Dice." ' Paper by Marcus Jastrow : " Gladiators in the Talmud." ^ Exhibition of Arabic MS., with Comments, by Dr. Trum- bull. Accounts were given by Daniel G. Brinton of his recent visit among the Kabyles ; by Herman V. Hilprecht, of his personal experiences as a member of the Babylonian Expedition of the Universit}- of Pennsylvania ; ajad by Talcott Williams, of a trip to Fez and Mequinez. Paper by Daniel G. Brinton : ' ' The Cradle of the Semites. "* Discussion of the preceding paper, by Morris Jastrow, Jr. Continuation of discussion by Morris Jastrow, Jr.* Paper by Talcott Williams : " The Historical Survivals ot Morocco." ^ ' Published in the Universitj- of Pennsylvania Series in Philology, L,iterature and Archseology, under the title, " A Fragment of the Dibbarra Epic." 1891. - Privately printed. Philadelphia, 18S9. 3 Published in the Sunday-School Times, May — , 1889. * Published under the title, "The Cradle of the Semites." Two papers, etc , by D. G. Brinton and Morris Jastrow, Jr. ^ Published in the " Papers of the American Historical Association " for 1892. (14) LIST OF MEETINGS AND PAPERS, I5 April 10. Paper by Edward W. Hopkins : " The Garden of Paradise and the Deluge." May 15. Paper by Morton W. Easton : "The Terrace at Perse- polis. " ' Nov. 13. Paper by Morris Jastrow, Jr. : "The Text Books of the Babylonians and Assyrians." ■^ 1891. Jan. 15. Address by John P. Peters : " Itinerary to the Site of Ex- plorations in Babylonia." Feb. 12. Address by William N. Chambers: "Civil Polity of the Armenian Church" ; and by W. R. Abbott, on "Adven- tures in Madagascar." March 19. Paper by M. W. Miiller : "The Relations between the Egyptian and Semitic Languages." April 25. Paper by Paul Haupt : * "The Book of Ecclesiastes." Nov. 19. Paper by Morris Jastrow, Jr. : " Letters from Palestine" ; '^ "Notes on Psalms 120-122," by Paul Haupt. Dec. 17. Paper by Dr. Jannaris :" The Mohammedan Household.'" 1892. Jan. 15. Paper by Stewart Culin : "Popular Literature of the Chinese in the United States."* Feb. 18. Paper by Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson : " Early Forms of Religious Symbolism, the Stone Axe and the Flying ^un Disc."* March 17. Extemporaneous Account of his Recent Travels in the East in the Interest of the Columbian Exposition, by Cyrus Adler. April 14. Paper by Marcus Jastrow : "Psalms 24th, 73d, and 90th." * May 12. Paper by Morris Jastrow, Jr. : " Babylonian Contract Tab- let in the Collection of Mayer Sulzberger." * Nov. ID. Paper by G. A. Barton : "Some Features of the Semitic Ishtar Cults." Dec. 8. Paper by Talcott Williams : "Music and Musical In.stru- ments of North Morocco." '■ Published in the University of Pennsjdvania Series in Philology, Literature and Archaeology. Vol. II. 1892. * Published in Extract in the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, Oc- tober, 1890. => Published in Hebraica, Vol. VIII., under title, 'The Letters of Abdiheba." i6 LIST OF MEETINGS AND PAPERS, 1893- Jan. 12. Feb. 9. March 16. April 13. May II. Nov. 9. Dec. 14. 1894. Jan. II. Feb. 22. March 22. April 12. May 10. Paper by Morton W. Easton : " The Physical Geography of India." "■' Paper by Daniel G. Brinton : " Alphabets of the Berbers."" Paper by Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter : " Explorations in Cyprus." Paper by Herman V. Hilprecht : " Sargon I. and the Oldest Semitic Rulers of Babylon." ^ Paper by Dr. W. Max Miiller : "Asiatic Nations as Re- corded in the Egyptian Monuments."''^ Paper by W. Max Miiller: "Who Were the Ancient Egyptians ? " * Paper by G. A. Barton: ' ' Some Israelitish Deities ; "* Com- munication by Herman V. Hilprecht on "A New Nu- merical Fragment."* Paper by E. W. Hopkins: "Holy Nimibers of the Rig Veda."* Papers by Benj. Smith Lyman on "The Change from Surd to Sonant in Japanese Compounds ; " * by Daniel G. Brinton on "The Origin of Holy Numbers ; " and by Herman Collitz * on "The Aryan Name of the Tongue." Paper by Herman V. Hilprecht : "The Boss of Tarkon- demos." Paper by Paul Haupt on "The Rivers of Paradise." Paper by Morris Jastrow, Jr., on "The Element bst in Hebrew Proper Names;" and by Stewart Culiu, "On Mancala." 1 Embodied in Vol. I. of Hilprecht's " Old Babylonian Texts." - Embodied in MUller's work, " Asien und Europa uach Altaegyptischeu Denk- maelen." THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. BY MORTON W. EA'STON. The territory drained by the Ganges, the Brahmapu- tra, the San-po and the Indus, with their adjuncts, and the peninsula stretching from the Vindhyas to Cape Coniorin, do not, in all their aspects, form one connected whole. Peninsular India, in its geologic history, its ethnology, and its philology, is almost another world ; in the remote past it was an island, and in some respects it has always preserved its insular character. Yet the climatic conditions are such that, especially to the mete- orologist, all these lands form one single district, and one distinctly marked off from the rest of Asia. Its extreme length is about 1,900 miles, its extreme breadth about the same, and its total area is nearly as great as that of the continent of Europe west of Russia. Considered in its relation to the Asiatic continent, its orography and its coast line, it has often been compared to Italy, and for certain purposes this comparison is a good one ; it serves as a good starting point for the study of the mountain systems and the j^rincipal hydrograph- ical basin, although every farther step taken in the study of the two lauds and peoples only brings their differen- ces into stronger contrast. Italy is naturally adapted to be the seat of one empire. Like Italy, India is isolated on the north by the main mountain system of the continent to which it belongs; (17) l8 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. south of these mountains, each country has a 'quadran- gular plain, drained by a great delta river flowing to the east, and both countries alike have narrower peninsulas stretching towards the south. The northern mountains of India consist in part of the broken rim of the vast central plateau of Asia, above which their average elevation is by no means great ;* in part of S)stems of spurs running southwards and bounding the Indo-Gaugetic quadrilateral on the east and west. The rim of the plateau is made up of a number of imperfectly known mountain systems, among which the Himalaya proper is but one, and perhaps by no means the loftiest. But at present, it is not possible to determine the precise limitations under which the name Himalaya should be used — some geographers con- sider that it should be applied only to the long line of eternal snows seen from the Gangetic plain — yet, what- ever be the nature of the rocks, it does not seem far wrong to use the term of the whole series of elevations extending from Attockf on the Indus to the sacred gorge of the Brahmaputra, at the head of the Assam valley on the east. Throughout the whole of this tract, extending 1,400 miles from east to west, there is no break through which any important part of the drainage of the Tibetan plateau can find its way. The Indus and the San-po, now considered as the upper stream of the Brahmaputra, rise close together at the north and flow, in opposite directions, around its ends. The average height of the whole mass is 19,000 feet, and when it is remembered * 2,000-3,000 feet. fAttock has only 1,000 feet of elevation; therefore a marked de- marcation point. THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. I9 that the table land behind it is rarely less than 16,000 feet above the sea, mnch of it higher still, the serions character of the barrier in this direction needs no com- ment. The strnctnral featnres of the region are as yet imper- fectly known; political conditions render part of it inac- cessible; but, apart from certain lower ranges on its southern border, it may be regarded, as consisting of a pair of parallel lines of elevation, often close together, sometimes separated by broad but comparatively speak- ing shallow valleys.* Whether there is one, or more anticlinal and synclinal axes is unknown. The north- ern line forms a continuous watershed, but the southern is greatly broken up by watercourses flowing to the south, so that the resulting surface contour resembles a vast number of parallel ridges, running transverse to the general east and west strike of the whole, but joining at the north to form the continuous watershed described above. At the southern ends of these short ridges stand the highest peaks in partial and impressive isolation. One hundred and twenty of these peaks attain a height of over 20,000 feet; fifty-seven are over 23,000; Mt. Everest and Kinchinjinga attain respectively an altitude of 29,000 and 28,000 feet. It is not worth while to at- tempt to determine precisely the precise summits named by the Hindoo authors of antiquity. The site of the range was once a trough of the sea: later, but still in the remote, geologic past, when it was much lower than now, it was washed by the sea all along its southern base ; then came a period of great lateral compression, pushing up the whole mass of the * Never less than 15,000 feet above the sea. 20 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. central Asian plateau and its mountain masses, while a great plain emerged on the south, occupying the site of the present Ganges and the lower Indus. Across the east of the plain ran a ridge connecting the Assam and the Rajmahal hills at a point not far from the head of the present delta ; the plain sloped westward and was drained by a great river, which attained the sea at a point north of the head of the present Arabian Sea. In late tertiary times, a low ridge appeared, dividing the plain into two portions, while the hills which had filled the gap between the Assam and the Rajmahal ranges sank down hundreds of feet below the Bay of Bengal. West of the new ridge, the country was tra- versed by the Indus; on its east appeared the Ganges, flowing in a direction just the reverse of that of the old river, crossing the sunken crest of the connecting hills, and carrying, in its delta, the new coast line far to the east. The waters of the Arabian gulf receded, and the plains about the lower Indus arose. The watershed dividing the Indus from the Ganges has attained no great elevation, only 924 feet above the sea, and its slopes are so gentle that its existence cannot be detected by the unassisted eye. Thus there is not the slightest natural barrier between the plain of the Ganges and the district of the Punjaub, and the ignorance, if real, on the part of the Vedic Indians concerning the great stream and the fauna farther east must have been due to other than topographical conditions. The Indus plain and its adjuncts are of such interest to Sanscrit students that I shall speak of it at length further on. The Ganges districts lie so low, and are so well watered in parts, that, when the latitude is consid- ered, one would expect to find it a tropical paradise. THE PHYSICAT. GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. 21 But travelers dwell but little on the character of its scenery; for most of them, it may be presumed that it is not their first introduction to the tropical world, while the dead level everywhere may perhaps lack certain pic- turesque elements. We hear, however, of the "clumps of waving and delicate bamboo, the tamarinds, the huge banyans and the slender palms; of the cottages half hid- den by the large-leaved gourds, and overshadowed by the gigantic glossy leaves of the plantain, all alive with vast flocks of the most brilliant birds." With these scant hints, it is easy to imagine the prevailing condi- tions, and these are perhaps intensified in the Assam ex- tension of the Gangetic plain. It is densely populated, containing three times as many inhabitants to the square mile as France; every ounce of nutriment in good seasons is consumed, and yet the people are underfed, so that the failure of the rains infallibly brings on destruc- tive famines. Yet even along the Ganges plain one who goes from Calcutta to Delhi sees much desolate land. The rapid torrents from the steep gradients on the north cover large areas with unproductive detritus; the Ganges itself often changes its course and leaves great marshes where the malaria is deadly to human life. The scenery among the Himalayas, on the contrary, should be the most sublime scenery to be found on the globe. Of certain views this is true, but on the whole, the records of travelers sound a note of disappointment. The main ridges rise from bases so high that the effect of the great elevation is partly lost, while they are also screened by the hills consisting of or connected with the foot ranges. One observer says that the finest view of Everest is to be obtained from a point ninety miles away, 22 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. and even from this only 8,000 feet of its mass is visible! From Simla, the ridge seems "only a long, serrate, white line, hardly higher than your own level, every separate peak dwarfed by its multitudinous neighbors." On the whole, Sikkim affords the best views; there the observer stands but 2,000 feet above the sea and sees the whole cone of Kinchinjinga towering 26,000 feet above him. On the upper Indus is what has been described as the most magnificent snow view on the globe. "Below the observer is a precipice falling sheer 16,000 feet. Before him lie the Nangaparbat mountains; a mass of glaciers, snow-fields, ice-cliffs and jagged needles of bare rock, visible for its whole 24,000 feet of vertical measure- ment." Figures such as these are not vulgar; they alone can give a conception of the aerial effect which totally separates such scenery from any on a much smaller scale. Yet, in general, the impression won everywhere seems to be that of monotony. That the visible vertical meas- urements do not often exceed those seen in Switzerland is perhaps not at all to the point; but the grace and variety, and above all the charming lake scenery of the Swiss Alps, is everywhere wanting. Turning now to other parts of the northern circle of mountains, we may pass briefly over the region on the north-east, beyond the Assam range. It is a wild and broken mountain tract, but the density of the jungle, rather than the character of the gradients, serves as a barrier, and one very difficult to surmount. On the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, most maps show an apparently broad strip of level country, but the route is practically closed up by mountain spurs running from the water-shed of the Irrawaddy to the sea. THE PHYSICAL OROGRAPHY OF INDIA. 23 On the north-west of India, and over Kafiristan, is a region of central importance in connection with the physical geograpliy of Asia considered as a whole. So far as concerns India in particnlar, it needs only to be remarked that the obstrnctions in this direction are no less formidable, to say the least, than those existing eastward in the Himalayas proper. Southward from this, west of the Indus depression, runs a spur of the great central plateau, but very much lower in mean level. Cabul, at 6396 feet elevation, may be taken as the general height of the country; but it is crossed in every direction by great interlacing mountain ridges, in which lie long narrow levels, as fair and under irrigation as fertile as Italy, the land of Afghanistan. North of Cabul the summits are free from snow during eight months of the year, and present no formidable obstacle to the movements even of modern artillery. This was the route of the early Chinese pil- grims to Buddhistic India ; Alexander and Genghis Khan came this way, and it, if any, is the future road of a Russian army. The valley of the Cabul river is bounded on the south by the Sufid Koh, and running east and west, never falling below 12,500 feet. The trade route to India from Cabul, for many centuries, led directly over its crest. The road by the renowned Khaibar pass, directly down the river, and over a short spur through a deep gorge, is in itself easy, but difficult where an armed force is in the way. The Sufid Koh abuts with many spurs on the Indus, rendering a long stretch of its shore impracticable. Southward from the Sufid Koh run the Sulimani mountains. They resemble, in surface con- tour at least, the Himalayas ; there is a twin ridge, with 24 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. an uninterrnpted water-shed, between which and the Indus is a broken line, in which, as in the Himalayas, are the highest summits. Their loftiest peak, the Takht-i-Sulimani (throne of Solomon), is over ii,ooo feet in height. It and the jagged line of crests of which it is the chief, rather than the far higher Himalayas or the peaks above Kafiristan, may have been the mighty mountains of the Vedic poet. This higher axis of the Sulimani ends in a great promontory, once perhaps a bold headland over the eocene ocean. But the west- ward lying axis, the true watershed, keeps on, gradu- ally diminishing in height to Cape Monze on the Ara- bian Sea. Throughout this whole chain of mountains, south of the Cabul river, the passes are almost innumerable. Many of them while " not precisely easy," present noth- ing to hinder any properly equipped force from debouch- ing at many points upon the plain of the Indus. But along the lower Indus and to the eastward, the desert renders the march difficult, and the proper road for an invading army lies through a narrow, fertile strip lying along the base of the Himalayas. The reason for the existence of this and of the desert will be given further on. At present I may note that it is to these strategic considerations that Delhi owes its existence. But the fertile belt is cut across by many streams, the "seven rivers" of the Hindoos, and among these a force might keep invaders in check, if the defenders were resolute. But any one who weighs the circumstances well and re- members how much more inviting were the basins of the Euphrates, the Tigris and the Nile, must feel that the Ganges valley was always secluded rather than defended. Like Germany in Roman times, it probably owed its THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. 25 safety to the neglect of the Western powers, a conclu- sion not invalidated, in either case, by the adverse issue of single campaigns. In peninsular India, the geological history and the structure of the country are very different from the con- ditions north of the Vindhyas. "There* is not in the Peninsula a single great range with a definite axis of elevation; not one, with the possible exception of the Arvali, is along an anticlinal or synclinal line. It is a table land, denuded by subaerial agencies, and the mountain chains are merely dividing lines left unde- nuded between the different drainage areas. All the principal elevations are plateaux, not ridges." We should picture to ourselves the whole peninsula as a vast truncated pyramid, f sloping to the east and deeply scored by watercourses, the principal ones rising on its extreme western rim, which find their way through an intricate tangle of irregular ridges into the Bay of Bengal. Along the eastern side of this pyramid lies a broad flat plain, over which the streams have raised for themselves dykes, along the summits of which they flow to finally end in a succession of deltas. Over one part of the surface of the pyramid cover- ing an area about as large as the whole of France and to a depth of six thousand feet, has flowed a sheet of eruptive rock. This has settled into a uniform level, and its surface has become extremely porous, so that much of the rainfall over the interior, insufficient at best, sinks deep into the thirsty soil and is lost. In consequence, the traveler finds, to his surprise, bare arid *Medlicott and Blandford. 1300-3,000 feet of elevation. 26 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUE. plains where he had expected to see a country rich in tropical vegetation. The north side of the pyramid is constituted by the Vindhyas (using the term in its widest sense), a confused jumble "of forests, ridges, peaks, cultivated valleys and broad high plains," nowhere of great elevation, yet from the dense vegetation, and still more from the deadly miasm prevailing along their northern slopes, serving as a complete barrier to intercourse with the regions on the north. Most of the districts south of the Vindhyas are shut in, on the remaining two sides, by the Ghats. The Western Ghats, bordering on the Arabian Sea, are the higher,* and are clad with impenetrable forests, nour- ished by one of the heaviest rainfalls known. Along their feet runs a narrow belt of level land, fringed with a beach of bright yellow sand, and covered with endless groves of the coco-palm, out of which jut here and there bright red cliffs of eruptive rock washed down from above. Over the forest-clad slopes hang precipices of peculiar form, not unlike great circular bastions. It is under these natural bastions that the steep defiles run by which alone access can be gained from the west coast to the interior, and a small force posted above can hold an army in check. The scenery along all this coast resem- bles that of certain of the high islands of Polynesia, and is perhaps the only instance of such scenery on a conti- nental scale. The Eastern Ghats, facing the Bay of Bengal, cannot be said to form a continuous range, and there are many * Averaging 4,000 feet, but the mountains attain 8,400 in the Neil- gherry hills; the Eastern Ghats rarely rise above 1,500. THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. 27 gates by which the interior, in parts, can be reached, so that Calcutta, rather than Bombay or Goa, is the key to the peninsula. Yet there are many river defiles, and many tracts forming- natural fortresses, impregnable to any arm which the native rulers could command. Trav- elers testify that it is in these defiles that the most pic- turesque scenery to be found in India is to be seen. The comprehension, in outline at least, of the rela- tion to the lowlands of the various mountain systems of both the Indo-Gangetic plains and peninsular India, is indispensable, not only in order to understand the various degrees of isolation under which the various peoples live, with relation to the rest of Asia and to each other, but also to comprehend the distribution of the rains, a subject of special interest to the student of the whole of India. The year is divided into a hot season, lasting from April to November, during which the southwest mon- soon, the rain-bringing wind for the greater part of the country prevails, and a colder season, the period of the northeast monsoon. The origin of the southwest monsoon may be said to be still a subject of debate. Under conditions which also are as yet imperfectly understood, it is deflected from its normal course so as to blow as a more or less east or west wind directly over the land. The part of it which traverses the Arabian Sea turns over the peninsula. From the Bengal Bay branch of the monsoon, a west- wardly directed current blows up the long trough lying between the Himalayas and the system of the Vindhyas, followed a few weeks later, in a reverse course, by the northern part of the branch coming from the Arabian Sea. 28 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Both branches let fall an excess of rain on their first encounter with the land. Two to three hundred inches of rain per year, sometimes more than twice as much, fall on the Assam hills and the Ganges delta, and two hundred and fifty inches on the west slope of the West- ern Ghats. But the Bengal Bay branch lets fall less and less rain as it advances up the Ganges, and brings but very little to the region lying west of the divide between the Ganges and Indus basins ; for the other branch about seventy-five inches are registered at Bom- bay, thirty-five over the Ganges, and almost none in the interior of the peninsula; at Madras it becomes a hot dry wind. Along the slopes of the Himalayas, the precipitation from both branches of the southwest monsoon is very great, and, indeed, but little moisture from these sources reaches the central plateau beyond. In consequence the phenomena of snow, glacier and avalanche, are on the grandest scale, far exceeding anything known elsewhere in the world in the temperate or the tropical zones, and not surpassed in the display of active, moving forces by anything in the Arctic regions, excepting in the ice- bergs of Melville Bay, or those in the Antarctic Seas. Denudation goes on at a rate paralleled nowhere else. During the height of the monsoon some of the moun- tain torrents are little else than streams of mud, and the vast delta formed by the united Ganges and the Brah- maputra testifies to the destructive agency of the feeders of these streams, which bring down five times as much sediment as our Mississippi, The detailed statistics of the rainfall in various parts of the land are exceedingly interesting, but cannot be given in full here ; no doubt the figures given above THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. 29 will prove sufficiently suggestive. It may be noted, however, that the winds blowing at this season over the lower Indus seem to come not from the sea, but from over the arid regions on the west ; and in this part of its course the river flows through a desert ; no rainfalls occur. The northeast monsoon becomes saturated in crossing the Bay of Bengal, and is the source of the rainfall over the east coast, and the interior of the peninsula. In the latter region, the amount of precipitation (above thirty- five inches) about equals that registered in the north- eastern parts of the United States, but this is, in India, considered a very insufficient supply, especially in the districts covered with the porous eruptive rock described above. However, by an interesting arrangement of compensation, the principal water-courses have their sources on the summits of the Western Ghats, and so both of the monsoons contribute to swell their volume while irrigation on a stupendous scales goes far towards supplying the deficiencies of the rainfall. Over the lower Indus, as I have already said, there is practically no rain at all. Some years are exceptional, and a few inches may fall, from what source is not clear; meteorologists talk vaguely of upper currents in the at- mosphere. At the junction of the Indus and the stream formed by the combination of the five rivers, the annual precipitation attains about six inches; but this is totally inadequate for the support of a permanent, succulent vegetation. So also between the five rivers in their lower courses, the land is everywhere barren, except along the borders of the canals which have been dug for the purposes of irrigation. Even the torrents which at certain seasons come down "from the outer mountain slopes soon sink into the thirsty soil and disappear. 30 PAPKRS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. The Indus, the five rivers, and the Sarasvati make np the vi^ell-known "seven streams. " All of these except the Sarasvati derive their supply from the melting snows, a perennially flowing fount, and the rains of the highest crests of the Himalayas; the Sarasvati depends entirely upon the low outer hills and the periodical rains, so that at times it is only a feeble stream and never reaches the sea. In former times the conditions seem to have been different; there seems to have been a much greater pre- cipitation, and at that time this river must have held its own throughout the year; at the same period, the belt of fertility along the base of the mountains ex- tended much farther to the south. The country about the lower Indus is thus simply a continuation of the great desert lying west. To the east lies the desert of Thar, where there is not a single stream for hundreds of miles. It is covered with great num- bers of sand dunes, some of them nearly four hundred feet in height, so arranged that they seem to require the assumption of the past prevalence of a different system of winds from that now existing. During the greater part of the year they show a scanty growth of long- rooted almost leafless plants; after some slight fall of rain, and for a brief space of time, they afford pasturage for herds of cattle driven in by a temporary immigrant population, which is compelled to wage incessant war with great numbers of fierce wolves, just as little per- manent occupants of the. soil as themselves. A few wretched Bhils manage to find subsistence there all the year through. Between the desert and the sea is the strange Runn* * Solitude. THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. 31 of Cutch, stretching about 150 miles to the eastward, and, in some places, sixty miles to the northward. Its history is too' well known to need recounting here, and affords valuable evidence as to the manner in which the levels farther north may have been produced through the agency of earthquakes. It is almost perfectly flat, excepting a slight convexity at the centre, and the southwest monsoon drives the sea over the entire plain, covering it with three feet of water, slightly increasing in depth at the depressed rim. In the drier season it is incrusted with salt, but after a period of scanty rains, it is covered here and there with little lakes, blowing about from place to place. Only a few tamarisks grow on its surface, and the only noticeable animal life con- sists of herds of wild asses, which feed on its margin at night, and take refuge in its centre during the day. It is crossed at all seasons by caravans, toiling over the hot, salty plain, or, during the monsoon, wading through an apparently boundless sea. But mirages, due to the unequal circulation, and violent tornadoes, caused by the fierce heat of its saline incrustation, make it an uncanny and a dangerous land. The subject of the physical geography of a country is inseparable from the consideration of its flora and fauna, and above all in the case of an association, such as is ours, which is chiefly interested in anthropology and philology. But in the time allotted me, it is impossible to touch upon these points. Even w^ere I to confine my- self to the treatment of the characteristics of the various native peoples, a single paper which should atiempt to cover the whole of India could do no more than to re- count, in bare outline, facts perfectly well known to all. It is a subject imperatively demanding abundant detail. 2,2 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. In tlie choice of the details given in the foregoing pages, I have, however, constantly borne in mind, and attempted, snb silentio, to cast some light npon the pe- cnliar problems that are presented in India by the marked preservation of snch great and infinite diversity in races, forms of speech, and institutions, trusting that the simple presentation of the very interesting physical conditions will at once connect itself with these well known characteristics of the various peoples. I speak of the preservation, not of the origin of these characteristics; the sum of these could not be accounted for by any description of the climate and topography of India, however extended it might be; the Indo-Germanic native peoples ran through no small part of their course of development in a different land: the whole range of the Himalayas is occupied by the Mongolian stock, and so on. Nor is it indeed easy to believe that the physi- cal geography of any land can ever afford the solution of such problems, unless the question is as simple as that relating to the connection between the defective nour- ishment of a people and its palpable consequences on their pln'sical conformation. Indeed, it is necessary to lay special emphasis on the limited territorial district from which certain national characters may have radiated. The Roman type, for instance, was not Italic:- it spread from one city, and perhaps originated from a very few families in this. Above all, this may be true of religious conceptions when assuming any well-defined form. Buddhism, even though we give no credence to its childish legends, has all the aspects of a creed originally emanating from one individual; and why appeal to Himalayan torrents, miasmatic swamps, and the " hot-house atmosphere of TIIR PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. 33 the Gano^etic plain," when one single favorinq; spot might — if we knew where ''to find it — acconnt for his pessimism, and certain social conditions for the eager reception of his teachings. Only those who have paid some attention to the un- warrantably discredited stndy of genealogies and pedi- grees, know to what an extent the blood of a few Indi- vid nals is diffused among, for instance, the English speaking peoples of Great Britain and America. I am not advancing the hypothesis of'the origin from single pairs, either for the present or for any period of the past — the analogies of evolution are all against such an assumption — but there is good reason for believing that in course of time the blood of a single pair may come to permeate a whole tribe or people and bring with it iden- tity of at least physical characteristics. Botanists recognize certain species of plants having "stations" of very limited area, perhaps one particular pool, or the bank of one particular stream, with specific characters which may be due to certain very exceptional combinations of soil, water-supply, altitude and expo- sure to wind and sun. So it is quite as possible as any- thing else that the physical surroundings in some little valley, hardly large enough for a homestead — icbi fans placuit — may have been the cause of the special charac- ter of some single family, w^hich is afterwards to become not indeed the whole ancestry, but one of the progenitors of every individual in the nation; and still more possible that exceptional social surroundings — for instance, acci- dental opportunity to command its neighbors — may have had more to do with its mental endowments than any obvious physical environment. A people's history is the resultant of the physical geography of the coun- 3 34 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. try, and their original environments. In this light the study of the physical geography of the country is of the last degree of utility, but it contributes little to the solu- tion of the question of origins. AN INTERPRETATION OF TWO PSALMS. PSALM LXXIII. BY MARCUS JASTROW. And 5'et there is a boon for Israel, A God for those pure in heart. But I — my feet had well nigh wavered, It lacked but little and my steps had slipped. For I envied the merry-makers, When I beheld the peace of the wicked; For there are no fetters for their ilk, And their nature is strong. In the trouble of man, they share not, And with mankind are they not afflicted. Indeed, their necklace is haughtiness. Violence their fine embroidered cloak. Their scheme has left the fat of their reins, The carsangs of their heart have gone forth. Mockingly they speak of the evil ; " It is a wrong from on high," they say. They set their mouth against the heavens. And their speech travels quickly over the land : " Truly, let his people turn hither. And waters of fulness shall be quaffed by them, And let them say, ' How does God know, •Or is there knowledge in the Most High ? Plere are the villains. And the prosperous men of the world — The}- increase in wealth. Verily, in vain have I cleansed ni}- heart. And washed my hands in innocency; Yet have I been plagued all the day long, And my chastisement was renewed with every morning. (35) 36 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. If I said, "Thus will I speak," Behold, here is the generation of thy children To whom I should be faithless. But thinking, I came to know this : A trouble is this in my eyes, Until I shall enter the sanctuaries of God, When I shall get an insight into their destined end. Verily, on slippery ground hast thou made a foundation for them. Thou castest them down into ruins. How are they turned into desolation in a moment ! They are gone, they have ceased from terrifying, As a dream disappears on awakening ; Lord, at the awakening Thou makest contemptible their image. — When my heart was fermenting, And in ni}- reins I was stung, 1 was foolish and, knew not That animal-like I was with thee. But I will always be with thee ; Thou seizest me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. Until at last thou takest me away in glory. Whom have I in the heavens .'' And besides thee I want none on earth. My flesh and my heart are consumed : The rock of my heart and my portion Is God forever. For behold those far from thee Shall perish ; thou silencest Every one that strayeth awa}- from thee. But I — the nearness of God is my boon. I place in the Lord God my trust. To proclaim all thy messages. There are in the above translation onh' a few devia- tions from the accepted version, whicli need a jnstifica- tion. Vmo/haJii^ in verse four, is translated in the King James' version and others ''in their death" (from ma- AN INTERPRETATION OF TWO PSALMS. 37 vetJi). ]\Ir. Leeser lias "for them", taking Pmotham as a poetic form for P viohein or lanio. In Talmndic He- brew we have Ic* mothi for kamothi^ Jc' motJio for kavioJiu^ etc. VviotJiani might therefore be transLited by "for tliose people," "people of that ilk." The usnal translation oi yasa mehelcb enc7no "their eyes stand out with (or from) fatness," apart from its harshness of expression, is physiologically incorrect. It is the eyes of haggard persons that stand forth. We take ^ayin to be scheme^ piau^ (cf. Job, xi. 20 and xxxvi. 7) nnd Jiclcb to be a poetic expression for kilyah^ kidney^ with which Jielcb is frequently associated (cf. Lev. iii. 4, 10, and the expression "fat of kidneys of wheat," Dent, xxxii. 14). The kidneys are to the He- brew the seat of deliberation and counsel; the heart, the seat of thought and speculation. In our poem, the heart is compared to a quarry or workshop in which the marble is hewn and shaped into niaskiyoih. The figure of speech gains additional significance by reference to Leviticus xxvi. i, where ebe7i maskith is shown, by the context, to mean a carved stone used as an idol. When the work is finished, it leaves the workshop to be exhibited to public gaze. So have the carvings of those wicked men left the w'orkshop — the heart — just as their schemes have gone forth from the kidneys in which they were planned. To this figure of speech corresponds "image," {se/e??i)\n verse twenty, where it says, "Thou despisest" — z". e. showest the contemptibility of — "their image." Of minor deviations from the accepted version, I shall mention onh- ya''citdf shitJi in verse six. The union of these words (by means of the Makkef) proves that ya''atof is here meant to be a noun. As a proper noun Yadkob is 38 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. formed from ^akab : so a nonn, ya''atdf^ is formed from ''dtaf^ the construct being ya''dt6f^ a wrap. The last word of onr psalm, via/dkhofhekha^ usually translated "thy works," has been taken in the sense oi nialdhkuth (Haggai, i. 13), "message." As a parallel to our psalm, as well as in illustration of it, let us read the utterances of that prophet, who, both in style and teiiperament, approaches most nearly to a mean between the two divisions of Israel's religious poetry — the prophetic and the psalmodic : "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee : yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments : Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? where- fore are all they happy that deal treacherously? "Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit : thou art near in their mouth and far from their reins. But thou, O Lord, knowest me : thou hast seen me and tried mine heart, toward thee : pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. " How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts are consumed and the birds ; be- cause they said, He shall not see our last end." (Jere- miah xii. 1-4.) Both the prophet and the psalmist of whom we speak lived in one of those epochs of human history when despair threatens to seize noble and s}'mpathetic souls. I would call them the "might-makes-right" periods. Power, in self-glorification, occupies the throne; her minions surround her, covering all defects with flat- tery's gorgeous cloak; her self-seeking servants greedily seize the morsels of spoils which are thrown out from AN INTERPRETATION OF TWO PSALMS. 39 the tents of tyranny. Festivity in the palaces, weeping in the huts ; revelry amono^ the upper thousands, star- vation among the oppressed ; wealth and abundance the portion of the cruel, poverty and toil the lot of the pure in heart. And where, during all this time, is the ever- living, the ever-wise, ever-beneficent, all-ruling God whom Israel's teachers proclaim ? to spread whose name among the nations, Israel was commissioned at Sinai's foot? "Come, ye foolish ones, ye who still keep aloof from the seat of tyrannical power, who prefer bearing the weight of oppression to ranking among the oppres- sors! Don't you see, the world is a fish-pond ; the large fish swallow the small ! Come with us, kneel down be- fore the throne of might, and partake of the crumbs of plenty that fall to our share from the table of despot- ism !" This is the theme: numberless are the varia- tions upon it in all such periods when "might makes right." The noble-hearted hear this proclamation of the rule of material force, and sigh and ponder, and ask question after question. No response comes to them, and their faith is shaken to its very foundations. A moment of such deep despair gave birth to our psalm. It begins with a protest against the singer's own doubts. "And yet Israel possesses a boon, the pure hearted /zrtz^^aGod," of whom no ill fate can rob them. His own feet came very near going astray, his steps had well nigh slipped. "I envied," says he, "the merry-makers, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no fetters to restrain them, they have a strong consti- tution," The conscientious find restrictions at every turn. "Conscience doth make cowards," says Hamlet, the pessimist. Where the thoughtless man rushes for- ward, trusting in his strength, the pure-hearted asks, Is 40 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. it right? and hesitates, while tliose who recognize no power but material force have reached the goal ere he has yet made a start. "Happy are the merry-makers," says he, "for in the misery of humanity they share not, and when men suffer they feel no pain." To the psalm- ist, in his despairing mood, sympathy with suffering humanity is a source of misery and distress: happy are those whose hearts beat not for others. Even more, "haughtiness is their necklace, violence their fine em- broidered cloak." There are periods in the history of a nation when the crafty despoilers of the people no longer find it necessary to hide their wicked schemes, but rather boast of them openly. So says the poet. They boast of their wrongs, "their schemes have gone forth, have left the fat of their reins." As we said before, by the ancients, the kidneys were held to be the seat of counsel, of scheming— " the carv- ings of their hearts have left their workshop" — they are on exhibition, a psalmist of our day would say. Further- more, they speak scornfully, they talk of oppression as an evil. "It comes from on high," they say mock- ingly. "They set their mouth against heaven, and their speech travels quickly over the land." "It is your God," say they to the suffering believers in divine jus- tice. "Therefore, let his people come hither, and let them quaff water in full draughts." What boots it to suffer for an idea? It is time to cast off the yoke of use- less martyrdom in order to drain freely the cup of earthly pleasure. "Let his people come over to us and say, 'How does God know? How can I say there is a Prov- idence? Here are those whom I call wicked constantly increasing in prosperity, while I am sorely afflicted, and misery is my portion.' " AN INTERPRKTATION OF TWO PSALMS. 41 The mockery here placed in the months of the wicked seems even more strikino^ to ns when contrasted with the prophecy of Isaiali. He foretells the time when the nations will recognize that Israel has suffered for their good, when they will say: "He was despised and shunned by men, a man of pains and acquainted with disease; but only our diseases did he bear himself, while we considered him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." In our psalm just the reverse is expressed. The enemy says, " Let the faithful of God's people come over to ns, and admit that all martyrdom was in vain." For a moment our poet wavers. He thinks, "Sup- pose I speak in the same vein, suppose I dissemble, and pretend to give np my mission, suppose I surrender" — but he looks at the young, the growing generation, and feels that he would be faithless to them, to Israel's fu- ture, were he, though but in appearance, to join the ranks of the persecutors. But how is the problem to be solved ? Why is the way of the wicked successful ? Why do the faithless prosper? "And in my reflection," says he, "I learnt this: the wrong and the misery that I see about me are such in my e\es only while I am here on earth, until I enter the sanctuary whence God directs the world, until I shall be able to look beyond the narrow present, and see the vast future unrolled before me. Wrong is a cas- tle built on slippery ground, a rock on an inclined plane — one shock, and the stronghold is shattered! What ap- peared so frightful in the dark, the spectre that imagin- .ation conjured up in the twilight, disappears when the sun rises, and we laugh at our fears. The morning comes, the dream is fled, and when the hour of awaking arrives, the Lord shows the schemes of the wicked in their true, contemptible light. 42 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. And now our psalmist turns from the sufferings of his people to the condition of his own soul. Was he right to murmur against divine dispensations? Was not his very doubt a departure from God? "No," says he, "when my heart was troubled, when I felt the stinging in my reins, I was indeed ignorant, for I knew not that even unconsciously I was with thee. ' ' Is not indignation at the sight of wrong a manifestation of the deep-seated sense of right in the heart of the noble? As a discord offends the finely attuned ear of the musician, so the true man's heart is torn with emotion when he sees the weak oppressed and the strong haughty. This bitter- ness of heart is in itself an instinctive worship of the all-just God. "But," continues the psalmist, " I will always be with thee; thou seizest me by my right hand, thou wilt my allotted portion. " Make known to us the principle of the life-time allot- ted to us," i. e. teach us the true meaning and purpose of life, especially of the l^e of the Israelitish nation, "that our hearts may gain in wisdom, that we may learn to know thy Providence." This idea is in complete accord with the prayer of the prophet, "Make me know thy •way that I may know thee, in order that I may find AN INTERPRETATION OF TWO PSALMS. 47 grace in thy eyes" (Ex. xxxiii. 13), the parallel to which we find further on in the chapter, in the words, "Let me see thy glory." (V. 18.) After these preliminary remarks, we may turn to the elucidation of the meaning of the poem. The poet reflects how God has ruled from the begin- ning of all things, how he has ever been the guide and the teacher of mankind. He selects the term 777a'' on to express the idea of Providence, Just as 77iako7)i from kii77i signifies place and also that which gives permanence (hence in post- biblical Hebrew it is used to indicate God), so does 77ia''o7i mean gla/ice {vide i Sam. ii. 32, .?<7r 77ia^07i, with envious glance), provision {ib. v. 29, dsher sivvilhi 77ia''07t^ the offerings which I have commanded as a provision for the priests), and personified, Frovide7ice. The sig- nification, diuelli7ig-place^ must be traced to a different association of ideas, an investigation of which lies out- side the limits of this essay. God's providence, says the poet, is eternal and un- changing. He ruled before the earth was brought forth, and his existence will ever continue, from everlasting unto everlasting. This reflection leads the poet to think of the first tnan, of death decreed as a punishment for his sin. At that tin-ie God said to him, "Dust thou wast, to dust thou shalt return," for Adam had been warned, " On the day that thou eatest therefrom, thou shalt surely die." Our poet uses the term dakka (crumbs), instead of ''afar (dust), and he sings, "Thou sentest man back to the dust when thou saidst. Return, ye children of men." (Gen. ii. 17, and iii. 19.) Adam, it is true, attained the age of nearly one thou- 48 PAPERS OF THK ORIENTAL CLUB. sand years; but in comparison with God's eternity, a thousand years are but as yesterda}' when it is past, etc. God pours out a thousand jears like rain, and when past, they are but as a night's sleep, a dream, a vision. ]\Ian's life is even as the life of a flower; he, too, lives but for a day, a morning and an evening; he, too, blooms and fades awa)'. The comparison of the life of man to the life of a flower (Is. xl. 6-8 ; li. 12; Ps. cii. 12 ; ciii. 15 ; cxxix. 6, et al.) is so frequent in biblical dic- tion that rhe poet could employ kehasir^ "the grass- like" as a designation for man. After this general observation, the poet turns his at- tention to the existing situation. He sees the human flowers rearing their heads proudly aloft in the morning, and at evening withered and cut down. A plague works havoc among the people against whom the anger of the Lord burns fiercel)-; and his wrath is just, for their sin ascends before the judgment- seat of the Lord to accuse them, even though the offend- ing object has been removed from the eyes of men. Man seeks to conceal his fault, hence the poet uses ^ahimeniL as a parallel to ''dvonothemi. If God will not, in his mercy, cry a halt to the devas- tating plague, the nation whose existence has but just begun must perish from the earth, like a thought that is forgotten when scarcely conceived. And what is the length of man's life, his day of ex- istence? Seventy years, at most eighty jears (about the age of Moses, which he looks upon as a special fa\-or of Providence,) and its boast is but pride and vanity. A wind passes over the flow^ers, and they are blown away. The abstract term Jiisli (haste) is used for the concrete riiali (wind) (vide Ps. ciii. 16), just as dakka was used for "afar. AN INTERPRETATION OF TWO PSALMS. 49 '* Who understands- the strength of thine anger, and that like the fear of thee is thy wrath ?" Kimchi has explained this difficult passage correctly by a reference to Lev. x. 3 ("on those who are near unto nie will I be sanctified," etc.) Both Bible and Talmud again and again express the thought that he who is destined for high purposes, he from whom great things are expected, bears a heavier weight of responsi- bility than the ordinary human being, and must suffer more severe punishment for his sins. It is unnecessary to cite particular instances. Such is the idea here ex- pressed by our poet. It is true that the very violence of divine wrath against Israel is a proof of its high mission, that the Lord's indignation is in proportion to the reverence for him expected from Israel and promised by it: but who can understand the law of God's rulership? Whose is the wisdom rightly to com- prehend and appreciate these divine dispensations? Therefore he prays that God may reveal to him the true principle of (Israel's) existence, in order that man may gain wisdom from the trials of life. In the same spirit Moses exclaims, "Let me know thy ways that I may comprehend thee," or "Let me behold thy glory." He prays that the majesty of the Lord may return to Israel's camp, that God may again become reconciled to his chosen servants, that thereby may be made man- ifest the principle underlying life. If the Lord's mercy were shown them in abundance now in the morning of their existence, happy would be the consequences throughout the life of the people, joy would brighten their entire career, *'We will sing (the praise of the Lord), we will rejoice all our days." 4 50 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. It would surprise us greatly uot to fiud iu this poem any reference to the sufferings in Egypt, since the passage, in Exodus referred to speak so frequently and with such emphasis of the deliverance from slavery. And indeed, the reference in verse 15 is more than a mere allusion. In a truly poetic spirit, the bard makes use of the fact that the sinning people has but just risen from the degradation of slavery to the heights of national existence. "Give us joy even as the days of our sufferings, the years wherein we knew evil." After centuries of op- pression and slavery, may not a people justly lay claim to the happiness which the Lord, in his mercy, can be- stow upon them? Therefore, let the present generation clearly behold Qodi^s mercy, let its reflection brighten the path of all posterity. What is the visible sign of God's return to his peoples of his forgiveness? "For wherein shall it be known, in any wise," says Moses, "that I have found grace in thy eyes, I with thy people? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be distinguished, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth." The erection of a portable dwelling in which God re- sided in Israel's midst when Israel halted, and which journeyed with it when it went on its way, the build- ing of the tabernacle and the divine worship connected with it, form this visible sign. The Midrash, with delicate insight, connects the end of our poem with the completion of the tabernacle. (Nunii Rabbah, 12). In this particular, too, the psalm stands in close rela- tion to the Pentateuchal text. The elevation, the sub- •AN INTERPRETATION OF TWO PSALMS. 51 liiTiity of this prayer that God may firmly establish and sanctify the work of man, dispels the gloomy and depressing air surronnding this poem, which has so freqnently led to the misinterpretation of our psalm as a pessimistic reflection on the vanity of human life. M. POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE CHINESE LABORERS IN THE UNITED STATES. BY STEWART CULIN. Romances, dramas and song books constitute the greater part of the Chinese literature current among the Chinese laborers in the United States. There ex- ists, however, a remainder, covering a wide range of subjects and consisting of selections from the folk literature of Southern China, as opposed to the national classics. It is to this, the practical part of the popu- lar literature of our Chinese, that I shall refer in this paper. In it both moral treatises and philosophical writings are conspicuously absent, and the canonical books that are well known at least by reputation in the West are not represented. A spirit of respect for an- tiquity and for what is right and proper prevades it, as indeed they pervade almost the entire field of Chinese literature, yet there are few books of a distinctively re- ligious character, either Confucian, Taoistic or Buddh- istic, among it, nor is the slightest reference to Christianity to be found in the contents of the thin vol- umes that are piled on the shelves in our Chinese shops. The absence of devotional literature, it should be ex- plained, is probably due to the lack of demand on the part of the Chinese here, as such publications hold a prominent place in the literature of the millions in China. Tracts are, in fact, frequently placed for dis- . (52) UTERATURE OF CHINESE LABORERS. 53 tribiitioii in the Chinese shops in New York city, and recently a thin pamphlet entitled ^'' Krvdn Tai niing shiug king; or, The Enlightened Holiness Classic of the God of War,'' was tlins offered in the shop of the "Wo Ke" Company in that city. Like the novels, the books to be described are, with two exceptions, printed on brown Chinese paper from wooden blocks. No indication of the use of movable types is to be observed in them, nor of foreign influence in their manufacture. Their title pages are usually printed on yellow paper and bear the full name of the book and usually its date, with place and name of its publisher. The name of the writer, when it occurs, is usually appended to the pre- face or introduction. First among them, at least in point of variety, if not in intrinsic worth, are the almanacs which are annually received from China. They are so varied, so curious and full of interest, that I shall leave them for a more ex- tended notice than I can give them here, and proceed at once to the subject of divination, upon which several popular treatises are found. An hereditary descent is claimed for works on divination from the Yik King^ or "Book of the Changes," and when an attempt is made to obtain information concerning the subject from the Chinese here, they always refer the inquirer to this highly unintelligible book. The most voluminous of these works found on our booksellers' shelves is entitled Tsang sJianpiik yik^ or " Casting Lots, Revised and Cor- rected," by Li cJio tsz. This book, in 12 duodecimo volumes, describes a method of divination by means of 64 cards, or slips of bamboo, called kzvd ts^im^ of which a set is exhibited in the collection of objects used in for- 54 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB, tune telling in the Museum of the University of Penn- sylvania. This system of divination, which is very complicated, is highly esteemed by the Chinese, and it is said by the Chinese here to have been invented by Man Wong^ and is hence known as Man Wong Kwd. Man- Wong is the name by which C/i'cung^ Duke of Chatc (B. C. 1231-1135), was canonized. It is said that dur- ing two years he passed in prison he devoted his leisure to composing an arrangement of the Yik King^ or " Book of Changes." Another treatise, in a single volume, is entitled Ngd p" di sJian sJib Vb chit ts' eung kdi^ or, " Illustrated Com- plete Explanation of the Divine Numbers of Dominoes," and is, as its name implies, an explanation of a method of fortune telling with dominoes. Lau Chong SJian Seung ts'im pin^ the "Complete Book of Lau Chong's Divine Introspection" is a treat- ise on physiognomy and palmistry. Kwdn tai ling ts'iJii^ or "A%'a;/ Tai^ divining lots" is a collection of verses with commentaries, used when the divining sticks are thrown before the god Kwdn. The pages of this book are numbered from i to 100, and correspond with the divining sticks which bear the same numbers. It is found in use in many shops and laundries, and is oftener referred to than any other work used in fortune- telling. The step from divination to gambling seems a com- paratively short one, and yet, while the latter subject is tabooed, both in letters and polite conversation, a hand- book for calculating the prices of tickets and the re- sulting prizes for the literary lottery called the "White Pigeon Ticket" is sold here. This book is lithographed on thick white paper, and bears no imprint, at least in LITERATURE OF CHINESE LABORERS. 55 tlie writer's copy, but is said to have been made in San Francisco. There seem to be at least two editions, the writer's being entitled Shan_^ ts" oi tsit kitig^ or "A Quick Way to Get Rich." A translation or explanation of this book was published in San Francisco in 1891 by "Pun Wen." This practically anonymous treatise is entitled "The Chinese Lottery Exposed, containing a brief description of the manner by which the Chinese count, combine and establish the different tickets in the Chinese lottery, accompanied by their tables and system of computing in general." The calculations are intricate, and appear to be determined by experiment, none of the methods known to Western mathematicians for shortening such work being employed. This so- called "exposure" is something of a literary curiosity. It can be understood only by one very well versed in mathematics, and is interesting as an illustration of Chinese arithmetical processes. ARITHMETIC. The Chinese were by no means deficient in their mathematical knowledge in the early time compared with other nations, and in the seventeenth century they became acquaintexl, through the Jesuit missionaries, with the science as it was then understood in the West. More recently the Protestant missionaries have trans- lated European text-books, so that facilities for acquiring an advanced knowledge of the subject are now open to them. The only works on arithmetic, however, that are sold here are small manuals for the use of the abacus. One of these in the writer's collection is entitled Kan yik si'oi Jdt kzvai cJi'ii ts'ut ii'i, or "The important part of a summary of easy mathematical rules of multipli- 56 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. cation and division." The first of the two small vol- umes is illustrated with a picture of a schoolmaster with a sun p'vn, or abacus, on the table before him, and a seated pupil who bends over his book. MEDICINE. It is not surprising to find the Chinese here well equipped with books on the subject of medicine, as they are frequently beyond the reach of their physicians, and have to rely upon self-prescribed remedies. The shops sell a book entitled / Tsnng Kam Kdni^ or "The Golden Mirror of the Physician's Temple," which Dr. Wylie pronounces one of the best Chinese works of modern times for general medical information. It was composed in compliance with an imperial order issued in 1739, in ninety books, and consists of several treatises, two of which date back to the Han dynasty (202 B. C- 220 A. D), and were written, according to Dr. Wylie, by the earliest Chinese medical writer, who gives pre- scriptions in addition to theory. The work, as sold here, is incomplete, containing only 40 books, ten of which are devoted \.o ngoi fo^ or "external practice," and 30 to noifo^ or " internal practice," the former cor- responding somewhat with our surgery. A treatise on materia medica is also sold here, the Piui is' b kong milk, or the Chinese herbal. The great work of this name was compiled by Li SJii-clian^ of the Ming dynasty, and comprised an account of 1892 different medicaments. The one used here, an abridgment of the famous original, was published in 1773. It is con- tained in 12 duodecimo volumes, and describes 520 rem- edial agents. The first volume has 477 rude wood-cuts, representing different plants and animal and mineral LITERATURE OF CHINESE LABORERS. 57 substances, which are described in the work. It is not unusual to find Chinese here who are well acquainted with this and the book on medical practice. HISTORY. It has been stated that the historical novels are the only channel through which a large part of the Chinese people obtain their knowledge of history, but there are several popular historical works sold in the shops here. One of these, in two octavo volumes, is entitled Kit Sz' K''ing Lavi^ or "Coral Forest of Ancient Matters." It is prefaced with rude maps of the constellations and of the country of China, which are followed by a picture of the unicorn {Lun) that is said to have announced the birth of Confucius, and opposite to it a picture of the sage himself. After this there is a series of rude wood- cuts representing the legendary heroes of China, com- mencing with Pw'anku, the first man, and succeeded by pictures of the first sovereign of each dynasty down to the present. In the space left for the last there is no picture, but instead the inscription S/iiiig tai mtbi vicdi sni ; literally, 'Supreme Ruler, ten. thousand, ten thou- sand years;" that is, "O King, live forever !" SCHOOL ROOKS. Although there are few Chinese children here, and no Chinese 'school or school-masters who practice their pro- fession, I found several elementary school-books for sale in one of the shops in New York city. They consisted of the first, second and fourth books, as described by Dr. Williams, that are placed in the hands of Chinese children. They are long, narrow pamphlets, of white paper, with red paper covers, and printed in large char- 58 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. acters of the kind called Sintg^ of great beauty. It is the custom for pupils to cover these books with an en- velope of semi-transparent paper, upon which they copy with a brush the characters beneath. The first book is entitled the Sdni Tsz^ Ki^^g^ oi" "Trimetrial Classic," written in the Sung dynasty (A. D. 1050). It begins with a sentence, the first which a Chinese learns at school, and which, according to Dr. Williams, contains one of the most disputed doctrines of the ancient heathen world : Men at their birth are by nature radically good ; Though alike in this, in practice they widely diverge. If not educated the natural character grows worse ; A course of education is made valuable by close attention. ***** As gems unwrought serve no useful end, So men untaught will never know what right conduct is. The next book of the three, although according to Dr. Williams, another called the Pdk-kd-sing^ or "Cen- tury of Surnames," intervenes, is the Tin tsz' man^ or " Thousand Character Classic." which is composed of just 1,000 characters^ no two of which are alike in form or meaning. It is attributed to the sixth century of our era, and treats of man in the various relations of life, in- terspersed with numerous historical illustrations. The third book, entitled Yaii hok shi\ or "Odes for Chil- dren," is written in rhymed pentameters, and according to Dr. WiHiams contains a brief description and praise of literary life, and allusion to the changes of the season and the beauties of nature. DICTIONARIES. The Chinese, according to Dr. Wylie, have bestowed much labor upon the compilation of dictionaries, in or- LITERATURE OF CHINESE LABORERS. 59 der to preserve the purity of the language to after ages. These books may be ranged, on his antliority, in the following three divisions, according to the plan of their construction : First, those in which the words are arranged in various categories fixed upon with regard to affinity of subjects. Next, those arranged according to the radical part of the character, the first work of this kind having been published A. D. 100; and thirdly, those which are arranged in accordance with the tones and final sounds of the characters. It is to this last class to which the native dictionaries used by the Chinese laborers in the United States belong. The book most frequently consulted by them is a thin octavo volume, entitled Tung yam tsz^ hti^ "Collection of characters agreeing in sound." It contains 10,025 characters, arranged in thirty-six divisions, under as many final sounds. These are indicated by well-known characters, placed at the head of each division. This book is thus. as its name implies, a rhyming dictionary. Its chief use is to enable a writer to select the correct character from among those having the same sound, short defini- tions under each enabling him to determine the one with the desired meaning. It is inadequate in many ways. Thus, there are fifty-three finals or rhymes in the Canton dialect, while all the characters in this tsz' liii^ as such books are familiarly called, are arranged under thirty-six final sounds. The person, too, who uses it is supposed to know the sound of the character he wants, as Dr. Williams justly remarks concerning the next described volume. This book, which is sold in the Chinese shops here, is entitled Kong-ii dCik-titk^ Fan-wan ts^'ut-iii hop tsap^ or, as it has been translated by a distinguished scholar of this city, "River and 6o PAPERvS OF THE ORIKNTAL CLUB. Lake (i. e,, universal) letter-model rhyme distinguish- ing selected, important gathered collection." It may be observed that many translations from the Chinese lose much of the force and conciseness of the original in an attempt to bring them into accord with the English idiom. This work, which, according to Dr. Williams, is the standard of pronunciation for the Can- ton dialect, is in the form of a small dudecimo hand- book. The edition sold here is in four volumes, bound in two, and contains 7327 characters. The latter are arranged under the thirty-three finals of the first three upper .tones. Their sounds are repre- sented, as in the tsz'' Iuj\ by standard and well known characters, the remaining twenty finals in the fourth tone, which end in X', p and /, being included under them. The unwritten sounds or colloquial words used by the people of Canton, according to Dr. Williams, are nearly all omitted, which is one of its greatest defects, and renders it far less useful to the foreigner, who is learning the dialect, than the superior local vocabularies of Amoy and Funchan. CHINESE AND ENGLISH. The Chinese and English dictionaries used by the Chinese in the United States have the words arranged in categories, according to the affinity of subjects, a method of arrangement generally adopted in the compi- lation of Chinese dictionaries in foreign languages. TJie one work highly esteemed is entitled Yijig u Tsdp Ts'un^ "English words collected completely," by T^ ong Ting Kit. The copy in the writer's collection, a gift from Mr. Simon Stern, who obtained it at San Francisco, is in six octavo volumes, printed on white paper and protected LITERATURE OF CHINESE LABORERS. 6l by two board covers, between which it is secured by tapes. In its externals it presents a good specimen of high-class Chinese book-making. The author, in a modest English preface, states that it was written by him, "a native of Canton, in the Canton dialect, chiefly to suit the taste of Canton people wlio have transactions or are connected with foreigners. The words are first given in Chinese; then the pronunciation of such words, written in English; then the meaning of those words in the English language; and lastly, the pronunciation of the English words written in Chinese, so that the book is not only useful for Chinese to learn English, but at the same time it will enable foreigners to learn Chinese." The preface bears the date of April 2ist, 1862. The English characters are written fairly and distinctly in script, and the Chinese characters are of great beauty. The book is, in fact, a perfect fac simile of the author's manuscript, which was pasted, sheet by sheet, upon the engraver's wooden blocks, as is the custom with "copy" furnished to the printer in China. This work is most highly esteemed by the Chi- nese as the one best adapted for its purpose, and is cele- brated for the perfection of its English text. Its author, who is living, has since written a book of travels in foreign countries, and obtained a distinguished official position in China. It is or was the custom in Sail Francisco for several Chinese to club together and buy one of these books and hire a teacher to instruct them in the English lan- guage. The original edition is so expensive there that it has been reproduced by a Chinese firm in that city. This pirated edition is lithographed on thick paper and bound in one volume. Neither the Chinese nor the 62 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. American edition of this work is sold in the Chinese shops I have described here, but it is said to be the sonrce of the Chinese and English hand-books that are found in their collections. The one in common use is in two small octavo volumes entitled Fa ying fung i'l or "Chinese and English dictionary." It contains about 2,000 English words, with a number of English phrases, all arranged in categories according to the sub- ject. The words are those used in trade, shipping and domestic service. It is printed on brown paper in the ordinary Chinese manner. The words and phrases are written in ruled spaces in English script, with the cor- responding Chinese text above them, and the English pronunciation written phonetically in Chinese characters below. It bears the date 1872. but, from references to an earlier date in the business forms in the text, was probably written some years before that time. This vocabular)- is too limited and restricted for more than the most elementary instruction in English, and many Chinese use the dictionary by Kwong Ki Chiu, which was published in Hong Kong in 1875. THE ALPHABETS OF THE BERBERS. BY D. G. BRINTON. The Berber tribes are called by some writers, collec- tively Hamites, and by others Proto-Seinites. From the . dawn of history they have occupied most of the area be- tween the Nile Valley and the Atlantic Ocean north of the Soudan. They have also linguistic kinsfolk in Abyssinia and in adjacent parts of East Africa. The ancient Ethiopians or Cushites were of their lineage; Timbuctoo was founded by one of their chieftians, and the extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands were mem- bers of their stock. To them belonged the classical Libyans, Numidians, Mauritanians, and Getulians, and in later times petty tribes innumerable, the most prom- inent of which to-day are the Rifians of INIorocco, the Kabyles of Algeria, the Touaregs or Tamachek of the Sahara, the Mzabis, etc. They extended into Palestine and Syria, and it is probable that the ancient Amorites, Canaanites and their relatives were of Hamitic blood. The physical type of the pure Hamite is that of the blonde, with gray or blue eyes, 3ellowish or reddish hair, tall in stature and dolichocephalic. During two short visits to Nortli Africa in the years 1888 and 1889, I became much interested in the eth- nology of this stock, which offers many most interesting problems. The one to which I shall confine myself at present is its methods of writing. The Berber hordes of to-dav, with one excej^tion, em- (63^) 64 PAPERS OF TH?: ORIENTAL CLUB. ploy the Arabic alphabet, though it fails to render some of the sounds with precision. The exception is that of the Touaregs of the Sahara. They employ an alphabet of their own, of great antiquity and disputed origin. They call it tifiiiar^ which is a plural from the singular tafinek. As in the Berber dialects, the radicals are single or small groups of consonants, invariable, and in- flected by vowel changes: we have in tafinek the quadri- literal radical t-f-n-k^ as is held by Rinn; or, if the initial t be regarded as a neuter prefix, there will be the triliteral roo\.f-n-k. The primitive meaning of this root is a sign, mark, or token by which a place or thing is recognized. Peculiarly-shaped stones or ridges, which serve as landmarks, are called efinagha (Barth). Strictly speaking, the word iifinar- applies only to those letters of the alphabet which can be represented by straight lines; while a number of others, expressed by dots> receive the name iiddebakin (Rinn). All letters, whether simple or compound, can be and usually are written by one or other of these methods, straight lines or dots, as is shown by the alphabet presented, from Hanoteau's Grammaire Tamachek. The cursive script, however, permits the use of curved variants in some cases, all of which are shown on the alphabet I submit. The Touareg alphabet is far from systematic. The order in which the letters are arranged is purely arbi- trary; there is considerable difference in the forms of lettrrs in different tribes; there are no vowel-points like those in modern Hebrew, and no accessory signs to rep- resent pure vowels. What is worse, there is no rule as to whether the script should be read from left to right or from right to left, from above downward or from be- low upward. The assertions made to the contrary by THE ALPHABETS OF THE BERBERS. 65 Hanoteaii and Halevy are disproved by the docinnents published by Rinn, which I show. They were written by native Touaregs to native Tonarcgs. The writer sometimes begins at a corner of the page, and proceeds from right to left or from left to right as he pleases; arrived at the further margin, he turns his sheet, so as to go perpendicularly or in any other way that suits him. As the words are frequently not separated, as punctua- tion and capital letters are unknown, and as the se- quence of the lines is not fixed, it is no easy matter to decipher a Touareg manuscript. When a native under- takes the task, he begins by spelling the consonants aloud, in a chanting voice, applying to them success- ively the various vowels, until he finds the words which make sense (Hanoteau). Imperfect as the alphabet seems, it is in very exten- sive use among the Touaregs, both men and women. Barth found that his young camel-driver could read it with ease. Captain Bissuel writes: "A de tres rares exceptions pres, tons les Touaregs de I'ouest, hommes et femmes, savent lire et ecrire." DuvcN'rier makes a similar statement of the Touaregs of the north. Most -writers, one following the other, have traced the Touareg alphabet back to the Carthaginians, and have sought to identfy its letters with those of the Punic writing. Its history, however, is by no means so easy to un- ravel. That certain of its letters are identical with the Semitic alphabets is unquestioned ; but some of them are not ; and those that are alike, may they not be mere loans, or even independent derivatives, from some one common source? The material to solve these problems must be drawn 5 66 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. from ancient inscriptions. These are b}' no means lack- ing, and prove that an old Berber alphabet was in use in Northern Africa long before the Christian era; 3'es, in the opinion of some archaeologists, as Collignon and Rinn, long before the founding of Carthage. These inscriptions are of two classes, the one carved on dressed stones, such as grave and memorial tablets; the other on native rocks, in situ^ where a smooth sur- face offered a favorable exposure. A large number of the former were copied and pub- lished by General Faidherbe, and have been studied by Professor Halevy. The latter explains most of the let- ters by the Punic alphabet, and presents transliterations and renderings of the epitaphs. His identifications, however, have not satisfied later students. I find, for instance, that while Halevy's " Essai d'Epigraphie Libyque" was published in 1875, Rene Basset, probably the most thorough Berber scholar living, writes in 1887 in his "Grammaire Kabyle:" " Le dechiffrement de ces inscriptions est encore aujour d'hui sujet a contestation, au moins pour le valeur de plusieurs lettres. " In a sim- ilar strain, M. Philippe Berger in his " Histoire de I'Ecriture" (Paris, 1891) rejects nearly all Halevy's ren- derings as incomplete and improbable. This difficulty very much increases when we come to the other class of inscriptions — those engraved on fhe living rocks. The mortuary epitaphs collected by Faidherbe may be referred with probability to a period two or three centuries before Christ; but the rupestrian writing is of much more uncertain age. Some of it has the patine and other attributes of high antiquity; in other instances it is evidently recent. Examples of it are found in abundance on both slopes of the Atlas THE ALPHABETS OF THE BERBERS. 67 range from Morocco to the Libyan Plateau. Unques- tionable instances have been reported from the Canary Islands by Dr, Verneau; Barth found them south of Fezzan; Captain Bernard copied some in southern Algiers; last year M. Flamand described a number of stations in southern Oran; Dr. Hamy has made an in- structive study of them ; and a number of other travel- lers have added to our knowledge about them. They are often carefully and cleanly cut into the faces of hard rocks, and are thus calculated to resist the elements for many generations. What is noteworthy about the oldest types of these rock- writings is this: that while they contain some letters which are common to the Touareg, Libyan, and Punic alphabets, they also present a certain number which are not, and which cannot be explained by them. Thus, in the most recent article on the subject, pub- lished last year in V AntJiropologie^ ]\I. Flamand writes that these glyphs show " bien characterisees, des lettres Libyco-Berberes, et aussi des signes qu'il a ete jusqu'ici impossible de comparer avec aucun de ces alphabets." The copies of these inscriptions which I show will give an idea of some of these unknown signs. They are three in number, and fair examples of hundreds to be seen in the localities referred to. One was copied by Barth at a place southwest of Fezzan; the second by Captain Bernard, near Laghouat; the third by Captain Boucher, near Figuig. While each presents letters identical with some in the Touareg alphabet, or in the Nuniidian mortuary inscriptions, the majority of the letters belong to neither class. Very noteworthy is the resemblance which certain elements in some of the oldest of these rupestrian in- 68 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. scriptions bear to the alphabetifonn siccus cut into the surface of the dolmens and menhirs of Western France and Northern Spain. This resemblance has been forcibly brought out and abundantly illustrated very recently by M. Ch. Letourneau before the Anthropologi- cal Society of Paris. His studies and comparisons have led him to the conclusion that these inscribed figures on the megalithic remains are in many features identi- cal with those on the rocks in Tunisia and the Sahara, and that they represent the rudiments of an alphabet more ancient than the Punic or perhaps the Phenician, one independently derived by the ancestors of the Ber- bers, and carried through their influence far into the area of continental Europe. The probability that in some of these m-egalithic in- scriptions of France we may find traces of some of the ancient Berber alphabets is increased by the undoubted resemblance of some of the Celtiberic characters to those of the Libyan inscriptions. This resemblance is com- mented on in positive terms by M. Berger in his work above quoted, and he considers that it demands for its explanation "an invasion, or at least a penetration, of the African element into the Iberic peninsula" (Hist. de I'Eciture, p. 339). We know that some forms of the Celtiberic alphabet are extremely ancient; and that they had some other origin than from the Phenician is the more likely, as not a single Phenician, Punic, or other ancient Semitic inscription has ever been found in the Iberic peninsula (Berger, ibid., p. 333). If the opinion of Letourneau, above quoted, is well-founded, we may reasonably believe that the primitive Celtiberians par- took in culture, as it is likely they did in blood, with the builders of the Megalithic monuments, though THE ALPHABETS OF THE BERBERS. 69 whether they were "Celtic" or not, may remain an open qnestion. It is the opinion of some carefnl students, therefore, and it seems evident, that for a portion of the ancient Libyan alphabet we must look elsewhere than to a Semitic source. The question is a new one; but there can scarcely be more than one answ^er to it. We must look directly to Egypt, whither the Semitic alphabets themselves must finally trace their origin. Nor does such an answer present the least historic difficulty. Earlier than the twelfth century B.C., there were direct and much-traveled caravan routes from the heart of the Berber country into Egypt. " I have not the slightest doubt," writes Barth, "that the Imoshagh (Touaregs) are represented in the ancient sculptures of Egypt as the Tamhu and the Mashawash." We are well aware that thousands of Berber soldiers were enlisted in the Egyptian armies in the Ramesside epoch. The high culture they possessed is attested by the catalogue of spoils in the inscription of Merenptah I. These included gold and silver drinking vases, swords and armor of hardened copper, razors, etc., indi- cating a developed condition of the arts. The signal defeat they encountered in the decisive battle at Per-er- schepset did not break the power of the Eibyan kings. We know that they recovered themselves, and in the reign of Merenptah II., grandson of the first of the name, possessed themselves of the whole of the western delta ; nor was it until their defeat by the powerful Rameses III., that their destructive inroads ceased (Erman, Aigypten^ Bd. I., §§77-80). Unquestionably, during this long intercourse in peace and war, a knowledge of some of the Egyptian methods JO PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. of writino; must have extended among the Berbers. As M. Bertrer remarks — " There is too great a lacuna be- tween the Punic and the Libyan alphabets for us to admit that they were derived the one from the other." (ibid, p. 332). Doubtless they were related in origin, and at a later date stood geographically side by side and exerted some influence on each other; but there is no necessity any longer of accepting the popular theory that the old Libyans and Numidians were ignorant of writing until Dido founded her famous city. In his latest work, Mr. Flinders Petrie maintains that the letters of the Phenician alphabet were derived di- rectly from Egypt; it is quite likely that one or more of the earliest Berber alphabets were also derived directly from the same venerable seat of culture, adopting, in part signs identical, in part diverse from the multiform Phenician alphabets of the earliest epochs. Intercourse with the Semitic traders and colonists led to a greater or less unification of the methods of writing, as has oc- curred in so many other instances; so that the Libyan alphabet of the third century B. C. was easily enough mistaken for a daughter, instead of a sister, of that in use by the Carthaginians. But they never reached a complete identity, and as the farther we go back the greater seems the diversity, the theory of an indepen- dent origin appears to be alone that which will satisfy the facts in the case; and this theory has in itself a high historic probability. The principal works to be consulted, copies of all of which from my own library I lay before you, are the fol- lowing: Faidherbe, "Collection Complete des Inscriptions Numidiques." THE ALPHABETS OF THE BERBERS. 7 1 Hanoteau, " Essai de Gramniaire Kabyle." Hanoteaii, " Essai de Grammaire de la Langue Tam- achek." Halevy, "Essai d'Epigraphe Libyque. " Bissiiel, " Les Touaregs de I'Oiiest." Basset, "Notes de Lexicographic Berbere." Rinn, " Les Origines Bcrberes. " Numerous articles on the rupestrian inscriptions are scattered through the J?ez^?te d'' EthnograpJiie^ L' Anthro- pologic^ etc. As the subject is one, I believe, entirely new to i\merican Orientalists, and as it may possibly prove of considerable significance to the history of the development of Mediterranean civilization, this brief presentation of it will, I trust, lead to further researches. WHO WERE THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? BY W. MAX MULLER. We 110 longer believe as some Greeks supposed, that the ancient Ethiopians, i. e.^ the inhabitants of Napata and Meroe, possessed a wonderful self-created civiliza- tion, that was the source of Egypt's culture, and there- fore the earliest culture of the world. Since Lepsius explored the ruins of their capitals, we know that these famous Ethiopians were only feeble imitators of the Egyptians, civilized by them at a comparatively mod- ern date, and independent only since about iioo B. C. Their culture, however, is still interesting, being unique in ancient Africa, and attested to by remarkable monu- ments. The part played in the world's history by the kings of Meroe after 750 B. C. is no insignificant one. Nevertheless the question, "who were these people?" has never been thoroughly discussed. Most scholars seem to be content with the idea that they were indige- nous Africans, no matter whether jet-black or blackish, brown or yellow. But everybody acquainted with the knotty problems of African linguistics will acknowledge both the importance and the difficulty of an exact deter- mination. No part of the world except the Caucasus shows such a medley of the most heterogeneous lan- guages as Central Africa. At least three of the six principal African races* live in the old territory of the * Dwarf- tribes, Hottentots, Negroes, Bantu, " Nubas " and Hamites. (72) WHO WERK THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? ^^ Meroitic kingdom at present, so that even the race can- not be determined easily. To a large extent the classical writers are responsible for onr nncertainty. The Greeks, who were poorly gifted for linguistic and ethnograpliic observations, were able indeed to distinguish the Egyptians and the Libyans, marked too conspicuously by their white skin. But all the rest were " Aithiopes, " /. r., dark people. If we were dependent entirely on classical writers, most likely we should not be able to recognize the existence even of the great Hamitic branch of nations, not to mention darker races.* The ancient Egyptians it ap- pears w^ere not much better. See my book, Asien & Europa (Leipzig, 1893), p. 112-113, on the deplorable fact that their expression nhsi (pronounce with vowels nhesef) is not restricted to "Negro," but is used to in- clude all East-Africans, black, brown and brownish, exactly like that vague term "Aithiopes." In vie\v of these difficulties it is best to determine first of all the race of the Meroites, leaving the far more difficult question as to their language aside until we shall have more linguistic material. I keep the fiftli race, notwithstanding its inappropriate name— the Nubas themselves most likely do not belong to it — to designate the mixed zone north from the Bantu territory. It is true, F.' Miiller's (Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, III.) list of seven "Nuba" lan- guages contains five which possibly belong to other branches, but we need some repository for doubtful languages of this kind. I sup- pose after our material has been increased a "Sub-Bantu" family will have to be established, w^hile most other "Nuba " languages will be added to the nortliern families. *The attempts to distinguish the (Hamitic) tribes on the coast, the Troglodytes and Ichthyophagi. from the proper "Ethiopians" are unfortunate. 74 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. The Egyptians nowhere have given an indication about the race of the Meroites which conld be of any use to modern ethnographers and linguists. If King Amen- hotpe III. calls the people around Napata nhsi (Amada, Lepsius, Denkmaeler III., 65a), just as, 1000 years be- fore, the tribes near the second cataract were styled (L. D. III., 136 h. i.), this does not prove that they were negroes. (See above on the vague expression 7ihsi.') Even the nearest Hamitic relations of the Egyptians, the red Punti, bore the same designation (Asien & Europa, 112). 'Therefore, I do not deny that there is some significance in the name officially accepted by the Meroitic kingdom, PtompatiJiese^^ "Negroland," but it oflfers only a weak and doubtful argument. The latter observation has escaped the attention of Lepsius, who, in his Nuba-Grammar, developed bold theories, based only upon the designation nJicse and its alleged meaning — "negro." It would have upset his whole theory on the Meroites. Lepsius and Brugsch are the only Egyptologists who pronounced a distinct opinion on the ethnologic position of the Meroites. The first declared them to have been Hamites, identical with the modern Bisharin or Bedjas, the latter looked at the modern Nubas (Barabras) as direct descendants of the Meroites. During Lepsius' lifetime, the Nuba theory stood in the background ; lately it has found some adherents. I think the hypothesis of Lepsius t (Briefe aus Aegyp- * P-ia-nhs Mon. div. i, 11 ; 5, 12, L. D. V, 52, VL demot. Nr.S (p-ta- n-nlis), the same as Ptoemphaiieis Ptolemy 4, 7, 34, Ptoemphae (sic !) Pliny 6, 192. fThe only attempt of a proof is found Nuba-Grammar. p. cxxvi. Arabic writers speak [very positively!) of an old alphabet of the WHO WERE THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? 75 ten 181, 266, Nuba-Grammatik cxxiv.) is based merely upon the wide-spread prejudice against the negro-race. Tlie negro is considered too inferior a creature to pro- duce any civilization, and a state like that of Meroe can be due, they say, only to the white Mediterranean race. Now, the first prejudice is not quite unjust, although it must not be exaggerated. But, at least, so much is cer- tain, that our Hamitic relatives do not deserve the favorable prejudice. The negro everywhere leads a set- tled, agricultural life, the Kushitic Hamite, where he has not been mixed with Semites (the Agaii tribes) or Negroes (the Gallas), has the most expressedly nomadic and pastoral customs. The negro builds towns and even large fortified cities, but where is a real Bishari city? The negro forms states, and his despotic monarchs some- times rule enormous territories ; the Kushite never has advanced beyond the formation of clans and tribes like those of Bedawees, therefore, he has only chiefs, no kings. The negro is mostly peaceable, our Kushitic relatives are more inclined to war and robbery. All negro tribes have shown some ability as smiths, potters, etc. ; of the Kushitic nations hardly anything of that kind is known. Certainly, the negro is not able Nubas, and, at the same time, assert that [in their tivie!^, the Nubas being Christians, used (only?) Greek, Syriac (!) and Coptic writing. Lepsius is right that the Meroitic writing is mistaken here for Nubian. The Kitab-el-fihrist speaks of a national writing of the Bedjas (yet the author of that book confesses that he never saw a specimen of it!). Therefore, Lepsius argues, the only known Ethiopia alphabet, that of Meroe, is that of the Bedja-Bisharin, and these must be the Rleroites themselves. Who will admit that this strange logic is "sufficiently convincing" (Lepsius) ?— The alleged Bedja writing must have con- sisted in some remainders of Meroitic writing, which was given up sooner by the Nubians because they were earlier Christianized. 76 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. to develop a higher culture by himself, and his cultured states mostly depend upon foreign influence; however, we see he is docile and imitates with some success. The Bishari and Somali is nowadays almost on the samel level of culture as 3000, maybe 5000, years ago. In brief, the Kushitic nations east of Meroe seem per- fectly unable to have formed that great empire. The Nile valley is too narrow for shepherds, and would not have allowed any other dense population in and around the great cities except an agricultural one. Such a population could not consist of Hamites, and least of all, of Bisharin. On the other hand, no population would fulfil all the conditions better than negroes with an Egyptian aristocracy and hierarchy.* Lepsius regarded the ancient Nubas as negroes, and therefore, owing to his prejudice, opposed Brugsch's view; Brugsch on the other hand asserted that, accord- ing to the monuments, the Meroites were a red-brown race like the modern Nubas, f therefore apparently iden- tical with them. Yet it seems that Lepsius did not ex- amine the Meroitic sculptures at all, and that Brugsch did not study them carefully enough. The monuments of the Egyptians do not furnish much material. The Egyptian painters liked to cari- cature the hostile nations of the "vile Kosh," and to exaggerate the immixture of negro-blood, common to all Africans, and perceptible to a certain extent even in the * Kaufmann, Central Africa (Brixen, 1862), p. 203: "We find (among the negroes on the White Nile) all elements of culture . . . if only they would put on clothing, one would not call them savages." P. 204 he states their superiority over the Islamitic Nubians and Arabs in the Soudan. t Compare Duemichen, A. Z., 87, 93. Lepsius, Letters, 230. WHO WERE THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? 77 Egyptians. But when in the tomb of Huy (Lepsius, Denkm. III., 117), we see the princes of northern Nubia represented as negroes of monstrous ugliness, we must not overlook that they appear mixed with brown and red figures. Similar varieties of color appear in all represen- tations of negro tribes, prove the fact that the upper Nile valley had a mixed population almost everywhere. But the contempt shown in the pictures and the neglect of names and countries of the "miserable nhese," makes it impossible to determine the percentage of negro-blood in each one of the numerous tribes reaching from Assuan to Khartum and even more southward, who suffered in the wars (or slave-huntings) of the Pharaohs. The ac- counts neglect to give even geographical details. I also rather think Naville is wrong in saying: if Assarhaddon represents his enemy Taharqa on the stela of Sindjirli (now in Berlin) as a negro, we must believe him (Rec. trav. , 15, loi). Such pictures always are caricatures, and the Assyrian sculptor could not show his loyalty better than by disfiguring the wretched enemy. We have to consider this low esteem of the negro also in Napata and Meroe, where we must expect negro-descend- ence to have been concealed. Besides, the portraits of the Meroitic kings have the common conventional style of later Egyptian art, in which the Ethiopian Taharqa, the Persian Darius, the Greek Ptolemy and the Roman Augustus, show the same traditional face. Therefore, only a very close and critical examination will discover any ethnologic details in the Meroitic sculptures.* The results are the following : I. The color of the Ethiopic kings is, of course, the * In later time and in the extreme sonth (Ben Naga and I-^s-Sofra) the fetters of Egyptian conventionalism relaxed considerably. 78 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. conventional red, prescribed for every artist from 3000 B. C. If they appear red, like Darius, Ptolemy and Aiiofustus, this is no indication of their real color. But while the yellow color is prescribed for women, we find Lepsins Denkmaeler V., 5, the wife of Taharqa red like her husband, which is quite unusual (compib. 19). This unique realistic boldness points to a brown color for the Meroites. Unfortunately, we can not determine what tint of brown.* 2. Before the Roman time not even common people are represented with a face different from the conven- tional type (23?). But then we find protruding lips, indications of prognathism, 63, 72, 73, etc. 3. The conventional style of representation requires the artificial beard tied to the chin even for the Roman emperors. But the Theban artists (Lepsius V., 3, 5, etc.), and even those of Napata (8, etc.), avoided that beard so conspicuously (exceptions 18 and only later 49, 51, 60-66; the artificial character is shown in the case of a queen, 64, 66!), that we must conclude they thought it absurd with Ethiopians. They were a beardless nation. 4. The curled hair, 20, 21, 27, 44, 50, 57, 59, 62, does not prove much, as the wig with innumerable small curls, dating from the time of pyramids, is a part of the conventional representation. But the hair is, every- where, kept so short (comp. e. g. , 75,) that we cannot doubt its crisp nature, f * Passages as Herodotus 7, 70 (Nubians north of Napata?), Aga- tharchides i, 16, etc., on dark "Ethiopians" lack geographical pre- cision and are worthless, if we compare Herodotus' (2, 104) exaggera- tion of "black (nielanchroes) and woolly-haired Egyptians." f The golden head-dress of the kings, looking like a golden cap ornamented with small bosses or ornaments of curled form, is worhy of examination. I consider it an imitation of the old barbarous hair- dress, but furnishing no argument for the time of the sculptures. WHO WRRK THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? 79 5. A well known characteristic of the negro race is the ill-shaped breast of the women. See for this, 23, 41, 48, 49.* A feeble attempt to flatter noble women and to distingnish them from the common people, 48, bnt the queen herself, 50, 66, 67 b, d, 68 a, c, 70 b, c, is repre- sented in such an ugly manner that one is tempted to take it for a caricature (figure i). 6. All women belonging to the aristocracy are ugly, fat monsters, of a fatness which would stir up the envy of any royal harem in Uganda and the surrounding- countries. All Orientals, ancient and modern, appre- ciate fat beauties, but only the black race reaches that perfection in the accumulation of fat which we find with all Meroitic queens (figure 2). Besides, in these we can observe something which does not seem to have been treated as a characteristic of some negroes: I mean the enormous accumulation of fat called by anatomists "steatopygy. " It has been known as a peculiarity of the Hottentot race, but Schweinfurth (Heart of Africa, I., 296; II., 121,) mentions it as coiumon among the Bongo negroes. I add to it the two well known instances of fat women from Punt, /. ^. , most likely the Somali coast, t inhabited 1500 B. C. not yet by Somalis, but by near relations of the Gallas| mixed with negroes. The same phenomenon in Meroe furnishes a new argument. It is greatly to be desired that this question be advanced * L. D., III., 117, IJ9, with negroes. t See my book Asien & Europa, p. 110. I must, however, express some doubt whether the -artist is right in representing the stcatopygy so marked in Punt. The pure Hamitic type of the Pimti does not agree wijh it. I suppose he had in mind rather a well known charac- teristic of the Nilotic tribes. [See our figure 3.] tSee Schleicher's Somaligrammatik, p. x. 8o PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. by illustrations from other tribes. Certainly the steato- pyoy is not common to all negroes. The Bongo live at present 1 1 degrees sonthwest of ]\Ieroe, too far off to warrant comparison. 7. The figures of the women show also a most decided characteristic of the negro,* the oblique pelvis and the seeming protrudance of the upper part of the body before the lower. The figures of the men are too conventional ; nevertheless 50x^5 the figure of an old, fat priest, de- serves attention (figure 4). Female figures, 33, 34, 35, 37, 40, 41, 64B, confirm the observation. I think there can be no longer any doubt that the Meroites, probably a few families of the aristocracy ex- cepted, were negroes, or at least so strongly mixed with negroes that their type did not diflfer much from these. Lepsius' theory about the Meroites may be dismissed completely. Brugsch's theory, on the other hand, be- comes more probable, only, however, on the condition that we do not compare the modern Nubas, but assume their forefathers to have been pure negroes as Lepsius assumed. Brugsch has tried to decipher a few lines of the Meroitic language (Zeitschr. f. Aeg. Sprache, 1887), written in wretched hieroglyphics, and promised to do so also with the cursive inscriptions. Owing to the miserable material, his results are very doubtful. In some places they deserve attention, f but it is better to leave them aside until they are confirmed by new evi- dence. In the meantime we have to treat the Nuba theory with the utmost caution. Its defenders do not * Emphasized by Lepsius, Nuba Grammar, ix. (cf. L. D., III., 120, etc.) IE. g., his supposed form {i)tnipHl, "beloved" (p. 30), is explaiued very ingeniously. WHO WERK THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? 8 1 seem to have observed that it is contradicted by classical writers. The points may be summed up as follows : Eratosthenes (ca. 200 B. C.) states (in Strabo, 786): "On the left side of the Nile live the Nubae, in Libya, a great nation, beginning from Meroe to the curves, not subject to the Ethiopians^ but under several kings of their own" (while all nations between Egypt, Meroe and the Red Sea are more or less subject to the Meroites and, therefore, are confounded with them).* Note the important distinction between Meroites and Nubae. Also, the rest of the note has not yet been explained. "The curves" must mean the great cu.rve beginning at Korusko, not that of Abu-Hamed, or even Ed-Dabe. No "great nation" could live in the steppe Ba\uda. The IMeroites possessed the caravan road to the north, ending at Korusko and the lower borders of the Nile. There, indeed, we find Meroitic kings as builders, while they have left no traces later than Persian time between Korusko and the two other curves. This strange polit- ical condition is, therefore, not improbable. The exist- ence of Nubae north of Meroe, hinted at also by Strabo, 819, is confirmed already for the time of Eratosthenes by the fact that he knows only Nuba names for the three rivers, Asta-boras, Asta-pus (Astape, Pomp. ]\Iela, i, 50), Asta-soba, compounded with asta^'\ "water." An Eg\'p- tian inscription, 100 years later, calls a region of north- ern Nubia (containing sih-er mines, ^ therefore probably * The statement about continual wars between the inhabitants of the two banks of the Nile, Strabo,* 822, refer? to Nubae and Blemmyans by Lepsius. But it seems to apply to the tribes on the Bahr-el-.\biad. fNow csd in Nuba (for *esti), in the kindred dialects of Kordofan (Lepsius Ixxviii.) otii (for *£»//«). Mediaeval Arabs mention a Nuba city, A^tenuu, near the second cataract. Note the old form Aste. jEdrisi mentions silver in the well-known gold mines of Allaqi, Olaqi. 82 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. under 27° lat.) Ast-riin (or -luji).^ On Astejmiras;^ see below. The classical reports on Nubae or Nobades on the frontier of Egypt in Roman time are familiar. It seems that they inhabited the western and parts of the east- ern bank of the Nile, including the district formerly subject to the Meroites and abandoned by them, as we may conclude from the absence of monuments, after the expedition of Petronius (in Augustus' reign, cf. Strabo, 820). On the southern Nobades, w^e do not find any distinct mention,! and it is largely hypothetical to assume, according to their present seats, the mountains of Kordofan as the original home of the Nuba-people. Thence they extended only northward, entering the Nile valley near Napata. Even if they touched the White Nile east of Kordofan, the distinction between Nubae and Meroites remains in force. * Duemichen, 'A. Z., 87, 93. Determinative : mineral or color. The Nuba-names of minerals have, unfortunately, been replaced by the Arabic words. t Pliny gives a note 6, 192, from Aristocreon, "from the island in the Nile obeying the queen of the Semberritae (Seuaar or Meroe itself?) the Nubei Aethiopes are 8 days journey distant." The sus- picion that the direction towards the south is a mistake, is strengthened by the remark, "oppidum eoruni Nilo impositum Tenupsis." Is this not Pintpsis {Pniips, Ptolem.), Hierosycaminus, /. e., INIaharaqa near Korusko, so that the northern Nubae are meant ? Also, the following division of the country into To-nobari (read -nobadi, " Nuba-country"?) and Ptoenphae (! "Negro-country," see above, both Egyptian names) does not look like the banks of the White Nile. PtoL, 4, 7, 31, the remark after the Nubae, "west of the Aualites," is, possibly, based upon Eratosthenes in Strabo, 786. The Nyngbeuitae Aethiopes, 4, 7, 35, are douljtful. So are the Nubae in the eastern Soudan, 4, 6, 16, 21, connected it seems, with a "lake Nuba" (or Nutha?) 13 (18?) of im- possible situation and dto. mountains (16). Who will solve this cou- lusiou :" WHO WERE THE ANCIEXT ETHIOPIANS? 83 Yet one could advance the theory that the distinction between Nnbas and Meroites indicates only a political division. So much is certain that we find the Nuba-word asta "water" on Meroitic inscriptions. If we read that king Nestosenen (L. D. V., 16, 1. 17), went to the city oi Asde7niii\a)sa, certainly the Astaboras * is meant; not the river itself, however, but a city at the junction of Nile and Atbara, not far from the modern Berber. But, what if that city, although belonging to the Mero- itic kingdom, had a Nuba population? More forcible is the fact, not observed by Brugsch (Ae. Z., 87, 12), that the titles of the Nile-god L. D. V., 66, begin with a-t or o-t^ which recalls the modern Kordofanpronuuci- ation for the word asta^ "river, water." But if the Nubae lived opposite Meroe and held such a vast terri- tory, should we not expect Nuba elements in the lan- guage of Meroe, especially in the time of its decline in the second century A. D. or later? Let us beware of forming a hasty conclusion from one word. ^ When the Meroitic inscriptions are deciphered, must we expect to find one uniform language in them? Cer- tainly, those Egyptologists are wrong who speak of one single Ethiopic nation and think any name from the Upper Nile is Ethiopic, /. ^. , Meroitic. Krall (Stu- dieu IV, in Sitzungsberichte, Wien, 1890), has pointed out the great difference in the phonetic system of the geographical names, and observed that the absence * Change between ni and \v, b also in the name Meroe, written in earlier time Beruwa, later with m. If the Geez (Dillmann, Grammar, p. 52), has received the same peculiarity from the ancient Agaii dia- lects, I do not deny the possibility that some languages of Eastern Africa, quite different in structure, may have been influenced by a common foreign elenient in their pronunciation. 84 PAPERS OF THK ORIENTAL CLUB. of the Semitic letter clieth {khetJi) in modern Nuba (which lacks even Ji) and in the ancient names of north- ern Nnbia (p. 38) contrasts with its occurrence in the names of Meroitic kings, and also in names of countries raided by these (L. D. V., 16, rev. 29, etc.). The latter fact is strange, because the Nilotic negro-languages down to the Equator do not possess that sound, common to the Semites and (earlier) Hamites, and avoid even the sound of//, just as the Nuba does. Those hostile coun- tries may have been influenced by Hamitic pronuncia- tion. It is, of course, quite impossible to determine any- thing beyond our conclusion that the Meroites were a negro-tribe. They were similar in appearance to the ancient Nubas before their strong admixture with Ham- itic and Arabic blood. To the Nubas, I refer the pas- sages on black Ethiopians * quoted p. 78. The lan- guage of the famous Ethiopians may have had a very limited sphere, at least in Roman time; it may not have comprised more than the Nile valley between Napata and Khartum. Earlier extension to the North is not impossible, but this would belong to the period before Alexander, at least. We may well assume that, also at that time, the Meroites were only one small tribe ruling over the most heterogeneous nations. Especially in the south, they seem to have been surrounded by the same linguistic chaos as is found to-day south of Khar- tum; in the north and west they were shut in by Nubas, from the east by Hamites. Though the evidence be decisive that the ruling warriors of Napata were differ- ent from both, the possibility is not to be denied of a * Undoubtedly Ftolemy, i, 9, 9, refers to tbem. WHO WERE THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS? 85 connection either with the more distant relations of the Nnbas, e. g.^ the black Kunama and Barea, or, per- haps, with an even more remote dialect of the Nnba. Let ns trust that the decipherment of the inscriptions will soon permit lis to operate with more positive ma- teiial, and to determine the character of that remarkable nation, doubly remarkable now as the only member of the black race which ever made its appearance upon the stage of the world's history. NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. BY GEORGE A. BARTON. The following paper is not by any means an exhaus- tive study of the subject which it touches. It is rather an attempt to set forth in a tentative and suggestive manner a few facts and seemingly reasonable theories with reference to the native polytheism of primitive Israel. YAHWE. In treating of native Israelitish deities, it is but fitting to begin with Yahwe, by far the most important of them. We must in the first place try to determine the most primitive character in which Yahwe was known to his worshippers. This is by no means an easy task, as it makes it necessary to enter that shadowy region before the beginnings of history, where we are com- pelled from indirect hints afforded by a later literature to guess at the outline of every character. Such hints give us some ground for the belief that in the first place Yahwe was known as a storm -god. He is in the the- ophanies usually represented as coming in a storm. This is the case in Psalm xviii., Ezekiel i., Habakkuk iii., Isa. xix. i, and Job xxxviii. i. In Exodus xiii. and xiv., Yahwe leads his people as a cloud, and in Exodus xix. and i Kings viii. lo, ii, Yahwe appears on Mount Sinai and in the temple as a cloud. Indeed, in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the (86) NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. 87 "cloud " is spoken of as a token of Yahwe's presence more than forty times. For other indications of the connection of Yahwe with storms, see Ps. civ. 13, 14, and Ps. cxlvii. 8, 16-18. These indications are strengthened by the only satis- factory etymology one is able to suggest for the name Yahwe. The etymology of Ex. iii. 14, is a folk ety- mology, and fails to meet the facts of the case. The root hdya would give Yahye^ and not YaJnue^ as the divine name. The derivation of the name by Professor Fred- eric Delitzsch, in his ^^Wo Lag das Paradics^"'' pp. 158- 164, from the name of the Babylonian Ea, is also ex- ceedingly improbable, if not impossible. It is not probable that a long form like Yahwe, was derived from a short form like Ea or Ya. The original form must have been a word which would cover the form YaJiwe^ and also account for the contractions yci^ yo^ and ycJio^ in such proper names as Yonathan and Y^JioshapJiat. The form YaJnve is the only one which will, in accordance with the well-known tendency of words to wear away rather than to expand as time goes on, account for all the other forms. It would seem a more probable etymolqo-y to derive YaJrwe from Junva^ which is used in Job xxxvii. 6, of the falling of snow and rain upon the earth. In Arabic, haiva means "to fall," and this word in Job is probably connected with it. Yahwe would then mean, "he who causes [rain or snow] to fall," a name exactly suited to the indications of his character which we have already noticed. Neither the literary indications nor the ety- mology constitute an absolute proof, but they open our eyes to a new vista of possibilities.* * Since the text was in the hands of the printer, Dr. W. Max Miil- 88 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. The original home of Yahwe was Horeb. It was there that the name was said to have been revealed to Moses (Ex. iii. 14 and vi. 3). Yahwe v/as said to come from Horeb, for the help of his people (Dent, xxxiii. 2; Hab. iii. i ; Jnd. v. 5 ; Ps. Ixviii. 5). IMoses meets Yahwe in Horeb, and Elijah retires there for the same purpose. Perhaps, originally, Yahwe was the god of some tribe near Horeb — a tribe which possibly the Is- raelites absorbed. At all events, Israel as a whole seems to have become acquainted with him there, and to have adopted his worship. To this conclusion the facts that ler's learned work Asien unci Europa nach Altiigyptischcn Denkmd- lern has come to hand. Dr. Miiller is very sure that he has found traces of Yahwe-worship in Palestine in the reign of Thothmes III., in the sixteenth century B. C. Cf Op. Cit., pp. 239, 312. His evi- dence for this is the occurrence of Bai-ti-y--a as the name of a Pal- estinian city. Dr. Miiller feels sure that this name is but the Egyptian transliteration of Belh-ya, and that it gives us evidence not only of the presence of Yahwe-worship in Palestine at the date mentioned, but that the shorter form of that name already existed. This opinion of Dr. Miiller'shas prompted a re-examination of some names I had noticed in the El-Amarna tablets. If we may assume with Dr. Miiller the shorter form Va of the divine name, some of these names will reveal to us their meaning. Ha-ya (Winckler und Abel's Thoutafelfund vo7i El Aviarna, 57 ; 14, 20) spelled once Ha-a-ya (144, 8) would mean "My life is Yahwe." Tti-u-ya (92 Rev. 24) would mean "Gazelle of Yahwe." Li-i-ya (92 Rev. 25) would mean " Bull of Yahwe," while Pa-fl-Z^-jj/o (33, 9) would mean "Yahwe has made." I have also noticed two similar names for which I am as yet unable to offer any probable explanation. They are Pi-id-ya (119, 5, 122, 3) and Ma-a-ya (147, 26, 15S, 27). It is true that in the case of these names it is not certain that ^'a is the name of a deity. The determinative ilu does not occur before it. This determinative is, however, often omitted in these tablets. In the name Arad-A-si- ir-ia, which occurs in these tablets more than twenty- five times, and in which A-si-zr-ia is certainly a goddess, identical with the Hebrew Ashera, the determinative ilu is written before A-si-ir-ta but twice. (Q.{. Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. X., p. 82). It is therefore NATIVE ISRAELITISII DEITIES. 89 the home of Yahwe was Horeb, that Moses is said to have received the revelation of the name Yahwe and the law there, and that there Israel entered into cove- nant to serve him, all point. This theory is also snp- ported by the statement of Exodns vi. 2, 3, that the name Yahwe was not known to the fathers. This adop- tion of Yahwe-worship appears to have been general among the Israelites before the conqnest of Canaan, and seems to have been the work of Moses, aided perhaps by Jethro. That the relation of Yahwe to his people was a cove- perfectly possible in accordance with the usage of these tablets that Va may be a divine name, although not specifically so designated. If INIuller is right and the explanation of these names terminating in Va, here suggested, is right, there was a }'a cult in Palestine be- fore the Israelitish occupation. If this be true there are three possibilities, i. }'a was iu this early period connected with the Babylonian Ea, but distinct from Yahwe and only identified with him at a later period. This is simply sup- posable ; we have no evidence to support it. The identification of }^a and Yahzve in the Old Testament would tend to negative such a supposition. 2. Ya is the original of Yahwe, axi^ the viewof Delitzsch which I have rejected in the text is after all right. J « is identical with Ea, and Yahwe is a lengthened form, invented to make the name sound more honorable and glorious. This supposition has in its favor the fact that nearly all the great Semitic deities appear in some form in more than one vSemitic nation ; thus Baal, Ashtoreth, Melek, Sha- mash, etc., are found almost everywhere. It may with some reason therefore be iirged that a deity so prominent and important as Yahwe would probably be represented in more than one family of the Semi- tic peoples. The principle, however, in order to be convincing, should be in the Semitic world of universal application. There are though other important exceptions. Nabu, e. g., appears to be confined to the closely related Assyrians and Babylonians of the Mesopotamian Valley. If he could originate there, why not Yahwe in Palestine? The difficulty of deriving a long form like Yahwe from a short one like Ya, which I have already expressed in the text, seems not to be met, notwithstanding the facts here brought out. The anal- 90 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. nant relation, and not a relation of kinship, was a fact of the greatest significance in the prophetic period, as it enabled the prophets to differentiate his worship from the nature cults about them, and establish religion on an ethical basis. It was thus apparently that Yahwe became the national God of Israel. This he remained all through the Old Testament period. The religious leaders were persistently antagonistic to foreign deities. For proof of this, see Judges vi. 25, xi. 24 ; i Sam. ogy of language is all in favor of shortening rather than, of lengthen- ing words, and until this difficulty is overcome by the presentation of analogies, in which it shall be clearly proven that words under similar circumstances have been deliberately lengthened, this objection will render such lengthening in the name of Yahwe uncertain. While therefore the existence of the name }'a in Canaan in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries B. C. affords sopie arguments in favor of Delitzsch's view, the case for that view is as yet, I think, not clearly made out. 3. We may still suppose that Yahwe is the original and that Ya is an abbreviation of it. Our pre-Israelitish evidence all comes at pres- ent from proper names, and in the Old Testament Jrt is the regular form in proper names. It is quite as possible that ^'ahive was ih.^ ordinary form of the divine name in the reigns of Thothmes III., Amenophis III., and Amenophis IV., but that Ya was used in proper names, as that such should be the case in the Old Testament. We can trace the usage in the Old Testament, but we may not be able to trace it in this earlier period, simply because the full name Yahwe did not have the good fortune to be embalmed in any literary monument which has survived till our times. These considerations lead me still to hold to the view of the origin of the name Yahwe, which is ex- pressed in the text. If Yahwe were already known in Palestine before the conquest, he may have been worshipped by one of the clans which was absorbed afterwards into the Hebrew nation. That clans appear in the El- Amarna tablets which again appear at a later time as parts of Israel, Professor Jastrow has already shown. {Qi. Journal of Bibl. Lit., Vol. XL, p. 95 fiF., and Vol. XII., p. 61 ff). It may be therefore that the worship of one of these clans, through the agencies suggested in the text, became the germ of Hebrew monotheism. NATIVE ISRAEUTISH DEITIES. 91 xxvi. 19; I Kings xii. 28 (perhaps also xv. 13), xviii. 21; Amos iii. i, 2; Hosea xi. (cf. Ch. iii.); ^sa. viii. 12, 13; Jer. ii. 1-12; Ezek. xvi. 8, etc. As a national God, Yahwe had national limitations. 1. He conld be approached only on Israelitish soil. See I Sam. xxvi. 19; 2 Kings v. 17, and Zech. xiv. 16. 2. Through a great part of the Old Testament, Yahwe stands apparently on a par with other national gods, as one of many deities, e. g.^ see Ex. xx. 3; Dent. v. 7, vi. 14; 2 Kings xvii. 35; Jer. xxv. 6, xxxv. 15, and ]\Iicah iv. 5, 3. Yahwe is often represented as caring especially for his own people. See Hosea xi., Isa. x. , and Ps. xxxiii. 12. These national limitations, how- ever, did not prevent a practical recognition of Yahwe's omnipotence and omniscience. He conld do whatever needed to be done, and knew what his enemies were doing. The prevalent conception of him though was ethically defective. With the mass of the people, the worship of Yahwe was performed along with the wor- ship of other gods down to the period of the prophets. These deities were the Teraphim, Baal, Ashtoreth, etc., etc. It was only as the national consciousness grew by the unifying of the nation under the monarchy, the teaching of the prophets, and the national disasters, that Yahwe assumed the place of the sole recipient of Israel's homage. By the time of Elijah, the national consciousness was sufficiently developed to enable him to begin war on foreign deities. This war was carried on by successive prophets, and continued down to the exile, and it increased at each successive stage the aloneness of Yahwe among the people. At last, the exile practically eliminated the worshippers of all gods but Yahwe from the part of the nation resident in Pal- 92 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. estine, as few but monotheists returned from Baby- lon. Soon after the exile, the prophets of Yahwe were sufficiently strong to root out the last sporadic traces of such native cults as those of Gad and Meni (cf. Isa. Ixv. and Ixvi.), and Yahwe, the God of the nation, henceforth received the nation's undivided homage. While this is iu general the history of Yahwe among the people, among the prophets and national leaders Yahwe was, from Amos down, practically the only God. No prophet describes Yahwe's supremacy in higher terms than Amos. See Amos iv. 13 and v. i- 10. All the prophets from Amos on recognize the aloneness of Yahwe, and hold a unitary view of the world, /. ^., the prophets are practical monotheists. That this was reached only gradually in Israel by means of struggle and development, is indicated by the long continuance of idolatry among the people already noted, and by a wavering in the matter of monothe- istic statement, where we should least expect it, e. g.^ in the decalogue. See Ex. xx. i; Dent. v. 7; also Deut. xxxii. 8 (where with the Ixx. we read b^ne Eldhhn)\ Deut. xxxii. 12; Micah iv. 5, vii. 18, and Ps. Ixxxii. I. After the exile, however, when the nation had been sifted and only the monotheistic remnant returned, not only the prophets, but men, women and children, iden- tified Yahwe with the one supreme God, and the rescued Israel became a nation of monotheists. Thus a nation was prepared in which there was a basis for the fuller revelation of God made by Jesus Christ. Through the ministry of Christ, the Yahwe of the Old Testament became the God of the New. His national limitations and ethical defects were eliminated, and His worship NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. 93 was henceforth destined to become the universal religion of mankind,* Many, no doubt, will entertain theological objections to the above hypothesis, and will be ready to brand it as materialistic. But to the writer it seems free from the charge of materialism. It does not attempt to evolve God by a process of development, but simph' to study the method by which He has unfolded the knowl- edge of Himself to mankind. All will agree that this has been accomplished by a gradual process; and should it appear that He had led men's thoughts steadily on- ward from the conception of a tribal storm-god to that of the universal and absolute deity, it should but make His ways seem to us the more wonderful, in that He has called us from such darkness into such marvellous light, t DEITIES IN PROPER NAMES. Before proceeding to the discussion of other Israel- itish deities, it will be found exceedingly helpful to note a few facts with reference to old Semitic proper names. I. These names when given in childhood (/. e.^ when not nick-names) are usually brief sentences, as ATsiir- «/;/-/«'<'////«'= "Assur has added to the brothers." Ahi- Me/ek^''Uy father is Melek." Abi-Baal=''Uy * The development here outlined is not a theory, original with the present writer. It was suggested to him ^:iartly by his teacher. Pro- fessor C. H. Toy, upon various occasions, and partly by a paper read some four years since by Mr. R. E. Blount, before the Semitic vSemi- nary at Harvard. It is also substantially the theory of Stade. It is incorporated into the present paper for the sake of completeness. t Cf. I Pet. ii. 9- 94 PAPERS OK THE ORIENTAL CLUB. father is Baal," and Abd-7il-Afelek='^T\\Q servant of Melek." 2. One element of these names is that of a god, as Arad-Marduk = ' ' Servant of Mardiik. ' ' Bel-ahi-iddin = "Bel has added to the brothers." Nabu-nadin-ahi— "Nabu has added to the brothers." Itti-Samdsbalatii = "With Shamash is life." Mi-ka-el=''V^\\o is like El ?" Abi-yaJm = " My father is Yah we." Baal-yitthi = "Baal has given." Bod-Me/kar^= '' Servant of Mel- kart." Amai-As^ore^/i='' Maid of Ashtoreth." Abd- ul-^ Uzza-= " Servant of Al Uzza. " 3. Many Hebrew and Phoenician names come from a time when the god was a member of the clan, and as- sert the kinship of the clansman to the deity, e. g.^ Abi-el= " My father is El," Abi-Melek^ "My father is Melek," Abi-Baal= "My father is Baal," Abi-yahu = "My father is Yah we," Akhi-ya=''\\y brother is Yahwe," Akhi- Melek ^ " My brother is Melek." 4. Growing out of this habit of asserting that the deity was a father or brother, we have a number of names in which the words Ab and Akh are made to stand for some deity who is not more definitely described, and the name asserts something concerning him, e. g.^ Abi-dan^ "My father is judge," Abi-da'' probably for Abi-yada' = "My father knows," Abi-kkail ^ ''My father is strong," Abi-tob = "My father is good," Abi- Nadab=^ "My father is noble," Abi-no'am = "My father is pleasant," y^/^z'-'^^^r= " My father is help," Akhi- tob— " My brother is good," AkJii-no''am = "My brother is pleasant," Ak/n'-'ese?'— ''My brother is help, " etc. By bearing these facts in mind we shall be greatly aided in determining many of the points which will come be- fore us in the subsequent pages. NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. 95 ELOAII AND ELOHIM. Elbhwi is apparently the plural of Eloah. Both are used in the Old Testament as "God," though EloJiim also frequently means "gods." There are three in- quiries necessary in connection with these names, i. Was Eloah ever the proper name of a special deity in Israel ? 2. Was Eldhhn ever the proper name of a special deity? 3. And should both these inquiries re- ceive affirmative answers, which was the earlier of the two? 1. With reference to the first inquiry, it must be said that we have not much evidence. EloaJi has never, so far as I know^, been found in a theophorous proper name. It is used chiefly in poetry, occurring- more than forty times in Job, and several times in the Psalms. We have, however, one noteworthy pre-exilian use. In Dent, xxxii. 15, we read, "He forsook Eloah who made him." In this passage Eloah is apparently used of Yahwe, and is almost equivalent to a proper name. We cannot be sure, however, that in ancient Israelitish heathenism there was ever a deity Eloah, as the w^ord may be like the Assyrian ////, simply the generic name. When monotheism became established in Israel, and Yahwe was identified with the supreme God, this gen- eric name was applied to him, becoming a synonym of Yahwe. That it was such a generic name we learn from its use in the Balaam poetry. Cf. Num. xxiii. 21. 2. As to the word Eloh'uu, we have reason from the El-Amarna tablets to think that it was used by the Canaanites as a singular in the 15th century B. C, be- fore the Israelitish conquest, and that this usage ex- tended to Phoenicia.* We sliall, perhaps, not be far * Cf. My article in the Proc. Am. Oriental Soc. for 1S92. 96 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. wrong, if we suppose that anterior to that there was a time when it was simply the plural of Elbah and meant "gods." * In Amos iv. ii, we have evidence that it had been adopted in Israel as a name of Yahwe : — "As when EloJmn overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." On the lips of Amos such an expression could refer to none but Yahwe. From the whole tenor of his prophecy, we could not conceive of his using it otherwise. As to how the application of the plural to a single deity came about, we are left largely to conjecture. In the time of the El-Amarna tablets, Elohim seems to have been used as a generic term like the Assyrian ihi. We have traces of such a use in the Old Testament. In I Sam. ii. 25, Elohim seems to be used in the sense of "divine powers," while in i Sam. xiv. 15, we have an adjectival use of Eldliini which could only have been produced by a long anterior use of the word in the gen- eral sense of "divine powers." These together with the expression b^nc Elbhhu^ which occurs so often in the Old Testament, would indicate that the Hebrews adopted from the Canaanites the use of EloJiini in the generic sense at least, as early, and probably before they appropriated it as one of the designations of Yahwe. With this generic use we should compare "/7c?;// rabiitV in Assyrian, which is often used as though the gods in a mass were thought of almost as though they were one individual. In Ass}Tian, however, outside the El- Amarna tablets, ildni was seldom if ever used as a real singular. t We must suppose, however, that in ancient Canaanitish a similar use of EloJiini existed, and that * Cf. Smith's Rcl. of the Sent., p. 426. t See the Proc. Am. Oriental Soc. above referred to. nativp: israelitish deities. 97 before the i5tli century B. C. it had further developed so that the plural conception was partly lost from the word and in the generic sense it was used as a real sinoular. It would seem that such a use of Elohim was adopted in Israel, before the literary period, and if so the term would naturally be applied to Yahwe by those in whose minds the conception of Yahwe as the only God first took shape. 3. Eloah and EhVihii seem, then, neither of them to have been used as proper names in any historic period until they became, in a measure, names of Yahwe. We may, however, still inquire which of them was thus applied to Yahwe first. So far as we can trace this in the literature, Eloah is, -even if we accept the critical date of Deuteronomy, used at least as earh- as Elohim^ the former appearing in Amos, and the latter in Deut. xxxii. for the first time.* If the use of Elohlin came about as we have supposed above, it might naturally be used of Yahwe as early as Eloah would be. But as has been already noted, the use of Eloah is largely poetical, and as poetry is every- where so fond of archaic forms, one may conjecture that this use of Eloah is older than that of Elohhn. EL. El^ which is etymologically connected with the As- syrian //?/!, "god," unlike the two names last consid- ered, was evidentl)' once the name of a special deity. This is indicated by the fact that we find it as a com- ponent part of so many proper names as N'-Uhan-el^ Yisra-el, etc. It is, however, distinctly shown by the name Eli-el (= " My god is El,") which occurs in i * Deut. xxxii. appears to be older than JE. Cf. Driver's Intro., p. 89. 98 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Cliron. xi. 46, 47; xii. 11, etc. Pciiii-cl and BctJi-el seem to have been especial sanctuaries of this deity as their names evince, though El was at an early time identified with Yahwe, and these places became centres about which the sacred traditions of Yahwe revolved. (See Genesis xxviii. and xxxii). At some very early time, perhaps through the similarity of its sound to ElbaJi^ it came to be used for "god" in general, and then was identified with Yahwe. This identification had taken place as early as the reign of Jeroboam II., as El is used with the evident meaning of Yahwe in the Balaam poems, which critics refer to that reign. One might infer from the fact that ^^'7/^-^/ and Pemi-el were evidently sanctuaries of El^ that the god was native among the Canaanites and was adopted by the Israelites after the conquest. If so, ^/ soon became so thoroughly naturalized in Israel, (as the many proper names of which it forms a part show), as to be practically a native Israelitish deity. His original characteristics as an individual deity are hopelessly lost to us. In form El is identical with the Assyrian ////. //«, however, seems never to have been used of a specific deity so far as we can tell from the literature, but always as a generic term. On the other hand it would seem that in Canaan, in the most ancient times known to us. El was a specific deity and Eloali the generic term, this latter developing in course of time into Eloliini. In Old Testament times, as already stated, El became a generic term, and also appears as such in several Phoe- nician inscriptions of rather late date.* * See C. L S., 119, 2 ; 257, 4 ; 258, 4-5 ; 259, 3 ; 377, 4, 6 ; 378, 3- NATIVK ISRAELITISH DEITIES. 99 ELYON. This word occurs in Genesis xiv. 18, as an epithet of EI, in Ps. vii. 18, as an epithet of Yahwe, and in Ps, Ivii. 3, as an epithet of Eldhhn. It also occurs alone as a name for God or Yahwe in Ps. ix. 3 and xxi. 8. The word seems to be from the root ''aid, "high," and we should be inclined to regard it merely as an epithet did not Philo of Biblos mention a deity Elyon. ('E/.^m- i^alov- iiu'oq "rftcTTog. See Eusebius, Praep. Evajtg., I., 10, 14). This may be sufficient evidence that in Phoenicia in later times there was a god Elyon. This opens before US two alternatives, either of which are possible. Elyon may have been in ancient times merelj'an epithet, freely applied to various deities, and developed in Phoenicia at a later period into a separate god, or it may have been an old deity among both Hebrews and Phoenicians, and have been so early identified by the Hebrews with Yahwe, that in the literary period the name survived merely as an epithet. The absence, however, of proper names among either Israelites or Phoenicians in which Elyon is one element, seems to incline the scale rather to the side of the former alternative, viz., that 'K/w'v among the Phoenicians arose from the deification of what originally was a mere epithet. SHADDAI. Shaddai, usually rendered "Almighty," is an old Hebrew divine name. It occurs frequently alone, as in Num. xxiv. 4, frequently as an epithet oi EI, as in Gen. xlviii. 4, and in Old Testament times was identified with Yahwe as is shown in Gen. xvii. i. The occur- rence of Shaddai 2iS an element in proper names, as in lOO PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Ainmi-sliaddai^' ("My kindred is Shaddai"), Sziri- shaddai-\ ("My rock is Shaddai"), and Sh^de-urX ("Shaddai is light"), would seem to be evidence that there was once a time when Shaddai was a separate deity, Shaddai occurs alone as a divine name in the blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 25) one of the oldest of the extant Israelitish poems, and in Exodus vi. 3, the fath- ers are said to have worshipped Yahwe under the name El Shaddai. Further proof of the antiquity of the name is found in Job, where it occurs as a divine name more than thirty times, x'llthough the book of Job dates pro- bably from the exile or a time just subsequent, neverthe- less as poetry prefers archaic forms, its use of Shaddai is evidence of the early date at which that name became current in Israel. To determine the character of Shaddai as a separate deity is a difficult matter. Some help might be ex- pected from the etymology of the word, but unfortu- nately that is at present undetermined. It used to be connected with the Arabic root shadda^ "strong," but in 1883, Professor Fred. Delitzsch, in his Hebreiv Lan- guage^ p. 48, n.,§ connected it with the Assyrian sadie^ which he thought was defined in V. R. 28, 82, as sahu, "to be high." This is very doubtful as the reading is as Jensen has pointed out, sahu, and not sahu. Halevy, (Z. A"., II., 105-107), Jensen (Z. A., Vol. I., p. 251), and Noldehe (Z. D. M. G., Vol. XL., p. 735 sq.), unite in declaring Delitzsch's verb stem sadii impossible, though neither of them has a more satisfactory etymology to offer. Notwithstanding this there is, as my friend Pro- fessor Hilprecht suggests to me, much to be said in favor *Nuti]. i. 12; ii. 25. fNum. i. 6; ii. 12. J Num. i. 5; ii. 10. I Cf. also his Prologomeita, p. 96. NATIVE ISRAEUTISH DEITIES. lOI of such a stem. K and k are constantly expressed in Assyrian by the same sign, as every Assyriologist knows. The preposition 'sud^^ which occurs frequently in such expressions as Hani sii-iid sanii irsitim {e. g.^ V. R., I., 86), and in such words as sudsakii seems to be best explained from this root. The word sadn, mountain, would also seem to demand such a root for its explana- tion. Should we admit, however, that a verbal root sadii is not yet absolutely established, the fact remains that Shaddai seems to be connected with the Assyrian ^adu^ "mountain." YidX^vy QOX\]QQ.\.wx^'s, {Rccherches Biblicpics^ p. 52), th^t Shaddai may be an archaic form for shade = 'sddu, "mountain," and that our form may mean "'dv^eU'er on the mountain." This conjecture probably points in the right direction, even if we admit Delitzsch's verb stem sadii. The "inhabitant of the mountain" would easily become "the mighty one" or "the almighty one," in consequence of the fixedness of the moun- tain and the impregnable character of the sanctuary. To this conjecture the name Suri-shaddai ("my rock is Shaddai"), as well as the later use of siiri as an epithet of Yaliwe in Ps. xviii. 2, xxxi. 3, and 2 Sam. xxii. 2, would add strength. It may be then that Shad- dai -was originally a mountain deity, worshipped on the top of Carmel or some other mountain, as Livy says Poeninus was worshipped on the summit of one of the Alps. (vSee Bk. xxi., ch. xxxviii.). The frequency of the combination El Shaddai in the Old Testament would indicate that Shaddai was first identified with E/^ and then both with Yaliwe. * Cf. Delitzsch in Zeitschrift fiir Keilschriftforschung, XL, 289. I02 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB, If our conjecture as to the origin of Shaddai be cor- rect, not only the necessities of a rapidly growing mon- otheism, and the appropriateness of the term "Al- mighty" to a god who now stood alone, but the very nature of Shaddai\ would facilitate the identification with Yahwe. Yahwe too originally had his home in a mountain — Horeb, as we have already seen — so that the two may have been really kindred. This hypothesis cannot be proved at present, but does not from what is now known seem improbable. ba'al. Ba^al'-Mvas in ancient times in Israel an epithet of Yahwe; ^This is proved by the fact that Gideon was c'alled' Yerubba'al, and that Saul and David, each a faith- ful Yahwe worshipper, named- sons Ish-ba'al, "Ba'al's man," Meriba'al, "Ba'al's warrior," and Be'elyada', "Ba'al knows." Indeed, as Wellhausen has pointed out, Yerubba'al, by all Semitic analogy, must have been Gideon's original name,* while Gideon, "the tree- feller," a designation for a warrior like our "Ironsides," must have been given him later in life. Further proof is found in the fact that Hosea in ch. ii. i6, speaking in the name of Yahwe, forbids in future the application of the name Ba^al to him.f As ba''al^ means simply "owner," "possessor," or "lord," one can see how naturally it would be applied to Yahwe as the giver of Israel's land and the recipient of Israel's first fruits. So offensive, however, did the Canaanitish ba'alini become to the pure moralists of prophetic times, and so excellent were the opportunities * Cf. History of Israel, p. 238 sq. t Cf. Hosea ii. 16. Q.i. Journal of Bibl. Literature, VoL X., p. 84 sq. NATIVE ISRAELITISII DEITIES. 103 when Yahwe was called a ba^al for the introduction of impure rites into his worship, that from the days of Hosea onward the name was suppressed as an epithet of Yahwe, and became exceedingly offensive to the later Jews. Ba''aly then, was never a native Israelitish deity, except in the sense that in the early centuries of the national history, Yahwe was a ba''al. ADON. Acidity so far as I can find, never was a separate deity in Israel. It seems to have been a synonym of ba''al^ meaning "owner," "possessor," "lord," etc., and is an epithet of Yahwe from Amos (See ch. i. 8) down to the latest times. As is well known, it displaced the name of Yahwe itself. In Phoenician, the only other Semitic language in which it is extensively used, the name in early times was simply an epithet, and perhaps to the Phoenicians themselves always continued to be. It was, however, in later times an especial epithet of Tammuz, and among the Greeks as 'AcJwwf it became the proper name of that god. * The only thing analogous to this among the Israel- ites, was the displacement of the name Yahwe by Adon in post-Biblical Hebrew. MELEK. Melek appears as a divine name in Israel in such names 7k% Abi-nielck^ "my father is Melek," the name of a son of Gideon, and AkJii-nielek^ "my brother is Melek," the name of a priest at Nob in the time of David. Two explanations are in this case, possible. * See Lucian's Die Syria Dea, passiin. I04 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. One, that in ancient Israel before Yaliwe worship be- came snpreme, there was a god Melek, and that such names as those just cited are survivals from that time. In favor of this view the fact may be urged that the chief deity of the Ammonites was Moloch (or Molok) a god identical with Melek in name. There is evidence also in the tablets from El-Amarna that the Canaanitish inhabitants of Palestine, in the 15th century B. C. , wor- shipped a god Melek. The names Mil-ki-ihi^ "Melek is god," * A-bi-mil-ki^ "My father is Melek," f and A-bi- sami^ X a translation of the latter into Assyrian, occur. In common then with their Canaanitish neighbors and the Ammonites, all kindred peoples, it is probable, it may be urged, that the Israelites too had a god Melek, especially as we find his name used as an element in proper names by the Israelites themselves. The other explanation is that Melek, "king," was only an epithet of Yahwe, and that Abi-melek was only another way of saying, "My father is Yahwe." As we have already seen (supra, p. 94) abi 2iW^ akJii ■axo. used in proper names to denote the name of a deity not other- wise mentioned, e. g.^ Abi-tiib^ "My father is good," and Abi-khail^ "My father is strong." This explanation is somewhat supported by the fact that Gideon was a faithful servant of Yahwe and could hardly have named his son, it may be said, for another god, and that Akhimelek likewise was a priest of Yahwe. Against this last consideration, however, it may be urged that a study of Assyrian proper names * See Winckler & Abel's Thontofelfund von El Amarna, No. 103, 29; 105, II ; 106, 6. t Ibid., No. 98, 2. X Ibid., No. 99, 2. NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. 105 abundantly proves that in a poh'tlieitsic community a devotee of one deity might name his son from another. The scale then seems to be pretty evenly balanced between these two theories, though in my opinion it is slightly inclined towards the latter. If Melek then was an epithet of Yahwe, it disap- peared at a comparatively early period, its identity with Moloch making it, no doubt, very offensive to the faith- ful disciples of Yahwe. YAHWE S^BAOTH. This peculiar and oft-recurring combination of names was formerly the source of much perplexity, it being doubted whether S^baoth, which evidently meant "hosts," referred to the heavenly hosts or stars, or to earthly armies. It now seems tolerably clear that it was the latter. In Assyrian, sabu is the ordinary word for soldier, and it would seem that Yahwe S^baoth, was the "Yahwe of war hosts." This view is strengthened by the fact that we have a trace in Num. xxi., of a "book of the wars of Yahwe." During the conquest of Canaan it was Yahwe who gave victory to the armies of Israel, as Assur was thought by the Assyrians to give victory to their armies. In the subsequent wars the de- vout Israelites felt none the less sure that the issue of battle was in the hands of Yahwe, and regarded Israel's armies as his armies. No wonder then that Yahwe S^baoth became a very common name of Yahwe, and one which peculiarly expressed his might and sovereign power. Thus this designation came to have a striking significance. One might compare with this the devel- opment of Ishtar in Assyria, where the goddess of love became the supreme goddess, and having as such to Io6 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. take a peculiar interest in the national wars, in course of time became differentiated, Ishtar of Nineveh being the patroness of love, and Ishtar of Arbela, the patron- ess of war. In Israel no such marked change occurred. The opportune development of monotheism made this impossible. But none the less did this epithet S^baoth, represent the warlike might, unconquerable power, majesty, and sovereign character of Yahwe. It occurs most often in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah, and it would seem, was intended to remind the Israelite of all those qualities in his God, the recognition of which would strengthen his heart to endure when enemies in- vaded and oppressed, and would assure him that Yahwe must ultimately be victorious. TERAPHIM. The Teraphim seem to have been household gods among the Hebrews, like the Lares and Penates among the Romans. Sometimes the word has a plural mean- ing, as in Genesis xxxi. 19, and sometimes, though plural in form, the meaning is not plural, as in i Sam. xix. 13, 16. From this latter passage it is evident, since David's wife could pass one off for David himself, that the Teraphim were made in the human form, and that those in David's house were as large as a man. They were not always so large, however, as Rachel could hide her father's in a camel's saddle. See Gen. xxxi. 34. Gesenius, I think, first suggested that the root of Ter- aphim was the same as the Arabic root tarifa^ "to live in abundance," and with this the late Professor De- litzsch* and Davies agree, though Dillmann declares * Cotmnentar uber Genesis, ed. 1887, p. 395. NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. IO7 that a satisfactory etymology has never been found.* If this be the origin of the name, the Teraphim would be deities of household plenty. That they really were deities is shown by Genesis xxxi. 30, where Elohhu is used for them. Delitzsch compares them to the Latin Penates, who were gods of the penes^ the storehouse of family supplies and the inner sanctuary. All this seems probable, and the Ethiopic root, tai'fa^ which has the general meaning of abundance, would coincide with this view. While the Teraphim seem to have been household gods, they were also used for purposes of divination. See I Sam. xv. 23, 2 Kings xxiii. 24, and Ezekiel xxi. 21. Just what this use was and how accomplished we have no means of knowang, Castelle compares the name with the Syriac /""r^/^/^, "to inquire," but it would seem more likely that this is a denominative verb de- rived in consequence of the practice of divination by Teraphim, than that Teraphim is derived from it. If it be objected that we do not know that the Aramaeans had Teraphim, it may be rejoined that according to Ezekiel xxi. 21, they were a Babylonian institution, and as they existed on both sides of the Aramaeans, the presence of such a word as f^raph in an Aramaic lan- guage makes the presumption very strong that they had Teraphim too. In the days of the Judges, the Teraphim were wor- shipped along with Yahwe, as is shown by the descrip- tion of Micah's temple in Judges xvii. and xviii. This state of things continued down through the days of Hosea, who (ch. iii. 4), mentions the Teraphim as a legitimate means of worship. * Dillmaun's Genesis, ed. 18S6, p. 345. I08 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. When the reform of Josiah came, however, all this was changed, and the Teraphim along with other idola- trous symbols were expelled from the temple of Yahwe. See 2 Kings xxiii. 24. GAD. In Isa. Ixv. II, the prophet speaks of "preparing a table for Gad." From the context it is evident that the word contains a reference to some deity other than Yahwe. Gad then was a god, perhaps holding a rela- tion to the tribe of Gad similar to that which the god Edom held to the Edomites. * Reasoning from what we know of primitive Semitic tribes, we should say that Gad was the old tribal god of the tribe of the same name. When that tribe became a part of the united nation, and Yahwe had become the national god. Gad would lose some of his general char- acteristics and would become the god of some special sphere of human life. That this was in general his history, we infer from the fact that there was a proper name Ba''al-Gad^ showing that there was a time when it could be said "Baal is Gad," or "Gad is lord," and from the fact that the name Gad came later to mean "fortune." In Genesis xxx. 11, bdgad^ means "fortu- nately!" Thus Gad became, by the development of monotheism, the god of fortune, and then was banished altogether. This would seem in general to be his history, as nearly as we can reconstruct it from the few data that *That Edom was a god the name Obed-Edom, "Servant of Edom," shows. 2 Sam. vi. 10, 11, 12. Cf. Smith's i?^//^/o« of the Semites, P- 43- t The Ixx. renders this iv tvxv- NATIVE ISRAELITISH DEITIES. IO9 remain, althonj^h the root GD had similarly the meaning "fortnne" or "fortnnate" in other Semitic langnages. Cf. the Arabic ^Y?4 t/} <1 ^ W ^ -< ^: o '"' w o o o 8 1 A NEW NUMERICAL FRAGMENT FROM NIPPUR. BY H. V. HILPRECHT. In his " Assyriologische Miscellen" {Erste Reihe : I. -III.)* p. 193 fF., Delitzsch discusses the numerical fragment K. 2014, f known through Schrader's^. B. K.^ p. 237, and places it in its proper light. Simultane- ously with the printing of that essay, in the course of my work on the Nippur tablets, I came across a small brown clay fragment, measuring 6.65 cm. in its longest, and 3.5 cm. in its widest part. On both sides, the tab- let — to which I gave the number, Ni. 1893 — shows remains of lines of cuneiform writing in Neo-Babylonian characters. Although apparently only the portion of a so-called "contract tablet," it derives especial import- ance from the fact that it contains several Assyrian numerals in phonetic writing which up to the present had not been found elsewhere. As an exact reproduction of the fragment will appear in one of the forthcoming volumes of my series of Cuneiform Texts^ Riving the results of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, I shall confine myself here to a short description of what is essentially new in the fragment. The obverse alone needs to be considered * Reprint from the Berichte d. Philolog.-Histor. Classe d. K. S. Gesell. d. Wiss., 8 Juli., 1893. t Bezold, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Col- lection of the British Museum, I., p. 385. (137) 138 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. for our purposes. In its fragmentary condition it con- sists of two columns. Of the left-hand column only a few signs at the end of the first seven lines are preserved, namely: l.i: ME; I.2: A-AN; I.3: P«"/ I.4: IP'^"; I.5: IIP""/ 1.6 and 7, merely kan or remains of that sign. It is impossible to determine at present what may have stood at the beginning of these single lines. At all events the right-hand column makes it probable that the numerical signs followed by kati continued in uninter- rupted succession, at least till IX, and perhaps still further. It is to be regretted that the right-hand column, which, among other things, contains the masculine or feminine forms of the Babylono-Assyrian cardinal num- bers, is only preserved up to the numeral VIII or IX. Of course there is still a possibility that the remaining portions of the tablet may be found among the frag- ments not yet cleaned, or may be furnished by the ex- cavations continued with such success at Nippur, I need not stop to consider the numerals I to V, since such forms as seh'sn^ ii'bit^ hamilti^ have been known for some time. For number II, we find instead of the usual ^sind., si-nu-ti=sinti.^ The numerals VI-IX, appear as follows: 1. 8 1. 9 1. 10 1. II SIS sit-ti sib- it sa-maii-ti \ti\I'^-ti * Scarcely to be regarded as the ordinal iiumber=ja;»J. The fem- inine of the numeral II, which Delitzsch omits in his enumeration, Assyr. Gram., \ 75, is found in Strassniaier, Nabonidus, 258, 12 : 11-//, i. e., sinit. t Cf. Bruennow, A Classified List, No. i486. A NI<:W NUMERICAL FRAGMENT FROM NIPPUR. I39 The last line may doubtless be completed to ///-//, the traces pointing to this character, and there being only space for one character between the ruling at the edge and the break. Tilti or tHti= testis tcsiii= tis- sati=iis' ati\ is therefore the form y? 7(7///. The well- known form ii-sii on the other hand is a formation fi^'ilht.'^ In the case of the numeral VII there are also two complementary formations of the feminine occurring side by side, as will be shown below. The masculine form for IX is, as Delitzsch has already correctly put it, ti-su, i. e. , i'tSH {^t!ssii=^tiT ti). The number sai>idiih'^=V\\l appears here for the first time. It coincides fully (especially when ending in « = samdnta) with the Ethiopic accusative form samanta.'\ From the feminine form the masculine samdnu may be readily deduced. Cf. also Bezold, Oriental Diplomacy^ § 32- It is interesting to note the feminine form sibti or sebii by the side of the one hitherto known sebitti.X Just as in the case of the numeral IX, so we have for VII two distinct formations, y^V/z/// andyrt'/?////, i. e., on the one hand schii^=^scbi{d)ti^^sdbatu^=sabbaiii^:=sab'' atii^ on the other sibitti or sebitii=sebaiii=saba'' h'.\\ The corres- ponding masculine si-ba^ i. e., scba\\ was previously known. * Cf. Delitzsch, Assyr. Gravi., ibid. t Occurring at a late period, though in reality a more primitive form, from which the customary saniajita was deduced according to the Ethiopic Phonetic Laws. By the side of the latter we also find the older samaulta (ace), cf. Praetorius, Aelhiopische Cramniatik^ W 135 , 136 and 15. JCf. Delitzsch Assyr. Cram., ibid. II Delitzsch, ibid., ^65, 6, Anmerkung. 140 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. The feminine form of the numeral VI sissitti is ab- normal. The shortened form sis-sit is found, 82, 7-14, 864, col. Ill, 14 ab. (Meissner, Z. A., VII, pp. 28 and 20, and the same author's De servittite Babylonico- Assyriaca^ p. 6). The passag-e reads : VI, gin guskiji ni-lal-e^sts-sit sik-lu kaspii i-sak-ka/^ "six shekels of silver shall he pay." Inasmuch as the Assyrian stem for the word is s-d-s^'^ we should have expected a form sidsati=zS2ssa{i)fi^ which, indeed, Bertin, in his Assyro- Babylonian grammar, p. 34, adopts. The form sissitii can only be accounted for as a secondary formation due to analogy and arising under the influence of the form fi'iltn^ which, as it appears, was predominantly employed in numerals such as sebitti^ tisitti (cf. also sinitti^ pro- bably pronounced thus) and irbitti. In other words, just as the stem s-d-'s becoming through dissimilation s-d-s (but cf. the ordinal si-is-si and the cardinal si-ib-i or si-bi in Bezold, Oriental Diplomacy^ § 32), led to pro- nouncing "seven" and "eight" as a rule with initial s^ so conversely the feminine forms like sebitti and ttsitti {hy the side of sebfi Sind. tcs/i or telti) superinduced sissitti as the feminine formation for "six." The mas- culine form must have been sishf in Assyrian, conform- ably to the Semitic ground-form sidt/i;f and sissn again would, in appearance and pronunciation, be identical with the cardinal of six, inasmuch as the latter appears as sadtisuX=zsadsii^=sedsu^=sessH (written sissu). * Delitzsch, j'bid., §75, and Assyriologische Miscellen, p. 196. f Noeldeke Die Seniitischen Spracheii, p. 7, Anmerk i. X Fa'ul in Assyrian in accordance with Delitzsch, Assyr. Gram.., \ 76, close. THE HOLY NUMBERS OF THE RIG- VEDA. BY EDWARD WASHBURN HOPKINS. [For further details than are given in this paper, and for the ques- tions of the Indo-Semitic Duodecimal system, see the author's ac- count of all the Vedic numbers, given in full in Journ. Am. Or. Soc. For the holiness of one in "one god," etc., see a paper by the same, published in the Drisler Memorial Volume (1894), on Henotheism in the Rig-Veda.] The most revered cardinals of the Rig- Veda are three and seven. The origin and application of these numeri- cal groups form the study of this paper. The chief questions involved, are the antiquity of their sacred character, and the effect produced upon theosophic speculation by their employment as holy numbers. To give some examples of the employment of each in turn : there are three heavens and three earths; heaven is threefold with apportioned realms. There are seven seers, rivers, rays. But more complex, including the atmosphere, is the later division of the fifth book: Three heavens, three light-spaces, three rain-spaces, are the places of the highest gods. The simplest and earliest form, as I conceive, of a threefold division is that of earth, air and heaven — of which we have an example in I, 95, 3: "Three are the birth-places of the fire-god, in air, in heaven, in water," where "water" stands for cloud, since Agni's third form is the light- ning. Important is one result of this division, viz. : that according to several passages the gods collect in (14O 142 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. threes, /. c. there are gods in earth, air, and heaven ; although this is sometimes varied so that "in the realm of ligiit the gods stand in threes," i. e.^ in each of the three heavens. Yet no passage that seems to belong to the earliest period would indicate a formal three-fold division into groups of all the gods. Sub-divisions of earth itself are left to the imagination, though a curse in one passage suggests that the third earth is super- imposed on a sort of hell, for the enemy is cursed "to lie under all the three earths." Particularly in the constant application to the gods, and to many liturgical reckonings, is three the holiest of holy numbers. Three are the strides of Vishnu across heaven; thrice a day, morning, noon and night, the gods descend to the sacrifice (oblation). In one pas- sage this is extended to three nightly benefits of Agni (VII, II, 3). Even where the dual character of the gods is characteristic, as in the case of the two A^vins (Horsemen), the Dioskouroi of India, three is applied, as it were mechanically, in their praise: "Thrice come to us to-day, three tires are on your chariot, three sup- ports ; thrice by day ye come, thrice by night; when dawm ascends the chariot that has three seats then give us thrice your heavenly refreshment . . . Thrice ye compass earth and through three distances ye come; in threefold way is the oblation poured out; thrice are the three vessels filled: three aie the wheels of your three- fold chariot, three are the seats; upon this three-fold chariot come, O Agvins, together with the thrice-eleven gods" (I, 34). Though this is rather an extreme in- stance of harping upon three, it shows compactly what may be illustrated at length from many passages, that three is a number peculiarly holy and of especially di- THK HOLY NUMBERS OF RIG-VEDA. 1 43 vine application. Compare especially Om=a, ii, m (See Av. XIII, 3, 6). Omitting here a vast number of details (which will be found elsewhere) I call especial attention to the use of three in the formation, first of divine triads and then of an early trinity. Agni, the fire-god, makes a triad with Soma and Gandharva; he makes with Wind and Sun another and very important triad. Of other groups of three may be mentioned the gods Aryaman, Mitra, Varuna ; the goddesses Ila, Sarasvati, Mahi (these are given in various orders and with the substitution at times of Bharati for Mahi); also the three Ribhus; the three mother-goddesses of Agni; the three Fates or Destructions (but this is quite unique); "the three that cause increase;" "the three fires that follow dawn," etc. (human are "the three Aryan races," "the three ages past," etc.). There is but one clearly defined trinity, interesting as a prototype of the later trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva), and that is from Fire — Sun — Lightning. For there is a certain homoousian tendenc)', which leads to the union of different gods, notably of Agni with Indra and Savitar by means of the identification of their respective attributes, flame, sun- light, lightning. Eventually the middle factor, Indra (lightning and its spiritual causa viovcns)^ is formally stated to be the same with the sun, and with Agni, the sacrificial fire. Almost all the cases of threes are of divine or ritual- istic application. Apart from this and certain rare in- stances of earth (above), three is used in a superlative sense, but generally as the limit of an unbroken series, as "for one, for two, for three, or for many ;" where it is important to note that three is not used for many, but only as leading up to it; and as an adverb, in the sense 144 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. of "much " or "very," though probably with no more evanescence of the original meaning than is to be seen in Tpi(pi?.>7Toc, ter felix, etc. In proper names it is inter- esting to note parallels to T/3OTr(5;ie/iof, etc., such as Triv- rishan, Trimantu, etc. In later literature three is much employed in witch- craft, as in Greece and Rome. In the Rig- Veda itself, examples of this may be seen in X, 87, lo-ii; VIII, 91 (80), 5-7. SEVEN. The use of seven is not the same with that of three. The difference should be carefully noticed. In the first place three is too small a number to be used as an equivalent for "many," except in such adverbial phrases as "thrice red," etc., parallel to ter felix, whereas seven is constantly used in the sense of "many." In the second place three is a holier number than seven. In regard to the first point we have such expressions as that used by Indra: "I am a seven-slayer," /. ^. , a slayer of many; and also "the seven fortresses" of the sky as equivalent to an indefinite plurality, something like our generalized use of "dozen;" though even in English the use of seven as an indefinite number is not unknown. Compare Shakespeare's "a vile thief this seven year." Such also is the significance of saptd- pada in the phrase "food for seven places" (/. .dxi alongside of the perhaps more cor- rect form ^n. ^In Lettic the original name of the tongue has given way to the word mele (a fem. yVz-stem, see Bielenstein, Lett. Spr. 2, p. 46), for which an etymology, to \\\y knowledge, has not yet been found. 184 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB, How are we to discover in such manifold variation the quality of the ground form in Primitive Aryan ? So overwhelming is the variety of forms, and so per- plexing are often their changes, that we cannot wonder that several scholars have so despaired of the task of establishing their union as to prefer to ascribe to Prim. Aryan various words for the tongue.^ But even if we were willing to admit that Primitive Aryan, in dis- tinction from most of the existing languages, may have designated the tongue by more than one name: the var- ious forms that we should have to ascribe to Prim. Aryan, would be so much alike in their sounds, their accent and their inflection, that it would seem impos- sible to deny their origin from one and the same word. The chief stumbling-block in the way of those who ^e. g. Meringer in his Beitrage z. Gesch. d. indog. Decl., p. 3S sq., arrives at three Prim. Aryan names, viz.: I. ^ nghil. II. * d-nghva. III. * s-ighvd or s-nghva. But he has not taken into account the z7 forms OHG. zungu-n- and ^\.\.. juhu'- (Av. hizu-). In order to include these, Nr. II. ought to be given (from Meringer's standpoint) as * d iighu and * d-nghva, and Nr. III. as * s-ighu and * s-ighvd or * s-nghu and * s-n^hva. Moreover the /-forms (Arm. lezu, Lat. lingua, Ir. ligur. Lit. lezuwis), which Meringer regards as younger developments, are probably not younger than the forms upon which he bases his Nr. I. ; so that we may add a Nr. IV : * l-nghu and. l-nghvd. There is a further chance for increasing the primitive forms of this kind by ascribing to Prim. Aryan, on account of Irish tenge, a form with initial I. If we were to carry on the same method in regard to other differences, (e. g., in regard to the syllabic element of the first syllable), there would be no end of Aryan names of the tongue. Still all of these would agree in the form -nghti or .nghva (or at least -ghti and -ghvd), that is to say, in everything except the first or the two first sounds. And even in these the words would be very much alike, as the first sound in all would be some kind of a dental (sometimes assimilated to the following nasal), and the second generally a syllabic nasal. THE ARYAN NAME OF THE TONGUE. 1 85 denied the identity of Ski. j'thva' with Lat. lingua, has been the initial J in the Indian word. Skt. /', it is argued, cannot be regarded as the regular descendant of the Prim. Aryan d^ which is presupposed by Lat. dingua and Goth, tiiggo. No doubt Prim. Aryan d is in San- skrit generally represented not byy' but by d. Yet we ought not to overlook the fact that the second syllable oijihva' 200.6. juhfi' - begins with a/rt/^/(7/spirant, through whose influence the initial dental media of the first syllable may have been replaced by the palatal media /. In favor of this view we may cite the well-known words in which in Sanskrit initial dental and palatal sibilants of neighboring syllables have attracted each other, e. g. , gvdgu?-as for '^sva-giiras = Lat. socer, Germ. Schwahei^; gvagru's for ^sva-gru's = Lat. socrus^ Germ. Schzmcger; gagas m. "hare" for ga-sds = Q^i\n.. Hase, etc. (see e. g. , Bartholomae, Ar. Forsch. I, p. 79, note i, and p. 105, note 14; Osthoff, Z. Gesch. d. Perf., p. 494 sqq.) More- over the change of ^dihva' \x\jiJiva' has an exact parallel in that of *dihi)td = Or. 6ox^t6c "slanting" into ji/und (see Pott, Etym. Forsch." II, 3, p. 224 — who, however, wrongly explains Gr. 6oxnk by dissimilation from *yoxii6q — and Bugge in KZ. 19, p. 422).' I cannot bring myself to the conclusion that this ex- planation is less satisfactory or less probable than the one proposed by Bartholomae in KZ. 27, p. 207 sqq. (cp. also his Ar. Forsch. 3, p. t^j, note), and adopted by ^ Notice in regard to the palatal ni jihvd', ji/ima, j'yok ' ' a long time " from *dyok, and j'yut "to shine " = dyitt, Bloomfield's remark, Amer. Journ. of Phil. 7, p. 482: "In all the cases the change occurs before i, and is to be regarded as an exhibition of palatalization, in principle the same with corresponding changes in the Pali-Prakrit dialects. " Comp. also Johansson in IF. II, p. 3, note. l86 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Meringer, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. idg. Decl., p. 38, and — with some modifications — by Johansson in IF. II, p. 2. In claiming that Skt. jiJiva' and Avest. Jiizva ought to be derived from a common Indo-Iranian basis '^sizJiva' (=Prim. Ar. "^sigJivU')^ Bartholomae assumed an assim- ilation of the alleged Prim. Indo-Iranian form (for which we should expect in Sanskrit '^'sihva') to Primitive Indian "^'zizhva' ^ whence we finally arrive at S^\.. jihvu'. OsthofF, Z. Gesch. d. Perf., p. 503, rightly objected that if there was in Sanskrit a tendency toward such an as- similation, we ought to find, e. g., a form '^jah instead of Skt. sah or "^jaJidsravi instead of Skt. sahdsram. Meringer, indeed (1. c), tries to meet this objection by ascribing the s of sah to the analogical influence of forms like dsdks-i Siwd^ perhaps, sa'dhr^ and that of sahdsram to the influence of sakh. But is it probable that the num- eral for 1000 should hesitate to undergo a phonetic change for the reason that this change would deprive it of its similarity with an adverb' which means "once" or "at once?" And is it probable that the few aorist- forms of sah- and the isolated participle sd'dhr- ^ should have influenced the whole verbal system of the root sah and the long series of nouns connected with this verb? Instances like the nominative sd't (RV. I, 63, 3) or the compounds in sCi't {jand-sd' t^ piii'd-sd' t^ iiird-sd'i^ etc.)^ do not seem to imply that the Indians were very anxious to keep the 5 in sah unchanged. Meringer, in fact, has ■< ^This adverb, by the way, is fouud in the Rigveda uine times, while sahdsra, with its compounds, occurs several hundred times. ^This participle is found in a single passage of the RV. (V, 56, 23), where its nominative is spelled sd'lha. ^Cp. Benfey, Die Quantitats-versch. in den Samhita- u. Pada-Texten, V, I Abt. (Gott., iSSo), p. 14. THE ARYAN NAME OF THE TONGUE. 187 in my opinion failed in his attempt to explain the .v in cases like sa/i and saJiasrani by analoo^y. The assimila- tion supposed by Bartholomae to exist in jihv(i\ so far from being based upon any strict phonetic law, can only be regarded as a sporadic phonetical change. I, for my part, do not entertain any theoretical objection to pho- netic changes of this kind. Yet would anything be gained in our case by granting the exceptional assimila- tion assumed by Bartholomae? It seems to me that, in- stead of explaining the similarity between the words for "tongue" in Indo-Iranian and in the European lan- guages, it would make this similarity the more myster- ious ; and instead of obviating the difficulty found in the initial consonant of the Indian and the Iranian forms, it would carry this difficulty over into the Primi- tive Aryan period. I could more readily agree with Johansson's explana- tion (1. c), in that it at least avoids separating the Indo- Iranian from the European name of the tongue. Johansson starts from a Prim. Aryan form * zdughn-^ or * zdnghvd (based especially upon O. Ir. tcngc)^ from which he proceeds through an intermediate form '^zitghu-^ * svghvd to Indo-Iranian '^sizhu-^ '^zizhva. From the latter form he proposes to derive, on the one hand, Skt. jihvd (by an intermediate form * siz/ivd^ in which the two sibilants were assimilated), on the other hand, Iranian liizvd ("perhaps" b}- an intermediate form * sizlivd).'^ My objections to this theory are as follows: i. A Prim. Aryan form '^zdnglin- with initial z seems to me not sufficiently warranted by the Irish word ienge. Even ' Conip. the similar explanation of hizva proposed b}- Bechtel, Sinnl. Wabruehm., p. 42. i88 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. in Irish there is no other example for initial / from z^d^ and with the rest of the European languages initial s seems to agree so little that Johansson himself is obliged to admit in the case of these a parallel form without z. In presupposing an earlier form * denge^ I prefer to hold that Irish t is an irregular phonetic change. I know that the scientific code of most of the philologists of the present time does not allow of any individual exceptions from so-called phonetic laws. Still exceptions of this kind are frequently met with in every language. E. g., all of the changes generally comprehended under the name of "popular etymology," are, looked at from a purely phonetical standpoint, exceptions from the regu- lar phonetic laws. Another group of words in which exceptional phonetic changes occur very frequently con- sists of abbreviated proper names, e. g., in English:^ Bill = William. Bob = Robert. Dick ^ Richard. Dolly == Dorothea. Fanny = Frances. Harry, Hal = Henry. Harriet = Henrietta. Jack = John. Jim ^ James (Jacob). Kate, Kitty = Katherine. Kit = Christopher, Chris- tian. Maggy, Meg = Margaret. Matty = Martha. Maud = Magdalen, Matilda. Moll, Molly = Maria. Nan, Nanny, Nancy := Anna. Ned = Edward. Nell = Helena. Noll == Oliver. Pad, Paddy = Patrick. Pat, Patty, Patsy = Martha. Peg, Peggy = Margaret. Poll, Polly = Maria. Sal, Sally = Sarah. Ted = Edward. Wat = Walter. ^My collegue, Dr. H. W. Smyth, who has been kind enough to look over the manuscript of this paper, has called my attention to a paper by Mr. C. P. G. Scott, in the forthcoming number of the Trans- THE ARYAN NAME OK THE TONGUE. 189 It would be erroneous, liowever, to confine irregulari- ties in sound-shifting to these two classes. Their field is perhaps as unlimited as that of regular phonetic changes, although we nia)- naturally expect that the in- stances in which the common rules are observed will always outnumber those of the exceptions. Suffice it for my present purpose to quote a few examples which are etymologically clear, and in which the irregularity cannot apparently be gainsaid. In Old High German, alongside of the regular forms, thuszint and dusent^ "thousand" (= Goth. //7j-//;/«'z', Ag, S. piisend^ etc.), is found the irregular tusrut^ on which Mod. Germ, tim- send is based. The verb "to thaw" (Ag. S. pdivan, O. Norse pcyjd)^ is in O. H. G. regularly doinvcti, but in M. H. G. — by an irregular change of d into / — becomes toiiwen.^ and is accordingly Mod. Germ, taiioi. A luore recent change oi d into t is observed in Mod. Ger. Triim- wr;'=M. H. G. and O. H. G. dr^nn, ]\Iod. Germ, toscn = M. H. G. dosen, O. H. G. dosbn^ and a few other words (see Wilmanns' Deutsche Gramm. I, p. 70). In the Mod. Low German dialect of Waldeck the words for "father" and mother," whose common Low Gernian form is fader and judder^ (or Didder)^ have, by a change otherwise unheard-of in this dialect, passed into fater and luoter. In Mod. Germ. Hirsdi and Hirsc an irreg- ular shifting of the sibilants is noticed. The regular forms would be "'"Hirs (= ]\I. H. G. hirs) and ^'Hirsc/ie (= M. H. G. hirsc), as is clear from a comparison of e. g. Here = IM. H. G. hcrse and hcrrschcn =^ AI. H. G. actions of the Amer. Philol. Society, which deals with these abbrevi- ated names. 'The regular form douwen, however, is kept in IVI. II. G. in the meaning "to digest," Mod. Germ, irr-daue?!. 190 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. hei'sen. The initial group spj- is in Anglo-Saxon and English generally kept {to spring = Germ, springen^ to spread ^(^&x\\\. spreitoi^ etc.), but has lost its r in Ag. S. spccan = Engl, to speak (found in Ag. S. alongside of spreca 71 = Germ, spreclieii)} As in examples like these irregular phonetic changes are taking place, as it were, before our eyes, I cannot see any sufficient reason for excluding irregularities from the development of sounds in pre-liistoric times. And I would prefer the explanation of O. Ir. tenge from '^dcnge^ by an irregular change, to that from "^ zdenge by an al- leged regular change, so long as no definite traces of an initial zd have been found in other Aryan languages. 2. Johansson indeed claims (1. c. , p. 2), that a prim, form with initial sd is — at least to some extent — sup- port.ed also by Indo-Iranian. Yet I doubt whether by pre- supposing, as he does, an Indo-Iranian prim, form '^ zizhu or * zi'zhva^ the forms are sufficiently explained which we actually find in Indian and more especially in Iranian. The change in Iranian of voiced z into //, the regular descendant of tinvoiced s^ would be without a parallel. Moreover the sound z is found to a large extent as the representative in Iranian of Prim. Aryan palatals and sibilants. Certainly we should expect Johansson's primitive Indo-Iranian form to have become in Iranian nothing else but '^zizTi-^ '^zizva. 3. Johansson's theory would lead to presupposing not one, but two primitive words for the tongue, viz., the ^Kluge, Etym. AVorterb d. ulid. Sprache, s. v. sprechcn, tries to ac- count for the loss of r in Ag. S. specan by presupposing a Germanic root "spek.'" But M. H. G. spehten, io which he refers, belongs to M. H. G. spahen and is not originally connected with sprechen. Nor can I agree with Kluge's derivation, of Mod. Germ. Spitk from sprechcn. THE ARYAN NAME OF THE TONGUE. I9I one with an initial sibilant and another one without this sibilant. In my opinion, it is donbtfnl whether dupli- cates of this kind were known to the Prim. Aryan tongue, although their existence in that language is generally agreed upon. It is true that in several in- stances an initial s is found in one or more than one of the Aryan languages, for whose origin we are unable to account. Yet is anything gained by ascribing to Prim- itive Aryan in such cases both the existence of the s and its non-existence, thus making that period the scape- goat for the lack of our knowledge? Such an explana- tion would be possible if any conditions were recogniz- able in Primitive Arvan leading to an interchancre of forms with and without .t, or if a tendency were apparent in some of the Aryan languages to preserve, and in others to lose, the s. But as the matter stands, the treatment of initial j- would not be in harmony with the rules of Prim, Aryan Sandhi ; and its preservation or its loss in the single Aryan languages would seem not less arbi- trary should we start from a double Aryan form than if we presupposed in each case a single primitive form (be it a form with or without initial s). The theory of Prim. Aryan double forms, differing in an initial sibilant, is, in brief, ground too ;insafe to build upon. If we reject the theories by which the Aryan name of the tongue is considered as beginning with a sibilant, and equate Skt. j/Z/zxl' with *dz7w(l\ are we obliged to re- tain the prim, form ^'dijgJiva\ a form usually accepted by scholars at the present time (cp., e, g. , Fick, Vgl. Wtb. ^I, p. 71)? I think not. There is no other word in which an initial Prim. Aryan c/ has assumed, in the single Aryan languages, so many various forms as are 192 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. found ill the initial sounds of the words for "tongue." Although this variety may to some extent be attributed to the peculiar sequence of sounds {d-n-gJi) found in the first syllable of our word, yet it is perhaps more prob- able that the Proteus-like initial sound was other than d. There is in particular one group of words that seems to call for a different explanation, viz., those with initial /.• Armen. lezti^ Lat. lingua^ Old Irish hgiir^ Lit. leziiwis. It is generally held that in these instances the word for "tongue" was influenced by the Old Aryan verb ^Ieigh{e)-: ligh{c)-^ "to lick," found in Armen. lizum^ leziun^ Lat. lingere^ Old Irish ligim^ Lit. leziii. Of course, there is a distinct parallelism between the two groups, and there is no doubt that the noun meaning "tongue" has in these instances been influenced by the verb meaning "to lick." Yet analogical changes in form cannot, as is well known, be explained, as a rule, by mere resemblance in meaning. In addition to the similar meaning (the general likeness, as it were, in the inner form) some special agreement in outside form is required, and it is by the united action of the two that a further approach in form is achieved. Now if we were to assume the Aryan word for "tongue" to have been ^dnghvri\ the only point of agreement with the verb *l-ig/i{e)-, leighie)-^ would have been the aspirated media gh. I doubt whether this minute likeness would have been powerful enough to produce independently, in four different languages, by means of analogy, one and the same radical change. It seems preferable and almost necessary to presuppose that, from the outset, a closer similarity was found between the noun and the verb. If this is granted it will easily be seen that there is only one way of solving the problem, viz., by admitting the THE ARYAN NAME OF THE TONGUE. I93 / in Lat. lingua^ etc. to be of an early date and the name of the tongue to have been Prim. Ar3'an *dlnghva' (resp. dh/gJm'-) or perhaps more exactly (cp. above p. 183, note) '^-dl'^ughva' (resp. dl^jtghu'-). In the sing-le Aryan languages accordingly either the d or the follow- ing / was lost, the result being in the former instance *l'^7ighvd' (=Lat. lingua^ Old Ir. l'igiii\ etc.), in the lat- ter instance d^lighvd' (=Lat. dingua^ Old Ir. tcnge^ etc.). This double set of forms reminds us of the Aryan name for another part of the body, viz., the liver, where part of the Aryan languages point to a prim, form '^yi^qr (=Skt. yakrt^ Old Iran, yakare^ Gr. '/-«/-, Lat. jcair^ Lit. jeknos^ pi.), the other part to a prim, form '^liqr (=Arm. leard^ OHG. lebara^ Ag.S. lifcr)^ while the original form was probably '^lyeqr with both / and )'. In the case of the word for "tongue" we are fortu- nate in finding one or two words in which both of the initial consonants are kept, the dental, however, having been transformed into a guttural. These words are Greek y'/Mcca (or ;/«iT(Ta) and perhaps Albanian (Toscan) guh^ {=. Gegan gi±hf , Calabr. gl'uj^ , Sicil. gl'iinz^ , comp. G. Meyer, Albanes. Worterb. , p. 142, s. v. giiari). There are in Albanian several words in which initial g' is found alongside o^ gl\ the two forms varying with different dialects. I follow Gustav Meyer (Albanes. Studien III,' Vienna, 1892, p. 9), in assuming that in these instances z^' is the more orioinal sound. This seems certain, e. g. , in the case of the words for "knee," Toscan g2in\ Gegan gnui^ Greek and ^\q\\. gl' iiri^ where 'Sitzungsberichte d. K. Akademie d. Wiss. in Wieii, Bd. CXXV, Abh. II. 194 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. the / is endorsed by Old Ir. gliin " knee" (see G. Meyer, Alb. Wtb., p. 142 V The variety of the intermediate consonants in gnht ^ gl'tr/E and gl'iinse finds a parallel in the words for "roof": Tosc. strehe ^ Ital. Alb. str'eje and slrcsi (G. Meyer, Alb. Wtb., 394). As strese is explained by G. Meyer from * strej^z^ , we may conclude from this paral- lel that the difference in both cases is probably not pho- netic merely, gl'imz^ may likewise be traced back to * gl'imye-ze and regarded as a diminutive, formed by the ending ~ze ^ which in Albanian is frequently met with ; comp. pii'xizt (Cal. Sic.)=/>?/,t'' f- "air, draught," 'sohzt ^soke f. "woman's girdle," so/^ze =^soh f. "sole, san- dal," tsabjez£= tsabji:^ tsah^Ji: "sword," vasez^ {vaizs ^ varz^)= vah "maid, girl," bez^zt ("mit doppelter Dem.-Endung," G. Meyer, Alb. Wtb., 2i) = b:\ bah^ "sling" and many others. The 7 of Calabr. gl'int seems in that dialect to be the regular representative of an earlier intermediate h, comp. e. g., tsoyi^ "woolen cloth, shawl" = Tosc. tsohe^ Geg. tsoho. Mod. Gr. rdo^ro, Turk, tsoha (G. Meyer, Wtb., 442) and I'eyoni "child- bed" = Tosc. I'ehom^ Mod. Gr. "^^tx^via (ibid., 240.) The forms of the different Albanian dialects may then be traced back to a common basis ^/'//;//^^. If we admit in the case of this form a substitution of ^/' for dl\ sim- ilar to the one found in Sicil. ghgoii (Cal. geg'sn^ Geg. ' These words may be connected with the Old Aryan name of " knee " {^^\X. ja'mi, jnu-, Gr. yow-, yvv-, Lat. genu, etc.), if we assume that in both Old Iri^ and Albanian glun- arose by dissimilation from gnun-. Comp. Lit. lendr'e f. and lendrhi'e i.=ne?idre andnendr'nte "reed, cane;" Lit. glinda from *gninda and Lat. lens, G. lendis from *{c)nens, *[c)7ie7tdis= novi^, G. kovISoc "nit;" Lat. luscinia for *nns- cinia, i.e. *noctis-cinia "nightingale" (Pott in Bezz. B. 8, p- 56) ; sterquilinium for * sterquininimn, etc. THE ARYAN NAME OF THE TONGUE. 195 pt. g'cg'iin^ pass, g'cg'eni) = ndVegmi^ ndd'gbn^ delgon^ "to hear" from Lat. iutelligere {(^. Meyer, 1. c, 67), we arrive at "^dl'tmh^ or earlier ^dlunhd (since initial cons. 4- /' regularly replaces Prim. Aryan cons. -I // and e is the regular form of the Prim. Ar. ending -n). This form bears sucl) a close similarity to the Prim. Aryan groundform ^dl^'nghva that it seems scarcely pos- sible to deny their inter-connection. There are, however, two phonetic changes assumed in this etymology for which an explanation is required, viz. : that of orig. l^n into Albanian hin and that of orig. ghv into x-llb. //. The spirant h is found as a representative of Prim. Aryan gh in Alb, I' eh "easy" = Skt. raghn-^ Gr. i'AaxLx^ etc. ; see G. Meyer, Alb. Stud. 3, p. 10 sq. The orig. g/i here belongs to the Prim. Aryan "velar" series, while in the word for "tongue," it belongs to the Prim. Aryan palatal series. This distinction, how- ever, is counterbalanced by the fact that in the word for "tongue" g/i is followed by v. It seems possible to assume that the group palatal + z> in our word passed into the velar series in the same way as in Greek Prim. Aryan *i'cvo-s^ "horse," was changed into * eqo-s = i-TTof, and Prim. Aryan '^cvant- "every, all" into * qarit- = -dv--.- The i( in g'liiii- for Prim. Aryan dl^n- I regard as the representative of a Prim. Aryan weak vowel. This • See G. Meyer, Alb. Stud. 3, p. 77. ^The irregular k in Old Slav, svekrii "socer, " ^ Lituan. szcszuras, may be similarly explained from the group palatal -|- u. Old Slav. svekry "socrus" apparently adopted the guttural of svekrii, while in Gothic Sivaihra " socer " received its /i (instead of /nt = orig. cii) from swailird "socrus." 196 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. assumption may at first sight seem to be at variance with the fact that Prim. Aryan weak vowels (or vowels developed from Prim. Aryan syllabic liquids) are in Albanian generally represented by i ; comp. the ex- amples (given by G. Meyer, Alb, Stud. 3, p. 78 sq.) of Alb. rz'= Prim. Ar. ^\ The apparent contradiction, however, may be removed by assuming that gl'uu- re- places an earlier form '^gl'in- and that it instead of i is due to the influence of the preceding /', as in Alb. I'ltt- = Gr. 'kiroj.im or in I'ul'e f. = Lat. lilnnn^ (see G. Meyer, Alb. Wtb., p. 250 s. V. I'ul'e and Alb. Stud. 3, p. 28). •We may now consider Greek y/Lwofra and ■)7.aaaa. Every etymology of these words must start from the fact that in Greek itself there are several nouns which in both form and meaning are closely related to y^Maaa. These nouns are the plural yPiw^tef "beard of corn" (Hesiod Scut. 398), and the feminine f/uxiv- "point of an arrow, end of a yoke-strap"'^ with its compounds raw^P.wjw, "with long point," rpiyi^^x^v^ "three-barbed, three- forked," jrt?./to-ZwY"', "with point or barbs of brass." The similarity between these words is generall}^ ex- plained by presupposing an early root v^x- "to be pointed." In my opinion, they are derived from a basis y'^Mx- "tongue," which, by a change in suflix or in inflection, originated from the Prim. Aryan name of the tongue. I adopt this view for the reason that no certain trace of the alleged root y'^^x- has been met 'The latter example would have to be dropped, if G. Meyer's identification (Alb. Stud. 3, p. 92) of /'«/V with 'Lai. Jioreni is prefer- able to his former etymology. ^According to Hesychios s. v. ylux'^va (y?Mxtva- ri/v yuvlav rov fteXovg. — Kin y?.c)aa<: ntr. "milk " from */32d}'Of and this from */i>«>of, cp. «/«■?}<■' and Goth, niihik-s ; yiuKT- in Hom. y?-aKT-o-(pdyog and with anaptyctic vowel ydlaKT- ntr. from *l3iaKr- and this from *mlact- = Lat. lact- "milk;" }'A?/a:"i' (hymn Cer. 209) "pennyroyal" (mentha pulegium) = p^nx^v ; yivKhq from *JAmi'f = Lat. dtilcis. In *6idx-\a the stem syllable of our Prim. Aryan form '^dle7tgh-va' or "^dl^nghu'- is easily recognized, since Greek a is the regular representative of Prim. Aryan en^ as in i-Kardv = Skt. ^atcxm^ Lat. coitiim^ Germanic Jiu7id^ and in many other well known examples. As regards the suffixes of Gr. yldoaa = *dlc'ngh-ja and Skt. jiJiva' or Lat. lingua = ^'dl^)igh-va\ it may seem that the original v- suffix had been replaced in Greek by a J- suffix. A similar exchange of endings may indeed be observed, e. g, in Gr. lu'r' (later on vloq) as com- pared with Skt. su-nn-s, Goth, sit-nti-s^ or in Gr. dKr-iv- f. "ray, splendor," as compared with Ved. aktii- m. "day- light, splendor," and Goth. uJitwo f. "morning, day- light." Yet there is another way of explaining the difference, which to my mind is preferable. Since in Greek the group palatal + F often moves on the same line with velars (cp. above p. 195), we may assume that X in y')(^x^v- represents earlier -i' + F, and that (tt in y'/daaa, yiuaaa^ represents the combination of iF — y in the same way as e. g., the x oi thixv^, t/Mxc^ro^ represents an earlier velar, and <7'^ in t/daacw represents the combination of velar + j. If the latter explanation is correct, the dif- ference between the ending in Greek y/asaa, y/.djaaa, and ' See G. Mej-er's Greek grammar - ? 320, or Blass-Kiihiier I, p. 506 sqq. 200 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Skt. jihva' would simply amount to a change of the two feminine suffixes a and ?".' The difference is so slight as to be indistinguishable in the case of several derivative formations such as Ved. dirgha-jihvya- (RV. IX, loi, i) and Greek ravv-ylt^aao-i: (Hom. e 66) "long-tongued." There remains to be considered the difference in the vowel between the two Greek forms -/'/Acaa and y'kucca. The most probable explanation is perhaps that ?'W in .7/.w(7(7r/ represents an earlier long syllabic /,'" which arose in '^dlenghvii' by an assimilation of n to / similar to that of /to /?, which is observed in O. ^\2iV. jesy-kfi and O. Pruss. iiisiizvis. Another way of accounting for the varying vowel would be to explain ^ with R. Meister (1. c, 699) as ' ' Ablaut " of «. Yet if I am right in regarding the a of Ykdcaa as the representative of a syllabic nasal, the in- stances quoted by Meister {paS. "grape," and kppaynv') are no longer quite parallel. yZiaaa^ indeed, might be explained from '^'y'/Zyyxs"- (as aoaov stands for ajAJoi) and the interchange between wi- and a {=n or en) compared with that seen in rrpSopuv : Trpdc^paaaa, a—eipuv : TreipaTn, /iv/^/uuv : pvt'/un, etc. But since no trace of a long vowel appears in any other Aryan language, it would be rather venturesome ^ Comp. for similar fluctuations in the declension of feminiues K. F. Johansson in Gott. Gel. Anz., 1S90, p. 752 sqq. ^See on the origin of Gr. pu, ?m, from long syllabic r I de Saussure, Systeme prim, des voyelles indo-eur., p. 263, and Brugmann, Grund- riss I, p. 243 sqq. A different opinion on this subject has recently been expressed by Bechtel, Hauptprobleme, p. 203 sqq. It would be too long to discuss in this paper the whole complicated question of long syllabic liquids. I will only say that the existence in Greek of the group pw in the function of a Prim. Aryan ~r (or, as Bechtel pre- fers, in the function of a Prim. Ar. weak vowel + long r) cannot well be denied in the case of the adverb Ttpuiov = Ved. piii'vydm. THE ARYAN NAME OF THE TONGUE. 20I to ascribe to Primitive Aryan an interchange in our word between different grades of ' ' Ablaut. ' ' The w-form is more probably due to an innovation which in Greek took place at a comparatively recent period. Note I. — The learned author of the Dictionary of the Tahniul, the Rev. Dr. Marcus Jastrow, who was present when I read the above paper before the Oriental Club, called my attention to the in- teresting fact that in Talmudic and Midrashic transliteration, Latin words beginning with /, are often spelled with a guttural preceding the /sound. E. g. ledica is found as glegdica {g/iigd^ka), chlechtica, klectica^ and also as lektica (see Jastrow, Diet, of the Talmud, etc., p. 246) ; Lesbii [^&s\>\sx\. figs, also olives), is found as glii/siii, chlufsin, kill/sill, and also as libsiin, and libsin (see ibid., p. 640) ; Lesbiaca (a white and delicate bread, and also a superior sort of olives), appears as gluska, klitska, gluskin (see ibid., p. 246). It seems scarcely possi- ble to deu}^ that in these and similar cases / passes into gl. Since, however, the above are loan-words, and in loan-words phonetics are generally treated more freely than in words that are indigenous, I should not like to draw from these examples the conclusion that the initial gl of the Greek or Albanese words for "tongue" originated from forms with simple initial /. Note 2. — Since sending an abstract of this paper to the Secretary of the Oriental Club, I heard from Professor Bloomfield that the same etymology of yXiJxsoa had been communicated to him by one of his former pupils. Dr. Edwin W. Fay. I hope that the latter will publish the reasons that have led him to identify ylCiaaa with the rest of the words for "tongue " in the Aryan languages. The fact that Dr. Fay and I have arrived at the same result independently of each other is, I trust, a guarantee of its correctness. THE FEATHER AND THE WING IN EARLY MYTHOLOGY. BY SARA YORKE STEVENSON. ' Owing to the abuse which, in the early days of Phi- lology, was made of myths and symbols for the purpose of tracing contact and even ethnic affinity between dif- ferent races of men, the attention of students has, of late years, to a great extent been drawn away from their study, and there seems to exist among the best scholars a decided disinclination to allow them any special im- portance. Yet, if in themselves they are of little use in the dis- cussion of questions of origin, they afford invaluable assistance for a fuller understanding of man's intellectual evolution. Fanciful and disconnected as the myths of primitive races appear to be, their creation is nevertheless subject to a law which connects them with the ideas and notions proper to a given stage of culture. They are born of man's effort to find an explanation, however crude it may be, of certain phenomena, which, owing to the ex- ternal conditions of his life, are brought more directly under his observation, and as such they bear a definite relation to his intellectual and material condition. One of the most brilliant minds of our time, the late Ernest Renan, has said: *" Mythology is life lent to * "La mythologie, c'est la vie pretee aux mots." — L,e peuple d'ls- rael, I, p. 46. ( 202 ) THE FEATHER AND THE WING. 203 words." Is it not on the contrary names given to life? At all events, primitive myths generally represent met- aphysical theories, which in their origin necessarily de- pend upon the extent of the experience and upon the intellectual horizon of the metaphysician. Certain myths frequently survive in a modified form the stage of civilization which produced them, and the symbolism to which they gave rise often outlives the thought to which it originally owed its existence. We have a striking instance of this in the ancient forms of pagan symbolism that have survived in the modern Christian Church. But, nevertheless, if they can be traced back to their origin, they may be classified by the student of primi- tive thought according to the intellectual stratum to which they owed their origin ; and a fair test is obtained if we come across similar ideas among races who, at different periods of the world's history, have passed through the same stage of culture ; or who at the pres- ent day, from some cause or other, have remained un- progressive. In order to give expression to his religious aspirations, man early found three principal vehicles : The jMyth, from which was later evolved the dogma ; the Rite, which gave rise to Liturgy ; and the Fetish, image or embodiment, which eventually became the Symbol.* *The Count Goblet d'Alviella (Hibbert Lectures, 1891), makes of the Rite a subdivision of Symbolism. The word "Symbol," how- ever, implies an abstraction unknown to the primitive mind. vSuch a classification must tend to obscure the practical difference existing between the concrete significance of the fetish or of the imitative Rite for the naive worshiper, and the later religious feeling which may find expression in the Symbol or in the symbolical representation. 204 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. The Symbol is the visible form in which is coined the idea. The myth is the work of the poet ; the rite is the work of the priest ; the symbol, that of the artist. In the stage that precedes the birth of art, the primi- tive thinker uses natural objects to serve as vehicles to the ideas which he has made unto himself of the forces of nature. For him a hidden' power resides in the tree and causes it to bud forth each year ; in the stone, and bursts out of it in a spark ; in short, wherever he finds motion and life. Animals, especially those whose ways seem mysterious, such as birds who fly high into the heavens, and serpents who burrow deep into the earth, seem to him especially to be the incarnate spirits of these elements. This is what modern science calls animism. Later, the artist steps upon the scene and fashions more or less fanciful simulacra — fetishes wherein he es- tablishes the supernatural power which he dreads or reveres, thus obtaining over him, through personal ownership, a certain occult influence. Then the shape- less stone becomes an axe, a cone or a column ; the tree becomes an asherah — and after the imagination has once entered upon this path, religious art adapts itself to the higher level of a more idealistic mythology, and an- thropomorphism appears. At first we find mixed forms: upon the tree-trunk appear the features or characteris- tics of a female form ; the pillar assumes a head, arms, or a phallus : in Greece and in the Mediterranean xoana define themselves ; in Egypt, the animal assumes a human form — in Mesopotamia it takes a human head or a bird's wings ; and as the human intellect develops itself and becomes capable of conceiving an abstraction, THE FEATHER AND THE WING. 205 the fetish more and more detaches itself from the idea of the power of which it once was the embodiment — it ceases to be its earthly form and becomes its symbol. When, at last, artistic genins having attained its highest expres- sion, the chisel of a Phidias shows us the Heavenly Power which in primeval times may have been wor- shiped as an eagle * or a stone transformed into the Olympian Zeus ; the Hermes of Praxiteles replaces the archaic cippa and the asherah of deified nature becomes the Aphrodite of Milo.f A careful study of the subject brings out the fact that the myths of the Historical period must generally be re- garded as developments of elementary myths which originated in an inferior intellectual stratum. t These are so similar in various parts of the world that they may broadly be said to be common to mankind ; the dif- ferences observable in various localities being mainly due to special environment, when they are not simply due to the particular stage of a myth's evolution at which we may happen to consider it. The symbol is as it were a mile-post on the way. It points out the road to follow in order to reach the idea of which it may once have been the embodiment. As Mr. Clermont-Ganneau truly says :1| "There must be a mythology of images as there is a mythology of words," and as the image changes less than the original, the *C. P. Tiele, "Manual de 1' Histoire des Religions," p. 291. 18S5. fM. Collignon, " M3'thologie figur^e de la Grece," pp. 9-13- 18S4. I Tiele, Rer. de 1' Hre des Relig., II, 153: " Elements exotiques de la Religion Grecque," has demonstrated that certain ideas at the basis of ancient myths, belong to the human stratum that precedes the division of races. II "Coupe de Palestrina," Introd., p. VI. Paris, 1S90. 206 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. student who has the good fortune to find one to guide him in his researches, may use it with success to retrace the characteristic features of ideas which have become transformed in the course of centuries. It is a fact that a religious thought once embodied in an artistic form has a tendency to lose itself into the material object which represents it, in the eyes of the masses. The idea, free and living, develops in the minds of thinkers in each generation ; the old nature- myth may become purer and more idealistic in the hands of poets ; but it remains crystallized in the artistic symbol, which remains more or less unchanged. Once created by art and admitted into the religious life of a people, the artists of subsequent generations, as pointed out by Lessing in his celebrated treatise upon "death,"* hesitate to depart from it for fear of not being under- stood. It becomes a part of its traditional stock ; of its customs, of its commerce, and often, under this concrete form, the symbolism of one race passes into foreign countries, where, without understanding its real mean- ing, men adapt it to conceptions absolutely different in their character and origin from those of which elsewhere and at another epoch it was the legitimate expression. f It would therefore seem that, in endeavoring to grasp the ideas embodied in any given myth and in its syni- *" Wie die Alten den Todgebildet," pub. in 1769. t For instance, the human-headed bird, symbol of the soul in Egypt, of which the Greeks borrowed the form to give it to their Harpyies, or the grotesque lion-killing hero of Babylonian art, which, in Egypt, became the deformed god Bes, and under Phoenician influence became Melqart ; or to come down to our own civilization, St. George and the Dragon, the Mother and Child, the Eye, the Solar Rays, the Dove, and many other symbols of early times adopted into the mod- ern Church, and before which to-da}- the priest still bows his head. THE FEATHER AND THE WING. 207 bols, and detect their origin, one may legitimately make use of the traces that similar ideas, result of like circum- stances, have left among other races who, at different epochs of the world's history, have passed through the same moral and intellectual vicissitudes. If we find among races of low culture, pure and un- altered, the idea which is at the basis of myths, the symbols of which are discovered upon the earliest mon- uments of the historical period, we may without impro- priety use the information thus obtained to cast light upon the conditions under which that idea was evolved at a time preceding the development of art.* If, after this, we find among historical races whose civilization presents intermediate degrees, the same idea embodied in myths the character of which corresponds to the in- dustrial and social development of the people, it is probable that we are on the right trail, and that, whilst making allowance for the different milieu in which the primitive thought was developed, we hold the thread that must guide us through our labyrinth. To resume : we may here apply the Platonic method as formulated by J. Stuart Mill,t and seek the sense of the abstract in the concrete. By following the line indicated above, and carrying the inquiry to the confines of the prehistoric, I shall endeavor to trace the pedigree of the feather symbol, which among the ancient Egyptians was not only the emblem, but also the hieroglyph of light and of truth, and at the same time offer a suggestion as to the origin of the winged sun-disk and of other winged emblems. *Comp. Ottfried INIiiller, "Prolegomena," p. 2S2, and M. de Littre, "Revue des deux Mondes," Mars, 1858, "Etude d'Hist. primilive." t " Essay on Nature," p. 4. 208 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Although the embodiment of an abstraction, the feather was already used in this sense at the opening of monumental history. It is obvious that the origin of an association of ideas apparently so incongruous must be sought in the prehistoric intellectual and religious development of the people ; for unless we admit for it some powerful reason now lost in the mist of an un- known past, it were difficult to understand why a feather should have been used in this connection by men as exact as the Egyptians generally were in their selection of the objects used as signs in their graphic system. We shall see that the whole order of ideas concealed in the winged and feather symbols is connected with the beliefs and knowledge proper to men in the stone- age ; that they represent in their original form the myths fitted into their intellectual horizon, and were but the mode of expression by which they gave utter- ance to their naive explanation of celestial phenomena, which were closely associated in their minds with phe- nomena of an igneous nature. Those who have studied the beliefs of non-civilized races know that, with few exceptions,'^ they look up * The Hottentots, the Bosjemen, the inhabitants of Tierra-del- Fuego, who seem more especially to worship the moon, the Aus- tralians and a few inferior American tribes — as, for example, the send d'Oreilles of Oregon — whose notions are vague, and who even have no funeral rites, and perhaps a few other tribes in a very low stage of culture. In looking over the works of Messrs. Tyler, "Researches into the Primitive History of Mankind," and "Primitive Culture," Albert Reville, " Religious des Non-Civilises," D'Alviella, " Prolego- menes," and " Histoire du Feu," Brinton's "Myths of the New World," Lubbock's "Origin of Civilization," Spencer's "Principles of Sociology," etc., and many narratives of ancient and modern trav- elers, with a view to tabulating the principal objects of worship of various non-developed races, it was found that with the few excep- THE FEATIIKR AND THK WING. 209 with reverence to a Power above. They conceive it as residing- m the upper space; his voice is heard in tlie thunder; his anger strikes in the lightning; and the manifestation of his good-will is practically displayed in the light and life-dispensing rays of the sun. In a word, and if we may adapt the ha])py expression applied b\- Burnouf to the Vedic god Indra, they worship "the atmospheric energies of the heavenly'" light.* tions above-mentioned, and a few races who — having advanced to the agricultural stage — honor more particularly the sun — and in this case it is often easy to perceive that we have a secondary development of the primitive idea by which the sun is made the principal manifesta- tion of the Spirit or Power governing the heavenly vault — the wor- ship of the latter may be regarded as quasi-universal. In Polynesia, and among peoples in whose existence the sea plays a conspicuous role, the exact nature of the superior space often remains somewhat vague, and the liquid element is more explicitly mixed up with the conception of the Celestial Creator than it is elsewhere. Neverthe- less, even in Polynesia, that Creator often resides in .space, and is re- ferred to as fishing up the islands from the bottom of the sea. Among some peoples the Supreme Power resides in the sun. But this notion may also be regarded as a special phase, and sun-worship, properly speaking, may be said to belong to the agricultural stage — that is, to an already advanced stage of human development. * Most of the American tribes are said to possess a word to express the divine or .?»/>^r natural, which like the word we ourselves use, conveys a sense of place, and means ''above.'' According to Brinton ("Myths of the New World," pp. 47-48), those words are: Algon- quin, "Manito" and "Oki;" Iroquois, "Oki" and "Okhor;" Dakota, "Wakau;" Aztec, " Teotl ; " Guichua, " Huaca ; " Maya, "Ku," etc. Man}' other languages bear the trace of the importance that primi- tive religions granted to the vSuperior Space and to the Spirit govern- ing it: " Deus, Zeus, Dyaus," are evidences of it among the Aryans, as well as "Tien" among the Chinese. Among the Aztecs and Guiches, such phrases as "Heart of Heaven," "Lord of Heaven," " Prince of the azure planisphere," are said to be frequent (Brinton, loc. cit.). In W. Africa, ace. to Tyler l^Prim. Cult, II, 233), and 2IO PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. The power governing space is recognized by them in its various activities as Creator, dispensing life, as well as master of the heavenly fire, and in a conception which is qnasi-universal, and which mnst be a very primitive one, this heavenly spirit appears to them incarnate or manifesting itself under the shape of a bird. Not only do numerous legends, collected from all parts of the world, show us this bird associated with the lightning, the sun, and all phenomena connected with fire ; but they often represent it as casting down or as bringing down upon earth the heavenly fire under the shape of aeroliths or of flints containing a spark of the igneous element ; and even at times as introducing di- rectly or indirectly the heavenly spark into wood. Among non-civilized races, as well as the nations of antiquity, the idea which derives fire from heaven, and which sees in the beneficent action of the sun and in the destructive power of the lightning, simple aspects of the same elementary force, is too well known to need dwelling upon.* Even as late as the time of Pliny, f science confused Waitz (Anthrop. der Naturvoelker, II, i68), the same word designates the Supreme Being, the visible sky, and rain and thunder. Among the ancient Egyptians, "Her," the "Superior," the "Above," was synonymous with God. — See below, p. 229. *A. Kuhn, " Herabkunst des Feuers," Goblet d' Alviella "Hist, du feu," p. 30. Max Miiller, "Physical Religion," Lectures VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XIL t Comp. Pliny, II, 4, where he treats of the elements and explains (II, 18-20) lightning as a spark detached from an incandescent star, and says that "this heavenly fire cast upon earth brings to it omens of events to come, the detached particle not haviug lost its divine virtues. ' ' And further, after having explained in detail how according to him the spark, detached from the stars and falling upon the clouds THE FEATHER AND THE WING. 211 the fire of the stars with that of the lightnino-, and there is a strikin^^ sameness in the manner in which the explanation found b}' human imagination in its primi- tive stages, has been formulated in different parts of the world, by races separated not only by distance, but also by vast periods of time. The inhabitants of southern Africa — Zulus, Kafirs, etc. — regarded celestial fire as a manifestation of the life which animated nature ; and according to them thunder was produced by the flapping' of the wings of the gigantic Heaven-Bird. Among them, as formerly among the Etruskans and the Rom- ans,* it was a sacrilege to touch objects and persons can by agitating the air produce the tempest, he adds: "It is also possible that the spirit, whatever it may be, is engendered by friction when it is cast forth with so much strength. It is possible that from the shock of the two clouds the lightning bursts forth, as happens when from the shock of two stones there springs forth a spark . . . . . but all these things are casual Those that foretell the future come from above, and according to established rules, come from their special stars." (Comp. Aristotle, " de Meteor." "Nihil ut aliud ventus dvei/oc sit, nisi aer multus, fluctuus et compressus qui etiam spiritus i~vEvr/a) appellatus." Elsewhere (II, iii) Pliny says: "To these fires must be added those innumerable stars and the great sun itself There is also the fire made by men and those which are innate in certain species of stones, and those which are produced by the friction of wood, and those which are in the clouds, and which give rise to lightning " Ancient Physiology said : " Corpus est terra, animus est ignis." * Pliny II, 55. "It is improper to burn on a funeral pyre a man killed in this manner. Our religion commands us to bury the corpse." See upon the subject of the Etruskan Liturgy (of which the idea preserved in this passage is obviously a survival) and upon the manner in which the bodies and objects struck by lightning were buried, as well as the "Lightning-stones," and for the ceremonies and sacrifices by means of which every place struck by lightning was consecrated — the article of Mr. Boucher-Leclercq, "Revue de 1' H^e des Religions," III, pp. 321-352. 212 PAPERS OF THE ORIENTAL CLUB. struck by .lightning. The eagle and vulture are wor- shiped in many parts of Africa. * In New Zealand mythology, Tangaroa, the Creator, inhabits the Heavens or the Sun which he has created, f He is frequently represented in the form of an enormous bird. I It is his son Maui, who in an often-quoted legend introduced fire upon earth, and was the cause of the presence of the fire-spark in stones and in wood. Similar notions are found among the indigenous tribes of the New World. The authors who have at various times treated questions connected with the beliefs of non-civilized races, have so often quoted the numerous American legends in which the Heaven-Bird plays the principal part, that it would be superfluous to do more than recall them here. There is, however, one point upon which attention should be drawn: that is, that throughout the whole length of the American continent those myths are very similar, and that taken collectively they are as the welded links of a long chain of legendary lore, in which the celestial bird pursues his evolution. At first the incarnation, then the messenger of the * Ellis, Travels, etc., I, p. 325. fA. Reville, loc. cit., II, p. 46. j Burton, "Dalionie}^" II, p. 142, also A. Reville, loc. cit. I, p. 65. Mr. Tyler, "Researches into the Primitive History of Mankind," p. 222, mentions a certain West African god, Gimagong, who once a 3'ear comes down into his temple with a loud rustling noise like that of a "flock of geese in the spring," and to whom an ox is sacrificed, not with a knife, but with a sharp stone. Among other tribes of Africa, for instance among the Yoroubas, Thunder is a special divin- ity known as the "Stone-flinger," and it is from him, it is said, that come the stone-axes found in the ground, and which are preserved as fetishes. (See Smithsonian Contributions, I, XVI, Rev. J. 1 . Bowen, " Grammar and Dictionary of the Yorouba Language.") TFIK FEATHER AND THE WING. 213 great spirit above, it plays according to the degree of civilization reached by its worshipers, the varied roles of Creator, or of his celestial agent, the Storm-bird, who sometimes inhabits the Sun. But, under whatever aspect it may present itself, it is always the giver of celestial fire — sometimes destructive, sometimes benefi- cent — which it casts down upon earth under the shape of stones containing a spark of the igneous element and which often becomes its symbol.* Among the most civilized tribes of ilmerica, as well as among those who were still in the rudest stage of culture, the relation ex- isting between the Heaven-Bird, the igneous phenom- ena, and the fire-flint thrown from heaven upon earth, is clear and often most explicit. The Sioux, t who possess numerous legends upon the subject of the Creator-Bird — giver of fire to men — tell us:}: that lightning in striking the ground bursts and scatters on all sides the thunder-stones which are flints ; and they demonstrate this by the spark which these silicious stones contain. They regard as sacred the blaze kindled by the lightning. *Brinton, "Myths of the New World," p. 143, etc., says that, in the American myths, the Sun is always regarded as a fire created or set in motion by a superior power, or by legendary beings. Among several tribes, for instance, among the Natchez, the Texuques (New Mexico), the Kolosch (Columbia), the words for "fire" and "sun" are derived from the same root. Among the Algonquins the words for " sky" and for " sun " are so derived, and the heaven was the wig- wam of the Great Spirit. Among the Maya, " Kiu " also expressed the same idea. Among the Peruvians, Viracocha-pacha-camac was the Supreme God, whose son, or whose manifestation, was the Sun. In him may be recognized the ancient Aymara God, w-hose weapon was lightning. (Brinton, loc. cit., p. 155, also ibid., 55.) fMrs. Eastman, "Legends of the Sioux," p. 71. JE. B. Tyler, "Primitive Culture," II, p. 238. 214 PAPERS OK THE ORIENTAL CLUB. Among the Northwestern tribes, the great creative spirit is the Crow, who is regarded as the source of life.* There is in the Museum of Archaeology of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, f a curious inmge of this legendary Crow, carved in stone and painted black, from Alaska, which represents him in his role of Creator, holding tightly pressed against his breast a human mask, which he is in the act of incubating.t In South America, we find in Brazil, among the IvUpis, the eponymous bird Lupan, the flapping of whose wings produces the lightning ; who is worshiped as supreme god, and who, incarnate in the first man, had introduced agriculture and the use of fire. || Among the American nations who, at the time of the landing of the Spaniards, were in possession of a civiliza- tion more or less advanced, the primitive myth, however refined and altered it may have been, had preserved traits that permit us to recognize it without trouble. The anthropomorphic legend of Ouetzalcoatl presents * Waitz, "Anthropology der Naturvoelker, III, p. 330. Bancroft, loc. cit. Ill, p. 102. tNo. 634 of the Catalogue of "Objects Used in Religious Cere- monies," etc. 1892. (See accompanying illustration.) J The Thlinkeets have similar myths (E. B. Tyler, "Prim. Cult," II, p. 237.) See also for the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island, and the Sticksen and Tongassof Southern Alaska, whose m3-ths are almost identical, James Deans, in the "American Antiquarian," 188S, p. 273, etc. The Mandaus heard in the the thunder and saw in the lightning the flapping of the wings and the shining eyes of the terri- ble bird "who belongs to the Great Manito, or is perhaps the Great Manito himself." (E.B.Tyler, " Prim. Cult.," II, p. 237.) In Oregon the Great Spirit inhabits the Sun ; bi;t when he is angry he sallies forth and produces the storm. II Elsewhere (Cumana, South America), it is the sun itself whose wrath is manifested in the storm (Waitz, loc. cit., Ill, p. 421.) THE FEATHniR AND THE WING. 215 one of the most interesting phases of the subject. The allegory of this " bird -serpent, " * that white man, "author of light," who, coming from the East, pursues his civilizing journey, bringing with him plenty; and who, his task accomplished, goes away promising to re- turn, is too transparent to need commentary. He was the son of the spirit of the hurricane, Ixtac- Mixcoatl, the Serpent of the White- Cloud, and the pre- cursor of Tlaloc, the rain-god. Wherever he went birds accompanied him. After he disappeared, he sent four young men,t his companions, "of incomparable swiftness and speed," who divided the earth between them awaiting his return. His decrees were promul- gated with a voice so formidable that it was heard one hundred miles off; his bolts could pierce the largest trees ; and the stones thrown by him could sweep down forests. Wherever his hand rested upon a rock it left an ineffaceable mark, and by shaking his sandals he gave fire to his subjects. We have here, therefore, the j)rimitive myth com- pletely developed, yet still simple in its form. That is to say that although anthropomorphic, its various feat- ures are still combined in the one personality of the Heaven-Spirit, incarnate and conceived as the bene- factor of the human race. To complete the circle that links the abstract development of the legend to its pri- * Brasseur de Bourbourg, "Histoire