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STUDIES 
 
 IN THE HISTORY OF 
 
 RELIGIONS 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK - BOSTON ■ CHICAGO 
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STUDIES 
 
 IN TflE HISTORY OF 
 
 RELIGIONS 
 
 PRESENTED TO 
 
 CRAWFORD HOWELL TOY 
 
 BY PUPILS COLLEAGUES 
 AND FRIENDS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 DAVID GORDON LYON 
 GEORGE FOOT MOORE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1912 
 
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 Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1912. 
 
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EDITORIAL NOTE 
 
 The Harvard Club for the Study of the History of 
 Religions, which was founded by Professor Toy in the year 
 1891, intended to present to him a volume of essays on his 
 seventy-fifth birthday, March 23, 1911. They meant 
 thereby to express their affection for him as a man, and 
 their appreciation of him as a leader in the field of study to 
 which the Club is devoted. By invitation several other 
 friends of Professor Toy not members of the Club became 
 contributors to the work. Another friend, the Honorable 
 Jacob Henrjr Schiff, assumed, with characteristic generosity, 
 the expense of the publication. 
 
 The material of the contributions is necessarily technical, 
 but the several, writers have had a wider circle of readers in 
 mind, and have accordingly tried to present their ideas in 
 untechnical language. 
 
 Unforeseen difiSculties have delayed the appearance of the 
 volume. This delay is particularly regrettable in regard to 
 two or three of the studies, but the dates appended in such 
 cases will show when the articles were written. 
 
 In now presenting the work to our friend, and in offering 
 it to the public, the imdersigned, as spokesmen for all those 
 who have had part in its preparation, congratulate Professor 
 Toy on his happy achievements in his favorite field of 
 study, and siacerely hope that many years of fruitfulness 
 still lie before him. 
 
 DAVID GORDON LYON, 
 GEORGE FOOT MOORE. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 English Witchcraft and James the First . . . 1-65 
 
 George Lyman Kittredge, Harvard University. 
 
 Buddhist and Christian Parallels: The Mythological 
 
 Background 67-94 
 
 J. Estlin Carpenter, Manchester New College, Oxford. 
 Satirists and Enchanters in Eahlt Irish Literature . 95-130 
 
 Fred Norris Robinson, Harvard University. 
 Saint Peter and the Minstrel 131-142 
 
 Edward Stevens Sheldon, Harvard University. 
 The Liver as the Seat of the Soul 143-168 
 
 Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of Pennsylvania. 
 The Sikh Religion 169-186 
 
 Maurice Bloom field, Johns Hopkins University. 
 Yahweh before Moses 187-204 
 
 George Aaron Barton, Bryn Mawr College. 
 Dee Schluss des Buches Hosea 205-211 
 
 Karl Bvdde, Marburg University. 
 The Sacred Rivers of India 213-229 
 
 Edward Washburn Hopkins, Yale University. 
 
 The Two Great Nature Shrines of Israel : Bethel and 
 
 Dan 231-241 
 
 John Punnett Peters, Saint Michael's Church, New York. 
 AsiANic Influence in Greek Mythology .... 243-253 
 
 William Hayes Ward, " The Independent," New York. 
 
 vii 
 
VIU CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The Theological School at Nisibis ..<,.. 255-267 
 George Foot Moore, Harvard University. 
 
 The Translations made from the Original Aramaic Gos- 
 pels 269-317 
 
 Charles Culler Torrey, Yale University. 
 Oriental Cults in Spain 319-340 
 
 Clifford Herschel Moore, Harvard University. 
 The Consecrated Women or the Hammurabi Code . 341-360 
 
 David Gordon Lyon, Harvard University. 
 Figurines of Syro-Hittitb Art 361-365 
 
 Richard James Horatio Gottheil, Columbia University. 
 BiBLIOGHAPHT 367-373 
 
 Harry Wolfson, New York. 
 
STUDIES 
 
 IN THE HISTORY OF 
 
 RELIGIONS 
 
ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES 
 THE FIRST 
 
 George Lyman Kitteedge 
 Harvard University 
 
 Common fame makes James I. a sinister figure in the his- 
 tory of EngUsh witchcraft. The delusion, we are told, was 
 dying out in the later years of Elizabeth, but James fanned 
 the embers into a devouring flame. His coming was the 
 signal for a violent and long-continued outburst of witch- 
 hunting, for which he was personally responsible. He pro- 
 cured the repeal of the comparatively mild Elizabethan law 
 and the enactment of a very cruel statute. He encouraged 
 and patronized witchfinders, and was always eager for fresh 
 victims. His reign is a dark and bloody period in the annals 
 of this frightful superstition. 
 
 Many authorities might be adduced in support of these 
 views, but I must rest content with quoting three writers 
 who have had some influence in propagating them, — Mrs. 
 Lynn Linton, Mr. Robert Steele, and Mr. G. M. Trevelyan.^ 
 
 In 1861 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton published a volume of Witch 
 Stories, which was reissued in 1883 and has met with de- 
 served favor. Mrs. Linton has no mercy on James I. His 
 "name stands accursed for vice and cruel cowardice and the 
 
 ' For other pronouncements of a more or less similar nature, see Sir Walter Scott, 
 Introduction to Potts's Discoverie, Somers Tracts, 2d edition, 1810, 3. 95 ; Mrs. 
 Lucy Aitkin, Memoirs of the Court of King James the First. 1822, 2. 166-167; 
 Retrospective Review, 1822, 5. 90 ; Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, 
 1830, pp. 227, 246-247 ; Crossley, Introduction to Potts, Chetham Society, 1845, 
 pp. xix., xiv. ; Thomas Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 1851, 1. 284, 
 2. 143-144; Charles Hardwick, History of Preston, 1857, p. 146; P. Q. Karkeek, 
 Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1874, 6. 786 ; F. A. Inderwick, Side- 
 Lights on the Stuarts, 2d ed., 1891, pp. 154-155 ; Horley, History of Sefton, 1893, 
 p. 115, note 1; H. N. Doughty, Blackwood's Magazine, March, 1898, 163, 388; 
 W. R. Roper, Materials for the History of Lancaster, Part i, Chetham Society, 1907, 
 pp. 26-27. 
 
 1 
 
2 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 utmost selfishness of fear." ^ "Treacherous, cruel, narrow- 
 minded, and cowardly," she calls him, "beyond anything 
 that has ever disgraced the English throne before or since." ' 
 He had a "mania against witches,"* a "lust for witch 
 blood." ^ "There was no holding in of this furious madness 
 after James I. had got his foot in the stirrup, and was riding 
 a race neck and neck with the Devil." ^ These are hard 
 words ; yet Mrs Linton knows that the beliefs which she has 
 in mind were "rampant in England when good Queen Bess 
 ruled the land," ' and her own book contains facts enough 
 to give us pause. 
 
 Let us take a leap of thirty-odd years and read what Mr. 
 Robert Steele has to tell us in his article on witchcraft in 
 the fourth volume of a well-reputed work of collaboration. 
 Social England, edited by Mr. H. D. Traill : 
 
 With the accession of James a change came over the feelings of those 
 in power. During the later years of Elizabeth tract after tract appeared, 
 calling for severe punishment upon witches, but with no result : the Eng- 
 lish trials, up to now, had been characterised rather by folly than ferocity, 
 the new rule was marked by ferocious folly. For forty years Scotland had 
 been engaged in witch-hunting, with the result that 8000 human beings 
 are believed to have been burnt between 1560 and 1600 ; and for the last 
 ten years of the century the king had been at the head of the hunt. . . . 
 In the first Parliament of James the more merciful Act of Elizabeth was 
 repealed ; a new and exhaustive one was enacted. . . . Under this Act 
 70,000 persons were executed up to 1680.' 
 
 I stand aghast at these figures. There is no sense or 
 reason in them. No records have been published or exam- 
 ined which would justify the assertion that a seventieth part 
 of this monstrous number met their death in the period 
 named. As for the time from the passage of the act of 1604 
 till the death of James in 1625, Mr. Steele would find it hard 
 to make out an average of more than two or three executions a 
 year. I half suspect that he has got hold of some statistics 
 of mortality from the plague. 
 
 Mr. Trevelyan is vaguer, but no less emphatic : " The 
 skeptical Elizabeth, perhaps with some pity for her sex, had 
 refused to yield when the pamphlet press called on the Gov- 
 
 2 Ed. 1861, p. 20. 3 Pp. 25^260. «P. 259. ' P. 261. « p. 195. 
 
 ' P. 195. » 4. 85-86. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 3 
 
 eminent to enact fiercer laws 'not suffering a witch to live.' 
 The outburst came with the accession of a Scottish King, 
 who, though he rejected the best part of the spirit of Knox, 
 was crazed beyond his English subjects with the witch- 
 mania of Scotland and the continent. His first Parliament 
 enacted new death-laws ; at once the Judges and magistrates, 
 the constables and the mob, began to hunt up the oldest and 
 ugliest spinster who lived with her geese in the hut on the 
 common, or tottered about the village street mumbling the 
 inaudible soliloquies of second childhood." ^ In this witch- 
 hunt, Mr. Trevelyan tells us, "learning, headed by the pedant 
 King, was master of the hounds." ^^ 
 
 So much for the current opinion." Let us try to dis- 
 cover to what extent it is justified by the facts. And first 
 we must consider two things that have created an enormous 
 prejudice against King James, — his Scottish record and his 
 authorship of the Dsemonologie. 
 
 The history of witchcraft in Scotland is a difficult subject, 
 and it is particularly hard to determine just what degree of 
 responsibiUty attaches to King James. To sift the matter 
 thoroughly would require much time and space. Still, a 
 few facts are patent. (1) James did not make the Scottish 
 law of witchcraft. The statute was enacted in 1563, before 
 he was born. (2) He did not teach the Scottish nation the 
 witch creed. That creed was the heritage of the human 
 race, and was nowhere less questioned by all classes and all 
 professions than in Scotland, where, indeed, it survived in 
 full vigor for more than a century after James was dead. 
 (3) The worst period of Scottish prosecution does not fall in 
 his reign. The three great prosecutions were in 1590-1597, 
 in 1640-1650, and in 1660-1663. The second was worse 
 than the first, and the third (which began with the Restora- 
 tion) was the worst of all. (4) James did not initiate the 
 prosecutions of 1590.^^ 
 
 ' England under the Stuarts [1904], p. 32. " P. 33. 
 
 '^ A brief but powerful vindication of King James was inserted by William 
 GifiFord in his edition of Ford (1. clxxi., Dyce's revision, 1869, 3. 276 ; cf. Quar- 
 terly Review, 41. 80-82), but it has attracted little attention. See also Disraeli's 
 Character of James the First (Miscellanies of Literature, N.Y., 1841, 3. 355-360). 
 
 ■^ See particularly Mr. F. Legge's paper on Witchcraft in Scotland, in The Scottish 
 Review for October, 1891 (18. 257-288). 
 
4 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 Upon this last point we must dwell for a moment. In 
 1583, when James was a boy of seventeen, the Scottish clergy 
 called for a sharper enforcement of the law. In 1590 began 
 the trials of John Fian and his associates, with which the 
 name of the king is indissolubly connected. It seems quite 
 clear that these trials were not James's own idea. His in- 
 tellectual curiosity — well known to be one of his most 
 salient characteristics — led him to attend the examinations. 
 But he was not naturally credulous in such matters (as we 
 shall see later), he found the confessions beyond belief, and 
 he pronounced the witches "extreame lyars." When, how- 
 ever, Agnes Sampson, to convince him, repeated in his pri- 
 vate ear a conversation that he had held with the queen on 
 the marriage-night, he "acknowledged her words to bee most 
 true, and therefore gaue the more credit " to their stories. ^^ 
 It makes little difference what we think of this feat of Agnes 
 Sampson's : the value of the anecdote lies in the light it 
 throws on the king's skepticism. Agnes also implicated the 
 Earl of Bothwell in a charge of witchcraft against the king's 
 life. James's dislike and fear of Bothwell are notorious ; 
 they appear in a striking passage of the Basilikon Doron.^^ 
 He looked on Bothwell as his evil genius and was ever ready 
 to listen to anything to his discredit. Chancellor Maitland, 
 who was Bothwell's enemy, had the king's confidence." 
 Numerous executions followed, and the great prosecution of 
 1590-1597 was now under way. It had started, however, 
 not with James, but, as usual, among obscure persons. The 
 king had simply become involved in the affair. No doubt he 
 countenanced the general witch-hunt that followed; but 
 he cannot be said to have encouraged it, for no encourage- 
 ment was needed. The clergy were eager, and the people 
 lived in constant terror of witches. If ever there was a 
 spontaneous popular panic, this was such an outbreak. 
 James and his Council had only to let the forces work. And, 
 indeed, it seems pretty certain that they had no power to 
 stem the current. Mr. Andrew Lang, who censures the king, 
 
 1' Newes from Scotland, 1591, sig. B 2 (Roxburghe Club reprint). 
 " 1599, Roxburghe Club reprint, p. 97. 
 
 " Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, 2. 412 ; 
 Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, 1. 230, 240, note ; Legge, Scottish Review, 18. 262. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 5 
 
 says in plain terms that he "could not have controlled the 
 preachers." " Add to this the testimony of Pitcairn, a 
 hostile witness, that the period from 1591 to 1596 was dis- 
 tinguished by "open. defiance of the^ng and Parliament, 
 and by the frequent and daring conspiracies enterprised 
 against the Royal person." " Altogether, it does not ap- 
 pear that James is to blame for the events of 1590-1597, or 
 that the prosecution proves him either exceptionally credu- 
 lous or exceptionally devoted to witch-hunting. If a whole 
 nation believes in witchcraft, outbreaks of prosecution (like 
 other outbreaks) are likely to happen whenever there are 
 troublous times. This has been seen over and over again, 
 — in the tumult of the English Civil War, for instance, and 
 just after the Revolution, and in our own Salem at a critical 
 moment in New England history.^* James was not riding 
 the storm like Odin. He was only a mortal man, swept off 
 his feet by the tide. 
 
 Whether these considerations are just or not, one thing is 
 certain — by 1597 James was convinced that matters had 
 gone too far. Indictments were piling upon indictments, 
 there was no telling the innocent from the guilty, and no 
 end was in sight. Commissions of justiciary for witchcraft 
 were being held throughout Scotland, and the king, by a 
 stroke of the pen, revoked them all.^' It is noteworthy 
 that the proximate cause of his action was the discovery 
 that many denunciations were fraudulent. Compare James's 
 incredulity at the outset, and the skill which he showed later 
 in life (as we shall see presently) in detecting similar impos- 
 tures. From 1597 to James's accession to the English throne 
 in 1603, there were abundant witch-trials in Scotland, but 
 the annual number of executions was much smaller, and 
 there is no reason to suppose that the king pressed for more. 
 When he succeeded to the English crown, the intensity of the 
 Scottish witch-quest had ceased, by his own act, and that 
 period was associated in his mind with a time of anarchy. 
 England looked to him like a haven of rest. He was certainly 
 
 " History of Scotland, 2. 353. " Criminal Trials, 1. 357. 
 
 1* See Kittredge, Notes on Witchcraft, 1907, pp. 64-65. 
 
 " Privy Council Register, 5. 409-410 ; Spottiswoode, 3. 66-67 ; Legge, p. 264 ; 
 Lang, History of Scotland, 2. 433. 
 
6 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 thinking of other matters than witches when he came into 
 the promised land. 
 
 So much for the first of the two things that have led men to 
 approach James's English witch record with a prejudiced 
 opinion. Let us pass to the second, — his authorship of 
 the Daemonologie. 
 
 The importance of King James's Daemonologie has been 
 greatly exaggerated, both as to its bearing on his supposed 
 career as a prosecutor and as to its effect on English senti- 
 ment in his time. The book is a confession of faith, not an 
 autobiography. It is proof of what James thought, not of 
 what he did. The publication of the Daemonologie did not 
 cause the death of any Scottish witches, either directly or 
 indirectly. Nor did it convert a single Scottish skeptic, 
 for there were none to convert. The book did not appear 
 until 1597, — the very year in which James, by a stroke of 
 the pen, checked the great prosecution that had been going 
 since 1590. As to England, the case against the Daemonol- 
 ogie is pitifully weak. The treatise, though well-constructed 
 and compendious, is not original. It adduces neither new 
 facts nor new arguments. Mr. Gardiner is perfectly right 
 when he says that James "had only echoed opinions which 
 were accepted freely by the multitude, and were tacitly 
 admitted without inquiry by the first intellects of the day." ^^ 
 Certainly there is no reason to think that the Daemonologie 
 had any appreciable effect on English sentiment. 
 
 I am well aware that King James's Daemonologie was re- 
 issued in London in 1603. But this was a mere bookselling 
 speculation,^^ like the Latin translation by Germberg that 
 appeared at Hanover in 1604.^^ There is no parade about 
 the volume, no hint that it was published at the king's in- 
 stance. Contrast the circumstances attending the publica- 
 
 2» History of England, 1603-1642, 7. 322-323 (1899). 
 
 ^' John Hawarde (born about 1571) makes a curious note in his manuscript, 
 Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata (ed. Baildon, pp. 179-180) : "Nothinge 
 now was talked ot but the relligion, vertue, wisedome, leaminge. Justice, & manye 
 other most noble & woorthye prayses of K. James, ... his bookes new printed, 
 (BaziXixo"" SoTwv, Freen monarchies, Monologie, Expositions upon the Reuelacions 
 & the Kings, the Lepanto)." 
 
 ^ There are two London editions of 1603. See the details in Ferguson, Publi- 
 cations of the Edinburgh Bibhographical Society, 3. 51. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 7 
 
 tion of the Basilikon Doron in the same year. This had been 
 privately printed in 1599. When it came before the public 
 in 1603, there was a long, defensive preface, entirely new, 
 in which the king exerted himself to stand well with his Eng- 
 lish subjects.^' James, as we have already remarked, had 
 other things than witchcraft to occupy his thoughts when 
 he mounted the English throne. If it can be shown that he 
 immediately engaged in a campaign for new witch-laws or 
 for more vigorous prosecution, then we may regard the 
 Dsemonologie of 1603 as a campaign document. But first 
 one must show that he did engage in any such campaign; 
 otherwise the question is begged. And, as we shall soon 
 discover, he did nothing of the kind. 
 
 Clearly, then, we must study the witch law and the witch- 
 trials of James's English reign on the basis, not of prejudice, 
 but of evidence. And first we may consider the Statute 
 of 1604. 
 
 The current ideas about the English laws against witchcraft 
 are very inaccurate. For these misapprehensions Thomas 
 Wright is in large part responsible. His learned and inter- 
 esting Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, which has enjoyed 
 a deserved popularity for more than fifty years, is surpris- 
 ingly loose in its statements about legal history. 
 
 "The first act in the statute-book against witchcraft," 
 says Wright, "was passed in the thirty-third year of Henry 
 VIII., A.D. 1541, whereby this supposed crime was made 
 felony without benefit of clergy." ^* So far he is quite cor- 
 rect, except for the year of our Lord, which should be 1542. 
 "In 1547," he adds, "when the power was entirely in the 
 hands of the religious reformers under Edward VI., his 
 father's law against witchcraft was repealed." This asser- 
 tion, though technically indisputable, is rather misleading. 
 The act to which Wright refers (1 Edward VI., c. 12) does 
 
 ^ See the Roxburghe Club reprint of the 1599 edition. On the attention which 
 the Basilikon Doron attracted, see Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1603-1607, 
 pp. 10, 65. 
 
 ** Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 1851, 1. 279. See also the authors cited 
 above (p. 1, note 1). The account of the laws given by Mr. James Williams 
 in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., 24. 620-621) is above the average, but not 
 free from errors. There are serious mistakes in Mr. Robert Steele's summary in 
 TraiU's Social England, 3. 326. 
 
8 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 not once mention sorcery, magic, or witchcraft. The third 
 section wipes out of the statute-book "all offences made 
 felony by any act or acts of Parliament, statute or statutes, 
 made sithence the xxiiith day of April in the first year of the 
 reign of the said late King Henry theight, not being felony 
 before." Among these offences was witchcraft. 
 
 Wright's next statement is highly objectionable. It 
 amounts to a serious, though inadvertent, suppressio veri. 
 "Under Elizabeth," he avers, "in 1562 [this should be 1563], 
 a new act was passed against witchcraft, punishing the first 
 conviction only with exposure in the pillory." ^^ Now the 
 truth is that Elizabeth's law was much severer than one 
 would infer from these words. It fixes the death penalty 
 (1) for all who "use, practise, or exercise invocations or con- 
 jurations of evil and wicked spirits to or for any intent or 
 purpose," quite irrespective of the result of such invocations 
 or conjurations, and (2) for all who practise witchcraft that 
 causes a person's death. Under the former provision — to 
 take a good example — Edmund Hartlay lost his life in 
 Lancashire in 1597. He was a professed conjurer, and had 
 been employed to relieve the children of Mr. Nicholas Starkie, 
 who were thought to be possessed with devils. Hartlay 
 caught the hysterical affection himself and was tormented 
 in like manner. "The next day, beinge recouered, he went 
 into a little wood, not farr from the house, where he maide a 
 circle about a yarde and halfe wyde, deuiding it into 4. partes, 
 making a crosse at every diuision : and when he had finished 
 his worke, he came to M. Starchie and desiered him to go and 
 tread out the circle, saying, I may not treade it out my selfe, 
 and further, I will meete with them that went about my 
 death," ^^ — that is, in effect, I wish to raise the devils that 
 tried to kill me yesterday. There were other charges against 
 Hartlay, but none of a capital nature. "The making of his 
 circle was chefly his ouerthrowe." ^^ He denied the fact, but, 
 the rope breaking, confessed it before he died.^* 
 
 25 Narratives, 1. 279. 
 
 2" John Darrel, A True Narration, etc., 1600, p. 1. 
 
 *' Darrel, p. 7. 
 
 '' Another case occurred in 1580. William RandoU was hanged for conjuring 
 to discover hidden treasure and stolen goods. Four others were tried for aiding 
 and abetting, and three of them were sentenced to death, but reprieved. The trial 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 9 
 
 Furthermore, the EHzabethan statute provided that 
 "witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery" which caused 
 bodily injury to human beings or damage to goods or chattels 
 should be punished with a year's imprisonment (with quar- 
 terly exposure in the pillory) for the first offence, and with 
 death for the second offence. And finally, the statute provided 
 imprisonment and the pillory, with life imprisonment for the 
 second offence, for all who should "take upon" themselves 
 to reveal the whereabouts of hidden treasure or of lost or 
 stolen goods, or should practise witchcraft with intent to 
 provoke unlawful love or to "hurt or destroy any person in 
 his or her body, member, or goods." It must now be mani- 
 fest how unduly Wright extenuates the grimness of Eliza- 
 beth's law. 
 
 Thus we reach the reign of James I. In his second year 
 was passed the statute of 1604, which remained in force until 
 1736. The relation of this act to the statute of Elizabeth, 
 which it repealed, becomes a matter of great importance to 
 determine. Here Wright leaves us in the lurch. James, 
 he tells us, "passed a new and severe law against witchcraft,^^ 
 in which it now became almost a crime to disbelieve." ^^ We 
 are led to infer that, whereas Elizabeth's law was mild and 
 hardly objectionable, James's statute was both novel and 
 severe. The facts are quite different. James's statute 
 follows Elizabeth's in the main, even in phraseology. (1) The 
 new statute (like the old) provides death as the penalty for 
 invocation or conjuration of evil spirits for any purpose and 
 without regard to the issue. But it inserts two clauses 
 making it also felony to "consult, covenant with, entertain, 
 employ, feed, or reward " any such spirit for any purpose, 
 
 was held at the King's Bench (Holinshed, 4. 433). An excessively curious case is 
 that of a woman tried by the mayor of Faversham, Kent, in 1586. The court and 
 jury were convinced that she was not guilty of witchcraft. In order to clear her of 
 the capital charge, a verdict of guilty of invocation and conjuration was brought in. 
 The mayor was about to congratulate the defendant on escaping with her life, when 
 the legal adviser of the corporation informed him that invocation and conjuration 
 amounted to felony, and she was hanged accordingly. Full details are given by 
 John Waller in Holinshed, 4. 891-893. 
 
 29 1. 284. 
 
 '" As to this latter dictum, it is instructive to observe that in 1578 one Dr. Browne 
 was in trouble because he "spread misliking of the laws, by saying there are no 
 witches" (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Addenda, 1566-1579, p. 551). 
 
10 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 or to dig up any dead body, or part thereof, for use in sor- 
 cery. (2) For witchcraft that kills, death is the penalty (as in 
 the Elizabethan enactment). (3) For witchcraft that causes 
 bodily harm, but does not kill, the new law imposes death 
 for the first (instead of the second) offence. (4) For the 
 minor varieties of sorcery and witchcraft, death is substituted 
 for life imprisonment as the penalty for the second offence.'^ 
 Clearly the statute of 1604 is not so great a novelty as we 
 have been led to think. It is, to be sure, more severe than 
 the Elizabethan enactment, but only in some respects. Let 
 us study the two a little further. 
 
 The substitution of death for life imprisonment as the pen- 
 alty for the second offence in certain minor grades of sorcery 
 can hardly be called an increase in severity. The appalling 
 state of the prisons is notorious. There was a dreadful out- 
 break of jail fever at the Oxford assizes in 1579,^^ and another 
 at the Exeter assizes in 1586.^^ Prisoners often died while 
 awaiting trial or execution. In 1608 the Earl of Northamp- 
 ton, as Warden of the Cinque Ports, induced the mayor of 
 Rye to admit to bail a woman condemned to death for aiding 
 and abetting a witch. Her execution had been stayed, and 
 it was feared that she would succumb to the "lothsomness of 
 the prison." ^* Under such conditions, the change from a 
 life-sentence to hanging was rather mercy than rigor. 
 
 The penalty for digging up the dead (unknown to the 
 Elizabethan law) was not excessive, in view of the general 
 severity of the penal code. The thing was certainly done 
 now and then. It was a real — not an imaginary — crime, 
 and deserved punishment. However, no case has ever been 
 cited in which a man or woman was put to death for this 
 
 " There is some difference between the two statutes in defining the minor varieties, 
 but it is slight and not in the direction of severity. 
 
 ^2 See the extraordinary passage in Webster's Displaying of Supposed Witch- 
 craft, 1677, pp. 245-246. 
 
 '^ Walsingham to Leicester (Leycester Correspondence, Camden Society, p. 
 24) ; Hooker (alias Vowell), in Holinshed, 4. 868 ; Thomas Cogan, The Haven of 
 Heath, 1589, pp. 272 ff. See also an important paper on the Black Assizes in the 
 West, by F. Wilcocks, M.D., in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 16. 
 595 ff. For Vowell, see Charles Worthy, in the same Transactions, 14. 631 ff. (ct. 
 11. 442 ff.). 
 
 '^ 13th Report of the Commission on Historical MSS., Appendix, Part iv., pp. 
 139-140. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 11 
 
 offence alone, and we may therefore disregard that clause as 
 of no practical effect. 
 
 As for the new provision about consulting or covenanting 
 with evil spirits, or feeding them, it was capable of operating 
 with great severity. In fact, however, I do not believe that 
 a single case can be found during James's reign in which 
 anybody suffered death under this clause who was not other- 
 wise liable to the extreme penalty.^ ^ 
 
 There remains, then, one change in the law, and only one, 
 — death for the first (instead of the second) offence in witch- 
 craft that injures the body without killing, — to justify the 
 common opinion that James's statute of 1604 was so stern 
 an enactment as to make an era in English witch-prosecu- 
 tion. 
 
 At the outset, candor impels us to inquire whether James's 
 statute was really severe at all. Our judgment must be 
 based, not on our present penal code, but on that of the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries. When death was the 
 penalty for stealing a sheep, or breaking into a house, or tak- 
 ing a purse on the highway, or stealing thirteenpence, was 
 it harsh to hang a witch for driving her neighbor mad or 
 smiting him with epilepsy or paralysis ? ^^ To object that 
 witches could not do such things is no answer. This objec- 
 tion might hold against the passing of any law whatever, but 
 has nothing to do with the question of severity. It is quite 
 as silly to fine or imprison a man for an impossible crime as 
 to hang him for it. However, we may waive this point, for 
 we are more directly concerned with the question whether 
 James's law was so much severer than Elizabeth's as to make 
 its passage a momentous event. This is to be tested, of 
 course, by observing how the two laws worked, not by weigh- 
 ing their words. 
 
 To get the perspective, let us look at one of the most no- 
 
 '* A possible exception is Susan Swapper, of Rye. She was condemned in 1607, 
 but I cannot find that she was ever executed. The case is exceedingly curious (see 
 Commission on Historical MSS., 13th Report, Appendix, Part iv., pp. 136-137, 
 139-140, 144, 147-148). For what happened after 1643, when James had been in 
 his grave a score of years, it is absurdly cruel to hold him accountable. 
 
 '^ Cf. the observations of Mr. J. W. Brodie-Innes in his interesting brochure 
 on Scottish Witchcraft Trials, pp. 21-24. (Privately Printed Opuscula issued to 
 Members of the Sette of Odd Volumes, No. 26, 1891.) 
 
12 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 torious of Elizabethan cases, that of St. Osyth in Essex. 
 One Ursula (or Ursley) Kempe, alias Grey, was a woman 
 of ill repute, who lived, with Thomas Rabbet, her bastard 
 son, in the little village of St. Osith's (now St. Osyth), near 
 Colchester. She had long lain under suspicion of witchcraft. 
 There was sickness in the family of a neighbor, Grace Thur- 
 lowe, and Grace fancied that Ursula was to blame. The 
 local magistrate, Brian Darcey, lent a ready ear to her com- 
 plaint. Witnesses came forward in abundance, and one 
 revelation led to another, as usual. Thomas Rabbet gave 
 evidence against his mother. Ursula confessed her crimes, 
 with many tears. A whole nest of offenders was uncovered, 
 and, in conclusion, no less than thirteen witches were con- 
 victed. This was in 1582." The affair made a great noise, 
 and appears to have been the chief immediate impulse to 
 Reginald Scot's famous book. The Discovery of Witchcraft. 
 
 Of the thirteen persons convicted on this occasion, all but 
 three were found guilty of "bewitching to death," and con- 
 sequently suffered the extreme penalty under the statute of 
 Elizabeth. James's statute would have hanged the other 
 three as well. To this extent, and to this extent alone, would 
 it have operated more severely than its predecessor. 
 
 The St. Osyth tragedy took place about twenty years 
 before James I. succeeded to the English crown. Will it be 
 believed, in the face of the vehement denunciation to which 
 this king is traditionally subjected as a besotted persecutor, 
 that nothing comparable to it occurred in his reign until 1612, 
 when he had been on the throne for nine years ? Yet such 
 is the indisputable fact. 
 
 An analysis of these Lancashire trials of 1612, on the basis 
 of Thomas Potts's official narrative, yields the following 
 results. Nineteen persons were tried, of whom eight were 
 acquitted. Of the eleven convicted, one (whose offence was 
 the killing of a mare) was sentenced to the pillory. This 
 leaves ten who were hanged.'^ Six of these were indicted 
 
 " Linton, Witch Stories, 1861, pp. 205-221 (from the original narrative by W.W., 
 — A True and lust Recorde, etc., 1582). 
 
 " The Wonderful! Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. . . To- 
 gether with the Arraignement and Triall of lennet Preston, at . . Yorke, Lon- 
 don, 1613. Cf. Farington Papers, Chetham Society, 1856, p. 27. One other 
 died before trial. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 13 
 
 for murder by witchcraft, and therefore would have suffered 
 death under Elizabeth's law as surely as under James's. 
 Four, then, were executed who might have got off with im- 
 prisonment if the older statute had remained in force. But 
 it is by no means certain that all of the four would actually 
 have escaped the gallows. For there was evidence of mur- 
 der by witchcraft against two of them, and they might have 
 been tried on that charge if the lesser accusation of driving a 
 woman insane had not sufficed to send them out of the world. 
 There remain but two, therefore, of the eleven convicted, who, 
 so far as we can see, would have been in no danger of death 
 under Elizabethan conditions. And one of these exemptions 
 may be balanced by the case of the woman sent to the pil- 
 lory for killing a mare, inasmuch as there was testimony that 
 she too had confessed to a couple of murders, so that the 
 prosecutors might have found an excuse for hanging her, even 
 under Elizabeth's statute, if they had so desired. In the 
 same year. Jennet Preston was hanged at York. She was 
 convicted of murder by witchcraft, and would have suffered 
 death by Elizabeth's law. Likewise in 1612, there was an 
 outbreak of prosecution in Northamptonshire, which ended 
 in the execution of five persons. Every one of these, how- 
 ever, had been found guilty of murder by witchcraft.^' 
 Hence their fate under the statute of James was precisely 
 what it would have been if Elizabeth's statute of 1563 had 
 never been supplanted. 
 
 Two facts of immense significance are now clear : first, 
 that James's accession was not the signal for an outbreak 
 of witch prosecution, for he had been on the throne for nine 
 years before any such outbreak occurred ; second, that the 
 statute of 1604 was not appreciably more severe, in its prac- 
 tical working in 1612, than the Elizabethan statute would 
 have been at the same time if it had continued in force. 
 
 Before leaving the events of 1612, however, we must in- 
 quire whether James had any hand in the prosecutions. The 
 answer is unequivocal. There is not a particle of evidence 
 that he either suggested or encouraged the trials, or, indeed, 
 that he ever heard of the cases until the defendants had been 
 
 "The Witches of Northamptonshire, 1612 (reprint, 1867). 
 
14 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 hanged. A contrary view is sometimes expressed with 
 regard to the Lancaster trials/" but there is no foundation 
 for it. The source of the error is nothing more or less than 
 William Harrison Ainsworth's romance entitled The Lan- 
 cashire Witches. This was published in 1849, and appears 
 to have proved more entertaining to some historians than 
 the study of authentic documents. 
 
 One of Ainsworth's most amusing characters is Master 
 Thomas Potts, a London lawyer. Potts happens to be in 
 Lancashire on legal business, and, on coming into contact 
 with the rumors and petty intrigues of the neighborhood, 
 grasps the chance to ingratiate himself with King James by 
 gathering evidence and fomenting prosecution. "So there 
 are suspected witches in Pendle Forest, I find," says Master 
 Potts; "I shall make it my business to institute inquiries 
 concerning them, when I visit the place to-morrow. Even 
 if merely ill-reputed, they must be examined, and if found in- 
 nocent cleared; if not, punished according to the statute. 
 Our soverign lord the king holdeth witches in especial ab- 
 horrence, and would gladly see all such noxious vermin 
 extirpated from the land, and it will rejoice me to promote 
 his laudable designs. . . . He is never so pleased as when 
 the truth of his tenets are proved by such secret offenders 
 being brought to light, and duly punished." *^ And again : — 
 "If I can unearth a pack of witches, I shall gain much credit 
 from my honourable good lords the judges of assize . . . , 
 besides pleasing the King himself, who is sure to hear of it, 
 and reward my praiseworthy zeal." *^ 
 
 Ainsworth is quite within his rights as a novelist, but we 
 should not read him as if he were an historian. Potts had 
 nothing to do with getting up the evidence or fomenting the 
 prosecution. He was a London lawyer, or law-writer, who 
 acted as clerk at the Lancaster assizes. Probably he was 
 accompanying the justices on their circuit. At the instance 
 of these justices, as we know, he prepared an official narrative, 
 which was published in 1613 after revision by one of them(Sir 
 Edward Bromley). The king is mentioned only once in this 
 
 '"See, for example, Horley, Sefton, 1893, p. 115, note 1; Roper, Materials for 
 the History of Lancaster, Part i., Chetham Society, 1907, pp. 26-27. 
 " 1. 199-200. 42 1. 207 (cf. 1. 244, 247). 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 15 
 
 tract (except, of course, in legal formulas), and that in passing : 
 "What hath the Kings Maiestie written and published in his 
 DoBmonologie, by way of premonition and preuention, which 
 hath not here by the first or last beene executed, put in prac- 
 tise or discouered." ^' If James had known anything about 
 the case. Potts would surely have brought him in. 
 
 But we are not done with Ainsworth's contributions to 
 history. In the third volume of the romance he introduces 
 King James in person, talking broad Scots, profoundly im- 
 pressed by the evidence, causing the witches to be brought 
 into his presence, and urging on the prosecution. These 
 scenes occur while he is the guest of Sir Richard Hoghton at 
 Hoghton Tower.** All this is very good fiction indeed. But 
 it should not pass as history. The Pendle witches were 
 hanged in August, 1612. James made a progress that sum- 
 mer, but not in Lancashire. His visit to Hoghton Tower 
 was five years later, in August, 1617.*^ 
 
 Ainsworth wrote The Lancashire Witches at the suggestion 
 of Mr. James Crossley, to whom he dedicated it. Mr. Cross- 
 ley was an admirable antiquary, and the world is in his debt 
 for a first-rate edition of Potts's Discoverie and for many other 
 things. But, though very learned in the literature of witch- 
 craft, he was far astray in his estimate of James's attitude 
 and in other pertinent matters. He ignores the Elizabethan 
 statute and lays stress on that of James, "enacted," he avers, 
 "as the adulatory tribute of all parties, against which no 
 honest voice was raised, to the known opinions of the mon- 
 arch." *^ Mr. Crossley could not fail to observe that the 
 passage of the "execrable statute" of 1604 was not followed 
 by an instant fury of prosecution. He knew well that eight 
 years elapsed before anything took place that was at all 
 notable. And this is how he expresses himself : the stat- 
 ute, he suggests, "might have been sharpening its appetite 
 by a temporary fast for the full meal of blood by which 
 it was eventually glutted." *' This is not merely personi- 
 fication, — it is pure mythology. 
 
 « Potts, Wonderful! Discoverie, sig. T2. « 3. 241 ff. 
 
 *' Journal of Nicholas Assheton, ed. Raines, Chetham Society, 1848, pp. 32 ff. 
 
 *' Introduction to his reprint of Potts, Chetham Society, vol. 6, p. xviii. 
 
 *' Introduction to Potts, p. xlv. 
 
16 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 The plain and simple truth is this : During the twenty- 
 two years of James's reign (1603-1625), there was no more 
 excitement on the subject of witchcraft, and there were no 
 more executions, than during the last twenty-two years of 
 Elizabeth (1581-1603).^ James's accession was not in any 
 sense the signal for an outburst of prosecution. As we have 
 just noted, the first bad year was 1612, when he had been on 
 the throne for almost a decade. It is certain that the statute 
 of 1604 was not more severe, in its practical workings, than 
 the statute of Elizabeth.^' Nor can a single fact be brought 
 forward to prove that James was eager, during his English 
 reign, to multiply the number of victims. 
 
 We must now examine the prevalent opinion that the stat- 
 ute of 1604 was passed to please King James or at his in- 
 stance, or, indeed, that he wrote the bill himself. Most 
 readers will be surprised to learn that not a particle of direct 
 evidence has ever been adduced in favor of any of these 
 propositions. They rest entirely upon assumption or in- 
 ference. The earliest testimony that I can discover*" is 
 Hutchinson's, in 1718, — more than a century late ; and 
 Hutchinson, more suo, is commendably cautious. He does 
 not profess to have any authority for his views. "I cannot 
 forbear thinking " — such are his words — "that it was the 
 King's Book and Judgment, more than any Encrease of 
 Witches, that influenc'd the Parliament to the changing the 
 Old Law." *^ And again, "I cannot but thinlc, that if King 
 James himself was not the first Mover and Director in this 
 change of the Statute, yet there might probably be a Design 
 of making Court to the King by it." *^ He frankly labels 
 his theory "the best Guess I can make." *' The "juryman " 
 
 " Exact figures are unattainable, but the records are quite as trustworthy for 
 1603-1625 as for 1581-1603. It is altogether unlikely that a complete scrutiny would 
 bring to light more new cases of execution for the later period than for the earUer. 
 
 *' That is, not more severe during James's reign. For what occurred long after 
 the king's death, he cannot be blamed. 
 
 '" It is to be hoped that what Thomas Cooper says in The Mysterie of Witch- 
 craft, 1617, p. 7, will not be taken as evidence in favor of the current view. Here- 
 tofore it has not been so utilized. 
 
 " Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, 1718, p. 179 (ed. 1720, p. 221). 
 
 '^ P. 180. Here Hutchinson is referring to a particular part of the statute (about 
 the violation of graves). 
 
 ^ P. 178. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGB 17 
 
 (his interlocutor in the dialogue) accepts the theory: "I 
 am the apter to believe this Account ; because I have often 
 heard, that our Law did come from thence," that is, from 
 Scotland along with the new king.^t Dr. William Harris, in 
 his account of James I. (1753), follows Hutchinson, whom he 
 cites, remarking that the statute was "formed out of com- 
 pliment (as has been well conjectured)." ^^ Scott, in 1810, 
 follows Hutchinson, remarking that the statute "probably 
 hadits rise in the complaisance of James's first Parliament." *^ 
 By 1829 the tradition had hardened considerably, so that 
 a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine asserted that James 
 "is said to have penned [the statute] himself." ^^ So much 
 for the external evidence, — now for the probabilities. 
 
 In the first place, the text of the statute is suflicient proof 
 that James did not draft it himself. For it is not a new law. 
 It follows, in the main, the Elizabethan statute word for 
 word. At the utmost, James can be suspected of penning 
 only a few phrases. This part of the charge we may there- 
 fore dismiss without ceremony. But what of the view that 
 James fathered or fostered the bill, that it was introduced 
 at his instance, or passed with an eye to his favor .? Was 
 there, or was there not, such a state of public opinion in Eng- 
 land as will account for the statute without our having re- 
 course to the conjecture that it was passed under James's 
 influence or out of complaisance to him ? 
 
 If this were merely a question of the rank and file of the 
 people, there would be no room for argument. The last few 
 years of Elizabeth's reign abounded in witch prosecutions and 
 were marked by intense popular excitement on the subject. 
 A typical outbreak was that in Devon in 1601 and 1602, 
 when the Trevisard family was complained of before Sir 
 Thomas Ridgeway.^* But we are now occupied with the 
 lawmakers, who, though constantly exposed to pressure from 
 the populace, may conceivably have preferred the status quo. 
 Was there, or was there not, before James's accession, a 
 
 " P. 180. 56 pp 4o_4i. 
 
 " Somers Tracts, 2d edition, 3. 95. 
 
 " In a series of articles on the Rise and Progress of Witchcraft, containing much 
 valuable material. Gentleman's Magazine Library, Popular Superstitions, p. 233. 
 " See the original examinations (inedited) in the Harvard College Library. 
 
18 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 movement among the better educated classes for a revision 
 of the law and a sharpening of the penalties ? To test this 
 question, we may consult four well-known treatises which 
 are seldom scrutinized from this point of view. We will 
 begin with Perkins's Discourse. 
 
 William Perkins, the eminent theologian, born in 1558, 
 was Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1584 to 
 1594. He died in 1602, leaving behind him A Discourse of 
 the Damned Art of Witchcraft, which was published in 1608 
 by Thomas Pickering, B.D. of Cambridge, and Minister of 
 Finchingfield, Essex. Pickering dedicated the volume to 
 Coke. Though not issued in the author's lifetime, this trea- 
 tise is good evidence as to what the views of learned English- 
 men were at the turn of the century. Nor was it without 
 influence before Perkins died, for, as the title-page sets 
 forth, the discourse was "framed and delivered " by him 
 "in his ordinarie course of Preaching." It came from the 
 press of the Cambridge University Printer. 
 
 Perkins's book is a masterpiece. It is cogently reasoned, 
 and marked by that concise and simple style for which this 
 author was distinguished above his contemporaries. We 
 may shudder at his opinions, but are forced to admire his 
 candor and ability. Perkins warns his readers against con- 
 victing on slender evidence. His virile and methodical in- 
 tellect draws the line sharply between presumptions that jus- 
 tify suspicion, and proofs that warrant a verdict of guilty.*' 
 Certain superstitious popular tests he rejects utterly, — 
 such as scratching the witch, and firing the thatch of her 
 cottage, and the ordeal by swimming.*" Some of these, 
 he declares, "if not all, are after a sort practises of Witch- 
 craft, hauing in them no power or vertue to detect a Sor- 
 cerer, either by Gods ordinance in the creation, or by any 
 speciall appointment since." In scouting the water ordeal, 
 Perkins may have had his eye upon King James's defence 
 of it in the Dsemonologie. "It appeares," the king had writ- 
 ten, "that God hath appointed (for a supernaturall signe 
 of the monstrous impietie of Witches) that the water shall 
 refuse to receiue them in her bosome, that haue shaken off 
 
 " Pp. 200 ff. 6» Pp. 206 ff. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 19 
 
 them the sacred Water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused 
 the benefite thereof." *^ Note the brevity and force of Per- 
 kins's refutation : — "To iustifie the casting of a Witch into 
 the water, it is alledged, that hauing made a couenant with the 
 deuill, shee hath renounced her Baptisme, and hereupon there 
 growes an Antipathic betweene her, and water. Ans. This 
 allegation serues to no purpose : for all water is not the water 
 of Baptisme, but that onely which is vsed in the very act 
 of Baptisme, and not before nor after. The element out of 
 the vse of the Sacrament, is no Sacrament, but returnes 
 again to his common vse." ^^ Let us remark, in passing, 
 that Thomas Pickering, a beneficed clergyman, did not 
 hesitate to publish this unceremonious denial of the king's 
 argument in 1608, when James had been five years on the 
 throne, and to dedicate the work which contains it to Chief 
 Justice Coke. This may serve to correct, pro tanto, the too 
 prevalent opinion that James I. expected his English subjects 
 to receive his Dsemonologie as but little, if at all, inferior in 
 authority to the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Our immediate concern, however, is with the general 
 tendency of Perkins's treatise, and in particular with his 
 precepts as to punishment. He admits the witch dogma 
 in its entirety. The ground of all sorcery is a league or 
 covenant with the devil, which may be either express or 
 implicit. There are two kinds of witchcraft, — namely, 
 divining and working.*' The second class includes the rais- 
 ing of storms, the poisoning of the air (which brings pesti- 
 lence), the blasting of corn, "the procuring of strange pas- 
 sions and torments in mens bodies and other creatures, with 
 the curing of the same." ** It is an error to hold that melan- 
 cholia so deludes women that they imagine themselves 
 witches when indeed they are none. Perhaps, after the 
 witch has made her contract with the fiend, she may credit 
 herself with imaginary powers, but the wonders already 
 enumerated she can certainly perform, with Satan's aid.** 
 Thus Perkins opposes himself squarely to Wierus and Scot. 
 His refutation of their theories is solid and convincing, if we 
 
 ^ London, Printed for William Apsley and W. Cotton, 1603, p. 80 (misprinted, 
 "64 "). 
 
 o P. 208. " P. 55. « P. 128. «5 Pp. 191-196. 
 
20 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 admit what nobody dreamt of denying, — the existence of 
 evil spirits. His book, indeed, may be taken as a measure 
 of the shght effect which these dissentients had produced on 
 the minds of sixteenth-century Englishmen. 
 
 As to the law against witchcraft, Perkins is an invaluable 
 witness. He wrote when the Elizabethan statute was in 
 force, and he was of course not under the sway of King James 
 of Scotland, with whose theories, indeed, we have seen him 
 at outspoken variance. Perkins believes that the law of 
 Moses should continue in force, and that "all Witches beeing 
 thoroughly conuicted by the Magistrate," should be put to 
 death.** He expressly declares that this punishment ought 
 to be inflicted not only upon those who kill by means of witch- 
 craft, but upon all witches without any exception whatever, 
 — upon "all Diuiners, Charmers, luglers, all Wizzards, 
 commonly called wise men and wise women." He includes 
 in plain terms all so-called "good Witches, which doe no 
 hurt but good, which doe not spoile and destroy, but saue 
 and deliver." Here he uses a really unanswerable argu- 
 ment, which shows in the most striking fashion how ill- 
 equipped we are, with our mild penal laws, to sit in judg- 
 ment on the severity — whether actual or comparative — • 
 of the Jacobean statute. "By the lawes of England," 
 writes Perkins, "the thief e is executed for stealing, and we 
 think it iust and profitable : but it were a thousand times 
 better for the land, if all Witches, but specially the blessing 
 Witch might suffer death. For the thiefe by his stealing, 
 and the hurtfuU Inchanter by charming, bring hinderance 
 and hurt to the bodies and goods of men; but these are 
 the right hand of the deuill, by which he taketh and 
 destroieth the soules of men. Men doe commonly hate 
 and spit at the damnifying Sorcerer, as vnworthie to 
 line among them; whereas the other is so deare vnto 
 them, that they hold themselues and their countrey blessed 
 that haue him among them, they flie vnto him in 
 necessitie, they depend vpon him as their god, and by 
 this meanes, thousands are carried away to their finall 
 confusion. Death therefore is the iust and deserued por- 
 
 «6 P. 247. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 21 
 
 tion of the good Witch." These are the closing words 
 of Perkins's weighty treatise." 
 
 Perkins was a vital force in forming English opinion while 
 he was alive, especially during the last decade of the sixteenth 
 century and at the beginning of the seventeenth. Few 
 Cambridge lecturers were more authoritative, and Cambridge 
 was in close contact with public men. He "was buried with 
 great solemnity at the sole charges of Christs Colledge, the 
 University and Town striving which should expresse more 
 sorrow at his Funeral ; Doctor Montague Preached his 
 Funeral Sermon upon that Text, Moses my Servant is dead." ^^ 
 This was James Montagu, first Master of Sidney Sussex 
 College, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells (1608) and of 
 Winchester (1616). Bishop Hall, who was at Cambridge 
 while Perkins was active, commends him warmly. "A 
 worthy divine," he calls him, "whose labors are of much note 
 and use in the Church of God." ^^ Fuller is also among his 
 admirers.'" How the Discourse worked when its substance 
 was orally delivered "in his ordinarie course of preaching " 
 may be inferred from the respect with which the printed 
 book is continually cited, — by Cotta, for example, in his 
 Triall of Witch-craft (1616).'^ Cotta's treatise is likewise 
 dedicated to Coke. 
 
 John Cotta was of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1590, 
 and later of Corpus Christi. He received the degree of M.A. 
 in 1596, and that of M.D. in 1603. His first book appeared 
 in 1612. It contains a good deal about witchcraft. In 
 1616 he published a systematic treatise, A Triall of Witch- 
 craft, of which a second edition came out in 1624. The main 
 object of this work is to prove that any given case of alleged 
 sorcery ought to be examined by methods of the senses and 
 reason, like other objects of investigation. Cotta, then, 
 is on the right side. He follows Wierus in maintaining that 
 
 *' Pp. 256-257. For other expressions of opinion on witchcraft, see Perkins's 
 Golden Chaine, ed. 1605, pp. 34-36, and his Combate betweene Christ and the 
 Diuell, ed. 1606, pp. 16, 25, 37. 
 
 "Samuel Clarke, Life of Perkins (Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Part i., 
 3d ed., 1675, p. 416) ; of. John Manningham's Diary, ed. Bruce, Camden Society, 
 p. 104 ; Fuller, Holy State, ed. 1840, p. 71. 
 
 «9 Works, Oxford, 1837, 6. 340. 
 
 '» See note 68 above. " Pp. 53, 89, 91, 95. 
 
22 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 many so-called bewitched persons are suflfering from natural 
 disease. When he wrote he was practising at Northampton, 
 where he had resided ever since he took his medical degree 
 in 1603. His rationalizing attitude was largely the result 
 of his own experience as a physician during this interval. 
 
 The whole ground of Cotta's argument is an acceptance 
 of the traditional witch-dogma. He believes that there are 
 witches in plenty ; that they make contracts with the devil ; 
 that supernatural deeds are performed by the fiend, in which 
 the witch "hath a property and interest" by virtue of her 
 covenant with him ; that, in this way, witches may be im- 
 plicated in afflicting their fellow-creatures with diseases or in 
 causing their death. As concrete examples, we may take 
 the witches of Warboys (1589-1593) and the Lancashire 
 witches (1612), for both of those notorious cases are accepted 
 by Cotta without demur. ^^ And, just as he is confident 
 that the guilt of a witch may be discovered with certainty 
 by methods of reason and perception which he develops 
 elaborately, so he is content to leave her to the courts, to 
 be "arraigned and condemned of manifest high treason 
 against Almighty God, and of combination with his open and 
 professed enemy the Diuell." '' The statute of 1604 was 
 none too rigorous for Dr. Cotta. If these were his sentiments 
 in 1616, when he was writing a cautionary and corrective 
 treatise, we may be certain that his views were quite as 
 orthodox at the turn of the century, when he was still at the 
 University of Cambridge and subject to the influence of Per- 
 kins, whom he cites with so much respect. 
 
 From Cambridge we turn to Oxford. Thomas Cooper, 
 of Christ Church, was A.B. in 1590, A.M. in 1593, B.D. in 
 1600. In 1601 he was presented by his college to a living 
 in Cheshire, which he resigned in 1604. From 1604 to 1610 
 he was vicar of Holy Trinity, Coventry. ^^ His volume 
 entitled The Mystery of Witch-craft was not published until 
 1617, but it embodies information enough about the author's 
 
 " Pp. 77, 90. " P. 80. 
 
 '^Ormerod, County of Chester, ed. Helsby, 1. 611; Joseph Welch, List of the 
 Queen's Scholars of St. Peter's College, Westminister, ed. Phillimore, p. 59; 
 Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1. 325; Dictionary of National Biography; Cooper, 
 Mystery, sig. A2. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 23 
 
 experiences and opinions in the time preceding the accession 
 of James to make it available for our present purposes. 
 Cooper's acquaintance with magic began while he was a 
 student at Oxford. There was a tjme, he tells us, when 
 he "admired some in the Vniuersitie famozed in that skill." 
 "Did not," he exclaims, — "did not the Lord so dispose of 
 mee, that my Chamber-fellow was exceedingly bewitched 
 with these faire shewes, and hauing gotten diners bookes to 
 that end, was earnest in the pursuit of that glorie which 
 might redound thereby ? Did not wee communicate our 
 Studies together ? was not this skill proposed and canuased 
 in common ? And did not the Lord so arme his vnworthy 
 seruant, that not onely the snare was gratiously espied ; but, 
 by the great mercie of my God, the Lord vsed mee as a 
 meanes to diuert my Chamber-fellow from these dangerous 
 studies ?" ^^ Thus we learn that when Cooper received his 
 Cheshire living, in 1601, he was deeply impressed with the 
 horror of dealing with devils. Between this date and 1610 
 he had several encounters with witchcraft, — at Northwich 
 (near Chester), in Lancashire, and at Coventry. ^^ Some of 
 these are perhaps too late for us to use, but the Northwich 
 incident falls in 1601 and 1602.^^ At all events, we are safe 
 in believing that the sentiments which Cooper expresses in 
 his volume do not differ appreciably from those which he 
 entertained before James's accession. Now Cooper agrees 
 in all essentials and in most particulars with Perkins, from 
 whom he borrows largely without due acknowledgment.'* 
 Writing after the passage of the statute of 1604, he rejoices 
 that the law has been made severer.^' Yet he is not satisfied. 
 Like Perkins, he holds that "the Blesser or good Witch . . . 
 is farre more dangerous then the Badde or hurting Witch," *" 
 and that both kinds ought to be extirpated. Thus it ap- 
 
 « Pp. 12-13. ■" Sig. A3, A4, p. 13. 
 
 " Deacon and Walker refer to the case in their Summarie Answere to Darrel, 
 1601, p. 237. Darrel, in A Survey of Certain Dialogical Discourses, 1602, p. 54, 
 gives the boy's name (" Tho. Harison of North Wych in Ches shire "), and says that 
 he is "at this present very greuously vexed by Sathan." 
 
 '' Compare, for instance, Cooper, pp. 52-55, with Perkins, pp. 19-22, 26, 27, 
 30, 31, 33, 34; Cooper, pp. 64-65, with Perkins, pp. 41-43; Cooper, p. 68, with 
 Perkins, pp. 47-48; Cooper, pp. 128-133, 136, with Perkins, pp. 55-67, 73, 92, 
 104. 
 
 '9 P. 314. s» P. 232. 
 
24 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 pears that Cooper, though he wrote after the passage of the 
 statute of 1604, may serve as a witness to the opinions that 
 prevailed among many of the clergy at about the turn ot the 
 
 century. . 
 
 Our fourth witness is a very strong one, and his testimony 
 is not complicated by inferences about dates. He is George 
 Giffard, another Oxford man. Giffard's Dialogue concern- 
 ing Witches and Witchcrafts was first published m 1593, — 
 a year otherwise notable in the annals of English sorcery, 
 as we shall see in a moment. It was reissued m 1603, three 
 years after his death. ^^ Giffard was an eminent preacher 
 of Maldon, in Essex. He passes for one of the earliest op- 
 ponents of the witchcraft delusion, and with some reason, 
 for he held that sickness and death ascribed to witchcraft 
 were due to natural causes, he repudiated spectral and hear- 
 say evidence, and he argued against convicting anybody 
 except on conclusive testimony. Yet it never entered his 
 head to deny the existence of witches or to doubt that they 
 have dealings with the fiend. He tells us that the times 
 were devil-haunted. "It falleth out in many places euen 
 of a sudden, as it seemeth to me, and no doubt by the heauie 
 iudgement of God, that the Diuels as it were let loose, do 
 more preuaile, then euer I haue heard of. . . . Satan is 
 now heard speake, and beleeued. He speaketh by con- 
 iurers, by sorcerers, and by witches, and his word is taken. 
 He deuiseth a number of things to be done, & they are put in 
 practise and followed." ^^ Giffard is here speaking in his 
 own person. Elsewhere in the dialogue he gives us a first- 
 rate account of the popular terror. One of the interlocutors 
 is "Samuel," an honest and well-to-do goodman. "They 
 say," declares Samuel, "there is scarse any towne or village 
 in all this shire, but there is one or two witches at the least 
 in it." ^ And the annals of Essex bear out Samuel's views. 
 Thirteen witches, as we have seen, were convicted and ten 
 
 '1 The Dictionary of National Biography and Dr. Usher date Giffard's death 
 1620. But he was doubtless the George Giffard of Maldon whose will was proved 
 in 1600 (Transactions of the Essex Archseological Society, New Series, 7. 46). For 
 Giffard's connection with the Classical Movement ot 1573-1592, see R. G. Usher, 
 Presbyterian Movement, 1905, pp. xli, 9, 16, 19, 42, 94. For Giffard's reputation 
 see D'Ewes, Autobiography, ed. Halliwell, 1. 114. 
 
 82 Dedicatory Epistle. » Ed. 1603, sig. A 3. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGB 25 
 
 of them hanged at Chelmsford in 1582, and there were other 
 executions there in 1579 and 1589. It was an outbreak 
 in that same neighborhood in 1645 that started Matthew 
 Hopkins on his career ; and the evidence and confessions went 
 back, in some instances for twenty, and even thirty years.*^ 
 Giffard was a man of unusual humanity and strong common 
 sense, as his book shows. Yet he was heartily in favor of 
 a severer law than the statute of Elizabeth. The following 
 passage from his Dialogue is a precious document for our 
 present purposes. "Daniel " is the speaker who presents 
 Giffard's own views ; "M. B." is a schoolmaster. ,j 
 
 Dan. A witch by the word of God ought to die the death, not because 
 she killeth men, for that she cannot (vnles it be those witches which kill 
 by poyson, which either they receiue from the diuell, or hee teacheth them 
 to make) but because she dealeth with diuels. And so if a lurie doe finde 
 proofe that she hath dealt with diuels, they may and ought to finde them 
 guiltie of witchcraft. 
 
 M. B. If they finde them guiltie to haue dealt with diuels, and cannot 
 say they haue murdered men, the law doth not put them to death. 
 
 Dan. It were to be wished, that the law were more [p]erfect in that 
 respect, euen to cut off all such abhominations. These cunning men and 
 women which deale with spirites and charmes seeming to doe good, and 
 draw the people into manifold impieties, with all other which haue famil- 
 iarity with deuels, or vse coniurations, ought to bee rooted out, that others 
 might see and feare. (Sig. K3.) 
 
 Here we have a highly intelligent preacher, a man of real 
 influence, pressing for precisely that change in the law — 
 the extension of the death penalty to witchcraft that pro- 
 duces bodily injury without death — which was actually 
 embodied in the statute of 1604. And Giffard, like Perkins, 
 condemns the " white witch " utterly. The evidence speaks 
 for itself. 
 
 Perkins's Discourse and Giffard's Dialogue are strongly 
 contrasted works. Giffard addresses his teaching to the 
 unlearned : he throws his book into the form of a conversa- 
 tion (so he tells us) "to make it fitter for the capacity of the 
 simpler sort." Perkins, on the other hand, writes for edu- 
 cated persons, — for those who can follow a close-knit 
 scholastic argument. Giffard's aim is to free the minds of 
 
 "A True and Exact Relation of the severall Informations [etc.] of the late 
 Witches, 1615, pp. 8, 15, 32, 34. 
 
26 ENGLISH WITCHCRATT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 the common people from needless terrors and to prevent tne 
 shedding of innocent blood. Perkins, though he warns his 
 readers (as GiflFard does) against condemning on slender 
 evidence, is chiefly bent on defending the witchcraft dogma 
 against the assaults of Wierus and Reginald Scot. Yet both 
 Giffard and Perkins hold tenaciously to the inherited belief. 
 There are such things as witches ; they do ally themselves 
 with the devil ; they should be punished. And in this matter 
 of the penalty — which is our chief concern at the moment — 
 Giffard and Perkins are in perfect accord. Both maintain 
 that all vntches ought to he put to death, irrespective of the ques- 
 tion whether they have killed men by their arts or not. In other 
 words, the Elizabethan statute seemed to them insufficient, 
 and they urged the enacting of a law of greater severity. 
 Could there be more illuminating evidence ? Nothing can 
 be clearer than that, about the turn of the century, before 
 Elizabeth was dead and James had taken her place, there 
 was strong pressure for a revision of the witchcraft law, and 
 for revision in the direction taken by the statute of 1604. 
 This was the kind of pressure to which the legislators yielded 
 — ■ nothing loth, to be sure. They were not browbeaten by 
 King James, nor did they vote with an eye to the royal favor. 
 They followed their own consciences, incited by the feelings 
 of the populace and stimulated by the exhortations of the 
 gravest counsellors they knew. 
 
 The four books that we have just examined would suffice 
 to prove, even if there were no other evidence, that the acces- 
 sion of James found the English public — both in its educated 
 and its uneducated classes — deeply impressed with the 
 actuality of witchcraft as an ever-present menace to soul and 
 body, intensely excited on the subject, and pressing hard 
 for the extermination of witches.*^ But there is other evi- 
 dence in plenty. The records from 1582 to 1603 abound in 
 specific cases. Two items call for particular notice : the 
 Darrel affair (1586-1601), and the affair of the Witches of 
 Warboys (1589-1593). There is a close psychological con- 
 nection between them. 
 
 '^ The general anjdety of Englishmen as Elizabeth's death drew nigh is graphi- 
 cally described by Dekker, The WonderfuU Yeare, 1603 (Works, ed. Grosart, 1. 
 94-96). Such crises are always favorable to outbreaks of witch-prosecution. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 27 
 
 John Darrel, a Cambridge graduate, was a Puritan 
 preacher in Derbyshire when (in 1586) he began his career 
 as a caster-out of devils. In 1598 he was summoned before 
 an ecclesiastical commission over which Archbishop Whit- 
 gift presided. Bishop Bancroft and Chief Justice Anderson 
 were members of the commission. More than forty witnesses 
 were called. Some of the demoniacs confessed fraud, and 
 Darrel, with his associate George More, was convicted of 
 imposture and imprisoned.*® There had been an uproar over 
 the possessions and the exorcisms, and popular opinion sided 
 with Darrel. Samuel Harsnet, the cleverest of Bishop Ban- 
 croft's chaplains, was delegated to write up the case. His 
 famous Discovery came out in 1599, and was expected to 
 overwhelm Darrel with ridicule and odium. In the long run 
 it has had this result, for Darrel is usually treated nowadays 
 as an impostor. But it had no such eflFect at the time. Both 
 Darrel and More wrote long replies, and printed them sur- 
 reptitiously in defiance of the authorities. 
 
 Bancroft soon discovered that Harsnet's skirmishing 
 was not sufficient, and he brought his heavy troops into 
 action. Two treatises, of unimaginable ponderosity in style 
 and matter, each elaborated in concert by two preachers, 
 John Deacon and John Walker, came out in 1601.*' Harsnet 
 had railed and ridiculed and "exposed," but he had steered 
 clear of dialectics. Deacon and Walker toiled to supply 
 the desideratum. Using all the scholastic machinery, they 
 tried to prove, by logic and Scripture, that there is no such 
 thing as demoniacal possession nowadays, and that Dar- 
 rel's demoniacs were either counterfeiting or else afflicted 
 with natural diseases. Darrel promptly replied to both 
 books, printing his answers surreptitiously, as before. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, Darrel has the best of the argu- 
 ment. For his opponents admit both too little and too 
 much. They admit too little, since they wish the fits to 
 appear fraudulent, whereas these were, beyond a shadow 
 of doubt, genuine hysteria, of which lying and imposture are 
 well-recognized symptoms. Darrel was sharp enough to see 
 that, as managed by his opponents, the hypothesis of fraud 
 
 *' Harsnet, Discovery, 1599, pp. 8-9. 
 
 " Summarie Answere, and Dialogicall Discourses. 
 
28 ENGLISH WITCHCRATT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 and the hypothesis of disease thwarted each other, and left 
 some kind of demonic assault in possession of the field. 
 They admit too much, because they themselves grant the 
 existence of evil spirits of vast power (nay, take pains to 
 demonstrate their existence), and because they accept 
 demoniacal possession as a fact in ancient times, though they 
 reject it for the present age. This rejection was, of course, 
 quite arbitrary, and their attempts to justify it from Scripture 
 were pitifully weak. Darrel could appeal to facts and ex- 
 perience. His patients had manifested the same symptoms 
 as the demoniacs of old, and it was obviously absurd to force 
 a distinction. If the afflicted persons in Bible times were 
 possessed with devils, then his patients were possessed with 
 devils ; and if he had relieved them (as he surely had), then 
 there was no reason which Deacon and Walker could make 
 valid to reject the corollary of dispossession. 
 
 But what connection has this strange affair with witch- 
 craft ? Here we must walk circumspectly, for misappre- 
 hensions are rife. It is often inferred that Bancroft and 
 Harsnet, because they denounced Darrel and his patients 
 as tricksters, had no belief in witchcraft. This is a false 
 conclusion. A demoniac is not necessarily bewitched. He 
 may owe his dire condition to some witch's malice, or, on 
 the other hand, the devil may have assailed him immediately, 
 without a witch's agency. Further, there are many evil 
 things done by witches which have no reference to demoni- 
 acal possession. In all of Darrel's cases, to be sure, witches 
 were accused. To some extent, then, Bancroft and his 
 assistants were, in effect, attempting to discredit the witch 
 dogma, since they were attacking the genuineness, or the 
 diabolical origin, of certain phenomena ascribed, in these 
 particular instances, to witchcraft. But (and we cannot be 
 too careful in making the distinction) they did not deny either 
 the existence or the criminality of witches in general, any more 
 than they denied the existence of wicked spirits. They strove 
 to explode the theory of demoniacal possession; but they 
 did not attack the witchcraft dogma. Indeed, they took 
 care to avoid committing themselves on that head. For, even 
 if they had no faith in the dogma, they knew that to assail it 
 would throw them out of court, inasmuch as the belief in 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 29 
 
 witchcraft was, in some form or other, universal among all 
 classes and all persuasions. 
 
 Further, Bancroft and his aids, in their opposition to 
 Darrel, were not espousing the cau^ of alleged witches, — 
 or, if so, they were doing it in a purely incidental way. Their 
 object was quite definite and unconcealed. They were war- 
 ring against the Puritans *' and the Roman Catholics, whom 
 they regarded as foes to Church and State. Puritan 
 preachers and Roman Catholic priests both professed to cast 
 out devils. In Bancroft's eyes these were absurd pretensions. 
 Yet the people and many of the clergy were much impressed. 
 There was danger ahead, so the Bishop thought. A vigorous 
 campaign was necessary. But the campaign was political 
 and ecclesiastical, not humanitarian. Its aim was not to 
 save witches, but to crush exorcists. '^ 
 
 Here is a significant bit of evidence on this point. In 
 1602 Mary Glover, the daughter of a merchant in Thames 
 Street, had weird seizures, which she attributed to the malign 
 spells of Elizabeth Jackson. The neighbors were eager to 
 prosecute, but a physician informed Chief Justice Anderson 
 that "the maid did counterfeit." Anderson directed Sir 
 John Croke (Recorder of London) to summon the girl to 
 his chamber in the Temple and test the matter. Croke 
 
 88 " Phantastical giddy-headed Puritans " Archbishop Matthew Hutton of York 
 calls them in a letter to Whitgift, Oct. 1, 1603 (Strype's Life of Whitgift, 1718, p. 
 570). 
 
 8' The exorcisms of the Jesuit Edmunds (aUas Weston) and his associates in 
 1585 and 1586 were similarly attacked by Bancroft and Harsnet. See Harsnet's 
 famous diatribe, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, 1603 (2d edition, 
 1605) . The Roman Catholics were no more convinced in this case than the Puritans 
 were in that of Darrel (see the references to Yepez and others in Mr. T. G. Law's 
 article on Devil-Hunting in Elizabethan England, in the Nineteenth Century for 
 March, 1894, 35. 397 ff.). On Sir George Peckham, who was involved in this affair, 
 see Merrimam, American Historical Review, 17, 492 ff. Compare Sir George 
 Courthop on the Nuns of Loudun (Memoirs, Camden Miscellany, 11. 106-109) ; 
 see also Evelyn's Diary, August 5, 1670. 
 
 Darrel's opponents did their best to stigmatize his principles and practices with 
 regard to demoniacal possession as identical with those of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. Thus Deacon and Walker, speaking of Darrel, inform their readers that 
 "he hath for a season (though feare and shame enforceth him now to pluck in his 
 head) very prowdlie ietted from countrie to covmtrie like a pettie new Pope among 
 his owne Cardinals; yea and that also in his pantificalities, portrayed and con- 
 triued after the new-found popelike cut" (Summarie Answere, 1601, Address to the 
 Reader). 
 
30 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 did so in 1603, having both the maid and the witch present, 
 with divers neighbors and certain ministers. He was con- 
 vinced, by various drastic tests, that there was no imposture, 
 and committed Mother Jackson to Newgate. At the Re- 
 corder's instance, several ministers undertook to reheve the 
 girl by fasting and prayer. They were completely successful . 
 One of them, Lewis Hughes, was despatched to Bishop Ban- 
 croft with the tidings. He was not well received. "I . . . 
 could have no audience," he writes, "and for my paines I was 
 called Rascall and varlot, and sent to the Gatehouse, where 
 hee kept me foure moneths." '" But Mother Jackson was 
 arraigned and convicted in due course. Bancroft, we ob- 
 serve, was certain that this was not demoniacal possession, 
 and he imprisoned the exorciser. But he made no effort, 
 so far as we can learn, to rescue the witch. He left her to 
 the courts with a good conscience. 
 
 This episode fell just after the so-called exposure of Darrel. 
 The date makes it instructive. The Recorder, we note, was 
 still a believer in possession, despite the arguments of Ban- 
 croft's literary bureau, and so were many (perhaps most) of 
 the clergy. Indeed, we must not too hastily assume that 
 all the bishops even were ready to subscribe to Bancroft's 
 extreme tenets. Take the case of Thomas Harrison, the 
 Boy of North wich, in Cheshire. His fits began in 1600 or 
 1601 and lasted a year or two. He was kept for ten days in 
 the Bishop of Chester's palace and carefully watched, but 
 no fraud was detected. The Bishop (Richard Vaughan) 
 and three other commissioners issued an order that, "for 
 [his] ease and deliverance" from "his grievous afflictions," 
 public prayers should be oflfered for him in the parish church 
 "before the congregation so oft as the same assembleth." 
 They delegated seven clergymen to visit him by turns, and 
 "to use their discretions by private prayer and fasting, for 
 the ease and comfort of the afflicted." Some held, this 
 
 '" Certaine Grievances, 164.1, p. 20. See George Sinclair, Satan's Invisible World 
 Discovered, 1685, Relation XII (reprint, 1871, pp. 95-100; cf. Ferguson, Publi- 
 cations of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 3. 56-57) ; Commission on His- 
 torical MSS., 8th Report, Appendix, Part i., p. 228. An account of the affair, by 
 George Swan, was published in 1603, under the title, A True and Brief Report, etc. 
 On Lewis Hughes see Kittredge, George Stirk, Minister (reprinted from the Publi- 
 cations of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts), 1910, pp. 18-21. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN EITTREDGE 31 
 
 document informs us, "that the child [was] really possessed 
 of an uncleane spirit." This Bishop Vaughan and the other 
 commissioners doubted. But they did not think he was 
 shamming. They had "scene the fcodily affliction of the 
 said child," and observed in sundry fits very strange efifects 
 and operations, they tell us, "either proceeding of natural vn- 
 knowne causes, or of some diabolical practise." " And Har- 
 vey, one of the clergymen appointed by the Bishop to fast 
 and pray, wrote to a friend that nothing like the "passions 
 [i.e. sufferings], behavior, and speeches" of the boy had "ever 
 come under his observation or occurred in his reading." 
 "Few that have seene the variety of his fits, but they thinke 
 the divell hath the disposing of his body. Myselfe have 
 divers times seene him, and such things in him as are im- 
 possible to proceed from any humane creature. The matter 
 hath affected our whole country. The Divines with us 
 generally hold, that the child is really possessed." ^^ A con- 
 temporary memorandum assures us that once, when the 
 Bishop was praying with him, "the Boy was so outragious, 
 that he flew out of his bed, and so frighted the Bishops men, 
 that one of them fell into a sown, and the Bishop was glad 
 to lay hold on the boy, who ramped at the Window to have 
 gotten out." ^' 
 
 Joseph Hall, afterwards Bishop of Exeter (1627) and of 
 Norwich (1641), in disputing with a Belgian priest in 1605, 
 asserted roundly that "in our church, we had manifest proofs 
 of the ejection of devils by fasting and prayer." '^ Hall 
 was a firm believer in witchcraft and approved of the statute 
 of 1604.^5 
 
 " Darrel, Replie, 1602, p. 21. « Darrel, pp. 21-22. 
 
 ^ John Bruen's memoranda, in William Hinde's Life of John Bruen (born 1560, 
 died 1625), in Samuel Clarke, Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Part ii., Book ii., 
 1675, p. 95. Bruen (who was a Cheshire man) was an eyewitness of the boy's 
 fits, and his notes, as excerpted by Hinde, give a good idea of his ravings (pp. 94- 
 96). The boy cried out against "the witch," but I do not find that anybody was 
 brought to trial. 
 
 ^' Autobiography, Works, ed. Hall (1837), 1. xxi. Hall may have had in mind 
 the case reported by Bishop Parkhurst in a letter to Bullinger, June 29, 1574 
 (Zurich Letters, ed. Hastings Robinson, 1842, No. 118, translation, p. 118, original, 
 p. 178). 
 
 '5 Works, 6. 136-137; 7. 245-246; Contemplations. Works, ed. 1628, pp. 1134- 
 1135. 
 
32 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 And now we will go back a few years in order to see what 
 the bishops and the judges thought, and how they acted, 
 when a case combining demoniacal possession with witch- 
 craft was not complicated by Puritan or Roman Catholic 
 exorcism. Let us examine, as briefly as may be, the cele- 
 brated case of the Witches of Warboys. The story has been 
 told again and again, but its actual bearing on the history of 
 English witch prosecution has never been pointed out. 
 The Warboys case lasted from 1589, when the fits of the 
 afflicted persons began, until 1593, when the witches were 
 hanged. 
 
 Robert Throckmorton, Esquire, was a Huntingdonshire 
 gentleman of excellent family and connections. He was 
 of Ellington, but had removed to Warboys shortly before 
 our story begins. Both these places are near the county 
 town, and therefore not far from Cambridge. The disturb- 
 ance began in November, 1589, when Jane, Mr. Throck- 
 morton's daughter, a girl of about ten years, was attacked 
 with violent hysteria. In her fits, she called out against 
 Mother Samuel, an aged neighbor. Two first-rate physi- 
 cians of Cambridge were consulted. Dr. Barrow (a friend of 
 Mr. Throckmorton's) and Master Butler. The latter was, 
 I suppose, Wifliam Butler (1535-1618) of Clare Hall, of 
 whom Aubrey tells several amusing anecdotes. Aubrey 
 informs us that he "never tooke the degree of Doctor, though 
 he was the greatest physician of his time." '* Both Barrow 
 and Butler were baffled, and Barrow ascribed the fits to 
 witchcraft, remarking that he himself "had some experience 
 of the mallice of some witches." ^^ This speech is worth 
 noting, for it throws light on the state of mind of university 
 men. Within two months. Mistress Jane's four sisters — 
 ranging in age from nine to fifteen years — were similarly 
 attacked, and they all cried out against Mother Samuel. 
 This aflliction lasted until April, 1593, or about three years 
 and a half. In the interval six or seven womenservants 
 (for the Throckmorton menage was of course somewhat 
 unstable) suffered from just such fits, — - and also the wife 
 of one of the girls' maternal uncles, Mr. John Pickering of 
 
 »« Brief Lives, ed. Clark, 1. 138. 
 
 " The Witches of Warboys, 1593, sig. B2 r°. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 33 
 
 Ellington. Mother Samuel was believed to be the cause of 
 it all. Yet the children's parents acted with exemplary 
 caution. They had no wish to prosecute Mother Samuel, 
 but treated her kindly and gave their attention to caring 
 for the girls and urging her to confess. Her confession and 
 repentance, it was hoped, would put an end to the fits. 
 
 About Christmas, 1592, Mother Samuel admitted her 
 guilt. Even then there was no immediate thought of bring- 
 ing her to justice. She was in great distress of mind, and 
 both Mr. Throckmorton and Dr. Dorington, the parson of 
 Warboys, exerted themselves to give her Christian conso- 
 lation as a repentant sinner. However, she almost imme- 
 diately retracted, whereupon Mr. Throckmorton, losing 
 patience at last, took her before the Bishop of Lincoln (Will- 
 iam Chaderton) and certain justices. She again made ad- 
 mission of guilt. Soon after the girls fell into their fits 
 afresh, and they now accused the old woman of the death 
 of Lady Cromwell, the second wife of Sir Henry Cromwell 
 of Hinchinbrook, the great landowner of those parts, known 
 for his splendor as the Golden Knight. 
 
 The Cromwells and the Throckmortons were friends, and, 
 in September, 1590, Lady Cromwell, being then at Ramsey, 
 only two miles from Warboys, had made a call of sympathy 
 on the family. Mother Samuel, who lived next door, had 
 been summoned. The Samuels were Sir Henry's tenants, 
 and the lady spoke roughly to the old woman, accusing her 
 of witchcraft, and snatched off her cap and clipped off a 
 lock of her hair. This she told Mistress Throckmorton to 
 burn. Mother Samuel uttered some words which, when 
 later remembered, passed for the damnum minatum. That 
 night Lady Cromwell was strangely attacked, and she died 
 after an illness of a year and a quarter, — that is, about the 
 beginning of 1592. Nobody appears to have connected 
 Mother Samuel with her death until, in 1593, the afflicted 
 girls charged her with it in their ravings. They extended 
 the accusation to John Samuel, her husband, and Agnes, 
 her daughter. All three were tried at Huntingdon before 
 Justice Fenner on April 5th, 1593. Mother Samuel confessed, 
 and, with her husband and daughter, was hanged, according 
 to the Elizabethan statute. There was no doubt of their 
 
34 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMBS THE FIRST 
 
 guilt in anybody's mind. Mother Samuel herself thought 
 the girls bewitched, and old Samuel was finally convinced 
 that his wife was guilty. 
 
 Several causes combined to make this the most momentous 
 witch-trial that had ever occurred in England. The long 
 continuance of the phenomena and the station of the victims 
 were alone sufficient to give the affair wide currency. The 
 family was connected with many persons of importance. 
 Mr. Robert Throckmorton was related to the Warwickshire 
 and the Gloucestershire Throckmortons. One of his first 
 cousins, also named Robert, lived at Brampton, Northants, 
 close by, and often witnessed the girls' fits. The girls' 
 maternal uncle, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Gilbert Pickering of 
 Tichmarsh, and his brothers, John and Henry, were deeply 
 interested, and gave evidence at the assizes. So did Dr. 
 Francis Dorington, the Warboys rector, who was the hus- 
 band of Mr. Throckmorton's sister. Robert Poulter, vicar 
 of Brampton, another witness, was also connected with the 
 family.^* Francis Cromwell, Sir Henry's brother, was one 
 of the justices to whom Mother Samuel confessed. The 
 Cromwells were among the best-known commoners in the 
 kingdom. Dr. Dorington's brother John, a Londoner, 
 visited the children in their attacks, and of course he talked 
 of the affair in the capital. 
 
 The connections with Cambridge were also very intimate. 
 The physicians consulted by Mr. Throckmorton, as we have 
 noticed, lived there, and they were both university men. 
 Dr. Francis Dorington, the parson of Warboys, who had 
 married Mr. Throckmorton's sister, and Thomas Nutt, the 
 vicar of Ellington, were also Cambridge graduates.^' Both 
 were deeply interested in the case, and gave evidence at the 
 trial. Henry Pickering, one of the children's maternal 
 
 " See the Throckmorton pedigree (drawn up by Robert Throckmorton himself 
 in 1613) in Charles's Visitation of the County of Huntingdon, ed. Ellis, Camden 
 Society, 1849, pp. 123-124, and the Pulter pedigree, in the same, p. 101. Cf. 
 the Pickering pedigree in Bridges, Northamptonshire, 2. 383-385. 
 
 ™ Dorington was A.B. 1555, Fellow of St. Catherine's College 1558, A.M. 1559, 
 S. T. B. Queen's College 1565, S.T.P. 1575. Nutt matriculated at Peterhouse 
 1568; he was A.B. 1573, A.M. 1577. For this information, as well as the imi- 
 versity record of Henry and Thomas Pickering (the editor of Perkins's Discourse), 
 I am indebted to the kindness of the Registrary, Dr. J. N. Keynes, and the good 
 offices of Professor Skeat. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 35 
 
 uncles, was at Christ's College when the fits began.^"" He 
 not only visited the Throckmortons in 1590, "being then 
 a Scholler of Cambridge," and stayed there three or four 
 days, but he took two other scholars of his acquaintance to 
 see the witch, and we have a pretty full account of the inter- 
 view. Mr. Pickering was fully persuaded that Goody 
 Samuel was a witch. Being somewhat moved, he told her 
 that "there was no way to preuent the iudgements of God, 
 but by her confession and repentance : which if she did not 
 in time, he hoped one day to see her burned at a stake, and 
 he himselfe would bring fire and wood, and the children should 
 blowe the coales." "^ This Mr. Henry Pickering became, 
 in 1597, rector of Aldwincle All Saints, in Northamptonshire. 
 His daughter Mary married Erasmus Dryden (son of Sir 
 Erasmus), and became the mother of the illustrious poet, 
 who was born at the parsonage house of Aldwincle All Saints 
 in 1631.1°^ Thus it appears that the five tormented Throck- 
 morton girls were first cousins of the poet's mother, and that 
 Mrs. Throckmorton was his great-aunt. We note that 
 William Perkins, whose treatise on witchcraft we have exam- 
 ined, was a fellow of Christ's College during most of the time 
 when these fits were going on. It is curious, too, that the 
 publisher of Perkins's posthumous treatise (another Cam- 
 bridge man) was Thomas Pickering,^"^ doubtless a relative, 
 though we cannot be certain of that. Both Sir Henry Crom- 
 well and his son Oliver had been at the university. 
 
 The Warboys case, then, demonstrably produced a deep 
 
 '"'' Henry Pickering was a younger son of Sir Gilbert Pickering, Knight, of 
 Tichmarsh, Northamptonshire. He matriculated at Christ's College, as a Pensioner, 
 March 16. 1582-3, was A.B. 1586, A.M. 1590, and incorporated at Oxford 1593 
 (see note 99, above). 
 
 "1 Witches of Warboys, sig. E3. 
 
 "" The year when Pickering became rector of Aldwincle All Saints, and the 
 date of his death (1637, aged 75), were first correctly given (from his tombstone) 
 by Mr. W. D. Christie in the Globe Edition of Dryden's Poetical Works, 1870, p. 
 xvi., note f. 
 
 ''" Thomas Pickering was admitted at Emmanuel College as a Pensioner in 1589. 
 He was A.B. 1592, A.M. and Fellow 1596, B.D. 1603. He became Vicar of Finch- 
 ingfield, Essex, March 9, 1605-6, and died there in 1625. For these facts I am 
 indebted to the Registrary of the University, Dr. J. N. Keynes, and to Mr. J. B. 
 Peace, Bursar of Emmanuel. His marriage license was issued May 4, 1611; 
 his will was proved 1627, and administration was granted March 13, 1625-6 
 (Transactions of the Essex Archseological Society, New Series, 6. 299). 
 
36 ENGLISH WITCHCRATT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 and lasting impression on the class that made laws. The 
 gentlemen concerned were not ignorant country squires in 
 the remote districts; they were intelligent, well-educated 
 men, in close contact with one of the universities and with 
 the capital. 
 
 Nor was the impression allowed to die out. It was per- 
 petuated in two ways — by a remarkable book and by a 
 permanent foundation. The presiding judge, Edward Ten- 
 ner, was so much struck by what he had seen and heard (for 
 the children had their fits in his presence) that he joined 
 with others to further the publication of a narrative, — The 
 Most Strange and Admirable Discoverie of the Three Witches 
 of Warboys, — which was printed in London in 1593. Full 
 notes had been kept from the outset (as befitted the intelli- 
 gence and education of the families concerned) and these 
 were used by the author. This is no mere catchpenny tract. 
 It is a careful and temperate report of the girls' malady from 
 first to last. Nothing comparable to it, considered as a 
 report on a long-continued case of epidemic hysteria, had 
 ever appeared in England. The details, at which modern 
 writers on witchcraft are wont to jeer, are no more ridiculous 
 than the details in recent and esteemed treatises on la grande 
 hysUrie, or on multiple personality. That it kept the War- 
 boys case alive long after the accession of James I. is certain, 
 for Dr. John Cotta, in 1616 and again in 1624, refers to the 
 "Treatise of the Witches of Warbozys" as authoritative.'"* 
 He had no doubt whatever that the Throckmorton girls were 
 bewitched."* 
 
 Finally, Sir Henry Cromwell took effectual measures for 
 
 1" Triall of Witch-craft, 1616, p. 77. 
 
 1°' Samuel Harsnet, when in full cry after Darrel, did not venture to attack the 
 Warboys case directly. True, he refers slightingly to the printed narrative as a 
 "silly book," but in the same breath he suggests that one of Barrel's patients had 
 taken a leaf out of it. And Darrel, in replying, taunts Harsnet with not daring to 
 assail the case openly. That Mr. Throckmorton's children, says Darrel, "were 
 tormented by the diuell, even 5. of his daughters, it is notoriously knowne, and 
 so generally receaued for truth, as the Dis[coverer]. himselfe [i.e. Harsnet] dareth not 
 deny it, though fayne he would, as appeareth by his nibling at them" (Detection 
 of Harshnet, 1600, p. 39; cf. pp. 20-22, 36, 40). And again, he does not hesitate 
 to declare that Harsnet refrained from accusing the Throckmorton girls of counter- 
 feiting because he did not dare: "He thought it best and meet for his safety 
 becaus they were the children of an Esquire, not to say so in plaine tearmes" (p. 21) . 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 37 
 
 perpetuating the impression made by the long-continued 
 phenomena, the trial, and the book. Certain goods and 
 chattels of the executed felons were forfeited to him as lord 
 of the manor. He disdained to keep tj;ie money and wished 
 to devote it to public uses. Hence he established an annual 
 sermon at Huntingdon, to be delivered by a fellow of his own 
 college. Queen's of Cambridge. The appointee was to 
 "preache and invaye against the detestable practice, synne, 
 and offence of witchcraft, inchantment, charm, and sorcereye." 
 The sermon was maintained imtil 1812, but toward the end 
 its burden was turned to the explosion of the old belief.^"^ 
 
 And now, when we come to apply what we have observed 
 of the state of educated public opinion and to estimate its 
 presumable effect on the legislators of 1604, who passed the 
 revised statute, we are struck with a fact which all investi- 
 gators have overlooked or ignored. Two gentlemen were 
 sitting in the House of Commons who had the strongest personal 
 interest in the Warhoys case. The Samuels had been hanged, 
 not for tormenting the Throckmorton girls, ^"^ but for be- 
 witching Lady Cromwell to death. As we run our eye down 
 the list of Members of Parliament, it is arrested by two 
 names, — Sir Oliver Cromwell and Henry Cromwell, — one 
 the member for the County of Huntingdon, the other for 
 the borough. These were sons of that Sir Henry whose wife 
 had died (as all believed) from Mother Samuel's arts, and 
 who had founded a sermon in perpetual memory of the 
 murder. 
 
 Both Sir Oliver and Henry Cromwell might therefore be 
 presumed to have an effective knowledge of the case. But 
 we are not left to conjecture. Their uncle, Francis Crom- 
 well, was one of the justices to whom Goody Samuel con- 
 fessed.^"* Mr. Henry Cromwell himself had visited the 
 Throckmorton house with one of Sir Henry's men and had 
 observed two of the girls in their fits.^"^ This was in 1593, 
 shortly before the actual trial, and after the girls had begun 
 to accuse the Samuels of Lady Cromwell's murder. As for 
 
 "« J. H. Gray, Queen's College, 1899, pp. 128-129. 
 
 '"'That offence, under the Elizabethan statute, was punishable only by im- 
 prisonment and the pillory, for none of the girls had died. 
 
 "8 Sig. I r"; cf. sig. P 2 v°. "» Sig. N3. 
 
38 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 Sir Oliver, his wife had accompanied her mother-in-law on 
 the fatal visit to the Throckmortons, and had been present 
 at her interview with Goody Samuel. That night, Lady 
 Cromwell was "strangly tormented in her sleep, by a cat 
 (as she imagined) which mother Samuel had sent vnto her." 
 Mistress Oliver Cromwell was sleeping in the same bed 
 (her husband being from home), and was awakened by the 
 "strugling and striuing of the Lady . . . and mournfuU 
 noise, which shee made speaking to the cat, and to mother 
 Samuel." Mistress Oliver roused her mother-in-law, who 
 told her all about her dream. Lady Cromwell had no more 
 sleep that night, and soon after sickened, as already told.'^" 
 We may be sure that when Mr. Oliver Cromwell returned, he 
 was put in full possession of both ladies' experiences. Surely 
 neither Sir Oliver Cromwell nor his brother stood in need of 
 instruction in the witch dogma from James I., or required 
 any royal influence to persuade them to vote for the statute 
 of 1604. 
 
 It is worth while to follow the clue a little farther, and to 
 glance at the parliamentary history of the statute. Most 
 writers have been quite innocent of any knowledge that it 
 even had such a history. Yet there it stands in the Lords' 
 and Commons' Journals, and an instructive history it is. 
 
 The bill originated in the House of Lords. The first read- 
 ing took place on March 27, 1604. On the 29th it was read 
 a second time and referred to a committee consisting of six 
 earls, sixteen other peers, and twelve bishops. The com- 
 mittee was to have the most expert advice conceivable, and 
 to that end an imposing array of legal talent, learning, 
 and experience was requested "to attend the Lords" in 
 their deliberations. Here is the list : the Chief Justice of 
 Common Pleas (Anderson), the Chief Baron of the Ex- 
 chequer (Sir William Peryam), two justices of the King's 
 Bench (Sir Christopher Yelverton and David Williams), 
 Serjeant Croke, the Attorney-General (Coke), and Sir John 
 Tindall, a distinguished ecclesiastical lawyer. Nor was all 
 this a mere flourish. The committee and its eminent coun- 
 sel took their duties seriously. They rejected the draft that 
 
 ii» Sig. E 3 r". 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 39 
 
 had been referred to them, and, on the 2d of April, the com- 
 mittee reported a new bill, "framed by the committee." 
 This was brought into the Lords by the Earl of Northumber- 
 land. It received certain amendments, and, on May 8th, 
 after the third reading, was passed and sent to the House of 
 Commons. Here, too, there was careful deliberation. On 
 May 11th the bill had its first reading ; and on the 26th it was 
 read a second time and referred to a committee of seventeen, 
 including the Recorder of London and two serjeants-at-law 
 (Hobart and Shirley), which was directed to meet on the 
 first of June in the Middle Temple Hall. On the 5th, Sir 
 Thomas Ridgeway, for the committee, reported the bill 
 "with alterations and amendments." On June 7th it came 
 up for the third reading, was passed as amended, and on 
 the 9th was sent up to the Lords."^ 
 
 This bare statement of recorded facts disposes of the myth 
 that King James was the author or the father of the statute 
 which has so long been associated with his name and fame. 
 Whether the measure was good or bad, — whether its re- 
 sults were great or small, — the Lords and Commons of 
 England, and not the king, must shoulder the responsi- 
 bility."^ And it is in complete accord with what we should 
 expect from the caution with which both houses proceeded 
 and the care which their committees took, that the statute, 
 when finally it left the hands of Parliament, was not really 
 a new law at all, but simply a modification and extension 
 of the statute of Elizabeth. 
 
 Two names on the Lords' Committee catch the eye imme- 
 diately, — the Earl of Derby and the Bishop of Lincoln. 
 Ten years before, in 1594, a short time after the witches of 
 Warboys were hanged, Ferdinando, fifth Earl of Derby, had 
 died at Latham after a ten days' illness. The physicians 
 (he had four) ascribed his disease to a surfeit combined with 
 
 1" Lords' Journals, 1. 267, 269, 271, 272, 293, 294, 316; Commons' Journals, 
 1. 204, 207, 227, 232, 234, 236. 
 
 ™ The object ot the law was not to multiply culprits, but to deter men from com- 
 mitting the crime. The idea that very great severity defeats its object did not then 
 obtain among penologists. Take an example ot the temper of intelUgent men in 
 this regard. In May, 1604, William Clopton writes to Timothy Hutton : — " There 
 is an act passed to take away the clergie from stealers of sheep and oxen, which will 
 do much good" (Hutton Correspondence, Surtees Society, 1843, p. 195). 
 
40 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 over-exertion. But there were grave suspicions of sorcery. 
 The earl had dreamed strange dreams; he had been 
 "crossed" by an apparition "with a gastly and threatning 
 countenance." An image of wax was discovered in his 
 bedroom. "A homely Woman, about the age of fifty yeeres, 
 was found mumbling in a corner of his honours Chamber, 
 but what God knoweth." Three other suspected witches 
 appear in the case at divers times and in sundry manners. 
 The earl himself "cryed out that the Doctors laboured in 
 vaine, because hee was certainely bewitched." In the end, 
 the opinion seems to have prevailed that he died from natural 
 causes."' But it would be extraordinary if all the circum- 
 stances had not made a profound impression on his younger 
 brother, who succeeded him, and this is the Earl of Derby 
 whom we have noted in the Lords' Committee on the bill. 
 Another person who must also have been deeply affected 
 by these strange happenings was the Bishop of Chester, 
 who attended the dying man. This was Dr. William Chader- 
 ton, who was translated to Lincoln in 1594, and he, too, sat in 
 the Lords' Committee. 
 
 Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who reported the 
 second draft from the committee, was a famous student of 
 the occult sciences and was popularly known as "the Wizard 
 Earl." Like Dr. Dee, he believed that his own investiga- 
 tions were free from the taint of diabolism, but, like Dee, 
 he must also have felt convinced that there were others who 
 did traffic with the infernal powers, and that such persons 
 deserved punishment. 
 
 Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, another member of 
 the Lords' Committee, had the reputation of being the most 
 learned of the peers. He was a firm believer in the actuality 
 of communication between mortals and wicked spirits. 
 In his erudite Defensative against the Poyson of Supposed 
 Prophecies, written in 1582 and 1583, he declared that one 
 of the means "whereby the contagion of vnlawfuU Prophesies 
 is conueyed into the mindes of mortall men, is conference 
 with damned Spirits or Familiars, as commonly we call 
 them." "^ And he unhesitatingly ascribed the clairvoyance 
 
 "' Stow, Chronicle, ed. Howe, 1631, pp. 767-768. "< Ed. 1620, p. 81. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 41 
 
 of cunning men and women to such revelations, — taking 
 as an example their disclosure of the thief in a case of cutting 
 a purse."^ 
 
 Let us turn to the Commons' Committee. Here we find 
 several interesting names. Sir Roger Aston had been Eng- 
 lish resident in Scotland. This may be held to be a two- 
 edged argument, but we do not need it, for there are plenty 
 more. Two of the most notoriously witch-haunted counties 
 in England were Lancaster and Essex. Now, Lancashire 
 was represented on the committee by Sir Richard Moly- 
 neux of Sefton. As for Essex, not only was the county mem- 
 ber. Sir Francis Barrington, on the committee, but also Sir 
 Robert Wroth, who lived principally at Loughton Hall, in 
 Essex. He was a man of forty-odd when Brian Darcey's 
 great St. Osyth cases were tried and ten witches were hanged 
 at Chelmsford in that county. Other executions at Chelms- 
 ford took place in 1579 "* and 1589."^ Giffard, we remem- 
 ber, was an Essex preacher, and his Dialogue, published in 
 1593 and reissued in 1603, had urged the sharpening of the 
 statute in the precise direction which this parliament took. 
 Wroth had large possessions in Middlesex and sat for that 
 county."* Now of the twenty-nine years from 1573 to 
 1601 there were witch-records for thirteen. Serjeant Ho- 
 
 "» P. 85. Bishop Bancroft and the Earl of Shrewsbury were on the Lords' Commit- 
 tee. The bishop had been the leading spirit in the prosecution of Darrel, and the earl 
 had been present at the trial. But this is no reason why they should have opposed 
 the statute. As we have seen, Bancroft was a prosecutor of exorcists, not a pro- 
 tector of alleged witches. In the Synod called by James (which sat concurrently 
 with ParUament, and broke up on July 9, 1604, two days after Parliament rose) 
 a canon (written by Bancroft) was adopted, forbidding clergymen, without proper 
 license, "to attempt upon any pretence whatsoever, eyther of Possession or 
 Obsession, by fasting, and prayers to cast out any Devill or Devills" (Canon 72, 
 Constitutions and Canons of the Synod of 1603, ed. 1633; cf. J. W. Joyce, Eng- 
 land's Sacred Synods, 1853, pp. 620 ff. ; Cardwell, Synodalia, 2. 583 ff.). This 
 canon was in no wise inconsistent with the statute, nor can it have been so regarded 
 by the twelve bishops who sat on the Lords' Committee. At all events, James I. 
 showed himself quite as skeptical as Bancroft in cases of alleged possession (see 
 pp. 47 fif., below). 
 
 "« Collier, 2 Notes and Queries, 12. 301 ; Arber, Stationers' Register, 2. 352, 
 358. 
 
 "' Arber, 2. 525 ; cf. Collier, as above, p. 301. 
 
 "' On the Wroth family see a series of papers by Mr. W. C. Waller in the Trans- 
 actions of the Essex Archfeological Society, New Series, 8. 145 ff., 345 ff. ; 9. 1 ff. 
 On Sir Robert Wroth (1540-1606) see especially 8. 150 ff. His son Robert (1576- 
 1614, knighted in 1603) was one of Ben Jonson's patrons (see 8. 156 B.). 
 
42 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 bart (later Sir Henry) was likewise a committeeman. What 
 he thought of witchcraft we may infer from his conduct when 
 Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer at the trial of Margaret 
 and Philip (i.e. Philippa) Flower, who were executed in 
 1619 for bewitching to death two sons of the Earl of Rut- 
 land."* Nobody will suggest that he learned his creed from 
 James I. If any should be so absurd, we may balance him 
 by Sir Humphrey Winch, also an M.P., though not on the 
 committee, who, in 1619, incurred the wrath of the king by 
 condemning nine witches to death in a case which James 
 himself shortly after exposed as an imposture. We shall 
 return to this in a moment.^^" There was a Mr. Throck- 
 morton on the committee. This was John Throckmorton, 
 M.P. for Gloucestershire. The Throckmortons of that coun- 
 ty were related to those of Huntingdonshire. It is likely 
 that Mr. John had felt some share of the universal interest 
 roused by the experiences of his distant kinswomen of War- 
 boys. The Recorder of London also sat on the Commons' 
 Committee. This was Henry Montagu, '^^ afterwards Chief 
 Justice of the King's Bench (1616) and Earl of Manchester 
 (1626). He was of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he 
 had been a younger contemporary of William Perkins, whose 
 strong advocacy of more stringent laws against witchcraft 
 we have already noted. Later, he was a patron of Thomas 
 Cooper, whose book about witchcraft we have examined. ^^^ 
 James Montagu, who preached Perkins's funeral sermon, 
 was his younger brother.^^^ Their father. Sir Edward Mon- 
 tagu, was likewise on the Commons' Committee. Can there 
 be any doubt of the opinions of this family on the subject 
 of witchcraft ? Must we look to James I. as the source of 
 their views ? Finally, we note with peculiar interest that 
 the bill was reported, with amendments, from the committee 
 to the House by Sir Thomas Ridgeway, of Devon, before 
 whom, in 1601 and 1602, were taken an extraordinary series 
 
 "9 See pp. 59-60, below. "» See pp. 57-59, below. 
 
 ™ He became Recorder in 1603 (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1603- 
 1610, pp. 10, 14 ; cf . Foss, Judges of England, 6. 167 ff. ; Peile, Biographical Regis- 
 ter of Christ's College, 1910, 1. 173). 
 
 ■^ Life of Cooper in Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 ™ See p. 21, above. Cf. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1910, 
 1. 181. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 43 
 
 of examinations accusing the Trevisard family of witch- 
 craft.i^" 
 
 It is time to study the advisory board of legal experts 
 who were attached to the Lords' Committee on this most 
 earnestly debated bill. Three of these attract our particular 
 attention, Chief Justice Anderson, Serjeant Croke, and Coke, 
 then Attorney-General. 
 
 Sir Edmund Anderson had been chief justice for twenty- 
 two years. He knew all about the workings of the Eliza- 
 bethan statute. At first sight one might think him opposed 
 to witch prosecution, for he had taken a leading part in 
 "exposing" Barrel, and he had a lively sense of the danger 
 of popular excitement to the innocent in such matters. But 
 a moment's thought will set us right. Perkins and Giffard 
 and Dr. Cotta — nay, James himself, as we shall see pres- 
 ently ^^^ — thought that judges ought to be very careful 
 to sift the evidence and protect the innocent, but none of 
 them doubted that a witch whose guilt was proved ought to 
 be condemned. So the majority of civilized men to-day 
 believe in the wisdom and righteousness of the death pen- 
 alty for a certain grade of crime, but all are agreed that care 
 should be taken to clear the innocent. An instructive ex- 
 ample of the distinction that we must make may be seen in 
 the person of Sir Edward Bromley. At the same assizes, 
 in 1612, Bromley presided over two sets of witch-trials, those 
 of the Pendle witches and those of the witches of Salmes- 
 bury. In the Pendle cases, he could not doubt the evidence, 
 and he condemned ten to death with complete assurance that 
 he was doing right. Cotta, himself, in 1616, speaks of the 
 evidence in these cases with regard to sorcery by means of 
 "pictures of waxe " as "proued " by "testimonies beyond 
 exception." ^^* In the Salmesbury cases, on the contrary, 
 Bromley saw reason to suspect the veracity of the chief wit- 
 ness for the prosecution, and followed up the clue so well that 
 the defendants were acquitted.^" Students of demonology 
 will not forget that modern writers have seen fit to gird at 
 Bromley, not only for his supposed cruelty and superstition 
 
 ^ See p. 17, above. '^^ See pp. 48, 53, 58, 63-64, below. 
 
 126 TriaU of Witch-craft, p. 90. 
 
 >2' Potts, Wonderfull Discoverie, 1613, sigs. K3-N2. 
 
44 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 in condemning the witches of Pendle, but also — strange to 
 say — - for the ground on which he first entertained the sus- 
 picion that led to the acquittal of the other group. But it 
 is hard to satisfy modern writers on witchcraft, who insist on 
 censuring the sixteenth and seventeenth century on a basis 
 of modern rationalism. It is quite certain that if some of 
 those who now sit in judgment on the witch-prosecutors had 
 been witch-judges, no defendant would ever have escaped. 
 
 But we must return to Chief Justice Anderson, who, as 
 well as Sir John Croke, sat on the committee of advisers to 
 the Lords. Anderson and Croke had been associated, in 
 1603, in the affair of Mary Glover, which we have already 
 considered. This happened before the accession of James. 
 Croke appears therein as a devout believer in both demoni- 
 acal possession and witchcraft, and there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that Anderson was in any way dissatisfied with his pro- 
 ceedings.^^^ 
 
 Now for Coke, the Attorney General. There is a new 
 provision in the statute of 1604 (not found in the Elizabethan 
 law) imposing the death penalty on any one who shall "take 
 up any dead man, woman, or child out of his, her, or theire 
 grave, or any other place where the dead bodie resteth, or 
 the skin, bone, or any other parte of any dead person, to be 
 imployed or used in any manner of Witchcrafte, Sorcerie, 
 Charme, or Inchantment." Hutchinson ^^' conjectured that 
 this provision was due to King James, noting that such 
 ghoulish outrages were a part of the confession of Agnes 
 Sampson, one of the first Scottish witches examined in the 
 king's presence in 1590.^'" I am willing to add to this guess 
 whatever support may be derived from the fact that the 
 king, in his Dsemonologie, more than once adverts to the 
 witches' habit of "joynting," or dismembering, corpses. "^ 
 But, when all is said and done, this is a poor refuge, in view 
 of what now appears to be the history of the statute, es- 
 pecially when one remembers that the use of the dead for 
 purposes of sorcery dates, not from the confession of Agnes 
 
 12' See p. 29, above. i^' P. 179. 
 
 "" See Pitcaim, Criminal Trials, 1. 218, 233, 237, and especiaUy 239 (cf. 2. 478) ; 
 Newes from Scotland, Sig. B3. 
 ™ Ed. 1603, pp. 43, 58. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 45 
 
 Sampson, but from the "backward and abysm of time." The 
 lawmakers, cleric or lay, did not learn of this habit from King 
 James, unless they were so ignorant as never to have heard 
 of Lucan's Erichtho,"^ whom Marston actually brought upon 
 the stage at about this very time in a tragedy which contains 
 a speech, in description of the sorceress, that out-Lucans 
 Lucan.^^' But we need not appeal to the classics. Sir 
 Edward Kelley, far-famed as Dr. Dee's skryer in crystallo- 
 mancy, had already emulated Erichtho. Years before, 
 "vpon a certaine night, in the Parke of Walton in le Dale, 
 in the county of Lancaster, with one Paul Waring," he had 
 "inuocated some one of the infernall regiment, to know cer- 
 taine passages in the life, as also what might bee knowne 
 by the deuUs foresight, of the manner and time of the death 
 of a noble young Gentleman, as then in his wardship." 
 The black rites finished, Kelley learned of the gentleman's 
 servant about a poor man's corpse that had been buried in a 
 neighboring churchyard that very day. "Hee and the said 
 Waring intreated this foresaid seruant, to go with them to 
 the graue." The servant complied, "and withall did helpe 
 them to digge up the carcase of the poor caitiffe, whom by 
 their incantations, they made him (or rather some euill 
 spiritt through his Organs) to speake, who deliuered strange 
 predictions concerning the said Gentleman." All that we 
 know of the prodigious Kelley inclines us to credit him with 
 an attempt at necromancy on this occasion. Weever, who 
 told the tale in 1631, had it from the servant who was present, 
 as well as from the young gentleman to whom the servant 
 had revealed the aflFair.^^* It is safe to say that the crime 
 of violating graves was as common in England as in Scotland. 
 It surely was an offence quite as worthy of the gallows as 
 sheep-stealing, or theft above the value of twelvepence. And 
 it was natural enough to insert a clause to cover it in the 
 revised law. Now Coke was just the man to do this, for he 
 knew of a fourteenth-century case which showed that the law 
 
 ™ Pharsalia, vi., 507 ff. 
 
 ™ Sophonisba, act iv., scene 1, vv. 99-125 (Works, ed. BuUen, 2. 290-291). 
 
 ™ John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 1631, pp. 45-46. Cf. Reginald 
 Scot, bk. XV., chaps. 8, 17 (ed. 1584, pp. 401 ff., 423 ff.) ; Baines, History of Lan- 
 cashire, ed. Harland, 1. 199. 
 
46 ENGLISH WITCHCRATT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 was imperfect in this very point, and he reports the occur- 
 rence in his Institutes, in commenting on this provision in 
 the statute of 1604. 
 
 A man was taken in Southwark with a head and a face of a dead man, 
 and with a book of sorcery in his male, and was brought into the king's 
 bench before Sir John Knevett ''* then chief justice : but seeing no in- 
 dictment was against him, the clerks did swear him, that from thence- 
 forth he should not be a sorcerer, and was delivered out of prison, and the 
 head of the dead man and the book of sorcery were burnt at TuthiU at the 
 costs of the prisoner. So as the head and his book of sorcery had the same 
 punishment, that the sorcerer should have had by the ancient law, if he 
 had by his sorcery praied in aid of the devil.'^^ 
 
 Who was so likely as Coke to instruct the Lords' Com- 
 mittee as to the defect in the former statute in this regard .'' 
 At all events, his exposition of the statute of 1604 shows 
 how thoroughly he believed in witchcraft, and leaves no 
 doubt as to the general bearing of whatever advice he gave 
 the committee. Nor need we quote his celebrated charge 
 to the jury in Mrs. Turner's trial for the murder of Overbury, 
 as we might otherwise be tempted to do.^'^ Among the 
 magical exhibits at this trial was a parchment on which 
 "were written all the names of the holy Trinity; as also a 
 figure in which was written this word Corpus, and upon the 
 'parchment was fastned a little piece of the shin of a man." ^^^ 
 This was, it appears, a charm of Forman's. He certainly 
 did not import it from Scotland ! ^^' 
 
 I think we may now regard the following propositions as 
 proved: (1) The last twenty years of Elizabeth's reign 
 were a time of intense and continuous excitement in the mat- 
 ter of witchcraft, with repeated trials and a good many 
 executions. (2) The doctrine was not dying out when James 
 came to the throne. It was held with great tenacity, not 
 only by the masses, but by a vast majority of the educated 
 
 "^ Sir John Knyvet was appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1357 and 
 Lord Chancellor in 1372 (Campbell, Lord Chancellors, 1846, 1. 267-268). 
 
 ^^^ Coke's Institutes, Third Part, cap. 6. See Gentleman's Magazine, 1829, 
 Part ii., 99. 515. 
 
 1" Truth Brought to Light by Time, 1651, p. 140; Egerton Papers, Camden 
 Society, pp. 472-473. 
 
 188 Truth Brought to Light, p. 138. 
 
 ^'' As to Forman, see pp. 49-50, below. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 47 
 
 and influential, — nobility, country gentry, divines, judges, 
 and citizens. (3) The Elizabethan law was generally thought 
 to be imperfect, and there was strong pressure for new legis- 
 lation. (4) The statute of 1604 was carefully considered and 
 fully discussed. It was not a king's bill, nor was it rushed 
 through under royal whip and spur, or passed out of com- 
 plaisance to the new sovereign. There is no evidence that 
 the king took any particular interest in the act. It reflected 
 the conscientious opinions of both Houses of Parliament."" 
 (5) It followed the language of the Elizabethan statute at 
 almost every point, though somewhat more severe. (6) In 
 its practical working, however, in James's time, the statute 
 of 1604 was not appreciably severer than the Elizabethan 
 law. 
 
 But the case against James I. as a witch -hunter during 
 his English reign is not merely destitute of every kind of 
 evidence in its favor, — it has to meet an overwhelming 
 array of direct proof on the other side. And to this evidence 
 we must now pass. It is quite conclusive. 
 
 First, we will consider certain pardons that are matters 
 of record. The list is short — for there were few convictions 
 — but it is significant."^ On April 16, 1604, when the new 
 statute was still under deliberation, Christian, the wife of 
 Thomas Weech, of County Norfolk, received the royal par- 
 don for witchcraft."^ In 1608, Simon Reade was pardoned 
 for conjuration and invocation of unclean spirits. ^^' This 
 case is mentioned by Ben Jonson in The Alchemist (1610).^*^ 
 Reade was a medical practitioner and cunning man of South- 
 wark."5 One Toby Mathew of London had lost £37, 10 
 
 "" No doubt James approved of the statute. He certainly believed in witch- 
 craft and thought that proved witches ought to be put to death. In the Basilikon 
 Doron, addressed to Prince Henry, he mentions witchcraft among the "horrible 
 crymes that yee are bounde in Conscience neuer to forgiue" (1599, Roxburghe 
 Club reprint, p. 37 ; London edition of 1603, p. 31). But the question is not whether 
 he was a behever in the actuality of such offences, but whether he was a blind and 
 maniacal persecutor who misled the English nation, to its everlasting disgrace. 
 
 "' Cf. Inderwick, Side-Lights on the Stuarts, 2d. ed., p. 150. 
 
 "' Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 96. 
 
 '« Calendar, p. 406. 
 
 ™ Act i., scene 2. 
 
 '■" Reade stood suit with the College of Physicians in 1602 for practising without 
 a license and was cast, as Gifford remarks in his note on the passage in The Alche- 
 mist. In the pardon he is styled "in medicinis professor." 
 
48 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 shillings, by theft, and Reade invoked three devils — Hea- 
 welon, Faternon, and Cleveton — to learn the name of the 
 thief and recover the money. There were several seances, — 
 the first on November 8, 1606, the others before the 10th of 
 the following January."^ Apparently Mathew blabbed, 
 perhaps because the devils did not find his money for him. 
 No doubt Reade, when he saw that his trickery was to cost 
 him his life, confessed that the conjuration was pure hum- 
 bug, and so was pardoned. In 1610, Christian Weech re- 
 ceived a second pardon, this time for the murder of Mary 
 Freeston by witchcraft."' In 1611, William Bate, "in- 
 dicted twenty years since for practising of invocation of 
 spirits for finding treasure," was pardoned. ^^^ In Bate's 
 case the ground is expressly stated, — the evidence was 
 "found weak." Of course this was also the reason for royal 
 clemency in the other three cases. We have precisely the 
 same situation that confronts us in Jane Wenham's case, 
 in 1712, when the judge was dissatisfied with the verdict of 
 a credulous jury and saved the condemned prisoner in the 
 only way open to him, then as now, by procuring the royal 
 pardon. 
 
 The bearing of these records is unmistakable. They 
 prove both that James was no bigoted and undiscriminating 
 witch-finder and witch-prosecutor, and that the judges tried 
 to get at the truth in this crime as in others. Here, then, is 
 the place to quote a passage from Francis Osborne, with 
 whom King James was no favorite : "Vi'hat his judgment was 
 of Witchcraft, you may in part find by his Treatise on that 
 Subject, and Charge he gave the Judges, to be circumspect 
 in condemning those, committed by ignorant Justices, for 
 Diabolical Compacts. Nor had he concluded his advice in 
 a narrower Circle (as I have heard) than the denial of any 
 such Operations, but out of Reason of State : and to gratify 
 the Church, which hath in no Age, thought fit to explode out 
 of the Common Peoples Minds, an Apprehension of Witch- 
 craft." "^ The latter part of this dictum may pass for what 
 
 "' The pardon, giving these details, is printed in Rymer's Foedera, 2d edi- 
 tion, 16. 666-667. 
 
 1" Calendar, 1603-1610, p. 598. "« Calendar, 1611-1618, p. 29. 
 
 "8 Essay 1, Miscellaneous Works, 11th ed., 1722, 1. 25. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 49 
 
 it is worth. The whole passage is valuable for the light it 
 throws upon the king's reputation with his contemporaries. 
 They thought him skeptical rather than credulous. 
 
 There is a close relation between the general purport of Os- 
 borne's testimony and the attitude of James with regard to the 
 curative power of the royal touch."" His incredulity on this 
 point was manifested at the very beginning of his reign. 
 "The King," wrote Scaramelli to the Doge of Venice, in 1603, 
 shortly before the coronation, "says that neither he nor any 
 other King can have power to heal scrofula, for the age of 
 miracles is past, and God alone can work them. However," 
 adds the Venetian, "he will have the full ceremony [sc. of 
 coronation, anointing included], so as not to lose this pre- 
 rogative [sc. of touching for the king's evil], which belongs 
 to the Kings of England as Kings of France." "^ And we 
 know that he actually touched for the evil on various occa- 
 sions, for reasons of state,'^^ knowing well that the ceremony 
 could not harm the sufferers and might work beneficially 
 upon them through the imagination. "He was a King in 
 understanding," says Arthur Wilson, "and was content to 
 have his Subjects ignorant in many things. As in curing 
 the Kings-Evil, which he knew a Device, to aggrandize the 
 Virtue of Kings, when Miracles were in fashion ; but he let 
 the World believe it, though he smiled at it, in his own 
 Reason, finding the strength of the Imagination a more 
 powerful Agent in the Cure, than the Plasters his Chirurgions 
 prescribed for the Sore." "^ 
 
 Along with the pardons which we have noted may be 
 classed the toleration which James extended to Forman and 
 Lambe and Dee. This is a curious circumstance which has 
 never received the attention it deserves. 
 
 Simon Forman was undoubtedly arascal."^ He seems,how- 
 ever, to have been a likeable fellow. Lilly's anecdote of his 
 predicting his own death is charming and proves that Forman 
 
 "» See Manly, Macbeth, 1900, pp. xvi.-xviii. 
 
 '51 Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1603-1607, p. 44 (June 4, 1603). 
 
 "2 In 1604, 1608, 1610, and 1617, for instance (Calendar, as above, 1603-1607, 
 p. 193; 1607-1610, pp. 116, 465; Eboracum, 1788, 1. 150). 
 
 ^^ History of Great Britain, 1653, p. 289. 
 
 '" See Mr. Lee's life of Forman in the Dictionary of National Biography, 19. 
 438 ff. 
 
50 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 had a good measure of bonhomie }^^ It also goes far to show 
 that he put some trust in his own occult powers, though in 
 the main he must have been a charlatan. Certainly he 
 passed for a sorcerer. For years he made a public profession 
 of necromancy and magic at Lambeth, and was much con- 
 sulted by the ladies. On the 26th of June, 1603, Forman 
 was licensed by the University of Cambridge to practise 
 medicine, and on the next day the university conferred upon 
 him the degree of M.D. How he contrived to obtain these 
 certificates of professional respectability is a puzzle. ^*^ King 
 James never molested Forman, and the Doctor died peace- 
 fully in 1611. The full extent of his rascality did not come 
 out until the trial of Mrs. Turner, in 1615, for the murder 
 of Overbury,^^' but that makes no difference. He was a 
 notorious conjuror, and it would have been easy to find evi- 
 dence during his life that would have hanged him a hun- 
 dred times. ^^* 
 
 Dr. John Lambe was in the same kind of business as For- 
 man but was even less reputable. He was convicted at the 
 Worcester assizes on two separate indictments, each of them 
 for a capital crime. The first was for "wasting and con- 
 suming" Thomas Lord Windsor by witchcraft; the second 
 for "invoking and entertaining" evil spirits.^*' Sentence was 
 suspended, and Lambe was imprisoned in Worcester Castle, 
 Shortly after, he was removed to the King's Bench in Lon- 
 
 "6 William Lilly, History of his Life and Times, 2d ed., 1715, p. 16. 
 
 166 Forman was twice imprisoned, at the instance of the Royal College of 
 Physicians, as an unauthorized and ignorant practitioner (in 1595 and 1696). In 
 1601 he was again complained of. In 1606 and 1607, after obtaining his Cambridge 
 degree, he was cited to appear before the College, but refused to obey. See the 
 records in the 8th Report of the Commission on Historical MSS., Appendix, Part i., 
 p. 228. 
 
 1" Truth Brought to Light by Time, 1651, pp. 135-138 ; Letter from Thomas 
 Bone to Sir John Egerton, November 9, 1615, Egerton Papers, Camden Society, 
 pp. 470-473. 
 
 158 See Lilly, pp. 12-16. 
 
 1'' The indictments are printed (in translation) in A Briefe Description of the 
 Notorious Life of lohn Lambe, Amsterdam, 1628, pp. 3-6. They are not dated. 
 The bewitching of Lord Windsor is stated in the first indictment to have occurred 
 on December 16, 5 Jac. I. {i.e. 1607), and at divers times afterward; the second 
 indictment dates the invocation of evil spirits. May 13, 6 Jac. I. {i.e. 1608), and 
 before and after. Mr. Sidney Lee (Dictionary of National Biography, 32. 1) shifts 
 the second of these dates, inadvertently, from the offence to the trial- We do not, 
 in fact, know when Lambe was tried, but it was before 1617. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 51 
 
 don,"" where he remained a long time. But his confine- 
 ment was not rigorous. He lived in prison quite at his ease, 
 receiving his patients and clients and doing a thriving busi- 
 ness as physician and sorcerer."^ He was convicted of a 
 rape committed while in confinement,"^ but the chief jus- 
 tice reported that the evidence was dubious, and in 1624 
 he was pardoned."^ Soon after, he was released from cus- 
 tody and took up his residence near the Parliament House."^ 
 In 1628 he met his death at the hands of the London mob 
 while returning from a play at the Fortune.^*^ Lambe was 
 protected by Buckingham, and was known as the "Duke's 
 devil." ^^^ But Buckingham was not always friendly. Thus, 
 in 1625, the duke was clamorous against him on account of 
 his connection with Lady Purbeck's case. "If Lambe" 
 — so Buckingham wrote to Attorney General Coventry and 
 Solicitor General Heath — " be allowed to get off by saying 
 he was only juggling [i.e. not really practising sorcery], . . . 
 the truth can never be known ; Lambe has hitherto, by such 
 shifts, mocked the world and preserved himself." ^" I am 
 far from maintaining that King James's indulgence to such 
 scoundrels as Forman and Lambe was altogether creditable 
 to him, but it certainly tends to prove that he was not a rabid 
 prosecutor of witches and sorcerers.^** 
 
 "» Briefe Description, p. 14. '" Pp. 14 ff. 
 
 "2 The indictment dates the offence June 10, 21 Jac. I., i.e. 1623 (Briefe De- 
 scription, p. 15). The conviction was in 1624 (Calendar of State Papers, Do- 
 mestic, 1623-1625, p. 485). 
 
 15' Calendar, 1623-1625, pp. 241, 243, 261, 266, 280. 
 
 "^ Briefe Description, 1628, p. 20. 
 
 i« The same, pp. 20-21 ; Rushworth, Historical Collections, 1. 618 (cf. 1. 391) ; 
 Reign of Charies I., continuation of Baker's Chronicle, ed. 1660, p. 493 ; Richard 
 Smith, Obituary, in Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. 2. Book xiv, p. 11 ; Jupp, 
 Historical Account of the Company of Carpenters, 1887, pp. 84-85. 
 
 '" Continuation of Baker's Chronicle, as above, p. 493. Cf. Fairholt, Poems and 
 Songs relating to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Percy Society, 1850, pp. 
 xiv.-xv., 58-63, 65. 
 
 *" Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1623-1625, p. 476. Lady Purbeck had 
 visited Lambe in prison to procure charms from him (p. 474; cf. p. 497). 
 
 "* Another infamous person who drove a thriving trade with the court ladies was 
 Mrs. Mary Woods, who practised her arts at Norwich, and removed to Lbndon 
 in 1612. She was involved in the alleged plot of the Countess of Essex to poison 
 the Earl. She was arrested and examined, but it does not appear that she was 
 proceeded against under the statute of 1604, although one witness declared that she 
 professed to have a familiar spirit. Obviously she was regarded as a mere charla- 
 tan, yet it would have been easy enough to hang her for a witch if the king had 
 
52 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 Dr. Dee is in a different category, for he was a profound 
 scholar and a man of a sincere and simple character, whom it 
 would be profanation to class with Lambe and Forman. Yet 
 there is no manner of doubt that his occult experiments 
 (of which voluminous documentary evidence is still extant) 
 might have convicted him of sorcery on literally a thousand 
 counts. His sole defence would have been that he was in- 
 voking and consulting good angels, not demons, but the 
 theologians could have made short work of that allegation. 
 True, Dee had been examined on a charge of witchcraft in 
 the Star Chamber in 1555 and acquitted.^*' But his subse- 
 quent proceedings were enough to condemn him, and he 
 constantly had to protest against the aspersion of being "a 
 companion of Hell-hounds and conjuror of wicked and 
 damned spirits," ^''° and "the arche coniurer of this whole 
 kingdom." "^ In 1583 the mob had destroyed his library 
 at Mortlake."^ Anecdotes that descended to Aubrey give 
 ample testimony to his fame as a conjuror."^ Dee seems 
 to have been agitated by the passage of the statute of 1604, 
 for, on June 5, of that year, while the act was still in debate, 
 he petitioned King James to have him "tryed and cleared 
 of that horrible and damnable, and to him most grievous and 
 dammageable sclaunder, generally, and for these many yeares 
 last past, in this kingdom raysed and continued, by report 
 and print against him, namely, that he is or hath bin a con- 
 jurer or caller or invocator of divels." "^ No attention was 
 paid to his entreaty, but the king did not molest him, and 
 
 favored such a prosecution (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611-1618, pp. 
 134, 161, 173, 183, 187 ; Inquiry into the Genuineness of a Letter, etc., pp. 17-19, 
 Camden Miscellany, 5; Gardiner, History of England, 1603-1642, 4th ed., 
 2. 169, note l). 
 
 '" See his own account of the affair in his Compendious Rehearsall, 1592, 
 printed by Crossley, in Autobiographical Tracts of Dr. John Dee, pp. 20-21 (Chet- 
 ham Miscellany, 1), and cf. the Necessary Advertisement prefixed to his General 
 and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, 1577 (Crossley, 
 p. 57). See also Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-1550, p. 67; Charlotte 
 Fell Smith, John Dee, 1909, pp. 14-15. 
 
 "" Dee's Preface to Henry BiUlngsley's translation of Euclid's Elements, 1571 
 (Smith, pp. 24-28). 
 
 '" Necessary Advertisement, 1577 (Crossley, p. 53). 
 
 "' Compendious Rehearsall, 1592 (Crossley, pp. 27 ff.). 
 
 "' Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 1. 212-214. 
 
 "* Smith, p. 293. 
 
GEORaE LYMAN KITTREDGE 53 
 
 he died in his bed in 1608. James doubtless respected Dee's 
 learning, and he may have been assured of his innocence 
 by the aged scholar's friends, who were numerous and in- 
 fluential, — Sir Julius Caesar, for instance. Indeed, Dee 
 was styled "the King his Mathematitian," ^''^ — a title 
 which appears to imply some degree of royal favor. 
 
 James's pardons and his toleration of Dee and Lambe and 
 Forman would go far to show that he was not a bigoted 
 witch-prosecutor. But there is evidence of an unequivocal 
 nature. It concerns the king's personal activity in the de- 
 tection of imposture. On this point the records are decisive, 
 and, when we consider the prevalent impression as to James's 
 character as a witch-finder, they are nothing less than as- 
 tounding.'^^ 
 
 First of all we have a charming letter from James to the 
 young Prince Henry. It bears no date, but unbiassed judges 
 put it at the very beginning of the reign, and Sir Henry Ellis 
 believes that it was written before the Prince had left Scot- 
 land. 
 
 My Sonne I ame glaid that by youre Letre I maye persave that ye 
 make some progresse in learning. ... I ame also glaide of the discoverie 
 of yone litle counterfitte Wenche. I praye God ye maye be my aire [i.e., 
 heir] in such discoveries. Ye have ofte hearde me saye that most miracles 
 nou a dayes proves but illusions, and ye maye see by this hou waire judgis 
 should be in trusting accusations withoute an exacte tryall ; and lyke- 
 wayes hou easielie people are inducid to trust wonders. Lett her be 
 kepte fast till my cumming ; and thus God blesse you my sonne."' 
 
 "* MS. College of Arms c. 37, 168, quoted by F. R. Raines, Rectors of Manches- 
 ter and Wardens of the Collegiate Church, Part ii, 1885, p. 110 (Chetham Society). 
 
 "' James has been derided for maintaining the doctrine of witchcraft in the 
 Essex divorce case (see his answer to Archbishop Abbot in Truth Brought to Light 
 by Time, 1651, pp. 103 S.). This discredit, however, such as it is, is cancelled by 
 his conduct in the case of Sir Thomas Lake (involving a precisely similar allegation 
 of witchcraft), in which he showed much acumen in unravelling a tangled skein of 
 malice and perjury. See Gardiner, History, 3. 189-194 (1895). Mr. Gardiner 
 remarks that James "prided himself upon his skill in the detection of impostures" 
 (3. 192). 
 
 '" Harleian MS. 6986, art. 40 (autograph), as printed by Sir Henry Ellis, Original 
 Letters, 1st Series, 1824, 3. 80-81. The letter may also be found in Birch, Lite of 
 Henry Prince of Wales, 1760, p. 37; Letters to King James the Sixth, Maitland 
 Club, 1835, p. XXXV. (where it is said, erroneously, to be in reply to an extant letter 
 of January 1, 1603-4, from Prince Henry) ; Nichols, Progresses of James I., 1. 
 304 ; Halliwell, Letters of the Kings, 1848, 2. 102. Cf . Gifford's edition of Ford, 
 1. clxxi. (ed. Dyce, 1869, 3. 276) ; Quarterly Review, 41. 80-82. 
 
54 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 In 1604 we find James, in his Counterblast to Tobacco, 
 deriding exorcism in a style worthy of Bancroft and Harsnet. 
 "O omnipotent power of Tobacco !" he ejaculates. "And 
 if it could by the smoke thereof chace out deuils, as the smoke 
 of Tobias fish did (which I am sure could smel no stronger) it 
 would serue for a precious Relicke, both for the superstitious 
 Priests, and the insolent Puritanes, to cast out deuils 
 withal." 1^8 
 
 Another letter of the king's should be given in full, if space 
 allowed. It begins by reminding the recipient "how that 
 in late time we discovered and put to flight one of those coun- 
 terfeits, the like whereof ye now advertise us." "By this 
 bearer," adds King James, "we send unto you instructions 
 suited for such an occasion, willing you leave nothing untried 
 to discover the imposture." It appears that the patient was 
 a woman who lay in a trance and had supported life for a 
 long time on one small cup of wine. The king gives wise 
 directions and remarks that "miracles like those of which 
 you give us notice should be all ways and diligently tested." 
 And he concludes with the words, "It . . . becomes us to 
 lose no opportunity of seeking after the real truth of pre- 
 tended wonders, that if true we may bless the Creator who 
 hath shown such marvels to men, and if false we may pun- 
 ish the impudent inventors of them." "* 
 
 In 1605 Sir Roger Wilbraham notes in his Journal, imme- 
 diately after telling a witch-story : — "The King's maiestie, 
 sithence his happie comyng, by his owne skill hath discov- 
 ered 2 notorious impostures : one of a phisicion that made 
 latyne & lerned sermons in the slepe : which he did by secret 
 premeditacion : thother of a woman pretended to be be- 
 witched, that cast up at her mouth pynnes, & pynnes were 
 taken by divers in her fitts out of her brest." ^^^ 
 
 "' Ed. Arber, p. 108. 
 
 '"Dated March 5th (no year). Halliwell (from Rawlinson MS.), Letters of 
 the Kings, 2. 124-125. It does not appear to whom the letter was addressed. 
 Such cases of real or pretended fasting are common. See, for example, John 
 Reynolds, A Discourse upon Prodigious Abstinence : occasioned by the Twelve 
 Moneths Pasting of Martha Taylor, the famed Derbyshire Damsell, 1669. 
 
 "» Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham, 1593-1616, ed. by H. S. Scott, p. 70 (Cam- 
 den Miscellany, 10). This is clearly the case mentioned by Walter Yonge in his 
 Diary (ed. Roberts, Camden Society, 1848, p. 12). If so, the bewitched person 
 was "near kinswoman to Doctor Holland's wife. Rector of Exon College in 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 55 
 
 The first of these two impostors was Richard Haydock 
 of New College, Oxford, the celebrated Sleeping Preacher. 
 He made a great noise in the world. In 1605 James sum- 
 moned him to court, where he preached three times. The 
 king felt sure he was shamming. He soon fathomed Hay- 
 dock's mystery, brought him to repentance, and treated him 
 kindly afterwards.^^^ The doctor's confession, addressed to 
 King James, is extant among the State Papers.^*^ Though 
 witchcraft was not involved, the incident throws light on the 
 king's frame of mind. 
 
 Bang James's detection of Haydock took place in April, 
 1605. In November of the same year the Gunpowder Plot 
 was discovered. James, it will be remembered, boasted 
 rather pedantically in an address to Parliament that he had 
 unriddled a dark sentence in the Mounteagle letter and so 
 was in efifect the discoverer of the conspiracy.^*^ He made 
 similar pretensions in a conversation with Giustinian, the 
 Venetian ambassador. ^^^ There is a plain connection be- 
 tween his pride in this exploit and the shrewdness he had 
 just exhibited in the affair of the Sleeping Preacher and in 
 that of the bewitched woman, for Salisbury gave out that 
 he and other Councillors had submitted the Mounteagle 
 letter to the king because of "the expectation and experience 
 they had of His Majesties fortunate Judgement in cleering 
 and solving of obscure Riddles and doubtful Mysteries." ^^ 
 It makes no difference whether this consultation was pro 
 
 Oxford." This was Thomas Holland, on whom see Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, 
 ed. Bliss, 2. 111-112; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 2. 731. 
 
 *" King James his Apophthegmes, 1643, pp. 8-9 ; Calendar of State Papers, 
 Domestic, 1603-1610, pp. 212, 213; Venetian, 1603-1607, pp. 238, 240-241; 
 letters in Lodge, Illustrations of British History, 2d ed., 1838, 3. 143-144, 153- 
 155, 157-160; Arthur Wilson, History of Great Britain, 1653, p. Ill; Baker's 
 Chronicle, ed. 1660, p. 431 ; Fuller, Church History, Book x.. Century xvii., § 56, ed. 
 Brewer, 6. 450; Aubrey, MS. History of Wiltshire, pp. 362-363, as quoted by 
 Halliwell, Letters of the Kings, 2. 124, note; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 2. 679; 
 Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 "2 State Papers, James L, Vol. 13. No. 80. It is an obscure and rambling 
 document. 
 
 '*' King James his Speech to both Houses of Parliament on Occasion of the Gun- 
 powder-Treason, ed. 1679, p. 7 ; cf. Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham, pp. 70-71 
 (Camden Miscellany, 10). 
 
 i«< Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1603-1607, p. 327 (cf. pp. 316-317). 
 
 '*' Discourse, appended to King James his Speech (see note 183, above), pp. 28- 
 29 (cf. pp. 30-31). 
 
56 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 forma, mere courtly complaisance, or whether the Councillors 
 really got some help from the king. On either hypothesis, the 
 penchant of James for playing the detective is equally clear. 
 
 The second case mentioned by Wilbraham was pure witch- 
 craft. The symptom of vomiting pins was regarded by most 
 scholars as decisive against fraud. Thus Cotta, in 1616, in 
 enumerating various tests by which (in contradistinction 
 to swimming, scratching, and other things that he repudiates) 
 witchcraft may be recognized, accepts this as one that is 
 "palpable and not obscure to any eye without difficulty, 
 offering [itself] to plaine and open viewe." ^^^ It now ap- 
 pears that James, more than ten years before Cotta wrote, 
 had confuted this infallible test. Yet we are told that Cotta 
 "was in advance of his age," that "he published his book in 
 1616, when King James's doctrines prevailed in full force, 
 and it attracted little attention." ^*' I agree that Cotta 
 was in advance of his age. Be it so — but what shall we 
 then say of James I. ? 
 
 Another undated example is preserved by Aubrey.^** A 
 gentlewoman named Katharine Waldron, who "waited on 
 Sir Francis Seymor's lady of Marlborough," pretended to be 
 "bewitched by a certain woman." The phenomena were 
 similar to those in the case of Mary Glover, which misled the 
 Recorder of London in 1603.^*' The king "detected the 
 cheat" by a clever, though somewhat indecorous, device. 
 
 More than once, when James was unable to investigate 
 these matters in person, he intrusted the business to some- 
 body else. Thus, in 1605, a warrant was issued "for such 
 sums as the Earl of Salisbury shall require, for the charges 
 of two maids suspected to be bewitched, and kept at Cam- 
 bridge for trial." "" Trial in this record of course does not 
 mean trial in court (for it was not a crime to be bewitched), 
 but test, investigation. Obviously it was thought that the 
 girls might be shamming. Again, in 1611, the Council sent 
 a letter to the Bishop of Bangor and the Judges of Assize 
 
 186 Triall of Witch-craft, p. 76. 
 
 187 Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 2. 144. 
 
 '8« MS. History of Wiltshire, pp. 362-363 (HalliweU, Letters of the Kings. 2. 
 124, note). 
 
 "' See p. 29, above. 
 
 "» Calendar of State Papers. Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 218. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTRBDGE 57 
 
 for County Carnarvon " to search out the truth of a supposed 
 witchcraft committed on six young maids." "^ This was 
 another cautionary measure to prevent false accusation and 
 the arraignment of innocent persons.* It reminds one of 
 the action of Charles I. in 1634, when he delegated Bishop 
 Bridgeman to investigate the second Pendle case."^ We 
 shall have occasion to consider the attitude of Ejng Charles 
 presently. ^'^ 
 
 And now we come to the most distinguished of all King 
 James's exploits in the detection of fraudulent bewitchment. 
 It is a case which, even if it stood absolutely alone, might 
 suffice, in the absence of adverse testimony, to clear his 
 reputation. 
 
 In 1616, on the 18th day of July, nine persons were hanged 
 at Leicester. Their crime was the bewitching of a boy of 
 thirteen or fourteen, named Smythe,^^^ who suffered from 
 fits "^ like those of the Throckmorton girls of Warboys."^ 
 Indeed, the influence of that famous case is unmistakable. 
 Justice Fenner, in 1593, made old Samuel recite a formula 
 devised by one of the hysterical girls: "As I am a Witch, 
 and did consent to the death of the Lady Cromwell, so I 
 charge the deuil to suffer Mistress lane to come out of her 
 fitt at this present." ^'^ Thereupon the girl was instantly 
 relieved. So at Leicester in 1616 the accused were obliged 
 to say, "I such a one chardge the hors [one of the devils], if 
 I be a wiche, that thou come forthe of the chilld," whereupon 
 young Smythe ceased to be tormented.^^* The judges were 
 Sir Humphrey Winch, Justice of the Common Pleas, and Sir 
 Randolph Crew (Serjeant),"' — the former a member of 
 the Parliament that passed the Statute of 1604.^°° 
 
 "» Calendar, 1611-1618, p. 29. 
 
 "2 Calendar, 1634-1635, pp. 26, 77-79, 98, 129-130, 141, 152-153. 
 
 ''' See p. 64, below. 
 
 '"On his identity see Kittredge, King James I. and The Devi! is an Ass 
 (Modem Philology, 9. 195-209). 
 
 ''* Letter from Alderman Robert Heyrick of Leicester to his brother Sir William 
 in London, dated July 18, 1616 — the very day of the execution (printed by Nichols, 
 Leicestershire, Vol. 2. Part ii., p. 471*). 
 
 "« See p. 32, above. 
 
 »" Witches of Warboys, 1593, sig. P2 r°. 
 
 »« Heyrick's letter. 
 
 ™ Nichols, Progresses of James I., 3. 193; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 
 1611-1618, p. 398. 
 
 ™ He was M.P. for the Borough of Bedford (Members of ParUament, 1. 442 a). 
 
58 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 About a month after the execution of these nine witches, 
 King James chanced to be at Leicester on a royal progress. 
 He stayed there not more than twenty-four hours.^"^ The 
 Smythe boy was still having his fits, and six more accused 
 persons were in jail awaiting trial at the autumn assizes. 
 Nobody can doubt what the issue would have been. But 
 now James intervened. I will let Francis Osborne (1593- 
 1659) tell the story. "The King being gratified by nothing 
 more than an Opportunity to shew his Dexterity in dis- 
 covering an Imposture (at which I must confess him the 
 promptest Man Living) upon his arrival convented the Boy. 
 Where, before him, (possibly daunted at his Presence, or 
 terrified by his Words) he began to faulter, so as the King 
 discovered a Fallacy. And did for a further Confirmation, 
 send him to Lambeth; where the Servants of Dr. George 
 Abbot,^°^ did in a few Weeks discover the whole Deceit. And 
 he was sent back to his Majesty before the end of the Prog- 
 ress ; where, upon a small entreaty, he would repeat all his 
 Tricks oftentimes in a Day." ^"^ 
 
 The result we learn from a contemporary letter written 
 by a Leicester alderman.^"^ Five of the six alleged witches 
 were released without a trial ; the sixth had died in prison. 
 Nor did the king neglect to let the judges see that he was 
 not pleased with their lack of acumen. "Justice Winch," 
 writes Secretary Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton on 
 October 12, "and Serjeant Crew are somewhat discoun- 
 tenanced for hanging certain Witches in their circuit at 
 Leicester; whereas the King, coming that way, found out 
 the juggling and imposture of the boy, that counterfeited 
 to be bewitched." ^"^ 
 
 *•" The king went from Nottingham to Leicester on August 15th, spent the 
 night there, and proceeded to Dingley, on the 16th (Nichols, Progresses, 3. 180- 
 181, ct. 3. 175). 
 
 "" Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 2»» Essays (Miscellaneous Works, 11th ed., 1722, 1. 30-31). 
 
 2°' Robert Heyrick's letter, October 15, 1616 (printed by Nichols, Leicestershire, 
 Vol. 2. Part ii., p. 471*). 
 
 ">^ Nichols, Progresses, 3. 192-193; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611- 
 1618, p. 398. We can make out a satisfactory account of the case by comparing 
 Osborne with Heyrick's two letters (one of July 18, the other of October 15, 1616, 
 both printed by Nichols, Leicestershire, Vol. 2. Part ii., p. 471*). I have followed 
 Heyrick (as being absolutely contemporary and on the spot) wherever he differs 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 59 
 
 King James's action in the Leicester case of 1616 took 
 instant effect. The clamor of the populace against witches 
 was not silenced, but the judges henceforth used extraor- 
 dinary circumspection. They had no mftid to incur the royal 
 displeasure. The result should be carefully noted. From 
 July, 1616, until James's death on March 27, 1625, almost 
 exactly nine years, only five persons are known to have been 
 executed for witchcraft in England.^"* Two of these were 
 hanged at Bristol in 1624, and I have no details.^"' One — 
 Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton — confessed after convic- 
 tion.^"* The other two were Margaret and Philippa Flower, 
 who were executed at Lincoln on March 11, 1619. Their 
 case is very remarkable. A bare statement of facts will 
 prove how impossible it was for any jury to acquit them or 
 any king to show them favor. Incidentally, we should ob- 
 serve that they would have been hanged under the Eliza- 
 bethan statute. 
 
 Joan Flower was a foul-mouthed old woman, much given 
 to cursing, and suspected by her neighbors of being a witch. 
 She was incensed at the Countess of Rutland for discharging 
 her daughter, Margaret Flower, from service at Belvoir 
 Castle, though there were good grounds for it, and though 
 the Countess had treated the girl with much kindness. Soon 
 after, three of the Earl's children fell sick, and two of them 
 died, one his eldest son. The Earl, it seems, had no suspicion 
 against the Flowers. Ultimately, however, Joan and her 
 two daughters were arrested, doubtless as a result of local 
 gossip. Joan Flower was never tried for the crime. At the 
 time, as it appears, of her examination, she defiantly sub- 
 
 f rom Osborne. Heyrick does not mention the king, but Osborne's testimony as to 
 James's intervention is corroborated in all essentials by Chamberlain's letter of 
 October 12, 1616 (Nichols, Progresses, 3. 192-193; Calendar, 1611-1618, p. 398). 
 Osborne, by the way, speaks of his narrative as follows: "I will here relate a 
 story of my own knowledge" (p. 29). 
 
 "" Mr. William Wheater's statement that six persons suffered death for witch- 
 craft at York in 1622 (Old Yorkshire, ed. by William Smith, 4. 266) is a mistake. 
 This was the Fairfax case. Six persons were indicted, but all of them were dis- 
 charged without a complete trial (see p. 63, below). 
 
 "" John Latimer, Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century, p. 91. 
 
 '°' There was no torture. She confessed to the minister, Henry Goodcole, for 
 her soul's sake. See Goodcole's narrative. The Wonderful! Discoverie of Elizabeth 
 Sawyer, 1621, reprinted in The Works of John Ford, ed. 1895 (BuUen), 1. Ixxxi ff. 
 
60 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 jected herself to a strange test. She "called for Bread and 
 Butter, and wished it might never go through if she were 
 guilty of that wherevpon she was examined : so mumbling 
 it in her mouth, never spoke more words after, but fell doune 
 and dyed as she was carryed to Lincolne Goale." Both her 
 daughters confessed and were hanged.^"' There can be no 
 vestige of doubt in any unprejudiced mind that these three 
 women were guilty in intent. They had practised what 
 they supposed to be witchcraft in order to destroy the chil- 
 dren, and they believed they had succeeded. We may pity 
 them for their malicious infatuation, but we cannot deny 
 that their fate was deserved. Nor was it conceivable that 
 they should escape it when God himself seemed to have 
 pronounced their guilt. 
 
 Five executions, then, make the whole account for the last 
 nine years of King James's reign, and with regard to two of 
 these, there could be no suspicion of counterfeiting. The 
 Earl's children had really died, and the accused had certainly 
 tried to kill them by sorcery. Here there was no ground on 
 which the king's acumen in detecting imposture could work, 
 nor could any amount of caution on the part of the judges 
 avoid the plain conclusion.^^" 
 
 ^™ The Wonderful! Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Philip Flower, 
 1619. 
 
 210 We may laugh at witchcraft, but it by no means follows that all the afflicted 
 persons were impostors or that the defendants were always guiltless. The children 
 who cried out on the Salem goodwives and the numerous other "young liars" (as 
 one unsympathetic writer has called them) were really afflicted, though the cause 
 was mistaken. Much of their play-acting was a part of their disease. As for the 
 witches themselves (I do not here refer to Salem in particular), it is clear that many 
 of them were malignant creatures who did what they could to get into communion 
 with the fiend and thought they had succeeded. As Mr. Andrew Lang well remarks, 
 "There can be little doubt that many witches were in intention malevolent enough. 
 They believed in their own powers, and probably dealt in poison on occasion" 
 (History of Scotland, 2. 352). Others were precocious experimenters in super- 
 normal mental states. I need but refer to Professor Wendell's suggestive essay 
 on the Salem witches (Stelligeri, 1893 ; of. his Cotton Mather, pp. 93 S.) and to 
 Mr. Brodie-Innes's paper on Scottish Witchcraft Trials, in which this fruitful 
 subject of investigation is broached, with illuminating remarks. Neither professes 
 to do more than raise the question. The undiscovered country of witch pathology 
 awaits its trained explorer. Meantime we may speak respectfully of some of our 
 elders — Wierus, Scot, Webster, Bekker, and Meric Casaubon (not all of them 
 on the same side) — who have made wise observations needing only to be translated 
 from the obsolete technical language of their day in order to appeal to the modern 
 alienist. For cases of genuine and indubitable attempts at sorcery, see, for example. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 61 
 
 But the effect of King James's rebuke of the Leicester 
 justices is visible not only (by inference) in the lack of exe- 
 cutions. It may also be traced in more positive ways. In 
 1620 occurred the notorious fraud of. William Perry, the 
 Boy of Bilson. The supposed witch was acquitted at 
 the Stafford assizes, August 10, 1620, and the judges in- 
 trusted Perry to Bishop Morton, who was present. Morton 
 detected the trick, and at the next summer assizes, June 26, 
 1621, the boy made public amends, asking forgiveness of the 
 alleged witch, who was there to receive this rehabilitation.^^^ 
 James was not personally active — so far as we know — 
 in this exposure, but that it was pleasing to him we can infer, 
 not only from our general knowledge, but from the fact that 
 Arthur Wilson, in his History of Great Britain, published 
 in 1653, appends to the story the following observation : 
 "The King took delight by the line of his Reason to sound 
 the depth of such brutish Impostors, and he discovered many." 
 Then, after reporting the case of Haydock, the Sleeping 
 Preacher, Wilson continues: "Some others, both men and 
 women, inspired with such Enthusiasms, and fanatick fancies, 
 he reduced to their right senses, applying his Remedies suitable 
 to the Distemper, wherein he made himself often very merry 
 . . . but some of their Stories being a little coarse, are not 
 fit to be here related." ^^^ 
 
 Tributes to King James's interest in detecting fraudulent 
 cases are offered not only by Osborne (who speaks of "the 
 charge he gave the Judges, to be circumspect in condemning 
 those, committed by ignorant Justices, for Diabolical Com- 
 pacts"),^" but by Bishop Goodman, and by Fuller. Good- 
 man's testimony is brief, but to the purpose. James, he says, 
 "was ever apt to search into secrets, to try conclusions [i.e. 
 experiments], as I did know some who saw him run to see one 
 in a fit whom they said was bewitched." ^" Fuller provides 
 
 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2d Series, 18. 140 ff. ; W. M. Hart, 
 Archseologia, 40. 397. Examples are countless. 
 
 '" Hutchinson, Historical Essay, 1718, pp. 217 ff. (from the narrative). Cf. 
 The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson, 1698, pp. 1-9 ; Gee, The Foot out of the 
 Snare, 1624, pp. 53-54. 
 
 "' Pp. 111-112. For Wilson's own skepticism on the subject of witchcraft, see 
 his Autobiography, in Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. 2. Book xii, pp. 26-27. 
 
 "» Essay i. (Miscellaneous Works, 11th edition, 1722, p. 29). Cf. p. 48, above. 
 
 2» Court of King James the First, ed. Brewer, 1839, 1. 3. 
 
62 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 an elaborate testimonium.^^ After telling of the Boy of 
 Bilson, lie continues as follows : 
 
 "Indeed, all this king's reign was scattered over with 
 cheaters of this kind. Some papists, some sectaries, some 
 neither, as who dissembled such possession, either out of mal- 
 ice to be revenged on those whom they accused of witchcraft, 
 or covetous to enrich themselves." 
 
 Then, after giving several examples, which he calls "a 
 few out of many," ^^^ he concludes thus : — 
 
 "King James . . . was no less dexterous than desirous 
 to make discovery of these deceits. Various were his ways in 
 detecting them, aweing some into confession with his pres- 
 ence, others by promise of pardon and fair usage. He or- 
 dered it so, that a proper courtier made love to one of these 
 bewitched maids, and quickly Cupid's arrows drave out the 
 pretended darts of the devil. Another there was, the tides 
 of whose possession did so ebb and flow, that punctually they 
 observed one hour till the king came to visit her. The maid, 
 loath to be so unmannerly as to make his majesty attend 
 her time, antedated her fits many hours, and instantly ran 
 through the whole zodiac of tricks which she used to play. 
 A third, strangely affected when the first verse of St. John's 
 Gospel was read unto her in our translation, was tame and 
 quiet whilst the same was pronoimced in Greek, her English 
 devil belike understanding no other language. The fre- 
 quency of such forged possessions wrought such an altera- 
 tion upon the judgment of King James, that he, receding 
 from what he had written in his Demonology, grew first 
 diffident of, and then flatly to deny the workings of 
 witches and devils as but falsehoods and delusions." ^^' It 
 seems probable that Fuller goes too far in this last statement, 
 though Osborne says something to the same effect.^'* It is 
 not likely that King James ever gave up his theoretical belief 
 in witchcraft.^^* It is clear, however, that, in his later years, 
 
 '^' Church History, Book x., cent, xvii., §§ 54-57 (ed. Brewer, 5. 448-452). Cf. 
 Gifford's Jonson, 7. 140, note 4. 
 
 ^" § 56. The only case that we can date is Haydock's (see p. 55, above). 
 
 2" I 57 (5. 451-452). 
 
 '" Essay i. (see p. 48, above). 
 
 *" The Daemonologie (unmodified) was included in the authorized edition of the 
 king's Works in 1616. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 63 
 
 he came close to the opinion pronounced, in 1711, by Addi- 
 son in a famous passage (echoed by Blackstone) : "I be- 
 Ueve in general that there is, and has been such a thing as 
 witchcraft ; but at the same time can give no credit to any 
 particular instance of it." ^^° But we must return to King 
 James's good influence on the judges. 
 
 This influence comes out very clearly in the Fairfax case, 
 six years after James's rebuke to Justice Winch and Serjeant 
 Crew.^^^ In 1622, Edward Fairfax, the translator of Tasso, 
 brought six women before the York assizes on the charge of 
 bewitching his two daughters. The fits had lasted for sev- 
 eral months and were similar to those of the Throckmorton 
 girls : the Warboys narrative was still doing its work. At 
 the same assizes, one of Fairfax's neighbors, a gentleman 
 named John Jeffray, accused the same defendants of be- 
 witching his daughter Maud. The grand jury was ex- 
 ceptionally intelligent, including six justices of the peace. 
 It had already "received a good caveat by a message from the 
 judge to be very careful in the matter of witches." ^^^ Yet 
 it found a true bill, and the trial began. 
 
 The six women were arraigned on August 9, 1622.^^' 
 Mark the course of proceedings. All three of the afflicted 
 girls fell into a trance in the presence of the court and were 
 carried out insensible. Sir George Ellis and some other 
 justices, leaving the bench, followed, and exerted themselves 
 to discover the imposture that they suspected. They soon 
 returned, declaring that the Jeffray girl had confessed that 
 she had acted throughout by the direction of her parents. 
 Maud Jeffray denied that she had made the alleged admis- 
 sions ; but her father was sent to jail forthwith, and his 
 charge was dismissed.^^* The Fairfax girls, however, had 
 not been found to be counterfeiting, and the trial of that case 
 went on. But the court was determined to avoid the mis- 
 take made at Leicester in 1616. The presiding justice, after 
 
 ™ Spectator for July 14, 1711 (No. 117); cf. Blackstone, Commentaries, Book 
 iv., chap. i. sect. 6 (4th edition, 1770, 4. 60-61). 
 
 ^' Full details of this case are given in Fairfax's own narrative, entitled Daemono- 
 logia (edited by William Grainge, Harrogate, 1882). 
 
 ^^ Fairfax says this message was deUvered to the grand jury in his hearing (p. 
 126). 
 
 ^3 Fairfax, p. 126. 224 pp. 123-127. 
 
64 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST 
 
 some witnesses had been heard, instructed the jury that the 
 evidence "reached not to the point of the statute," stopped 
 the trial, and discharged the defendants.^^^ Thereafter it 
 was "given out," as Fairfax tells us, that "Jeff ray and his 
 family devised the practice, to which they drew my eldest 
 daughter, and she the younger." Fairfax himself was 
 exonerated.^^* 
 
 Here we see the influence of the king's precept and ex- 
 ample at every turn. The grand jury was warned to be 
 careful, the judges were eager to discover an imposture, and, 
 thinking they had done so, yet not daring to trust the jury 
 to acquit, they found that the facts alleged did not bring the 
 case under the statute and took it away from the jury. 
 And finally — as if to leave to posterity no doubt whatever 
 of the first source of all this caution and circumspection — 
 Fairfax mentions King James in the most unequivocal way. 
 His narrative is, in effect, an appeal from the judges to 
 public opinion. His daughters, he maintains, are certainly 
 no tricksters ; they are in an altogether different category 
 from " those whose impostures our wise king so lately laid 
 open." ^" 
 
 Nor did the good effects of King James's skeptical temper 
 and of the lesson he taught the judges cease with his death. 
 I can find but one execution for witchcraft in the first seven 
 years of Charles I. Then occurred the famous case of the 
 Lancashire Witches of 1633. On this occasion seventeen 
 persons were convicted, but the judge did not believe in 
 their guilt, and brought the matter to the king's attention. 
 A careful investigation ensued, and none of the alleged 
 witches suffered death. Hitherto this case has been regarded 
 as marking a contrast between Charles's creed and practice 
 and the acts and belief of his father. Mr. Crossley, who is 
 so severe on King James, praises King Charles warmly for 
 thus "distinguishing himself ... in days when philosophy 
 stumbled and murder arrayed itself in the robes of justice 
 — by an enlightened exercise of the kingly prerogative of 
 mercy." 2^" Wright remarks that "Charles I. had not the 
 same weak prejudices in these matters as his father." ^^' It 
 
 ^« P. 127. 220 p, 124, 227 p_ 81. 2!8 Editiou of PotU's Discoverie, p. Ixxvii. 
 '^ Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 2. 117. 
 
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 65 
 
 is well to approve King Charles, whose personal record on 
 this matter of witchcraft is laudable, but it must now be 
 quite clear that he was merely following his father's praise- 
 worthy example. 
 
 Our scrutiny of King James's record is finished. No sum- 
 ming up is necessary. The defendant is acquitted by the 
 facts. One final remark, however, may be made, in lieu of 
 a peroration. Diligent search has so far brought to light 
 less than forty executions for witchcraft throughout England 
 in the reign of James I., or an average of about two a year. 
 Contrast with this statement the fact that in ten years 
 of the same reign (6-15 James I.) at least thirty-two persons 
 were pressed to death in the single County of Middlesex 
 for refusing to plead in cases of felony (not witchcraft), or an 
 average of over three a year, and that, in the same county 
 for the same period, at least seven hundred persons were 
 hanged for felonies other than witchcraft, or an average of 
 seventy a year.^^" These figures call for no commentary. 
 We may double or treble the number of witch-hangings, if 
 we will, in order to allow for incompleteness in the published 
 records, and it still remains true that the reign of James I. 
 was not, in this regard, a dark and bloody period. 
 
 '"' Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records, 2. xvii.-xviii., liii. 
 
 Cambbidge, 
 April 1, 1911. 
 
BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS: THE 
 MYTHOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 
 
 J. EsTLiN Carpenter 
 Manchester New College 
 
 "The comparative history of rehgion," says Dr. Windisch, 
 "is not a history of borrowings." ^ No doubt each great his- 
 toric faith develops its own genius, under the inspiration of 
 the personalities, known or unknown, who have imparted 
 to it the powerful stimulus of their own life and thought. 
 No doubt also the foundation of many of the widespread 
 myths to be encountered in different parts of the globe — 
 the waste and darkness of primeval waters — the world-egg 
 — • the wedded union of sky and earth — is to be sought in 
 elements of experience that are common to all. The inter- 
 pretation of the world around finds everywhere similar 
 events to be explained ; the same sun rises and sets ; the 
 same moon passes through the same phases ; the same senses 
 observe them ; the same thinking power combines similar 
 recollections into its theories of the universe and its begin- 
 nings; and human life, when it has advanced beyond its 
 crudest forms, is organized in similar relations, and is exposed 
 to the same vicissitudes. 
 
 But on the other hand, every vigorous stock grows by con- 
 tact and suggestion from without. The vitality of any re- 
 ligion is chiefly proved by its power to assimilate fresh ma- 
 terials, and reshape them by its own plastic force. The 
 dictum of Windisch may be easily reversed. Israel would 
 have been poorly furnished with speculations about primeval 
 antiquity had it not borrowed the conceptions of Babylonian 
 science. But for the Avestan theodicy its hopes for the 
 
 ' Buddha's Geburt und die Lehre von der Seelenwanderung, p. 200, Leipzig, 
 1908. 
 
 67 
 
68 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 future would have taken a very different form. And had 
 not early Christianity been willing to receive a loan of the 
 highest significance from Hellenic culture, the destiny of 
 Europe and the world would have run in paths beyond our 
 power to imagine. No a priori maxims can govern historical 
 investigation. There is always a case for inquiry ; and if 
 any one can prove that the Gospels owe anything to the 
 stories either of Gilgamesh or of the Buddha, he will deserve 
 respectful attention. Doubtless there will be differences of 
 opinion as to what constitutes proof ; and the number of 
 coincidences that will be admitted to establish even a proba- 
 bility of relationship will vary from mind to mind. Pre- 
 possessions and prejudices are not the peculiar property of 
 Christian apologists. 
 
 The really interesting parallels between Buddhism and 
 Christianity lie in the great development which transformed 
 the primitive teaching of Gotama from a system of ethical 
 culture, associated with an empirical idealism, into a trans- 
 cendental philosophy capable of sustaining a lofty religion 
 of spiritual communion, expressing itself in highly organized 
 worship. The attention of western students, however, has 
 hitherto been chiefly attracted by the remarkable resem- 
 blances between incidents in the careers of the two teachers, 
 some of their moral precepts, and the legends which gathered 
 around their persons. Founding his argument partly on the 
 Lucan story of the Nativity, a distinguished English critic 
 a generation ago felt himself justified in talking of the 
 "obligations of the New Testament to Buddhism." The 
 devoted patience and the learned labor of Mr. Albert J. 
 Edmunds have brought together a large number of passages 
 for comparison,^ the value of which will naturally be very 
 variously estimated. I do not propose in this paper to 
 discuss either his method or his conclusions. Without 
 attempting to deal with the wide range covered by his 
 inquiry, I wish to suggest the possibility of another line of 
 explanation of the likenesses in the stories of the birth. 
 May it not be the case that there was a common mythological 
 background which supplied a typical form for national or 
 
 ^ Buddhist and Christian Gospels, 2 vols., 4th ed., Philadelphia, 1908. 
 
3. ESTLIN CARPENTER 69 
 
 local imagination to cast into its own mould and adorn with 
 its own colouring ? The answer to such a question depends 
 on two groups of considerations. In the first place, are 
 there any indications of the diffusion of other beliefs or ideas 
 between India and the Mediterranean lands which would 
 justify us in supposing the existence of such a treasury of 
 mythic representations ? And secondly, is there any evi- 
 dence that it might have contained a description of what was 
 proper to happen when a hero, a prophet, or a god was to be 
 born ? Only a few hints and illustrations pointing in this 
 direction can be oflFered here. 
 
 The possibility of the transmission of stories between India 
 and Western Asia has long been recognized. Every one 
 knows the tale of the two women who were brought before 
 Solomon, claiming the same child.' The wise judge ordered 
 the child to be divided and half to be given to each disputant. 
 The real mother, rather than see her babe slain, surrendered 
 her half to preserve its life. In the Commentary on the 
 Maha-Ummagga Jataka in the book of the Buddha's pre- 
 vious births ^ there is a corresponding story, where the change 
 of scene and fresh local color cannot disguise the similarity. 
 The child of a woman bathing in a tank is carried off by an 
 ogress in human form. The mother runs after her to re- 
 cover it, but the ogress denies her right, and declares that the 
 babe is her own. Quarrelling loudly, they pass the door of 
 the hall where the future Buddha sits in judgment. He hears 
 their cries and summons them before him. When their 
 pleas are stated, he bids an attendant draw a line upon the 
 ground. The child is laid across it; the ogress is directed 
 to lay hold of its arms, the mother to grasp its legs: "The 
 child shall be hers who drags it over the line." As they begin 
 to pull, the mother, seeing the child suffer, lets go and weeps. 
 "Whose hearts are tender to babes," inquires the "Great 
 Physician," "those who have borne children or those who have 
 not.''" The bystanders give the appropriate answer, and 
 
 ' 1 Kings iii. 16-28. ^ Jataka, 6. 336. 
 
70 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 the infant is restored to the true mother. The dilemma is 
 the same ; the conclusion is reached by a similar test founded 
 on the same motive. The two stories seem to be variants of 
 a common original. So far as the literary record goes, the 
 Book of Kings is, of course, far the older. But the tale might 
 have been repeated for centuries in India without being 
 written down. Did it come from there along with the apes 
 and the ivory which Solomon was said to have imported ? 
 Or was it picked up in Babylonia in the sixth century when 
 Israel was in exile, and attached to Solomon by the redactor 
 of the traditions of his wisdom ? No definite answer is 
 possible, but the acknowledged Indian origin of so many 
 western folk-tales is in favor of the southern reference. 
 On the other hand, the story of Sargon with its parallel 
 in the case of Moses is of undoubtedly higher antiquity than 
 its Indian counterpart. The text in its present form comes 
 from the scribes of Assurbanipal in the seventh century 
 B.C., but it is recognized as a legend of ancient date. 
 
 My lowly mother conceived me, in secret she brought me forth. 
 She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she closed my door. She 
 cast me into the river, which rose not over me. The river bore me up, 
 unto Akki the irrigator it carried me. Akki the irrigator . . . lifted me 
 out. Akki the irrigator as his own son reared me, etc.^ 
 
 A similar tale is told at great length and with exuberant 
 imagination in the huge Indian epic, the Mahabharata.^ 
 The lady Kunti has conceived by Surya, the Sun. When 
 the child Kama is born, he is placed in a waterproof wicker- 
 work basket, duly pillowed and sheeted, and the basket is 
 set on the waters of the river Asva, whence it is borne on its 
 course to the Ganges. There the beautiful lady Radha, who 
 has no son, watches it drifting down the stream. The waves 
 bring it to the bank; the babe is discovered and accepted 
 as a gift from the gods ; and the boy is reared by Radha and 
 her husband in their own home. Once more we encounter 
 a wandering tale in a new setting, this time doubtless derived, 
 from an ancient Mesopotamian source. 
 
 To Babylonia also belongs the still more widespread 
 
 ^ L. W. King, Chronicles concerning Early Babylonian Kings, 2. 88 (1907). 
 ' Third division, Vana Parva, chapter 307, translated by Dutt. 
 
J. BSTLIN CARPENTER 71 
 
 legend of the Flood. When the cuneiform story was dis- 
 covered by one of the pioneers of Assyriological research, 
 Mr. George Smith, it was already known that a similar nar- 
 rative, afterwards incorporated in the myths of Vishnu, 
 existed in the Brahmana of a Hundred Paths.^ Manu, the 
 mythical progenitor of humanity, is warned by a fish of a 
 coming flood. He is directed to build a ship and enter it, 
 and the fish then promises to save him. When the deluge 
 rises, the fish swims up to him ; the ship's rope is tied to its 
 horn ; and Manu is towed in safety to the Northern Moun- 
 tain. There he remains while the waters sweep away the 
 previous race, and thence, when the waters subside, he 
 descends to become, like Noah, the sire of mankind. The 
 appearance of this story in the Brahmanical literature which 
 preceded the rise of Buddhism at once raises unanswerable 
 questions. Was it part of the original stock of beliefs which 
 the immigrant Aryans brought with them and in due time 
 adapted to their new home, or was it a later acquisition which 
 was incorporated into the legendary lore fed from all sources 
 after their settlement .'' Such tales unquestionably travel 
 far. They may be traced through Syria and Asia Minor 
 into Greece,* where Ogyges, Deucalion, and last of all 
 Dardanos, figure in turn as the hero. The steps of migra- 
 tion may be beyond the historian's ken ; but it can hardly 
 be doubted that the Mediterranean stories were ultimately 
 derived from a common source in Babylonian culture. They 
 enter Greek literature at a relatively late date, and Pindar 
 is the oldest surviving witness. Usener makes it probable 
 that the Deucalion story was known to one of the Hesiodic 
 poets at the opening of the sixth century B.C.,' but in the 
 scheme of the Four Ages the Deluge has no place. 
 
 The parallel of the Four Ages of the Greeks with the later 
 Indian series of Four Yugas has been familiar since Roth's 
 essay in 1866, though his attempt to carry their source back 
 to the earliest days of Indo-Germanic antiquity does not 
 
 ' Sacred Books of the East, 12. 216, translated by Eggeling. Cf. Mahabharata 
 iii. 187. 
 
 ' Cf . Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen (1899) ; Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im 
 Lichte des alien Orients, p. 131 (1904) ; and Gruppe, Griechische Mythologle, 
 1. 443 (1906). 
 
 ' Die Sintfluthsagen, p. 33. 
 
72 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 find favor with the present generation of scholars. Similar 
 speculations seem traceable in different forms in Western 
 Asia. Ewald pointed to one such at the opening of Israel's 
 history," and the clearer analysis of modern times follows 
 it through the stages of the Priestly Code, where the marked 
 decline in the duration of human life is the symbol of the 
 increasing corruption of the world. The Avestan ar- 
 rangement of the world's history in four periods of three 
 thousand years each, terminating in Ahura's triumph, 
 belongs to a different scheme of thought, founded on the 
 idea of alternate victories instead of continuous decline, 
 though the number four may have been suggested from the 
 same ultimate source. It reappears in Daniel's presentation 
 of the succession of four world empires (Dan. ii. and vii.), 
 and passes on into later Apocalyptic.^' Hindu, Greek, and 
 Jew learned from a common school in Western Asia. 
 
 II 
 
 The programmes of world history are closely connected 
 with those of cosmography and eschatology, and in this field 
 also India presents parallels of no little interest. The pic- 
 ture of the universe implied in the Vedic hymns is extremely 
 simple compared with the later doctrine of the Puranas. 
 Above the earth rises the atmosphere, reaching to the sky ; 
 above the sky is the heavan, the home of the gods, the realm 
 unseen by mortal eyes but full of light. The four points 
 of the compass are known, and the earth is apparently divided 
 into four quarters or regions. Its shape, however, is round, 
 for it is compared to a wheel, and it is expressly called cir- 
 cular.'^ Subsequent representations show enormous imag- 
 inative development. Long before the completion of the 
 great cyclopaedic poem which enshrines so much of the 
 mythology, philosophy, and religion of India, or the still 
 later literature of the Puranas, the Buddhist texts reveal to 
 us important phases of belief varying widely from Brahman- 
 
 '» History of Israel, 1. 257 (3d ed.). 
 
 " Ct. Gunkel's note on Genesis xvii. 1-14, in the Handkommentar, pp. 241-243. 
 "^ Cf. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 9, in Biihler's Grundriss; Wallis, Cos- 
 mology of the Big Veda, pp. 111-117 (1887). 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 73 
 
 ical tradition. The world of the devas is still, indeed, under 
 the supreme government of Brahma. But its ranks are 
 filled with groups of figures unknown to the theology of the 
 sacred books of antiquity. They rise in seven orders from 
 the Four Great Bangs and their multitudinous attendants, 
 through the Thirty-three who represent the venerable Vedic 
 forms, up to the sovereign Brahma, "Lord of all. Father of 
 all that are and are to be." ^' An extensive folklore lies 
 behind the lists in two _Suttas of the Digha Nikaya, the 
 Mahasamaya,^^ and the Atanatiya.^^ Part of this immense 
 hierachyis, very likely, the imaginative creation of Buddhism, 
 but many of its lower elements belong to the sphere of popu- 
 lar faith. Such are the various groups of spirits ruled by 
 the Four Great Kings, the regents of the four quarters of 
 the earth, enumerated in the Atanatiya Sutta. This poem 
 opens to us a glimpse into the early Buddhist view of the 
 earth. On the east and west is the ocean — deep, wide- 
 spread — and on the north rises the beautiful Meru with the 
 great northern continent at its base, where the happy 
 dwellers need not labor for their food, as it grows of its own 
 accord, and consequently do not claim things as their own, 
 or grasp at possession. ^^ 
 
 Round this mountain gathered all kinds of pious specu- 
 lations." On its summit was the heaven of the Thirty-three, 
 ruled by their King Sakka, the representative of the Vedic 
 Indra ; and later Buddhist texts vie with the poet of the 
 Mahabharata in describing its splendors.'* Above it rose 
 tier upon tier of heavenly realms, till the world of Brahma 
 himself was reached, the seventh and highest order of Deity. 
 With its various grades for the blessed who still wore some 
 
 " Among many similar enumerations, see that in the Kevaddha Sutta (Olgha 
 Nikaya, Sutta xi.), translated by Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, 1. 280. 
 
 " Digha Nikaya, 2. 253. 
 
 " IHd., 3. 194. 
 
 1' 'Amama apariggaha,' ibid., p. 199. 
 
 " It was also known to the Jains, Sacred Books of the East, 45. 288. 
 
 " Indian imagination employs the same sort of scenic presentation as the Apoca- 
 lypse. Indra's city, which has a thousand gates, according to the Mahabharata, 
 is adorned with precious stones, and there are trees which yield all seasons' fruit. 
 The sun does not scorch, nor does heat or cold or weariness torment. Grief, weak- 
 ness, despondency, are unknown ; no one is angry or covetous. Cf . FausbOU, 
 Indian Mythology, p. 87. 
 
74 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 outward form, or for those who needed no external vesture 
 but were simple effulgences nurtured on joy," we are not here 
 concerned : they do not belong to the proper Buddhist 
 cosmography. Whatever elaboration it afterwards ac- 
 quired, this seems to have been at first relatively simple. 
 India was placed on the south side of Mount Meru,^" and 
 the whole earth was said to rest on water, the water on wind, 
 and the wind on space.^^ The region of the hells is not de- 
 fined ; they would seem to be located beneath the earth, 
 for the wicked Devadatta, like Dathan and Abiram, is 
 swallowed up by the earth, and presumably finds his way 
 through it to his place of pain.^^ But the entire complex, 
 with the earth in the centre and all the ranges for sentient 
 beings above and below, formed a world-system (loka- 
 dhdtu), and appears to have been conceived as spherical. 
 The number of these systems — for they might be indefi- 
 nitely multiplied in infinite space — was unfixed. In the 
 thousand mentioned in the Anguttara Nikaya,^ each has its 
 central mount, the same four continents and four great 
 oceans, and the same sevenfold orders of the gods. The 
 Buddha could, if he desired, address with his own voice each 
 one of three thousand such world-systems.^* And the num- 
 ber swells yet further. When the Kingdom of the Dhamma 
 is established at Benares, and Kondanna has obtained the 
 holy insight, a shout of joy arises from the devas on earth 
 through the whole hierarchy to the Brahma's realm ; a shock 
 of sympathy passes through the entire system of ten thousand 
 worlds, and an immeasurable light fills the whole universe.^^ 
 Later speculation demanded still further elaboration, and 
 a new term comes into view, the cakkavdla,^ as the equiva- 
 lent of the loka-dhdtu of the older texts. Its simple meaning 
 seems to be merely 'ring' or 'horizon.'^' But it acquired 
 
 '' Brahmajala Sutta, in Dialogues of the Buddha, 1. 31. 
 
 ^^ On the east was Pubba-Videha, and on the west, Apara-Goyana ; see An- 
 guttara Nikaya, 1. 227; 5. 59. 
 
 =' Digha Nikaya, 2. 107, Sacred Books, 11. 45 ; Milinda Paflha, p. 68, ibid., 
 35. 106. 
 
 22 Milinda Paflha, p. 205, Sacred Books, 35. 292. Four other cases of similar 
 punishment are named, ibid., 36. 153. ^ 1. 227 and 5. 59. 
 
 ^ Anguttara, 1. 128. " Vinaya Pitaka, in Sacred Books, 13. 98. 
 
 ^' For instance, Jataka, 1. 48. 
 
 " Cf . the lexicons and Kern in the Lotus of the True Law, Sacred Books, 21. 233. 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 75 
 
 a highly technical application. In the great ocean flowing 
 round Meru rose seven concentric circles of rock, between 
 the monarch of mountains and the four great continents. 
 Beyond these again, with their encompassing seas, a mighty 
 range of peaks ^ enclosed the whole, and formed the utmost 
 limit of the world. ^' How much of this scheme underlies 
 the earlier and simpler presentations, it is impossible to 
 determine. The seven rock-circles are named in the Jina- 
 lankara, lO'Z. If that poem could really be referred to the 
 century before Asoka,'" the whole conception would belong 
 to the period which witnessed the redaction of the four great 
 Nikayas of the Pali canon. But, apart from other consid- 
 erations, the silence of the Pitakas seems unfavorable to 
 such a conclusion. 
 
 It is not necessary in the present brief study to discuss 
 the resemblances or divergences of the Brahmanical texts 
 as compared with those of Buddhism. The statements of 
 different authors vary widely, and the want of precision in 
 the employment of particular terms adds greatly to their 
 confusion. It may suffice that all agree in placing Meru in 
 the middle of the earth, and in one form or another associate 
 the number seven, not only with the realms of the gods 
 (including the world of Brahma) above it, but with seven 
 spatial divisions, diversely named, which surround it.'^ 
 Neither in the Mahabharata nor in the Puranas, however, 
 is there any sign of acquaintance with the technical termi- 
 nology of the concentric rock-walls. On the other hand, 
 Buddhist writers are silent on the descent of the heavenly 
 Ganges, from the foot of Vishnu, upon Mount Meru, whence, 
 after flowing round the city of Brahma, it parted into four 
 mighty rivers to water the four great continents of the earth. ^^ 
 
 The antecedents of this world-picture are not hard to 
 find. Ever since Jensen described the Babylonian cosmol- 
 ogy,^^ the belief has grown stronger and stronger that Meru 
 
 ^' Cakkavala-pabbaia. ^^ Cf . Burnouf, Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 842. 
 
 "" So Gray, in his edition of the text, p. 7. 
 
 '' Dr. William F. Warren, The Earliest Cosmologies, p. 87, supplies an inter- 
 pretation derived from Hindu sources in the last century. 
 
 ^ \'ishnu Purana, ed. Hall, 2. 119 f. Other authorities mention seven streams. 
 On Genesis ii. 10-14, see Gunkel, Handkommentar, pp. 7, 33. 
 
 ^ Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 184. 
 
76 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 is no other than the great mountain of the gods which re- 
 appears also in the Iranian scriptures, was within the view 
 even of Hebrew seers,'^ and had its counterpart in the Greek 
 Olympus. The frequent recurrence of the number seven is 
 explained from the same source. The sevenfold order of 
 the gods, with their domains above the earth, is parallel 
 though not identical with the sevenfold arrangement of the 
 Babylonian heavens, founded on the sun, moon, and five 
 planets.^^ And the seven rock-circles round Meru show 
 the sacred number sounding on, as in the seven walls encom- 
 passing the city of the Mesopotamian underworld, or the 
 seven walls encircling Ecbatana,^* till it dies away in the seven 
 ramparts and seven rows of palms which girdled Kusavati, 
 the city of the Great King of Glory,'' or the seven terraces 
 of Sukhavati, the land of bliss.'^ The significant question 
 cannot but present itself, When was this influence exercised, 
 and by what means ? 
 
 No definite answer, of course, can be given. Probabilities 
 only are within our reach. One view assumes a common 
 Indo-Iranian origin ; '' another, observing that the Iranian 
 months bear Babylonian names, prefers to explain the coin- 
 cidences between the two branches of Aryan mythology by 
 independent derivation of similar suggestions from a common 
 source.*' That Babylonian stories found their way to India 
 before the rise of Buddhism is proved by the appearance of 
 the flood tale in the Brahmana of a Hundred Paths (already 
 mentioned) , which has no fellow in the Avestan texts. The 
 cosmography of which Meru is the centre is quite unknown 
 to the Vedic age. There are, indeed, four " quarters," corre- 
 sponding to the four points of the compass, increased to six 
 in the Atharva-veda,*^ which appear as well known objects 
 
 '^ Isaiah xiv. 13 is well known. Cf. Psalm xlviii. 3; Ezekiel xxviii. 14. Schra- 
 der-Zimmern (Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3d ed., p. 620) find further 
 traces in Isaiah ii. 2 ; Micahiv. 1; Zechariah xiv. 10; Revelation xxi. 10. 
 
 '' Oldenberg's suggestion (Die Religion des Veda, 1894, p. 195) that the seven 
 Adityas of Vedic mythology are due to Semitic influence, has not won much sup- 
 port. " Herodotus, i. 98. " Sacred Books, 11. 249 f. 
 
 " Sacred Books 49 (part ii). 91. Cf. the seven-walled chamber in which King 
 Bimbisara was imprisoned at Raja-griha, ibid., p. 161. For Jensen's comparison 
 of the seven keshvars in the Bundehesh and the seven dvlpas of Indian mythology, 
 see his Kosmologie, pp. 176 ff. " So Dr. Warren in The Earliest Cosmologies. 
 
 *" Cf. Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 183 f. " Cf. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 9. 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 77 
 
 of worship in the Siiigalovada Sutta.*^ They match the four 
 kibrdti of the Semitic Babylonians,^' and have their analogues 
 in the Old Testament.^^ But the Vedic universe is extremely 
 simple. It consists of three "worlds,'* the earth, the atmos- 
 phere, and the heaven of light above the sky. Beneath is a 
 hole or pit, and the wicked are thrust down into the abyss ; 
 in the Atharva-veda there is a "house below," a place of 
 darkness and torment. These scanty allusions are quite in- 
 consistent with the possession of an elaborate cosmic scheme 
 of heavens and hells. The number seven is, of course, of 
 repeated occurrence in many connections, and Bergaigne con- 
 jectured a reference to seven worlds in Rig-veda viii. 61. 16.^^ 
 But these are unknown to the treatises in which the Vedic 
 ritual was embodied. The Brahman a of a Hundred Paths 
 still has only three worlds to deal with,^^ and the same three 
 still constitute the cosmos of the early Upanishads.^' In 
 those pathetic sketches of the progress of the soul by differ- 
 ent routes to the world of light and the everlasting home of 
 Brahman, or to the moon and back through ether, air, and 
 rain, to the earth,"** imagination is still occupied with the 
 scenery of our common life. Even that pilgrimage which 
 leads through the worlds of fire and air, of Varuna and Indra, 
 Prajapati and Brahman, knows no sevenfold heaven. The 
 River Ageless and the Palace Unconquerable and the Throne 
 Intelligence have nothing to do with the summit of Meru 
 or the yet higher worlds above. Had this pictorial presenta- 
 tion been brought by the Aryan immigrants as part of their 
 ancestral inheritance of thought, it could not have remained 
 concealed for so many ages, while it becomes so prominent 
 in later times. The part which it plays in Indian literature 
 
 ^ Digha Nikaya, 3. 180. " Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 173 f. 
 
 ■" Isaiah xi. 12; Jeremiah xlix. 36; Ezekiel vii. 2; Revelation vii. 1, xx. 8. See 
 Cheyne in Encyclopaedia Biblica, 2, col. 1149. 
 
 ** La Religion Vedique, 2. 140. Others interpret quite differently. Dr. Warren 
 sees other indications in the seven castles demoUshed by Indra, Rig-veda, vii. 
 18. 13, etc., and in the seven bottoms or foundations of the (atmospheric) ocean, 
 viii. 40. 5. 
 
 *' So Sacred Books, 43. 314. But the world of the gods has become sevenfold, 
 cf. p. 277. The Atharva-veda begins to multiply the series; three earths and 
 heavens, Atharva-veda iv. 20. 2 ; nine earths, oceans, heavens, xi. 7. 14. 
 
 " Cf. Sacred Books, 1. 31, 70, etc. 
 
 " Collected in Max MuUer's Theosophy or Psychological Religion, pp. 114 fl. 
 
78 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 from the fifth century onwards makes its silent retention 
 for a previous millennium quite inexplicable. 
 
 Ill 
 
 These considerations may be reinforced from" another 
 side. The same sources which first portray for us the stately 
 form of the "monarch of mountains," tell us also that even 
 he will perish.^^ The Buddhist texts are never weary of 
 the central theme of 'impermanence.' Whatever is com- 
 posite must be dissolved, and the universe itself was no ex- 
 ception. Over the solid earth and all its contents was written 
 the doom of destruction. The conception which has slowly 
 been applied to human destiny, death, rebirth, redeath, and 
 rebirth again under the law of the Deed {karma), was trans- 
 ferred to the physical world. The visible scene provided 
 the field on which the principle of Karma was worked out ; 
 and the same consequence of origination and decay attached 
 to it. The terminology of this process is already fully de- 
 veloped in the Buddhist texts. Time is reckoned by vast 
 periods in which the world unrolls itself out of darkness and 
 chaos, runs through its appointed cycle of development and 
 decline, and comes in due course to its destined end.^" The 
 evolution of our existing scene after such an interval of 
 silence, gloom, and waste, is described in the Agganna Sutta,*' 
 which further sketches the origin of the human race, the be- 
 ginning of evil conduct, and the rise of social distinctions. 
 These periods correspond in the later theology to the slum- 
 ber and the waking of Brahma, ^^ and the world-destruction 
 is accomplished by fire or water. ^' The great conflagration 
 or the mighty deluge serves to point an image for the Bud- 
 dhist poets also.^^ But the belief was much more than a 
 decorative device. It plays a significant part in Indian 
 eschatology, and enters literature with full detail in the 
 
 *^ Samyutta, 3. 149 : ' the ocean, Sineru, king of mountains, and the earth will 
 one day perish and cease to be." '" Cf. Sacred Books, 11. 216. 
 
 51 Digha Nikaya, 3. 84. «^ Cf. Manu, Sacred Books, 25. 17., 
 
 " A third agency, wind, was afterwards added. 
 
 " Buddha-Carita, xiii. 41, in Sacred Books, 49. 143; Lotus, ibid., 21. 241; Life 
 of Buddha from the Chinese, ihid., 19. 309. 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 79 
 
 Buddhist Pitakas. The process is described in a discourse 
 attributed to the Buddha in the Anguttara Nikaya.^^ Cu- 
 riously enough, it occupies a place in his career not unHke 
 the eschatological prophecy of Mark xiii. in that of Jesus. 
 His life is nearing its end ; he is sojourning in the grove 
 presented to the Order by the courtesan AmbapaH inthelast 
 year of his long ministry ; ^^ and he must impress on his 
 disciples the fundamental truth that all things which have 
 come together must pass away. Even Sineru with its vast 
 mass, eighty-four thousand leagues beneath the ocean and 
 eighty-four thousand more in height above it, must cease 
 to be. A time will come when it will rain no more, and plants, 
 herbs, and trees will wither away. A second sun will ap- 
 pear, and brooks and ponds will dry up. With a third sun, 
 the great rivers like the Ganges and the Jumna will fail. 
 At the advent of the fourth, the mythologic lakes which 
 were their sources will be exhausted. The fifth will reduce 
 the waters of the great ocean to the depth of a finger-joint. 
 The sixth will make the earth and Meru belch forth clouds 
 of smoke ; and with the seventh all the tiers of heavens up 
 to the Brahma world will be ablaze, and the whole universe 
 will be consumed.^' In the vast mass of literature piled on 
 the Veda there is nothing like this.^* Whence came the con- 
 ception of a great world-conflagration ? Destruction by 
 water was already borrowed from Babylonia, though it was 
 not conceived on the same cosmic scale, or connected with 
 a doctrine of world-ages. Are we to look beyond the Hi- 
 malaya for its counterpart by fire .'' 
 
 No such doctrine has yet been discovered in any cunei- 
 form text. But indications are not wanting, nevertheless, 
 that it had a home in Western Asia. The New Testament 
 presents us with a division of time into great world-periods, 
 
 ** Anguttara Nikaya, 4. 100. Translated by Edmunds, Buddhist and Christian 
 Gospels, 2. 147 (4th ed.). " Sacred Books, 11. 33. 
 
 ^' Cf. Henry C. Warren's version from the later text of the 'Path of Purity,' 
 in Buddhism in Translations, pp. 321 ff., where the catastrophe involves a million 
 million worlds. For another development, including fire and flood and wind, see 
 the Nirvana Sutra in Beal's Catena, p. 170. 
 
 *' In the Atharva-veda, x. 10. 39, "As between heaven-and-earth Agni went, 
 burning on, all consuming" (Whitney-Lanman), Keith finds an allusion to this 
 doctrine of the periodic destruction and renewal of the world. Journal of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society, 1909, p. 599. 
 
80 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 the age that now is, and the age that is to come ; and specu- 
 lation concerned itself largely with the events which would 
 mark the transition. One great catastrophe had already 
 taken place in the distant past, the Deluge. What would 
 prepare the way for the next era ? The author of 2 Peter, 
 following a succession of apocalyptists, answered 'Fire.'^' 
 It was an expectation already stamped with the sanction of 
 the past. The historian Josephus ascribes the invention 
 of astronomy to the children of Seth, and relates a curious 
 story of the measures taken to preserve their discovery.^" 
 When Adam predicted that the world would be destroyed at 
 one time by the force of fire, and at another by the violence 
 of water, they made two pillars, one of brick and one of stone, 
 on both of which they inscribed the knowledge they had won. 
 If the brick pillar were destroyed by the flood, the stone 
 pillar might still preserve the record; "and it remains," 
 adds Josephus, boldly, "in the land of Siris to this day." 
 The attribution of this prophecy to the wisdom of the first 
 man implies that it was derived from remote antiquity. 
 There is at any rate good reason to think that it may have 
 belonged to the ancient Babylonian cosmology. In the 
 Naturales Qusestiones of Seneca (iii. 29), the Roman philos- 
 opher reports some of the opinions of Berosus, the famous 
 priest of Bel in Babylon, whose statue was erected by the 
 Athenians, says Pliny, with a gilt tongue in honor of his 
 extraordinary predictions. Born in the reign of Alexander 
 the Great, he composed his three books of Babylonica under 
 Antiochus II., who came to the throne in 261 b.c. Many of 
 the statements of Berosus have been justified by recent in- 
 vestigators; and his use of cuneiform materials is fully 
 admitted. Now Berosus, says Seneca, taught on astronom- 
 ical grounds a doctrine of a great world-year, which would 
 end in one case with a flood (diluvium), and in the other with 
 a fire (conflagratio). It has been held that this conception 
 was founded on the observation of the precession of the equi- 
 noxes, which is erroneously asserted to have been known to 
 the Babylonian astronomers. In the world's great year, the 
 deluge would mark the winter and the fire the summer. 
 
 " iii. 6-7, 10. »» Antiquities, i. 2, 3. 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 81 
 
 There are traces of a Babylonian cycle of 36,000 years ; *' 
 and there is a high probability that the doctrine reported 
 by Berosus belonged to a scheme already millenniums old. 
 
 In the book of Genesis the Deluge closes the epoch of 
 primeval man. The destruction of the whole race save 
 Noah and his family plainly implies the closing of one age 
 and the opening of a successor. The flood, it is divinely 
 promised, shall not be repeated. But in Hebrew prophecy, 
 as Gressmann has so brilliantly shown,^^ a new element 
 appears — a great world-conflagration.^ The word of 
 Yahweh to Micah opens with a summons to the peoples, a 
 challenge to the whole earth. Yahweh is about to come 
 forth to the vast assize where he is both witness and judge. 
 From the heavenly sanctuary he will descend to tread on 
 the high places of the earth. Fire follows in his steps; 
 the mountains shall be molten under him,^* and the valleys 
 shall be cleft like wax. Jeremiah saw the world relapsing 
 into primeval chaos, tohu-vd-bohu, iv. 23 ; one era was ending, 
 another would begin. Zephaniah announced the "day of 
 wrath" when all the earth should be consumed with the fire 
 of the divine jealousy. In the exilian and subsequent litera- 
 ture the expectation blazes more fiercely still. Not the earth 
 alone, but heaven itself and the deeps of Sheol will feel the 
 flame. The world comes to an end by fire, and a new heaven 
 and a new earth are needed. The doctrine of world-periods is 
 not yet defined ; it is left for apocalyptists to work out details. 
 
 Yet further west, along the coasts of Asia Minor, does this 
 expectation travel. No Greek teacher employed it as an 
 avenging weapon of divine government, after the manner of 
 a Hebrew seer, but it was early lodged in Hellenic thought. 
 The Ionic philosophers were largely concerned with physical 
 inquiries; they brooded over problems of the periodic 
 destruction and reconstitution of the world. Heraclitus of 
 Ephesus and Hippasus of Metapontum were credited with 
 
 " Schrader-Zimmem, KeUmschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 333 (3d ed.) ; 
 Hilprecht in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1908, p. 708. 
 
 ^ Der Ursprung der Israelitisch-Judischen Eschatologie (1905). 
 
 " It is worth observing that in Isaiah xxx. 26 (secondary, see Duhm in loc.) 
 the expander, or his glosser, does not realize that a sun seven times as bright might 
 also be seven times as hot. 
 
 ** A special feature of the Iranian eschatology. Sacred Books, 5. 125. 
 
82 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 teaching the dissolution of all things by fire at a fixed time 
 under a necessary law ; ®^ and Heraclitus is said to have 
 recognised a great world-year, of either 10,800 or 18,000 solar 
 years in length. Whether he actually used the later term 
 e/cTTv/sctfo-i? cannot be definitely proved. But Zeller regards 
 the idea of the world-conflagration as firmly lodged, from 
 the sixth century onwards, in the philosophical eschatology 
 of Greece. ^^ Was this also, like the Deluge stories, drawn 
 from the abundant reservoir of Babylonian speculation ? 
 
 The existence of some common elements of eschatological 
 belief between India and the West finds further illustration 
 in the pictures of social disorder which would indicate the 
 near approach of the end. There are, of course, widely 
 marked differences both of general conception and particular 
 detail. But beneath these variations there are also singu- 
 lar resemblances, which suggest the influence of similar ideas 
 and the operation of cognate though not identical motives. 
 When Jesus says in the Gospels, "I came to set a man at 
 variance against his father, and the daughter against her 
 mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, 
 and a man's foes shall be they of his own household " (Mat- 
 thew X. 35), his language obviously recalls that of Micah 
 vii. 6, "the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter 
 riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against 
 her mother-in-law ; a man's enemies are the men of his own 
 house." But the language of Micah, in its turn, is parallel 
 with that in which Babylonian texts appear to dwell on in- 
 crease of social disorder as signs of impending change. 
 "Then shall brother devour brother, people shall sell their 
 children for gold, the lands shall fall into general confusion, 
 the husband shall leave the wife, and the wife the husband, 
 the mother shall bar the doors against the daughter." And 
 again — "Brother shall devour brother, the son the father 
 like . . . the mother the daughter, the bride the . . ." ^^ 
 In the myth of Atarhasis, the age which closes with a judg- 
 es Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 1. 58, 71 (1906). 
 
 "* Pre-Socratic Philosophy, 2. 73-77. Bumet, on the other hand. Early Greek 
 Philosophy, p. 178 (2d ed., 1908), argues that it contradicts the central idea of the 
 Heraclitan system. 
 
 " Jeremias, Babylonisches im Neuen Testamente, p. 97 (1905). 
 
J. ESTUN CARPENTER 83 
 
 ment in the shape of the deluge and is followed by the new 
 world-epoch, is preceded by evil years, in which men show 
 enmity to each other, "the mother opens not the door to her 
 daughter, one house devours another, " etc. Micah repro- 
 duced commonplaces of family disorganization as the pre- 
 cursors of an approaching cosmic event : and Gressmann 
 directed his argument to show that such parallels implied 
 the existence of a body of eschatological doctrine in Baby- 
 lonia of high antiquity, connected in one set of texts, at any 
 rate, with a theory of the destruction of the world, the 
 particular agency in this case being the Flood. 
 
 The story of the Deluge incorporated in the Brahmana 
 of a Hundred Paths contains no such description of prior 
 moral disorders. Nor does the Buddha foretell any social 
 or cosmic catastrophes before the appearance of the seven 
 suns. The general cyclic conception of growth and decay 
 was naturally applied to his own institutions. In a dis- 
 course on the 'Five Dangers of the Future,' recommended 
 for study in the Bhabra Edict of the Emperor Asoka, he 
 anticipates the deterioration of character which will beset 
 the members of the Order, their loss of self-control, the 
 growth of luxury and appetite, the evils engendered by 
 rival claims to distinction, the increase of comfort, and the 
 demand for fine robes. The danger of such decline is em- 
 phasized in highly mythological form in the Cakkavatti 
 Sutta,^* which relates the decline of human life from a 
 duration of 84,000 years to ten, through the increase of every 
 kind of sin, and its gradual recovery by the return to well- 
 doing till it reaches its former maximum of length, when 
 Metteyya, the beautiful impersonation of Buddhist charity, 
 the Buddha-to-be, will inaugurate a fresh period of truth 
 and righteousness. More significant, however, is the picture 
 in the Mahabharata of the distresses which will mark the 
 decrepitude of the last of the Four Ages as the appointed life- 
 time of the world runs out.*' The course of the world will 
 
 »» Digha Nikaya, 3. 68. 
 
 *' Two separate descriptions occur in the Vana Parva, chapters 188 and 190. It 
 is impossible here to discuss their relations, or to dwell on the significance of Kalki, 
 the restorer of order and peace, the righteous king, and maker of a new age, chap- 
 ters 190-191. 
 
84 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 be subverted and the signs of the universal dissolution will 
 draw nigh. With the increase of every kind of moral dis- 
 organization, life will grow shorter and strength will decline. 
 Barbarian kings will rule over the earth and govern their 
 subjects on false principles. Brahmans will abandon their 
 religious duties, and sacrifice and prayer will be neglected. 
 Ignorance, drunkenness, and deceit will infest the earth. 
 The rains will be withheld ; no seed will sprout ; famine will 
 breed starvation, and hunger will dissolve the closest ties. 
 The different "quarters" will break out in flame; the stars 
 and constellations will lose their brightness ; the courses of 
 the wind will be confused ; innumerable meteors will flash 
 through the sky ; and from his rising to his setting the sun 
 will be eclipsed.^" Here are the familiar features of the 
 apocalyptic expectations of Western Asia, applied to new 
 scenes and adapted to a different social and religious en- 
 vironment. But the essential ideas are identical. How is 
 this identity to be explained except by the stimulus of a 
 common thought ? ^' 
 
 IV 
 
 By what channels such imaginative suggestions passed 
 from land to land it is now of course impossible to deter- 
 mine. But a number of indications converge upon the gen- 
 eral conclusion that commercial intercourse had a wider 
 range than was formerly supposed, and carried with it more 
 possibilities of intellectual exchange than we associate with 
 the trading vessels or merchant enterprises of the present 
 day. India was by no means a closed or inaccessible coun- 
 try. Palaeography derives the earliest Indian alphabet 
 
 "• Vana Parva, chapter 190, verses 76-79. 
 
 " Another curious parallel has recently been discovered in a book of Egyptian 
 prophecies, attributed to Apout, a prophet ot the twelfth dynasty. Here, too, is a 
 scheme of social dissolution, religious neglect, famine, epidemics, invasion and 
 massacre, the rivers turned to blood, etc. The period of degeneration does not 
 appear to be connected with a programme of world-ages, and no cosmic portents 
 herald the collapse ot the universe. A triumphant prosperity will be restored on 
 the advent of an ideal sovereign, who is "the shepherd of all men, who has no evil 
 in his heart, and when his flock goes astray, spends the day in seeking it." Maspero, 
 New Light on Ancient Egypt, translated by Miss Lee, p. 231 (1908). 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 85 
 
 from Semitic sources about 800 B.C. J^ whether by the passes 
 of the Hindu Kush, or more probably by sea. The reports 
 of Solomon's trade have been already mentioned. The 
 Hebrew word qoph, 'ape,' is an Indian name (Sanskrit 
 kapi, Egyptian gof'e and gi'f, Greek /ctj/So? and kjjtto?) ; '^ 
 while the peacock, tukJci, seems to correspond with the Mala- 
 bar toghai. One of the Buddhist Jatakas actually tells a 
 story of a peacock sent by ship to the kingdom of Baveru 
 (Babel, Babylon). ^^ The peacock, too, was known in Greece, 
 where Aristophanes contrasted it, under the name raav; 
 (or rao)? as the Athenians are said to have tried to pro- 
 nounce it), with the common fowl. An Indian elephant is 
 figured on an obelisk of Shalmanassar in the ninth century. 
 Nebuchadrezzar employed Indian cedar in his palace at Birs 
 Nimrud." Hilprecht found indications of Indian settle- 
 ments in Babylonia under Artaxerxes I. in the fifth century.'^ 
 Rice, which the Greeks spoke of as Indians' food, was known 
 as early as Sophocles (6pivBri';dpTo<;, bread made of opv^a),'''' 
 and its name opv^a is identified with the Tamil arisi. Nor 
 were these the only products transmitted from the East to 
 the West. Plato seems acquainted with the fable of the ass 
 in the lion's skin ; '* and in the Alcibiades I. 123 there is an 
 allusion to the ^Esopic fable of the fox and the lion — " the 
 prints of the feet of those going in are distinct enough." In 
 discussing the similar story of the jackal and the lion in the 
 great Indian collection of the Pancatantra, Benfey argued '^ 
 that the Hindus derived the tale from the Greeks after 
 Alexander's conquest. But the essential element is now 
 
 ™ Biihler, Indische Palaeographie, p. 17 (1898). On the questions raised by 
 Winckler's discoveries at Boghaz Koi in the summer of 1907, see papers by 
 Professors Jacobi and Oldenberg, Messrs. Berriedale Keith and Kennedy, in the 
 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909. 
 
 " Gesenius- Brown, Hebrew and English Lexicon. 
 
 " Jataka, 3. 339. 
 
 " A piece is preserved in the British Museum. See Kennedy, ' Early Commerce 
 of Babylon with India,' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898, p. 266. 
 
 '* Dr. Langdon kindly informs me that as the Hindus in question bore Semitic 
 names, they had probably been there for at least three generations. 
 
 " Liddell and Scott, s.v. See also Kennedy, op. cit., p. 268. Indians followed 
 Xerxes into Europe, Herodotus vii, 65, 86, and remained with Mardonios in 
 Hellas, viii. 113, ix. 31; cf. iii. 38, 98-117, iv. 44 (Macan's Herodotus). 
 
 " Cratylus, 411; Jataka, 2. 189. 
 
 " Pantschatantra, 1. 381. 
 
86 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 found in the Buddhist Jatakas, No. 6,*" though in a wholly 
 different setting, and the story is believed to be of Indian 
 origin. Questions of profound interest arise in connexion 
 with other resemblances between Indian and early Greek 
 thought besides the doctrine of the world-conflagration. 
 A century ago Colebrooke called attention to resemblances 
 between phases of early Indian thought and the speculations 
 of the Eleatic school. Garbe and Hopkins have both recog- 
 nized Indian influence in Greece. The recent investigations 
 of Keith have greatly weakened, if they have not entirely 
 discredited, von Schroeder's plea for the partial dependence 
 of Pythagoras on teachings from the East ; *^ but he expressly 
 reserves his judgment in the case of the' complex elements 
 gathered under the name of Orphism. Ever since the dis- 
 covery of the gold plate at Petelia in Lower Italy, with its 
 reference to "escape from the sorrowful weary wheel," *^ 
 there has been a growing belief that Orphism cannot be wholly 
 explained from Mediterranean sources ; and among foreign 
 possibilities the natural home of such a view of life is India. 
 
 The considerations thus briefly adduced suggest (1) that 
 Babylonian influences reached India as well as Syria and 
 Greece ; and that the Hindu, the Hebrew, and the Hellene all 
 profited by a common wisdom. But (2) they further point 
 to a more direct if scanty communication with Greek spheres 
 alike of trade and thought. Was that transmission all con- 
 fined to one side ? The late traditions which vaguely sup- 
 posed Thales, Empedocles, or Anaxagoras to have travelled 
 in the East, and definitely sent Democritus and Pythagoras 
 
 8» Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1. 182 (1880). 
 Dr. Macan (Master of University College, Oxford) kindly calls my attention to 
 the parallel between the story of the Dancing Peacock (Nacca-Jataka, translated by 
 Chalmers, The Jataka, ed. Cowell, i. 83, 1895), and the Herodotean tale of the mis- 
 conduct of Hippokleides (Hdt. vi. 126-30. See Macan's Herodotus, ii. 304). 
 
 *• Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909. 
 
 '^ The series of tablets can be most easily consulted by the English-speaking 
 student in Miss Jane Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 
 chapter 11. Cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2. 480. The later language 
 about the "wheel (or circle) of birth," the "wheel of necessity," the "wheel (rpox^O 
 of destiny," seems to point to the satnsdra. 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 87 
 
 to India, may deserve little credit. But they at least imply 
 a belief in possibilities of intercourse such as were open in 
 their own day; and if the popular tale might pass on the 
 lips of sailors or merchants from the Punjaub to the iEgean, 
 there appears no reason why that process should not occa- 
 sionally operate the other way. 
 
 Now the Homeric Hymn to Apollo ( ? circa 800 b.c.) 
 contains a very remarkable story of the god's nativity. 
 It is thus translated by Mr. Andrew Lang. (Eileithyia has 
 arrived in Delos to aid the lady mother Leto.) 
 
 Even when Eileithyia, the helper in sore travailing, 
 set foot in Delos, then labour took hold on Leto, and 
 a passion to bring to the birth. Around a palm-tree 
 she cast her arms, and set her knees on the soft meadow, 
 while earth beneath smiled, and forth leaped the babe 
 to light, and all the Goddesses raised a cry. Then, great 
 Phoebus, the Goddesses washed thee in fair water, holy 
 and purely, and wound thee in white swaddling bands, 
 delicate, new woven, with a golden girdle round thee. 
 Nor did his mother suckle Apollo the golden-sworded, 
 but Themis with immortal hands first touched his lips 
 with nectar and sweet ambrosia, while Leto rejoiced, in 
 that she had borne her strong son, the bearer of the bow. 
 Then, Phoebus, as soon as thou hadst tasted the food 
 of Paradise, the golden bands were not proof against thy 
 pantings, nor bonds could bind thee, but all their ends 
 were loosened. Straightway among the Goddesses spoke 
 Phoebus ApoUo: 'Mine be the dear lyre and bended 
 bow, and I will utter to men the unerring counsel of 
 Zeus.' 
 
 So speaking he began to fare over the wide ways of 
 earth, Phoebus of the locks unshorn, Phoebus the Far- 
 darter. Thereon all the Goddesses were in amaze, and 
 all Delos blossomed with gold, as when a hill-top is 
 heavy with woodland flowers.^ 
 
 It is a long way from Delos to the Lumbini garden, the 
 traditional scene of the birth of Gotama, the future Buddha. 
 
 " Cf. Theognis, 5-10, who adds that Delos was filled with ambrosial odor; 
 earth laughed and ocean rejoiced. 
 
88 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 The spot is guaranteed to the pious disciple of to-day by 
 the discovery, in 1896, of a pillar erected by the Emperor 
 Asoka in reverent commemoration, about the year 243-242 
 B.C. There, according to the story in the Nidana-katha, 
 the Introduction to the Commentary on the Jataka-book, 
 the lady mother Maya was delivered of her son. It is a 
 singular illustration of the indifference of the Indian genius 
 to biographical detail that the vast collection of the ancient 
 scriptures contains no life of the Buddha comparable to one 
 of the Christian Gospels. The story of his life prior to the 
 great Enlightenment is apparently assumed ; ^ and the first 
 continuous narrative is several centuries later than the canon 
 in actual record. But its most characteristic features are 
 after all guaranteed as elements of great antiquity, partly 
 by the representation of some of them in sculptures of the 
 third century B.C., and partly by their occurrence within 
 the canon itself in a recital of the early history of VipassI, 
 the first of a series of seven Buddhas, of whom the historical 
 Gotama was the last. The frequent verbal coincidence 
 between this narrative *^ and that of the Nidana-katha 
 renders it certain that they both rest on an earlier record 
 of Gotama's birth and youth, which has disappeared.*^ 
 
 The incidents of the birth-legend are well known. *^ The 
 lady mother, Maya, perceiving that her time is near at hand, 
 is on a journey to the city of her own people. Upon the way 
 she rests in the Lumbinl grove, and there the hour arrives. 
 Like the mother of Apollo, she clasps the branch of a tree, 
 which bends down for her to grasp it ; ** and as she stands 
 supported by it, the future Buddha arises from within, and 
 issues from her right side, pure and fair. Four great devas 
 of the order of Brahma receive him, like the goddesses who 
 
 *■ There are some important references to it in the enumeration of eight occa- 
 sions of earthquakes. Sacred Books, 11. 46. 
 
 '^ In the Mahapadana Suttanta, Digha Nikaya, 2. 12 ff. 
 
 *' The proof cannot be given here ; but I am glad to be supported in this con- 
 oinsion, formed after^ditiug the text of the Mahapadana Suttanta, by the high 
 authority of Windisch, Buddha's Geburt, pp. 96 ff. (1908). 
 
 " These are related in abstract form as the characteristic events of the birth 
 of any Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya, 3. 118-124. Cf. Edmunds, Buddhist and 
 Christian Gospels, 1. 169 (1908, 4th ed.). The narrative of the Nidana-katha was 
 translated by Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories, 1. 65ff. (1880). 
 
 «' Cf. Foucher, L'Art Gr^co-Bouddhique de Gandhara, pp. 301 ff. (1905). 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 89 
 
 welcomed Leto's babe. Two magic streams, one of cold 
 water and one of warm, descend from the sky, in which, 
 like the infant Apollo, the newborn babe is washed. In 
 a Chinese version ^' Indra provides *a garment of the finest 
 muslin, and wraps him in swaddling clothes, as the attendant 
 goddesses wound the young Greek god. But they can no 
 more confine a future Buddha than they could a son of 
 Zeus, and the destined teacher, who left the womb "like a 
 preacher descending from a pulpit," stands erect, and an- 
 nounces his supremacy over all existing beings, just as Apollo 
 proclaimed his future function to reveal the will of Heaven 
 to man. And just as Apollo set forth to fare over the wide 
 ways of earth, so did the future Buddha, after surveying the 
 world at all points of the compass from the zenith to the 
 nadir, take seven strides, symbolic of his spiritual sovereignty. 
 If for the Greek poet the earth smiled, and all Delos blos- 
 somed with golden bloom, so Indian imagination saw flowers 
 break out over land and water, while an immeasurable light 
 filled the ten thousand worlds.'" 
 
 The resemblances between these two presentations may 
 no doubt be overestimated. An incident repeated in every 
 home must have some common elements wherever it occurs. 
 It is the uncommon elements that excite attention — the 
 mother clasping a tree'"" — the painless birth — the purity 
 
 " Beal, Romantic History of the Buddha, p. 44. 
 
 '" Similarly in Jain legends, at the birth of Mahavira ; cf . Sacred Books, 12. 
 191, 251. At the birth of Christ "the heavenly throne laughed, and the world re- 
 joiced," Oracula Sibyllina, viii. 476, cf. vi. 20. 
 
 "" This turns up again in the account of the birth of Jesus in the Koran, Sur. 
 xix. 23 ff ; in 31 the babe speaks and declares himself the servant of God. Sale 
 (1734) already noticed the parallel with the Apollo story. — The action of the 
 goddess mother in supporting herself by a tree does not Seem to have any paral- 
 lel in Greek mythology. But it is widespread in the lower culture. Mr. R. R. 
 Marett kindly refers me to Roth's Ethnological Studies among the North- West- 
 Central Queensland aborigines (Brisbane, 1897), where fig. 434 shows a small 
 illustration of a woman in act of grasping some overhanging branch. The prac- 
 tice also occurs, I believe, in Africa, and the Rev. L. P. Jacks tells me that he 
 was informed of it during a recent journey in Western Canada as a habit among 
 the Indians. In the Apollo story it is possible that it may be introduced to 
 explain the sanctity of the tree preserved in the sacred precincts at Delos. If 
 Apollo was a northern god (Farnell) as against an Asiatic origin (von Wilamowitz- 
 Mbllendorff), it would certainly not be original in any pre-Delian story of his 
 birth. According to Euripides there were tv/o other sacred trees in the enclosure, 
 an olive and a bay ; but while there is some evidence that both these kinds ot 
 
90 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 of the new born child — the divine ministrations — the 
 babe's ability to speak and walk — the sympathy of earth 
 and sky expressive of the whole world's joy. But these do 
 not exhaust the points of contact between the Indian story 
 and the West. Thirty-two Good Omens marked the future 
 Buddha's birth. ^^ These are of various kinds, and may be 
 considered in two groups, one full of beneficence to humanity, 
 the other typical of nature's awe. 
 
 When the Hebrew prophet depicts the inauguration of a 
 new age, he tells of the opening of blind eyes, the unstopping 
 of deaf ears ; he promises that the lame shall leap and the 
 dumb sing ; there shall be waters in the wilderness ; and the 
 prisoners shall come forth to liberty.'^ Such were the 
 wonders of redeeming love. And similarly Indian hope, 
 looking to the Buddha as the deliverer from ignorance and 
 sin, conceived that at his birth the blind saw, the deaf heard, 
 and the dumb spake ; the crooked became straight, and the 
 lame walked ; the sick were healed ; the captive was freed 
 from his bonds ; the fires in each hell were put out. Foun- 
 tains of water welled up from the earth ; showers of heav- 
 enly blossoms descended ; the air was full of music ; and celes- 
 tial perfumes were wafted from the sky. These wonders 
 express the fundamental harmony of the universe with the 
 Buddha's purpose of self-devotion to the welfare of gods and 
 men. They are not, it is true, related in the Pali Pitakas ; 
 nor can we expect to find them represented in sculpture. 
 But they occur in Sanskrit books which can be traced back 
 
 trees had a special value in warding off evil influences and rendering parturition 
 easier (Mr. Sidney Hartland), there is no indication that they were ever clasped. 
 The kneeling attitude of the goddess is illustrated in various figures of Greek 
 art. Cf. the image of Eileithyia mentioned by Pausanias, viii. 48, 7, with 
 Frazer's note, vol. 4. p. 436: Samter, Geburt, Hochzeit and Tod (1911), 
 pp. 7fl. (unfortunately he ignores the tree). Mr. Hartland kindly forwards a 
 story (from the papers of Dr. A. C. Burnell) current among the Tuluvas of 
 southern India, in which a woman, beginning to feel the pangs of child-birth, 
 clasps a cocoanut tree beside the road : the birth afterwards takes place in a 
 house, where a rope is hung up to facilitate the delivery. The attitude of hold- 
 ing a rope is usual in the East Indian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula 
 (Hartland). 
 
 ^ It is worth noting that the number corresponds to the thirty-two marks upon 
 his person as the incarnation of Maha Purisa. See the Mahapadana Suttauta, 
 Digha Nikaya, 2. 17 ff., and the Lakkhana Suttanta, ibid., 3. 142 ff. 
 
 92 Isaiah xxxv. 5-6, ki. 1. Cf. Matthew xi. 5. 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 91 
 
 to the first century, and they are no doubt wholly indepen- 
 dent of Christian imagination. Both Hebrew and Buddhist 
 symbolism, however, have their antecedents. Max Miiller 
 pointed out long ago that the healing of physical defect was 
 part of ancient Vedic language. ^^ " The lame stood, the blind 
 saw, Indra did this in the joy of Soma" : " Soma covers what 
 is naked ; he heals all that is weak ; the blind saw, the lame 
 came forth." The commentators may differ as to the sub- 
 ject of the miracle, — the decrepit sun or a famous blind 
 sage, — but there is at least a trace of mythologic applica- 
 tion of healing activity. In Mesopotamia, as we have seen, 
 social disorganization was the precursor of the end of a world- 
 age ; it was natural that hope should be raised to the highest 
 at the beginning of a new one. Out of such expectations 
 came the court language with which the accession of a sov- 
 ereign was greeted, depicting the blessings which would 
 flow from his reign. ^* When Assurbanipal came to the 
 throne, the pious scribe looked forward to " days of justice, 
 years of righteousness : abundant rainfall, mighty waters : 
 the gods are well disposed : . . . the old men hop, the chil- 
 dren sing : women and maidens marry, and bring boys and 
 girls into the world : him whom his sins had given over to 
 death, my lord the king has left in life : those who sat bound 
 many years hast thou set free; them who were sick many 
 days hast thou healed : the hungry are satisfied : the lean 
 have grown fat : the naked are covered with clothes." '^ 
 So do the needs of men receive common expression in far- 
 sundered lands. Or may we conjecture that in such paral- 
 lels we touch the widespread diffusion of cognate ideas ? 
 
 Of this possibility a final illustration must suffice. Among 
 the Thirty-two Good Omens the Nidana-Katha reckons 
 two of curious significance. The birds paused in their flight, 
 and the rivers stayed their flow. In the highly embroidered 
 style of the Lalita Vistara ^ " the moon, the sun, the heav- 
 enly cars, the planets, the crowd of stars, remained motion- 
 less ; the brooks and rivers ceased to run ; all the labors 
 
 " Physical Religion, p. 393. 
 
 ^* Cf. Gressmanu, Ursprung der Israelitisch-Judischen Eschatologie, pp. 260 S, 
 
 " Schrader-Zimmeru, Keilinschriften, p. 380 (3d ed.). 
 
 " Annales du Musee Guimet, 6. 94. 
 
92 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 of men were interrupted." The great event held nature 
 "breathless with adoration" : her course was unexpectedly 
 arrested : into the incessant activity and change of the world 
 without there entered a sudden calm. A similar pause in 
 the outward scene accompanied (so ran the later story) the 
 birth of Christ. Every one knows that an early church 
 tradition located the event in a cave.'^ While it was occu- 
 pied by the blessed Mary it was full of light, '^ more splendid 
 than the light of the sun.'' The child was born without 
 pain to the mother; angels surrounded him; and, as soon 
 as he came forth, he stood upon his feet, like Apollo and the 
 future Buddha, and received the homage of the heavenly 
 visitants.™ These are contributions from the common 
 store. So probably is the remarkable description of what 
 Joseph saw when he went out to seek for help near Bethle- 
 hem : "I looked up into the sky and saw the sky astonished ; 
 and I looked up to the pole of the heavens and saw it stand- 
 ing, and the birds of the air keeping still." On the earth 
 also everything became stationary. The sheep suddenly 
 stood still, and the hand of the shepherd raised to strike 
 them, remained up in the air. The water of the stream 
 ceased to flow, and the mouths of the kids rested on it with- 
 out drinking : "everything which was being impelled forward 
 was intercepted in its course." ^"^ Van Eysinga finds here the 
 influence of the Indian tale.^"^ This is of course possible, 
 but it is not necessary. The idea is as old as the Homeric 
 story of Athena's birth. When the goddess sprang in full 
 panoply from the holy head of Zeus, the world below showed 
 every sign of agitation and sympathy : "the earth rang 
 
 " So Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 78, and the Protevangelium of James, 
 chapter 18. Mithras, too, was born out of the rock, and Hermes in a cave on 
 Mount Cyllene ; Justin, op. dt., 70 ; Meyer in Hennecke's Handbuch zu den neu- 
 testamentlichen Apokryphen, p. 126 (1904). Bauer, Das Leben Jesu im Zeitalter der 
 neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, p. 66 (1909), supposes that Mary's retirement was 
 for purposes of secrecy, and had no special mythological implication. Very curi- 
 ous is the late Chinese legend of the birth of Confucius, which seems to be touched 
 with Buddhist influence. His mother goes to a cave to be confined. Two drag- 
 ons come and keep watch outside on the hill, and two spirit ladies pour out fra- 
 grant odors within ; a spring of clear warm water bubbles up from the floor, which 
 dries up when the babe has been washed. Legge, Chinese Classics, 1. 59 (2d ed., 
 1893). '* Pseudo-Matthew, xiii. " Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, iii. 
 
 "" Pseudo-Matthew, xiii. '™ ProtevangeUum of James, xviii. 
 
 "" Indische Einflusse auf Evangelische Erzahlungen, p. 78 (2d ed., 1909). 
 
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 93 
 
 terribly around, and the sea boiled with dark waves and broke 
 forth suddenly with foam." But the majestic wonder of 
 heaven expressed itself differently. "The glorious son of 
 Hyperion checked for long his swift steeds." "^ In other 
 words, the sun stood still in the sky. 
 
 One final witness may be heard. Ishodad of Merv, about 
 850 A.D., commenting on the story of the Baptism in Matthew 
 iii. observes : 
 
 Straightway, as the Diatessaron testifies, light shone forth, and over 
 the Jordan was spread a veil of white clouds, and there appeared many 
 hosts of spiritual beings who were praising God in the air. And quietly 
 Jordan stood still from its flowing, its waters being at rest, and a sweet 
 odor was wafted from thence.^"^ 
 
 Five separate items meet us here : (1) a great light ; 
 (2) white clouds over the river; (3) a multitude of spirits; 
 (4) the arrest of the stream ; (5) the heavenly odors. The 
 burst of hght belonged to early tradition, as it appears in 
 the fragments of the Gospel of the Ebionites.^"* Scent, 
 according to Dr. Harris, is elsewhere connected with the 
 manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is not necessary to 
 argue on the line of the well-known reading of D in Luke iii. 
 22, that we have here to do with the real birthday of the 
 Messiah as Son of God, so that we have phenomena analo- 
 gous to those of the Buddha's nativity. The parallel to 
 the Baptism when Jesus of Nazareth was supposed to have 
 become " God's Anointed " through the unction of the Holy 
 Spirit is found in that hour of Enlightenment when Gotama 
 attained the knowledge which would make him the teacher 
 of gods and men. It was fitting that the Thirty-two Good 
 Omens should be then repeated. The shining light, the 
 heavenly choir, the stationary waters, the celestial scents, 
 correspond in both stories. One item remains unexplained, 
 — the white clouds. It is noticeable that they are men- 
 tioned just before the singers from the sky : may it not be 
 conjectured that it was in this form that the holy companies 
 
 ^™ Horn. Hymn, xxvii. 
 
 '" Dr. Rendell Harris, Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon 
 the Diatessaron, p. 43 (1895). 
 
 '•* Preuschen, Antilegomena, p. 11, 1. 13 (2d ed., 1905). In Justin, Dialogue with 
 Trypho, 18, fire breaks out upon the water. 
 
94 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 
 
 became visible ? In a Chinese version of the Buddha-carita 
 of Agvaghosha we read, " Countless devas delighting in 
 religion like clouds assembled." ^"^ 
 
 It is quite possible that there is some direct contact here. 
 But was Ishodad right in attributing all these details to the 
 Diatessaron ; and, if so, where and how were they inserted ? 
 Such decorations may easily have been added in the further 
 East, under suggestion from a faith containing so many 
 similar motives. But they may also be derived from that 
 vast fund of imaginative material which lies beneath all 
 historic forms deep in the consciousness of whole peoples, 
 ready to be called into light by the stimulus of great ideas. 
 In ages when the different national cultures were much more 
 nearly on the same intellectual levels than they are now, 
 it would seem more possible for such a picture-language 
 to be widely diffused from land to land. The means of its 
 transmission it is no longer in our power to trace. Conquest 
 and deportation on the one hand and commerce on the other 
 were no doubt among the chief agencies. It must be enough 
 for the student, seeking to make his way among the specu- 
 lations of the past, if he can discover such occasional parallels 
 as may imply a common outlook upon life, a common hope 
 for human welfare, a common reverence for the 'fair and 
 good.' 
 
 >»8 Sacred Books, 19. 6. 
 
 Oxford, 
 July, 1910. 
 
SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS IN EARLY 
 IRISH LITERATURE 
 
 Fred Norris Robinson 
 Harvard University 
 
 It would appear from various references in Elizabethan 
 writers that the feature of Irish literature which most im- 
 pressed Englishmen of the time was the supposed power of 
 Irish poets to work destruction with their verse. Sidney, 
 at the end of his Defense of Poesy, in his parting curse upon 
 the disdainer of the art, will not wish him "the ass's ears 
 of Midas, nor to be driven by a Poet's verses, as Bubonax 
 was, to hang himself, nor to be rhymed to death, as is said 
 to be done in Ireland. " ^ Again, in Reginald Scot's Dis- 
 covery of Witchcraft, it is said that Irishmen, speaking of 
 their witches, "will not stick to affirm that they can rhyme 
 either man or beast to death. " ^ And a number of writers 
 refer to the destruction of rats by means of such potent 
 verses. In the Epilogue to Ben Jonson's Poetaster,^ the 
 author declares that he will 
 
 Rhyme them to death, as they do Irish rats, 
 In drimiming tunes ; 
 
 and Rosalind, in As You Like It, humorously compares Or- 
 lando's rhymes to those which had released her soul from a 
 lower existence and helped it to achieve its transmigration. 
 "I was never so berhymed," she declares, "since Pythago- 
 ras' time, that I was an Irish rat, which I can hardly 
 remember."* 
 
 ' Sidney's Works, ed. 1724, 3. 52. » Ed. 1665, p. 35. 
 
 3 Jonson's Works, ed. Gifford (1875), 5. 518. 
 
 ^ As You Like It, act iii. Scene 2. Other references to the subject, some of them 
 of considerably later date, will be found in Ben Jonson's Staple of News, act iv, 
 
 95 
 
96 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 The story of the destruction or expulsion of rats or mice 
 is told of a number of Irishmen in different periods. 
 In fact Eugene O 'Curry, who made a report on the subject 
 in 1855, for the Royal Irish Academy, = remarks that he 
 once tried to perform the feat himself, but failed, perhaps 
 because his words were too hard for the vermin to under- 
 stand ! The most famous early instance, probably, is that 
 of the poet Senchan, who lived in the seventh century. Ac- 
 cording to the Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution 
 (Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe),^ a tale of the Middle Irish 
 period, an egg which had been saved for Senchan 's 
 meal was eaten up by the "nimble race," namely, the mice. 
 "That was not proper for them," said Senchan; "never- 
 theless there is not a king or chief, be he ever so great, but 
 these mice would wish to leave the traces of their own teeth 
 in his food ; and in that they err, for food should not be used 
 by any person after (the print of) their teeth ; and I will 
 satirize them." Then follow stanzas in which Senchan 
 threatens the mice with death, and they beg him to accept 
 compensation instead. As a residt of his verses, ten mice 
 
 Scene 1 (Gifford's ed., 5. 271); Randolph's Jealous Lovers, act v, Scene 1; 
 Rhymes against Martin Marprelate, cited by Nares from Herbert 's Typographical 
 Antiquities, p. 1689 (the whole poem printed in D 'Israeli's Quarrels of Authors, 2. 
 255-263) ; Sir ^^illiam Temple's Essay on Poetry, in his works (ed. 1757), 3. 418; 
 Swift's Advice to a Young Poet (ed. Scott, 9. 407); and Pope's version of 
 Donne's Second Satire, line 23. Most of these passages were cited in Nares' 
 Glossary, under Rats Rimed to Death; for further discussion see an article by 
 Todd, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 1855, pp. 355 6f. 
 
 ' 'Curry's materials were presented in Dr. Todd's paper in the Proceedings for 
 1855. He mentions one instance of rat-rhyming in 1776, and another about 1820. 
 Cases of the same sort among the Highland Gaels are cited by the Rev. Alexander 
 Stewart in Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe (Edinburgh, 1885). A long spell said to 
 have been composed and successfully used by a farmer on the Island of Lismore is 
 given by Stewart on pp. 4 ff. Somewhat different from these stories of rat-rhymers 
 is the case related by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gemma Ecclesiastica, Rolls Series, 
 161) of St. Yvor the bishop, who by his curse expelled the rats (majores mures, 
 qui vulgariter rati vocantur) from an Irish province because they had gnawed 
 his books. This was conceived by Giraldus as a Christian miracle, and is 
 cited, along with the story of St. Patrick and the snakes, to illustrate the fearful 
 effects of excommunication. Still another method of disposing of rats is familiar 
 to everybody in the legend of the Piper of Hamelin. 
 
 ' Edited and translated by O. Connellan in the Transactions of the Ossianic 
 Society, vol. 5, DubHn, 1860. The Irish title means simply the Circuit of the Bur- 
 densome Company, but the tale is usually referred to in English by Connellan 's 
 rendering, as given above. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 97 
 
 fell dead in his presence ; whereupon he said to them : "It is 
 not you that I ought to have satirized, but the party whose 
 duty it is to suppress you, namely, the tribe of cats. " And 
 then he pronounced a satire on Irusan, 'the chief, lord, and 
 Brehon of all the cats. But the victim this time took the at- 
 tack less meekly. Irusan came — " blunt-mouthed, rapa- 
 cious, panting, determined, jagged-eared, broad-breasted, 
 prominent-jointed, sharp and smooth-clawed, split-nosed, 
 sharp and rough-toothed, thick-mouthed, nimble, powerful, 
 deep-flanked, terror-striking, angry, extremely vindictive, 
 quick, purring, glare-eyed," — in this guise he came and 
 carried off Senchan on his back ; and the poet, after trying 
 flattery without avail, was barely saved by St. Kieran, who 
 killed Irusan as he passed his cell. 
 
 Exploits like these doubtless appealed to the English 
 as being particularly appropriate to poets of the ' wild Irish,' 
 whose extraordinary character and customs were a favorite 
 topic with British writers from Giraldus Cambrensis down 
 to Edmund Spenser.' And the story of Senchan itself is 
 old enough to have been known in England before the days 
 of Elizabeth. 
 
 The Middle Irish account of the " Great Bardic Company " 
 will be discussed again later. But it is already clear from 
 the passages quoted that 'satire,' or the Irish term which 
 is so translated, is not employed in the ordinary English 
 sense of the word. \_The poet's victims, whether rats and 
 cats, as in the tale ol Senchan, or men, as in many stories to 
 be mentioned later, are not destroyed by the natural opera- 
 tion of literary art. The verses used are magic spells, and 
 the whole procedure belongs in the realm of sorcery. This 
 was recognized by Reginald Scot, who classed the Irish 
 rat-spells with other performances of witches or ' eye-biters' ; 
 and by Sir William Temple, who associated the Irish prac- 
 tice in question with the magic runes of the ancient Teu- 
 tons.* The use of incantations to accomplish supernatural 
 
 ' British treatment of Irish history has long been a grievance to Irish writers. 
 Perhaps the best way of getting at the traditional accounts of the ' wild Irish ' is 
 by consulting the rejoinders of such native writers as Keating in his Forus Feasa 
 air Eirinn, or Lynch in his Cambrensis Eversus. See also the Rev. Dr. T. J. Shahan's 
 survey of the subject in the Am. Cath. Quarterly Review, 28. 310 ff. 
 
 ' For references to Scot and Temple, see pp. 95, 96, above. 
 
98 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 ends, whether of good or evil, is so familiar the world over 
 that this obvious interpretation of the Irish story needs no 
 defence or illustration ; and one might at first be disposed to 
 dismiss the whole matter with the suggestion that 'satire' 
 is not a suitable trai^lation of the Irish term for such verses 
 as those of Senchan.^ There is manifestly a "long and large 
 difference" between these talismanic spells, often half- 
 meaningless in content, and the highly acute and intellec- 
 tual form of poetry which has been chiefly known in Europe 
 by the name of satire. It seems like an unjustifiable loose- 
 ness in language to use the same word for such dissimilar 
 things. But as soon as one begins to examine the so-called 
 satirical material in Irish literature, one finds difliculties 
 in dispensing with the name. In the first place, the Irish 
 language itself employs the same words (most commonly 
 aer and its derivatives)' for the rat-spells of Senchan and 
 for the stricter satire of a later age. Furthermore, the per- 
 sons described as pronouncing satires, even of the old de- 
 structive sort, were by no means always mere enchanters, 
 but in many cases poets of high station, either in history 
 or in saga. And finally, the subjects of their maleficent 
 verse — often, for example, the inhospitality or other vices 
 of chieftains — are such as might form suitable themes of 
 genuine satire; and the purpose of the poets is frequently 
 described as being to produce ridicule and shame. In 
 short, it seems impossible in old Celtic literature to draw 
 a line between what is strictly satire and what is not; and 
 one ends by realizing that, for the ancient Celts themselves, 
 the distinction did not exist. JjistL as their poets were not 
 clearly separable from druids and medicine-men, but often 
 combined in one person the functions of all three," so they 
 freely mingled natural and supernatural processes in the 
 practice of their arts. Destructive spells and poems of 
 slander or abuse were all thought of together as the work, 
 and it sometimes seems almost the chief work, of the tribal 
 
 ° For a further account of the Irish terms, see pp. 103 ff ., below. 
 
 1" The confusion among these different classes is well set forth, with illustra- 
 tive passages, by C. Hummer, Vitse Sanctorum Hibernise, 1. pp. clx.-clxii. Compare 
 also pp. 121, 123, below, for examples of the combination of different magic arts by 
 poets and poetesses. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 99 
 
 man of letters. And the retention of one term for all these 
 products, at least while speaking of a literature where such 
 conditions prevailed, is certainly defensible, and may be posi- 
 tively instructive in emphasizing the continuity of literary 
 development. 
 
 Of course it is not to be supposed that Irish literature is 
 peculiar in the respects that have been described. The 
 combination of the functions of poet and magician is char- 
 acteristic of early stages of civilization and appears in many 
 parts of the world. Among various peoples, too, the sa- 
 tirical office of the poet has been given special prominence ; 
 and where this is the case, in simple states of society, a cer- 
 tain amount of sorcery may always be suspected in the 
 poet's work. But in the literature of the Kulturvolker evi- 
 dence is not always preserved of the lower civilization that 
 went before, and the relation between sorcery and satire is 
 by no means everywhere apparent. In Greek and Latin, for 
 example, there are comparatively few traces of the magician- 
 poet, though the use of incantations was common enough in 
 ancient classical civilization and the terms eVaotSTj and car- 
 men have a well-recognized magic association.^' The famil- 
 iar story of Archilochus, whose iambics led to the death of 
 Lycambes and his daughters, shows, to be sure, the destruc- 
 tive power of satire. But it is hardly a case in point, unless 
 it be assumed that an original story of magical destruction 
 has been rationalized into an account of death from shame ; 
 and there is no necessity for such an assumption.'^ In 
 general, the satire of the Greeks and Romans cannot be 
 easily traced back beyond a fairly sophisticated age ; " and 
 
 '• For a convenient survey of the e^ndence concerning the use of incantations 
 in Greek and Roman civilization, see an article on Grseco-Italian Magic, by F. B. 
 Jevons, in Anthropology and the Classics (Oxford, 1908) , pp. 93 ff . 
 
 ^ The story seems more likely to have been a late invention. For the authori- 
 ties, and a possible explanation of its origin, see Croiset, Histoire de la Litterature 
 Grecque (1890), 2. 180. And the death of Bupalus, the victim of Hipponax, 
 of which Sidney's Bubonax (p. 95, above) seems to show a confused memory, 
 is of similarly doubtful authority. 
 
 " For certain evidences of ancient popular Spottlieder in Greece and Italy, 
 which suggest conditions similar to those among Germans and Celts, see Usener, 
 Rheinisches Museum, 58. 1 fiF.; Hirt, Die Indogermanen (1905), 2. 478-179, 728. 
 One cannot help suspecting in the hght of the Irish material to be here discussed, 
 that there was more of a magic element than Usener recognized in the old Italic 
 poems of abuse. 
 
100 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 the satire of modern Europe, it may be added, is in large 
 measure classical and literary in origin. 
 
 Better parallels to the Irish situation are furnished by the 
 popular poetry of ancient Arabia. There, according to an 
 opinion which has found favour with Arabic scholars, the com- 
 mon name of the poet, Shd'ir, meant originally ' the knowing 
 one, the one possessed of supernatural knowledge. ' " There, 
 as in Ireland, the satirical function of the order is very con- 
 spicuous. Men give the poets rich gifts to escape disfavor, 
 or place them under restraint and punishment as dangerous 
 persons. In one instance, it is said, the Calif Al-Mansur 
 abandoned marriage with a noble woman of the Taghlib for 
 fear of the effects of a satire which Djarir had pronounced 
 against her. A large number of the old Arabic satires have 
 been preserved, and with regard to them, as with regard to 
 the Irish poems, it is hard to say how far they are real lam- 
 poons and how far incantations." The supernatural ele- 
 ment, so far as the present writer has observed, is less 
 emphasized in the Arabic than in the Irish, and there is more 
 real satire, more genuine mockery or criticism, in the Arabic 
 verses. The Arabs had perhaps advanced a step farther 
 than the Irish from the stage of the magician-poet.^^ But, 
 on the whole, the similarity between the two literatures in 
 the matters under discussion is most striking and instructive. 
 
 Among the peoples of central and northern Europe it 
 can hardly be doubted that conditions like those of the 
 Irish once prevailed, though evidence on the subject is 
 comparatively scanty. Incantations make up an important 
 element in the popular poetry of the Finns, and Comparetti 
 
 " For a full statement of the theory see Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur Arabi- 
 schen Philologie (Leiden, 1896), pp. 1-105. Goldziher's article contains much 
 material of interest to students of European popular poetry. His main conclusion 
 is briefly restated and indorsed by M. J. de Goeje, Die Arabische Literatur, in 
 Kultur der Gegenwart, Orientalische Literaturen, pp. 134 fl. Compare also Broc- 
 kelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (1901), pp. 7 ff. 
 
 " Professor G. F. Moore called the writer's attention to the fact that Ruckert, 
 in his translation of the Hamasa, employed the term Schmdhlieder for all such poems, 
 just as writers on Irish have called them 'satires.' Freytag, similarly, in his edition 
 of the Hamasa, translated the Arabic subtitle (Bab el-Hija') as Caput Satyrarum, 
 and the .Arabic Hija' has acquired this general sense. But Goldziher (see partic- 
 ularly pp. 26 ff. of his article) argues that it meant originally a curse or spell ; thus 
 it constitutes an interesting parallel to the development of the Irish aer. 
 
 IS This is consistent with the view e.xpressed by De Goeje, op. cit., p. 134. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 101 
 
 has argued effectively to show that the primary sense of the 
 Finnish runo was a magic spell.^' But it is not clear that 
 there was much development in the direction of personal 
 satire. In old Germanic poetry there can be no question as 
 to the prevalence of the Zauherlied,^^ and there is also testi- 
 mony, though not so abundant as one could wish, to the ex- 
 istence of the Spottlied from a very early time." That the 
 two types probably stood in close relation, it is one of the 
 purposes of the present discussion to show. But the exist- 
 ence of the destructive satirists on Germanic territory is 
 not altogether a matter of inference. Their practices seem to 
 be contemplated in an ecclesiastical canon of the year 744.^" 
 A definite case also seems to be furnished by the story 
 of Hug timidus, in the ninth century, whose servants sang 
 against him and inspired such terror that the victim did 
 not dare step out of doors.^^ Coming down to later ages, 
 it is well known that in Iceland of the saga period, satirical 
 poems were greatly feared and the poets were strictly dealt 
 with in the laws ; ^^ and even in the seventeenth century 
 
 " See Comparetti, H Kalevala, o la Poesia Tradizionale dei Finni (Reale 
 Accademia dei Lincei, Roma, 1891), pp. 23 ff. 
 
 '* See E. Mogk, Kelten imd Nordgenuanen, p. 12 ; also his article in the Arkiv 
 for Nordisk Pilologi, 17. 277 ff. In the latter place he even argues that the 
 Zauberlied was the chief form of early Germanic poetry, and that the oldest Ger- 
 manic names for poems {IjoS, galdr, and the Finnish runo, borrowed from Ger- 
 manic) had reference primarily to spells. 
 
 " For evidence concerning early Spottlieder see Kogel's Literaturgeschichte, vol. 
 1, part i, pp. 55 ff., 208; vol. 1, part ii, pp. 164-165; also Kogel's article in Paul's 
 Grundriss (2d ed.), 2. 48 ff., 68 ff. The very early instance mentioned in Au- 
 sonius (Moselle, 167) , of the probra sung against sens cultoribus among the Treviri 
 has been counted by some scholars as Germanic, and by others as Celtic, or even 
 as Roman. See Kogel, vol. 1, part i, p. 55 ; C. Jullian, Rev. Arch. 40. 321 ; Martin, 
 Gott. Gel. Anz., 1893, p. 128. Brandl, in his article on Altenglische Literatur- 
 geschichte, in Paul's Grundriss, 2d edition, 2. 974, mentions the Anglo-Saxon 
 dreamas, ' gesellschaftliche Lieder,' and conjectures that the Spottlied {bismerleo/>) 
 must have figured prominently among them. 
 
 ^° On the canon see Milllenhoff in Haupt's Zeitschrift, 9. 130. There is some 
 doubt, it should be said, concerning its application to Germanic conditions ; and 
 in general, as Professor Wiener has collected material to show, it is necessary to be 
 cautious in deriving from ecclesiastical canons, which were taken over literally from 
 one council to another, evidences as to local beUefs and practices. 
 
 ^ The story is told in Thegan's Life of Louis the Pious, chapter 28, and is cited 
 by Kogel, Literaturgeschichte, vol. 1, part i, p. 208. 
 
 ^ Cf . Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben, pp. 341 ff., 465 ; Finnur Jonsson, Den 
 Oldnorske og Oldislandske Litteraturs Historic, 2. 18, 133-139; and for a number of 
 references to sagas, Vigf usson 's Dictionary, under danz, flim, and niS. 
 
102 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 Isaac de la Peyrere, a French traveller in Iceland, testified to 
 the belief that the wound given by a mad dog was " scarce 
 more dangerous than [the] venomous satyrs" of the 
 poets.^' It is possible, moreover, that the common name 
 for a poet in the West Germanic languages (Anglo-Saxon 
 scop. Old High German scof) contains the same root as 
 the verb 'to scoff.' The etymology is not well enough 
 established to be used as proof of the importance of satirical 
 verse among the West Germanic peoples ; but on the other 
 hand, such evidence from other literatures as has here been 
 presented removes any serious objection, on semasiological 
 grounds, to the association of the two groups of words. ^^ 
 
 The poets of the Celts seem to have been famous, even 
 in antiquity, for their use of satire and malediction. One 
 of the oldest classical references to Celtic literature, a well- 
 known passage in Diodorus Siculus, perhaps derived by him 
 from Posidonius, says that the bards, "singing to instruments 
 like lyres, praise some men and abuse others. " ^^ And down 
 
 ^' The quotation is from the English version of the Relation de I'lslande of 
 La PeyrJre (in Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels) (1704), 2. 437. 
 See Farley, Scandinavian Influences in the English Romantic Movement (Har- 
 vard Studies and Notes, vol. 10), pp. 19 ff. 
 
 ^* On the etymology of scop there is still considerable difference of opinion. 
 The word was formerly held to have a long vowel and was brought into con- 
 nection with scieppan (compare the relation of TroiTjriis and iroi^u). When 
 the vowel was seen to be short, this etymology became harder to support; 
 but Kdgel in his Literaturgeschichte, vol. 1, part i, pp. 140 ff., still defended it, 
 assuming a theoretic *skup6- with Tiefstufe of the Ablaut. In Paul's Grundriss, 
 Sid ed., 2. 34, however, he changed his explanation and proposed to connect the 
 word with the root seq-, sqe-, in evveire, Lat. insece, and perhaps the Anglo- 
 Saxon specan. In favor of the association with 'scoff ' see Kluge, Engl. 
 Stud. 8. 480, quoted with approval by Gummere, Old English Ballads (1894), 
 p. xxxii. This explanation is adopted in the New English Dictionary, under 
 scop, and in Torp's Worlschatz der Gerraanischen Spracheinheit (Pick's Wdrter- 
 buch), 3. 469. The Irish faith, 'poet' (cognate with Lat. vates), and the Welsh 
 gwawi, 'mockery,' perhaps show a similar relation in meaning. See Zimmer, Die 
 Keltischen Literaturen (in Kultur der Gegenwart), p. 77, n. The old Norse 
 skald, if related to scold, schelten, etc., would furnish another parallel. This etymol- 
 ogy, defended in Vigfusson's Dictionary, p. 541, is rejected by several later writers, 
 though no other has been clearly established in its place. Compare Liden in 
 Paul and Braune's Beitrage, 15. 507 ff. ; Mogk, in Paul's Grundriss, 2d ed., 2. 657 ; 
 and F. Jonsson, Litteraturs Historic, 1. 329 ff. 
 
 2S Diodorus, v. 31. 2. OItol 5e fier dpydviav ra'ts X'upats OfjLoioJv q,SovTes ovs liiv ii^ 
 »oOo-iv, oi/s Si ^\a(7(t>T]fu>v(ri. M. Camille Jullian, in a discussion of this passage (in 
 Revue Arch6ologique, 40. 321), cites also classical testimony on the use by the 
 ancient Celts of invectives in battle. This custom, which is frequently referred to 
 
FRED N0RRI8 ROBINSON 103 
 
 to modern times, in both the main branches of Celtic lit- 
 erature, the Gaelic and the Brythonic, the twofold function 
 of the bards, to praise and to blame, has been well recognized 
 and freely exerted. Their supernatural power, too, has 
 never ceased to be feared ; and it was related of no less a poet 
 than Dafydd ap Gwilym, almost a contemporary of Chaucer, 
 that he killed a literary antagonist by the virulence of his 
 verse.-' On the whole, as might be expected, the magic 
 aspect of the satirist's work was more emphasized in the 
 early ages of lower civilization, and it is consequently con- 
 spicuous in Irish literature, which preserves most abundant 
 evidence concerning those periods. Irish also exhibits 
 very clearly the close connection between the poetry of 
 magic malediction and the poetry of mockery and abuse, 
 and shows the importance of satire, of whatever sort, as 
 an element in the life of simple peoples. Numerous pro- 
 visions concerning satirists appear in the ancient law of the 
 land ; their maledictions are even recognized among the sanc- 
 tions of treaties ; rules for the making of satires are laid down 
 in the native treatises on poetry ; and in the ancient popular 
 sagas the part of satirist is played again and again by im- 
 portant poets, whose power often determines the fate of 
 great national heroes. 
 
 Some of the evidence of these peculiar conditions will be 
 taken up in the pages that follow. But a brief explanation of 
 the Irish terms for satire ought perhaps to be given first. Sat- 
 irists are often referred to in Irish texts by the general words 
 for poet {file, hard, licerd, aes dana, etc.), druid (drui), or 
 seer (fdith) ; and it has already been pointed out that the 
 classes named are freely confused, or at least exchange 
 their functions, in the older sagas." With specific reference 
 to satire the terms most frequently employed are aer and 
 cdined and their derivatives. Common use is also made of 
 ainmed, ' blemishing,' imdergad, 'reddening,' and rindad, 
 'cutting ' ; all of which seem to have reference primarily 
 
 in both Celtic and Germanic sagas, is closely related to the other forms of satire 
 under consideration. See Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur arabisehen Philologie, 
 pp. 26-27, for similar observations with regard to Arabic. 
 
 ^' For the strife between Dafydd and Rhys Meigen see Barddoniaeth Dafydd 
 ap Gwilym (1789), pp. xi. ff., 452 ff.; also I,. C. Stem in the Zeitschrift fiir celt- 
 ische Philologie, 7. 26 ff. " See p. 98, above. 
 
104 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 to the physical effects of the satirist's attack. Somewhat 
 less frequent in occurrence are ail, 'disgrace,' aithgiud, 
 'sharpening' ( ?), aithisiugud, 'reviling,' ainfhialad, 'dis- 
 honoring,' cuitbiud, 'laughter, ridicule,' ecnad, 'reviling' 
 (sometimes used in the religious sense of 'blaspheming'), 
 mifhoclad, 'speaking ill,' and sinnad, of which the primary 
 sense is not clear. The word gldm, especially in the phrase 
 gldm dichenn, usually refers to a special form of incantation 
 which will be described later, but it is sometimes more loosely 
 employed ; ^* and groma, likewise, appears in the laws to be 
 associated with a particular process called the glas-gahailP 
 Of only occasional, or even rare, occurrence are dul, explained 
 in Cormac's Glossary as cainte, ' satirist ' ; ^^ runa, once used 
 in the laws for satires ; ^^ and hired or berach, uncertain both 
 in form and in meaning, but apparently applied to a woman- 
 satirist in a passage of the laws.'^ The word crosan, also, 
 of which the usual meaning is 'juggler' or 'buffoon,' some- 
 times means ' satirist ' as well.^^ Names for satire and the 
 practitioners of the art are thus seen to be rather numerous 
 in the Irish language, and they describe various aspects 
 of the satirists' work. Some of them are restricted in ap- 
 plication, but the majority are used loosely, and appear 
 frequently in combinations of two or three even when re- 
 ferring to a single satirical performance. It is noteworthy, 
 moreover, that in their use no distinction is made, or at all 
 events steadily maintained, between the natural and the 
 supernatural, between the satire of magic malediction and 
 the satire of mockery or abuse. 
 
 To come to the actual accounts of the Irish satirists, 
 frequent mention of them is made in the various tracts of 
 the Brehon laws, which preserve, as is well known, most 
 
 ^ For the gldm dichenn see p. 108, below; tor other uses of the word, and some 
 suggestions as to its fundamental meaning, see Windisch's edition of the Tdin B6 
 Ciiailnge (Irische Texte, Extraband), p. 241. 
 
 '^ On the glas-gabail see p. 106, below. 
 
 ^^ For references to satire in Cormac's Glossary see pp. 109 ff., below. 
 
 " Ancient Laws, ed. O'Curry, 5. 230. '^ /j^ 5. 456 ff. 
 
 ^ See Todd's edition of the Irish version of Nennius (Irish Archaeological 
 Society, J848), p. 162; also Kuno Meyer's Contributions to Irish Lexicography, 
 imder crosan. A peculiar use of the word appears in the Senadh Saighri, ed. by 
 Meyer in the Gaelic Journal, 4. 108. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 105 
 
 valuable evidence of the conditions of ancient Irish life. 
 It is clear that satirical attacks were a common form of in- 
 jury in all classes of society.'* In the law of distress (i.e. 
 the law relating to the seizure of property to be held for the 
 enforcement of a claim) it is provided that three days' stay 
 shall regularly be allowed in cases of ordinary satire, slander, 
 betrayal, or false witness ; '^ but five days' stay is the pre- 
 scribed period for other offences, among which are the blemish 
 of a nickname, satirizing a man after his death, and satire 
 of exceptional power ( ?) .'* In these passages satire is 
 classified with "crimes of the tongue." Elsewhere, as in the 
 law relating to eric-fines, satirizing and assault are treated to- 
 gether,'' and again, these two forms of injury are associated 
 with the stealing of a man's cattle or the violation of his wife.^^ 
 The damages allowed for satire, as for other injuries, depend 
 in part upon the rank of the person injured. It is more se- 
 rious to satirize a king's son than a lower chief,'^ and a hench- 
 man has a smaller indemnity than a chief of aire-fene rank^^ 
 From several places it appears that satire was in some way 
 to be resisted ; *^ and a distinction is made between lawful 
 and unlawful satire, comparable, as O'Curry has pointed out, 
 to the distinction in the English law of libel.*^ Just as in 
 the case of fasting against an enemy or a debtor — a familiar 
 old Irish method of enforcing a claim or extorting a benefit*' 
 — so in this matter of persecution by poets, the law seems 
 to have recognized, and to have sought to regulate, an 
 ancient custom which was liable to dangerous abuse. 
 
 ^ With the references to satire in the Irish laws should be compared the treatment 
 of the subject in Italic and Germanic laws, already referred to. See particularly 
 Usener on Italische Volksjustiz in Rheinisches Museum, 56. 1 fiF., and Weinhold, 
 Altnordisches Leben, pp. 341 ff. 
 
 ^' Ancient Laws of Ireland, 1. 152, 162, 231 (published by the Government, 
 Dublin, 1865-1901). The language of the EngUsh translation is quoted, except 
 where there is special reason to depart from it. 
 
 '* Ancient Laws, 1. 185, 237. The last phrase is translated conjecturally. See 
 d'Arbois de JubainviUe, Etudes sur le Droit Celtique, 2. 181. For discussion of 
 certain inconsistencies in the laws of distress, see the same work, 2. 159 £f. 
 
 " Ibid. 2. 156 ; 5. 143, 156. » Ibid. 5. 512. 
 
 " Ibid. 2. 156. " Ibid. 4. 348, 352. « Ibid. 5. 168, 172. 
 
 « Ibid. 1. 58 ; 5. 168, 172, 388. For O'Curry's comment see the Proceedings 
 of the Royal Irish Academy, 1855, p. 357. 
 
 * On fasting as a means of distraint, see an article by the present writer in the 
 Putnam Anniversary Volume (Cedar Rapids, la., 1909), pp. 567 ff. 
 
106 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 In the treatise on Customary Law there is a general analy- 
 sis of crime (Irish eitged, a term which apparently had the 
 general meaning of 'excess' or 'abnormality'), and several 
 kinds of satire are mentioned, though the distinctions among 
 them are not made very clear.** Eitged of words is said to 
 comprise spying, satirizing, and nicknaming. 'White eitged' 
 is distinguished from 'black eitged,' the white of flattery 
 from the black of satire. 'Speckled eitged' is explained as 
 referring to the three words of warning, gromfa gromfa, 
 glamfa glamfa, aerfa aerfa, which the English translator 
 of the laws, for lack of specific equivalents, renders "I will 
 grrom-satirize, I will jrrom-satirize ; I will ^Zam-satirize, I 
 will glam-ssttirize ; I will satirize, I will satirize." Aeraim 
 (future aerfa) is the most usual word for ' satirize,' as 
 already stated;*^ glamfa is said by the Irish commentator 
 on the passage to refer to the glam dichenn, which will be 
 described later ; *^ and gromfa is similarly connected with the 
 glas-gabail, a procedure of uncertain character.*'' That 
 'speckled eitged' is fundamentally of magical nature is clear 
 from the whole account of it. 
 
 Another legal compilation, the Heptads,** designates 
 seven kinds of satire and discusses the 'honor-price' appro- 
 priate to each: "There are with the Feine seven kinds of 
 satire for which dire is estimated ; a nickname which clings ; 
 recitation of a satire of insults in his absence ; to satirize the 
 face ; to laugh on all sides ; to sneer at his form ; to magnify 
 a blemish ; satire which is written by a bard who is far away, 
 and which is recited." *^ This classification, which is clearly 
 the product of custom rather than of pure logic, is not al- 
 together clear, even with the glosses of the native commen- 
 tators. But the passage shows the usual association of 
 mockery, invective, and magical injury. It is followed by 
 
 " Ancient Laws, 3. 92 ff. « See p. 103, above. ^ See p. 108, below. 
 
 *' The glas-gabail is mentioned, but not explained, in the Ancient Laws, 5. 
 216. In the same volume, p. 230, it is glossed glama gnuisi, 'satirizing the face.' 
 If this refers to the disfigurement by blisters, the glas-gabail does not seem to be 
 anything very different from the glam dichenn, at least in its effects. 
 
 « Ancient Laws, 6. 228. 
 
 " The last sentence contains one or two obscure words which are not translated. 
 With regard to the distinction between author and reciter, it is to be noted that 
 the Roman Twelve Tables provided for the punishment of both {si quis 
 occentauisset nue carmen condidisset). Cf. Usener, Rheinisches Museum, 66. 3. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 107 
 
 regulations, which need not be repeated here, concerning 
 the payment of honor-price to the aggrieved man and his 
 descendants. — 
 
 In decidedly the greater number of passages in the laws 
 satire is treated as a kind of misdemeanor and the satirist 
 condemned. Thus satirists are classed among the men for 
 whom no one may go surety j^" and woman-satirists, along 
 with thieves, liars, and bush-strumpets, are said to have no 
 claim to an honor-price.^^ Similarly, the son of a woman- 
 satirist, like the son of a bondmaid, is declared to be ineli- 
 gible to chieftaincy.^^ And the same disparagement of 
 the class appears in the definition of a demon-banquet as 
 " a banquet given to the sons of death and bad men, i.e 
 to lewd persons and satirists, and jesters, and bufiFoons, and 
 mountebanks, and outlaws, and heathens, and harlots, 
 and bad people in general ; which is not given for earthly 
 obligation or for heavenly reward — such a feast is for- 
 feited to the demon." ^^ In all these places reference 
 seems to be made primarily to a low sort of sorcerers and 
 traffickers in personal abuse. But the satirist was not 
 always so conceived by the makers of the laws. Just as 
 there was a distinction, already referred to, between lawful 
 and unlawful satire, so the poet was sometimes praised and 
 rewarded, rather than blamed, for his exercise of the satiriz- 
 ing function. It may be doubted whether an honor or a re- 
 proach to the order is implied by the law that puts the house 
 of a satirist, along with that of a king and that of a thief, 
 among those into which it is forbidden to drive cattle seized 
 in distraint ; ** but other references are less ambiguous. Be- 
 cause of his office as eulogist and satirist alike, the poet is 
 mentioned among the men who have the special privilege 
 of speaking in public. ^^ In another place, poets are declared 
 to have peculiar rights and claims because of their services 
 in composing lawful praise on the one hand, and on the other 
 
 "> Ancient Laws, 5. 225. Cf. also d'Arbois de Jubainville, fitudes sur le Droit 
 Celtique, 2. 26. 
 
 " Ancient Laws, 176. For the association with strumpets, c£. also pp. 202-204. 
 
 52 Ancient Laws, 5. 456. « Ibid. 3. 25. 
 
 " Ibid. 5. 266-268. Compare also the law (5. 235) which exempts poets, with 
 kings, bishops, insane men, and others, from responsibility for paying their sons' 
 debts. '5 ihid_ I 19. 
 
108 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 hand, in levying taxes in territories where 'points of satire' 
 are regarded and where 'points of weapons' are not/^ 
 And the same power of the poets which is reckoned as a 
 means of enforcing tribute, is also invoked in treaties as 
 a sanction of their observance/'' The satire employed 
 for such purposes was doubtless for the most part wizardry, 
 but it may have included some ridicule and some appeal to 
 the public opinion of the tribe.** At all events, by virtue 
 of its exercise, the satirists obtained a considerable degree 
 of recognition as public servants. 
 
 =*The formal recognition, and even the Christian adoption, 
 of the old satire, with all its magic elements, is further 
 strongly implied in the prescription of the ceremony for the 
 gldm-dichenn. This is preserved, not in the laws, though 
 the gldm-dichenn is frequently named there, but in one of 
 the Middle Irish treatises on versification,*' which describes 
 the procedure against a king who refuses the proper reward 
 for a poem. First there was fasting on the land of the king, 
 and a council of thirty laymen and thirty bishops and thirty 
 poets as to making a satire ; and it was a crime to prevent the 
 satire after the reward for the poem was refused. Then 
 the poet himself with six others, on whom the six degrees 
 of poets had been conferred, had to go at sunrise to a hill- 
 top on the boundary of seven lands ; and the face of each de- 
 gree of them toward his own land, and the face of the 
 oUave there toward the land of the king whom he would 
 satirize, and the backs of them all toward a hawthorn which 
 should be on the top of the hill, and the wind from the north, 
 
 '" Ancient Laws, 5. 12. 
 
 " See Revue Celtique, 16. 280 ; Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 39 ; and Aislinge 
 Meic Conglinne, ed. Kuno Meyer, pp. 44 ff. ; all cited by Plummer, Vitse Sanc- 
 torum Hibemiae, 1. cii.— ciii. 
 
 ^ An example of satire against a tribe, which was apparently of the nature of 
 invective or iasult rather than of incantation, is cited from the I^eabhar Breac 
 in the Miscellany of the Irish Archseological Society, 1. 179 ff. ; see also O 'Don- 
 ovan's edition of O'Daly's Tribes of Ireland (Dublin, 18.52), p. 17, n. The 
 Cinel Fiacba of Westmeath are asserted to be of plebeian origin. In anger at the 
 "'asult they murder the satirists. 
 
 '' Translated by O'Curry, Manners and Customs, 2. 216 ff. ; Atkinson, Book 
 of Ballymote (Facsimile), p. 13a; and Stokes, Re^iie Celtique, 12. 119-120; 
 and summarized and discussed by Thumeysen, Mittelirische Verslehren, pp. 124 
 ff. Thumeysen questions the antiquity of the tradition, at least as part of the 
 Verslehren. But the substance of the passage does not look like a late invention. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 109 
 
 and a slingstone and a thorn of the hawthorn in every man 's 
 hand, and each of them to sing a stave in a prescribed metre 
 into the sHngstone and the thorn, the oUave singing his 
 stave before the others, and they afterwards singing their 
 staves at once ; and each was then to put his stone and his 
 ;,horn at the butt of the hawthorn. And if it were they that 
 were in the wrong, the earth of the hill would swallow 
 them up. But if it were the king that was in the wrong, the 
 earth would swallow up him and his wife and his son and 
 his horse and his arms and his dress and his hound. The 
 curse (gldm) of the Mac fuirmed ^ fell on the hound ; 
 the curse of the fochloc on the dress :, the curse of the doss on 
 the arms ; the curse of the cano on the wife ; the curse of the 
 cli on the son ; the curse of the anradh on the land ; the curse 
 of the oUave on the king himself." 
 
 Whether this elaborate ceremony was actually in common 
 practice does not matter fundamentally to the present dis- 
 cussion. It may have been largely invented, or at least 
 embellished, by some file with a turn for magical liturgy. 
 Certainly the thirty bishops are suspicious participants ; 
 and references to the gldm dichenn in Irish literature do 
 not usually suggest such a complicated affair. The bishops, 
 however, it is to be observed, do not actually have 
 a part in the gldm dichenn, but only in the preliminary 
 council which sanctions the proceedings. There is plenty 
 of evidence, moreover, as will appear later, that Irish poets 
 did join in companies for making or pronouncing satires ; 
 and the characteristic features of the ceremony here de- 
 scribed — the fasting, the sympathetic magic, and the as- 
 sumed retroaction of the unjust curse — are all unassailable 
 elements of popular practice or belief. 
 
 The passages cited from the Brehon laws, or used in ex- 
 planation of them, seem to show pretty clearly the impor- 
 tance of poetic malediction and satire in the life of the ancient 
 Irish; and the impression derived from the laws is borne 
 out by frequent references in the heroic tales and historical 
 documents. In texts of the strict Old Irish period — that 
 
 "" This and the following terms refer to the various degrees of poets. 
 '' Stokes's translation (in Revue Celtique, 12. 119), somewhat condensed, is 
 followed in the present account. 
 
110 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 is, those preserved in Old Irish manuscripts — no actual ac- 
 counts of satire have been noted by the writer, though 
 some of the words regularly used for it already occur in 
 documents of the time.^^ In view of the fact that the Old 
 Irish texts are chiefly glosses, the lack of such material is 
 not surprising. But Cormac's Glossary, which is generally 
 conceded, though the manuscripts of it are Middle Irish, 
 to be a work of the ninth or tenth century, and which is 
 therefore one of the earliest documents preserving any 
 considerable quantity of native Irish tradition, contains a 
 score or more of references to the custom. Several words 
 are there explained as having to do with the satirist or 
 his work. Leos is defined as "a blush wherewith a person 
 is reddened after a satire or reproach of him " ; and one mean- 
 ing oiferb is said to be "a blotch which is put on the face of 
 a man after a satire or false judgment." ^' A similar con- 
 ception of the physical effect of satire (which will be dis- 
 cussed again later) appears in the definition of rinntaid, 
 "nomen for a man of satire, who wounds or cuts each face." 
 Both groma and glam are defined, and the latter explained 
 as coming ab eo quod est clamor. The etymology, like that 
 proposed for cainte, satirist, — "i.e. canis, a dog, for the 
 satirist has a dog's head in barking, and alike is the profes- 
 sion they follow" — has no value in the eyes of modern 
 science, but such comments are of some incidental interest. 
 And this is particularly true of the etymology proposed 
 for file, poet, "from poison (j^) in satire and splendour 
 (li) in praise." The derivation is again impossible, but 
 in associating the word for poet with the 'poison of 
 satire ' Cormac anticipates, on the semasiological side, the 
 modern theories, already mentioned, with regard to the 
 Germanic words 'scop' and 'scoff.' ^* 
 
 More interesting, however, than any of these definitions *^ 
 are four actual pieces of old satirical verse which Cormac has 
 preserved among his citations. Under riss, 'story,' a line 
 
 ^^ See particularly Ascoli's Glossarium Palaeohibemicum under air and its 
 compounds. 
 
 ^ There is a similar explanation in the Amra Choluimb Chille. See p. 114, below. 
 
 " See p. 102, above. 
 
 "^ For other references to the subject in Cormac, not mentioned above, see the 
 articles on aithrinne, doeduine, dul, and trefhoccd. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 111 
 
 is quoted and declared to come from the poem of Coirpre 
 mac Etaine against Bres mac Elathain, the first satire which 
 was made in Ireland. Under cernine, ' dish,' another line from 
 the same poem is cited ; but CormaC nowhere gives the rest 
 of the satire. In the saga of the Second Battle of Moytura/^ 
 however, the whole story is told to which allusion is made 
 in the passages cited. According to this account, Coirpre, 
 the poet of the Tuatha De Danann, once came a-guesting to 
 the house of Bres. "He entered a cabin narrow, black, dark, 
 wherein there was neither fire nor furniture nor bed. Three 
 small cakes, and they dry, were brought to him on a little 
 dish. On the morrow he arose, and he was not thankful. 
 As he went across the garth, he said : 
 
 Without food quickly on a dish ; 
 
 Without a cow's miUc whereon a calf grows ; 
 
 Without a man 's abode under the gloom ( ?) of night ; *' 
 
 Without paying a company of story-tellers — let that be Bres's condition." 
 
 As a result of the verse it is said that nought save decay 
 was on Bres from that hour. 
 
 Under the word Miinnu, interpreted as Mo Fhinnu, 
 a pet name, the following quatrain is quoted and said to 
 come from the satire of Maedoc Ferna against Munnu, 
 the son of Tulchan : 
 
 O little vassal of mighty God ! 
 
 O son of Tulchan, O Shepherd ! 
 
 She bore a troublesome child to a family. 
 
 The mother that bore thee, Fintan ! 
 
 Other evidence concerning this satire has apparently not 
 been preserved ; in fact some very similar lines are quoted 
 in the commentary on the Martyrology of Oengus and 
 attributed to Columbcille.^* 
 
 ^' See Stokes's edition and translation. Revue Celtique, 12. 71. The quatrain 
 is also given in some manuscripts of the Amra Choluimb Chille; cf. O'Beime 
 Crowe's edition, p. 26 (from the Lebor na h-Uidhre), and Stokes's edition 
 (from Ms. Rawl. B. 502) in Revue Celtique, 20. 158. The story is told sepa- 
 rately in Yellow Book of Lecan, p. 137b, and also (apparently) in Trinity College 
 Ms. H. 3, 17. See the Catalogue of Mas. in Trinity College, Dublin, p. 352. 
 
 " The readings of this line differ in the manuscripts, and the translation is un- 
 certain. 
 
 ^ See the notes to the Martyrology, under Oct. 21 (Stokes's edition for the 
 Henry Bradshaw Society, p. 226). 
 
112 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 A third quatrain, which also appears, as Stokes points 
 out, to be of satirical character, is quoted under the word 
 rer, ' blackbird.' 
 
 Hard to thee °' the little stripling. 
 
 Son of the little blackbird ! 
 
 Have thou every good thing ready before him, 
 
 O little head (that is, O head of a little goose) ! 
 
 The son of the little blackbird is doubtless the poet Flann 
 MacLonain, whom the Four Masters call "the Virgil of the 
 race of the Scots " ; and the person addressed is Finnguine, 
 King of Cashel, known as Cenn-gegain, 'head of a little 
 goose.' The lines contain little more than word-play on 
 the diminutive formations in the names, and the circum- 
 stances referred to are unknown.'" 
 
 A typical story of satire, as it was employed among the 
 Irish, is attached to a fourth stanza, quoted by Cormac 
 under the word gaire, 'shortness (of life).' The lines are 
 said to have been uttered by Nede, the son of Adnae, against 
 Caier, his uncle, the king of Connaught, and the whole epi- 
 sode is narrated in the version of Cormac's Glossary in the 
 Yellow Book of Lecan.'^ "Caier," as the tale goes, "had 
 adopted Nede as his son, because he had no son at all. The 
 mind of Caier 's wife clave unto Nede. She gave an apple of 
 silver unto Nede for his love. Nede consented not, and she 
 promised him half the realm after Caier, if he would go in 
 unto her. 'How shall this happen to us } ' said Nede. 'Not 
 difficult,' said the woman, 'make thou a satire on him, so 
 that a blemish come upon him. Then the man with the 
 blemish shall be no longer king.' 'Not easy to me is this 
 thing ; the man will not make refusal to me. There is nothing 
 in the world in his possession that he will not give me.' 
 
 "' This is Stokes 's rendering of uindsi chucat; perhaps it should rather be trans- 
 lated ' here comes to thee. ' 
 
 "On Flann mac Lonain see O'Reilly, Irish Writers, pp. Iviii. ff. ; O'Curry 
 Manners and Customs, 2. 98-104; Todd's edition of the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gal- 
 laibh (Rolls Series), p. a. ; Hennessy's edition of Chronicon Scotorum (Rolls 
 Series), p. 175. 
 
 " See Stokes's Three Irish Glossaries, pp. xxxvi. ff. Stokes's translation, 
 slightly condensed by the omission of doubtful words and of glossarial passages, is 
 here followed. Part of Nede's satirical stanza is quoted at the end of the account 
 of the Qldm dichenn in the metrical treatise already referred to. See pp. 108, above, 
 Bnd Thurneysen, Mittelirische Verslehren, p. 125. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 113 
 
 'I know,' said the woman, 'a thing that he will not give 
 thee, namely, the dagger that was brought him from the 
 lands of Alba he will not give thee ; he is forbidden to part 
 with it.' Nede asked Caier for thef dagger. ' Woe is me,' 
 said Caier, ' I am forbidden to part with it.' Nede made a 
 gldm dichenn upon him, and three blisters came forth on his 
 cheeks. This is the satire : 
 
 Evil, death, short Hfe to Caier ! 
 
 Let spears of battle wound him, Caier ! 
 
 Caier ! Caier . . ! Caier under earth. 
 
 Under ramparts, under stones be Caier ! '^ 
 
 Caier arose next morning early (and went) to the well. 
 He put his hand over his countenance. He found on his 
 face three blisters which the satire had caused, namely, 
 Stain, Blemish, and Defect, to wit, red, and green, and white. 
 Caier fled thence that none might see the disgrace, until 
 he was in Dun Cermnai with Cacher, son of Eitirscel. 
 Nede took the realm of Connaught after him. He was there 
 till the end of a year. Grievous unto him was Caier 's 
 torment. Nede went after him to Diin Cermnai, seated in 
 Caier 's chariot, and Caier 's wife and his greyhound were with 
 him. Fair was the chariot that went to the fort ! His face 
 told how it was with him. ' Whose is that color .? ' said 
 everyone. Said Caier: 'Twas.wethat rode on his high 
 seat by the seat of the charioteer.' 'That is a king's 
 word,' said Cacher, son of Eitirscel. (Caier was not known 
 to him up to that time.) 'No, truly, I am not,' said Caier. 
 With that Caier fled ( ?) from them out of the house, till 
 he was on the flagstone behind the fort. Nede went in his 
 chariot into the fort. The dogs pursued Caier's track until 
 they found him under the flagstone behind the fort. Caier 
 died for shame on seeing Nede. The rock flamed at Caier's 
 death, and a fragment of the rock flew up under Nede's 
 eye, and pierced into his head." The exact manner of 
 Nede's punishment is differently described in a stanza on 
 the justice of his fate, with which the account ends : 
 
 A stone that happened to be under Caier's foot 
 Sprang up the height of a sail-tree, 
 
 ^ Several words in the quatrain are of uncertain meaning. 
 
114 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 Fell — not unjust was the decree — 
 On the head of the poet from above. 
 
 A number of elements in this story are of interest to 
 the student of early institutions and beliefs : the symbolical 
 use, for example, of the apple of silver, '^ or the peculiar 
 prohibition (Irish geis, a kind of taboo) which forbade 
 Caier to part with his dagger,^* or the provision that a king 
 with a bodily blemish must abdicate his throneJ* But 
 attention must here be called rather to what concerns the 
 satire itself — to the poet's effort to find an excuse for his 
 attack, to his final punishment for unjust satire, in spite of 
 his ruse, and to the detailed account of the blemishing effect 
 of his maledictory verse. The pimples, blushes, or other 
 kinds of disfigurement produced by satire have been several 
 times referred to in passages previously cited. Here in the 
 story of Caier three blotches, red, green, and white, are 
 definitely mentioned, and called Stain, Blemish, and Defect. 
 The allegorical interpretation may be relatively late, though 
 such treatment of abstract qualities is by no means without 
 parallel in early Irish literature. But the general concep- 
 tion of facial disfigurement as the result of magic persecu- 
 tion or even as a punishment for some form of misbehavior 
 is very widespread. Among the Irish the affliction was 
 visited not only on the victim of an incantation, as in the 
 case of Caier, but sometimes on the poet himself,^® if his 
 satire was unjust, and also on a judge who rendered an 
 unjust verdict." Somewhat similar is the case of Bricriu, 
 mentioned in the Scela Conchobair maic Nessa, who had a 
 
 " Compare the gifts of Finnabair to Ferdiad, TAin Bo Clialnge, L. W. Farraday's 
 translation (London, 1904), p. 100. See also Gaidoz, La Requisition d'Amour 
 et le Symbolisme de la Pomme (Annuaire de I'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 1902), 
 with reviewer's remarks in Revue Archeologique, 1902, 1. 134 ; Lot, in Romania, 27. 
 560, n. ; Foster, on the SymboUsm of Apples in Classical Antiquity, in Harvard 
 Studies in Classical Philology, 10. 43 ff. ; and Leite de Vasconcellos, in Revista 
 Lusitana, 7. 126 ff. 
 
 " For illustrations of the geis, from early Irish sagas, see an article by Miss 
 Eleanor Hull, in Folklore, 12. 40 ff. 
 
 '* For this requirement that the king shall be free from all deformities or blemishes 
 see Ancient Laws, 1. 73 ; 2. 279 ; 3. 85. Compare also the story of Nuada of the 
 Silver Hand, discussed by Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, p. 120. 
 
 '* See Revue Celtique, 20. 422, and Liber Hymnorum, ed. Atkinson, p. 173. 
 
 " See Ancient Laws, 4. 16 ; also Revue Celtique, 24. 279. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 115 
 
 boil rise from his forehead whenever he tried to withhold a 
 secret.^* And many readers will recall, what is at bottom 
 the same idea, the Greek belief, mentioned by Bacon in 
 his essay 'Of Praise,' that "he that was praised to his hurt 
 should have a push rise upon his nose; as we say that a 
 blister will rise upon one's tongue that tells a lie." ^' That 
 there is a physiological basis for all such notions no one, in 
 these days of psychotherapy, will be disposed to deny.*" 
 
 Of the four satirical pieces that have been quoted from the 
 Glossary of Cormac, two, it is to be noted, are really incanta- 
 tions, and two are rather mocking than maledictory in tone. 
 Thus the examples of satire in an early document show the 
 same confusion of different types that was observed in the 
 references to the subject in the laws. And this close asso- 
 ciation of incantational verse with other forms of poetry 
 will frequently appear in the accounts of satirists to be 
 cited from Irish sagas. 
 
 In the further illustration of the subject from these sources 
 no attempt will be made to follow a strict chronological order 
 of events. Some of the saga material to be used is doubtless 
 older, at least in substance, than Cormac's Glossary, and 
 the examples taken from that work have fully established 
 the existence of satire, in the senses under discussion, in 
 the Old Irish period. The practice of it has survived 
 among the Gaels, as will be shown later,*^ down to the pres- 
 ent time. Beyond these general statements of chronology 
 it is not necessary to go. And there is, in fact, no reason 
 for insisting on the antiquity of the evidences with regard 
 to this custom, since nobody will contend (as is often con- 
 tended with regard to the much-debated elements of Celtic 
 and Arthurian romance) that the Irish borrowed it from 
 other peoples of mediaeval Europe. 
 
 It is noteworthy, as has already been remarked, that 
 
 " See Eriu, 4. 21, 32. 
 
 " Cf. Theocritus, Idylls, ix. 30 ; xii. 24. The Greek idea was apparently rather 
 that the flatterer himself had the push rise upon him. For fiirther illustration of 
 the Irish belief, see D. Fitzgerald in the Revue Celtique, 6. 195 (citing a South 
 African parallel). 
 
 *'Both Rhys (Hibbert Lectures, pp. 324 ff.) and Zimmer (Keltische Lit- 
 eraturen, in Kultur der Gegenwart, pp. 30-51) have discussed the physiological 
 side of the question. *' See p. 127, below. 
 
116 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 tales of destructive satire are associated with some of the 
 most conspicuous poets in Irish history and saga. The 
 man who was perhaps most famous for the exercise of this 
 dangerous power was Aithirne the Importunate, who was 
 so representative a satirist that in the metaphorical language 
 of poetry sdath Aithirni, 'the shield of Aithirne,' became 
 a 'kenning' for satire.*^ His ruthless exactions, from which 
 he derived his sobriquet, are described in the saga of the 
 Siege of Howth,*' where he is declared to have been "a 
 hard, merciless man," "a man who asked the one-eyed 
 for his single eye, and who used to demand the woman in 
 child-bed." So much was he feared that when, in the 
 course of his bardic circuit, he approached the borders of 
 Leinster, the people came forth to meet him and offered 
 him jewels and treasures not to come into their country, 
 so that he might not leave invectives. And any man 
 would give his wife to Aithirne, or the single eye out of his 
 head, or whatever Aithirne might desire of jewels and treas- 
 ures. As the result of an enforced contribution of women 
 and cattle, levied by him on the men of Leinster, came about 
 the siege of Howth and a war between Leinster and Ulster.^^ 
 That Aithirne sometimes met his match appears from 
 a short story in the Book of Leinster, which describes his 
 defeat at the hands of another poet.** Because of his 
 niggardliness, it is declared, Aithirne never ate his full meal 
 in a place where any one could see him. He proceeded, there- 
 fore, on one occasion to take with him a cooked pig and a 
 pot of mead, in order that he might eat his fill all alone. 
 And he set in order before him the pig and the pot of mead 
 when he beheld a man coming towards him. "Thou 
 wouldst do it all alone," said the stranger, whilst he took the 
 pig and the pot away from him. "What is thy name?" 
 said Aithirne. "Nothing very grand," said he: 
 
 "Sethor, ethor, othor, sele, dele, dreng, gerce. 
 
 Son of Gerluscc, sharp sharp, right right, that is my name." 
 
 '2 See Revue Celtique, 26. 24. 
 
 ^ Edited and translated by Stokes, Revue Celtique, 8. 47 S. See also O' Curry's 
 Manuscript Materials, pp. 266 S. 
 
 ** Rhys (Hibbert Lectures, p. 325) observes in Aithime's defence that the 
 disparaging account of him comes from the Book of Leinster, and that the Lcinster- 
 men were his hereditary foes. 
 
 '* Quoted and discussed by Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, p. 332. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 117 
 
 Aithirne neither got the pig, nor was able to make rhyme 
 to the satire. It is evident that it was one come from God 
 to take away the pig ; for Aithirne was not stingy from that 
 hour forth. 
 
 The use of the ordinary Irish word for satire (aer) here, 
 where no personal attack or invective is involved, shows 
 the range of its employment. The lines of the strange 
 visitor are of course to be regarded as a spell, and the con- 
 test to which Aithirne is invited is really a contest in magic 
 power. In fact, many of the stories of verse-capping, with 
 which popular literature abounds,** are something more than 
 tests of poetical skill, and the whole literary type known 
 as the debate, or Streitgedicht, owes more than is commonly 
 recognized to the ancient practice of competition between 
 rival magician-poets. But that matter must be left for 
 investigation and discussion at another time. 
 
 To return to Aithirne, the usual result of refusing his re- 
 quests is seen in the saga of Aithirne and Luaine, which 
 belongs to the cycle of King Conchobar of Ulster.*' After 
 the death of Deirdriu, it is related, Conchobar was in great 
 sorrow, and no joy or beauty could appease his spirit. The 
 chief men of Ulster urged him to search the provinces of 
 Erin, if perchance he might find therein the daughter of 
 a king or a noble, who would drive away his grief for Deir- 
 driu, and to this he assented. After a long search his mes- 
 sengers found Luaine, the daughter of Domanchenn, the one 
 maiden in Ireland who had upon her the ways of Deirdriu 
 in shape and sense and handicraft; and when Conchobar 
 beheld her there was no bone in him the size of an inch that 
 was not filled with long-lasting love for the girl. She was 
 betrothed to him, and her bride-price was bound upon him. 
 When Aithirne the Importunate and his two sons heard of 
 the plighting of the maiden to Conchobar, they went to beg 
 boons of her. At sight of her they gave love to her, and 
 besought her to play the king false. On her refusal they 
 
 ^ General references on the subject of verse-capping are hardly necessary here. 
 For some discussion and illustrations, see Gummere, The Beginnings of Poetry, pp. 
 400 ff. Early Irish instances (with parallels from other literatures) are noted by 
 Stokes in the translation of Cormac's Glossary (Ir. Arch. Society), p. 138; see 
 also Irische Texte, 4. 92 ff., 303. 
 
 *' Edited and translated by Stokes, Revue Celtique, 24. 272 £E. 
 
118 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 made three satires upon her, which left three blotches on 
 her cheeks, namely Stain and Blemish and Disgrace, which 
 were black and red and white. And thereupon the maiden 
 died of shame. When Conchobar learned of her death, 
 great silence fell upon him, and his grief was second only 
 to his grief for Deirdriu. He took counsel with the 
 Ulstermen concerning the punishment of Aithirne and 
 his sons. Luaine's father and mother urged revenge, but 
 Cathbad, the Druid, gave warning that Aithirne would send 
 beasts of prey against them, namely Satire and Disgrace and 
 Shame and Curse and Fire ( ?) and Bitter Word. In the 
 end they decided upon Aithirne's destruction ; and after the 
 funeral rites had been celebrated for Luaine, the Ulstermen 
 followed Aithirne to Benn Aithirni, and walled him in with 
 his sons and all his household, and killed Mor and Midseng, 
 his two daughters, and burnt his fortress upon him. But 
 the doing of that deed, it is said, seemed evil to the poets 
 of Ulster. Although the magician in Aithirne so much 
 outweighs the poet, yet the bards took up his cause, and 
 Amairgen, the chief poet, Aithirne's fosterling and pupil, 
 made a lamentation upon him. 
 
 Aithirne and the kings with whom he is associated belong 
 distinctly to the field of saga, but similar tales are told of 
 poets who lived within the historical period or in relation with 
 historical persons. Dalian Forgail, of the sixth century, 
 the traditional author of the Amra Choluimb Chille, is 
 said to have composed both songs of praise and satirical 
 verses upon Aed mac Duach in an effort to obtain from him, 
 by fair means or foul, his famous shield, the Dubh-Ghilla.^ 
 And the death of Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the chief 
 leaders of the marauding Scots at the beginning of the 
 fifth century, was directly due, according to one account,*' 
 to strife engendered by a satirist. Echu, the son of Enna 
 Censelach, the tale relates, when on his way from the house 
 of Niall to his own people in Leinster, sought food at the 
 house of Laidchenn, Niall's poet. Laidchenn refused 
 
 ^ See the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe, ed. Connellan (1860), pp. 12 ff. 
 
 8' See the story of Niall's death, from Ma. Rawl. B. 502, edited and translated 
 by K. Meyer, Otia Merseiana, 2. 84 ff. Cf. O'Curry, Manners and Ciutoms, 2. 
 70 ff. 
 
FRED N0RRI8 ROBINSON 119 
 
 Echu hospitality, and Echu revenged himself later by de- 
 stroying the poet's house and killing his son. Thereupon 
 for a whole year Laidchenn kept satirizing and lampooning 
 and cursing the men of Leinster, so that neither grass nor 
 corn grew with them, nor a leaf, to the end of a year. Niall 
 also went to Leinster, and forced the people to give him 
 Echu in bonds as a hostage ; but Echu broke his chains, and 
 slew nine champions who came up to kill him, and rejoined 
 his people. A second time Niall demanded that the Lein- 
 stermen give up Echu, and when this was done, Laidchenn be- 
 gan to revile Echu and the Leinstermen, so that they melted 
 away before him. But Echu let fly a champion's stone, 
 which he had in his belt, and it hit Laidchenn in the crown 
 of his forehead and lodged in his skull. Echu was exiled 
 from Ireland, but this did not put an end to the feud, and 
 afterward, in Alba, Niall himself fell by an arrow from Echu's 
 hand. While the satires of Laidchenn are plainly of the 
 nature of spells, it is clear that he was regarded in Irish 
 tradition as a real poet, and not a mere pronouncer of charms. 
 Poems on the history of the kings of Leinster, ascribed to 
 him, though not to be taken as authentic, will be found in 
 the Rawlinson Manuscript B 502.'° 
 
 With the satires of Laidchenn, which blighted the whole 
 face of Leinster, may be compared the spells attributed to 
 Ferchertne, another great poet of the heroic age, before 
 whom, according to a passage in the Tain Bo Ctialnge 
 (The Cattle-Spoil of Cooley), the lakes and streams sank 
 when he blamed them and rose when he praised them.'^ 
 They bring to mind also the threat of ForgoU, the poet, in 
 the Voyage of Bran, when upon occasion of a disagree- 
 ment with Mongan, he declared that he would satirize 
 Mongan and his father and his mother and his grandfather ; 
 singing spells upon their waters so that no fish should be 
 caught in their river-mouths, and on their woods so that they 
 should bear no fruit, and on their plains so that they should 
 be barren of produce.'^ 
 
 '" See the collotype facsimile, edited by Kuno Meyer, introduction, p. ix., and 
 text, pp. 116 S. 
 
 '' Tain Bo Cualnge, ed. Windisch (Irische Texte, Extraband), p. 789. 
 " The Voyage of Bran, Meyer and Nutt, 1. 49. 
 
120 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 Enough has been said to show the association of satire 
 and malediction with Irish poets of high station. The 
 frequency of the practice in the life of the people is further 
 indicated by many passages in the sagas. In the great 
 central tale of the Ulster cycle, the Tain B6 Ciialnge, for 
 example, satirists appear in several important episodes. 
 The account of Ferchertne and his spells has just been re- 
 ferred to. Redg, another satirist, is employed against 
 Cuchulainn when the latter is holding at bay all the army 
 of Connaught. He is sent to ask Cuchulainn for his spear ; 
 and upon Cuchulainn's refusal he threatens to take away 
 his honor. Then Cuchulainn lets him have the spear in 
 the back of his head, and kills him.^' Again, when Ferdiad, 
 the companion of Cuchulainn's youth, refuses to take part 
 against him, Medb sends the druids and the satirists and 
 the hard-attackers to him, that they may make three satires 
 to hold him, and three imprecations (glamma dicend), 
 that they may raise the three blotches on his face, Shame 
 and Blemish and Disgrace, so that if he does not die at once 
 he may die before the end of nine days, if he will not go 
 into the fight. And Ferdiad yields, preferring to fall before 
 the spears of bravery and warfare and prowess rather than 
 before the spears of satire and insult and abuse. ^* On 
 another occasion two female satirists from the camp of 
 Connaught stand over Cuchulainn and weep in hypocrisy, 
 predicting the ruin of Ulster.'^ And again, the Morrigap 
 herself, the battle-goddess, appears to Cuchulainn in a simi- 
 lar guise.'* In the text of the Tain B6 Cualnge she is not 
 called a satirist, but she applies the name to herself in the 
 Tain Bo Regamna, where she plays the same part.'^ 
 
 A few more illustrations of destructive satires may be 
 cited from the great collection of early Irish topographical 
 legends which is known as the Dindsenchas.'* In the ac- 
 
 '* See the Tdin B6 CAalnge, Windisch's edition, p. 273. And compare a simi- 
 lar episode in the Aided Conchulainn, Revue Celtique, 3. 78 ff. 
 
 «* Tdin Bo Ctiahige, Windisch's edition, p. 441. »' Ihid. p. 829. 
 
 '* See the T^in B6 Cuahige, Lebor na h-Uidre version. Miss Farraday's transla- 
 tion (Grimm Library), p. 74. 
 
 " See the Irische Texte, ed. Windisch and Stokes, vol. 2, part ii. p. 258. 
 
 '* References are made here to Stokes's edition and translation of the prose por- 
 tion of the Dindsenchas from the Rennes Ms., Revue Celtique, vols. 15 and 16. 
 
FRED NORMS ROBINSON 121 
 
 count of MuUaghmast,'' Maistiu, by whose name that of 
 the place is explained, is said to have refused certain demands 
 of Gris, the female rhymester, whaso maltreated her with 
 blemishing satires that she died thereof before her. The 
 Dindsenchas of Dublin^"" affords another instance of death 
 from the verse of a poetess, but in this case the poem is 
 described as a sea-spell. Dub, the wife of Enna, discovered 
 that her husband had another wife. Aide, the daughter 
 of Ochenn. In jealousy, then. Dub chanted a sea-spell be- 
 fore Ochenn's house, so that Aide was drowned with all her 
 family.^"' In still another case, in the Dindsenchas of Fa- 
 faind,'"^ the result of the satirist's verses is not death but 
 disfigurement, as has been noted several times before. 
 Aige, the sister of Fafne, the poet, was transformed into a 
 fawn by her enemies, and then slain by the king's men. 
 Thereupon Fafne went to blemish the king, and raised the 
 customary three blotches upon him. In punishment for 
 this Fafne was arrested and put to death. 
 
 It is apparent from a number of passages cited, and par- 
 ticularly from the description of the gldm dichenn,^^^ that 
 satirists often plied their work in companies. A whole body 
 of "druids and satirists and hard-attackers" were sent by 
 Mebd to force Ferdiad into battle."* Kings had bands of 
 satirists in their employ,^"* and poets are sometimes grouped 
 with other forces to be counted upon in war."^ In the tale 
 
 An edition of the metrical Dindsenchas has been begun by E. Gwynn in the Todd 
 Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy (vols. 7 and 8). 
 
 » Revue Celtique, 15. 334 ff. i™ Ibid. p. 326. 
 
 ''" A somewhat similar tale of a jealous wife is told in the Latin Vita Coemgeni 
 (Pliunmer's Vitse Sanctorum Hibemiae, 1. 250 £E.). Colman, the son of Carbre, 
 finding his first wife incompatible, put her away and took another. But the rejected 
 woman was powerful in magicis artibus, and sang spells which destroyed all the chil- 
 dren of her successor. At last one of them (Faelan) was saved by a miracle of 
 St. Coemgen. The way in which different magic arts were combined in these dan- 
 gerous women of poetry is shown again by the tale of Dreco (Druidess and female 
 poet), who prepared a poisonous liquor which killed the twenty-four sons of Fergus 
 Redside. See the Dindsenchas of Nemthenn, Revue Celtique, 16. 34. 
 
 ■"^ Revue Celtique, 15. 306 ; and compare Gwynn's Metrical Dindsenchas, 
 2. 66 ff. "» See pp. 108 ff., above. i« See p. 120, above. 
 
 "' Compare Revue Celtique, 22. 294. 
 
 ^"^ At this point Arabic Uterature again furnishes interesting paralleb. Cf . Gold- 
 ziher's remarks on the use of the Hija' as an ' Element des Krieges ' (Abhandlungen 
 zur Arabischen Philologie, p. 36). 
 
122 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 of the Second Battle of Moytura, for example, when the 
 leaders of all the crafts are asked in turn what help they can 
 give against the Fomorian enemies, the file promises, on 
 behalf of his fellow-poets, to make a gldm dichenn which 
 will satirize them and shame them and take away their 
 resistance."' And in the Dindsenchas of Carman, hostile 
 enchanters appear in open opposition."* Carman and her 
 sons, according to the story, came from Athens, and she 
 ruined the land with spells and songs and incantations while 
 the sons destroyed by plundering and dishonesty. But 
 the Tuatha De Danann sent Ai of their poets and Cridenbel 
 of their satirists and Lugh Laebach of their druids and 
 Be Cuille of their witches to sing upon them, and the men 
 were driven out, and Carman held as a prisoner behind them. 
 The joint action of enchanters seems also to be referred to 
 in the Dindsenchas of Laigen, which says that the druids 
 of Ireland nearly exterminated by their songs the tribe of the 
 Gaileoin."^ 
 
 In the light of so many accounts of maledictive work of 
 poets it will not appear strange that Cormac thought the 
 'poison of satire' to be one element in the composite oi file, 
 or that Ferchertne and Nede, in a highly technical ' Colloquy ' 
 on the poets' profession, several times refer to satire among 
 its characteristic features.^" Nor is it to be wondered at 
 that the poets as a class came to be greatly feared. In 
 some verses ascribed to St. Columba it is written, "Blessed 
 is he who is praised; woe to him who is satirized !" And 
 again, "Woe to the land that is satirized !" m And Fer- 
 chertne, in an interesting and typically Irish elaboration 
 of the familiar list of signs before judgment, predicts, among 
 other calamities, that "every man will buy a lampooner to 
 lampoon on his behalf." "^ It was a general belief, some- 
 times explained by reference to the sacredness of the poet's 
 person, that no request of his should ever be denied, 
 and there was undoubtedly a strong feeling that poets were 
 entitled to be rewarded for their work. But the real motive 
 
 iw Revue Celtique, 12. 91. ™ Ibid. 15. 311. »»' Ibid. 15. 299. 
 
 "" The Colloquy of the Two Sages (Agallam in da Suaradh), edited and trans- 
 lated by Stokes, Revue Celtique, 26. 23 S. 
 
 11 Revue Celtique, 20. 44. ™ See the Colloquy, Revue Celtique, 26. 40. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 123 
 
 for yielding to their exactions seems often to have been the 
 fear of their attacks, whether in maledictive verse or in some 
 other form of magic persecution. And that they had other 
 means than the poetic of enforcing thtir demands is suggested 
 by Cormac's description of the briamon smetrach,^^^ an op- 
 eration which they performed on a man who refused them 
 aught. They ground his ear-lobe between their fingers 
 until he died. The supernatural power of the poets was even 
 conceived as lasting beyond their own lives ; and it is related 
 of Cuan O'Lothchain, a famous poet who was murdered in 
 1024, that his murderers became putrid in a single hour. 
 "That," the annalist says, "was the miracle of a poet !" "* 
 
 As a result of the terror they inspired, the poets commonly 
 got what they asked for, even from the boldest of saga 
 heroes. Thus Cridenbel the satirist regularly obtained on 
 demaokd the best bits of the Dagda's supper, though the 
 Dagda's health was the worse for it ; and it was only by a 
 trick that the importunate sorcerer was disposed of."^ So 
 also Lugaid the king, when solicited by Ban-bretnach, 
 the woman-satirist of the Britons, complied with her de- 
 mand and lay with her, and became the father of Conall 
 Core ; "* and it is related of a certain MacSweeney that, 
 when unable to remove a ring which a poet had asked for, 
 he hacked off finger and all rather than not grant the re- 
 quest.^" Of Leborcham, the nurse of Deirdriu, it is said 
 that she was a woman-satirist and no one dared refuse her 
 aught ; "* and of MacConglinne, who was great at both 
 eulogy and satire, that he was called Anira (the negative 
 of era, 'denial') because there was no denial of his requests."' 
 
 Even the Christian saints, it would appear, were not 
 exempted from such demands or by any means superior 
 to the fear of them. For when St. Columba was cutting 
 wood for the church of Doire, certain poets came to him to 
 seek a boon. He told them he had no gift for them there, 
 but that if they would come home with him they should re- 
 
 ™ See Cormac's Glossary, under 6n; also Revue Celtique, 26. 55. 
 
 "' See Annals of Ulster, ed. B. MacCarthy (Rolls Series), vmder the jrear 1024. 
 
 "' See the Second Battle of Moytura, Revue Celtique, 12. 65. 
 
 '^ See the Coir Anmann, under Conall Core (Irische Texte, 3. 310). 
 
 "' See the Publications of the Ossianic Society, 3. 297. 
 
 "' Irische Texte, 1. 71. "' Aislinge Meic Conglinne, ed. Kuno Meyer, p. 43. 
 
124 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 ceive one. They replied that if he did not give the gift then 
 and there they would satirize him ; and Columba was seized 
 with such shame at this threat that smoke rose from his 
 forehead and he sweated exceedingly. He put up his hand 
 to wipe away the sweat, and it became a talent of gold in 
 his palm, and he gave the talent to the poets. "Thus," 
 the narrator concludes, " did God save the honor of Columb- 
 cille." ^^° In a story of similar purport the honor of St. 
 Patrick is saved by the miraculous provision of food for a 
 company of minstrels or jugglers ; but in this instance the 
 petitioners, after receiving their boon, are swallowed up by 
 the earth in punishment for their insolence.^^^ Vengeance 
 of like character is visited on three poets who threaten to 
 defame St. Laisren ; ^^^ and, in general, when the satirists 
 confront the saints, their sorcery is forced to succumb to 
 a higher power. 
 
 The community as a whole also sometimes found means, 
 according to the historians, of resisting the demands of the 
 poets, and GeoflPrey Keating reports traditions of at least 
 three banishments of the order.^^' On the first occasion, 
 in the time of King Conchobar of Ulster, when the poets 
 were about to set out for Alba, they were taken under pro- 
 tection by Cuchulainn and retained by him for seven years. 
 On their second banishment they were retained by Fiachna 
 mac Baedan, and on their third by Maelcobha mac Deamain, 
 both also kings of Ulster. A fourth attempt to expel them 
 from the country was made by King Aed mac Ainmiri at 
 the celebrated assembly of Drumceat. But St. Columba 
 intervened on the poets' behalf and arranged that they should 
 be allowed to remain, though with their numbers reduced. 
 His action, Keating observes, is commemorated in the stanza : 
 
 The poets were saved by this means, 
 Through Colum of the fair law ; 
 
 ^o See O'Donnell's Life of Columbcille, edited by R. Henebry, Zeitschrift fOr 
 Celtische Philologie, 4. 296-298. The same life says later {ibid. 5. 42) that Columb- 
 cille was weakly indulgent in rewarding poets and rhymers. 
 
 '2' Compare Stokes, the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, pp. Ix., 204. 
 
 122 See De Smedt and Backer, Acta Sanctorum Hibemia; (1888), col. 796. 
 Other instances of relations between the satirists and the saints are noted by Plum- 
 mer, Vitse Sanctorum Hibernise, 1. ciii. 
 
 '^ See Keating's Forus Feasa air Eirinn, Irish Text Society edition, 3. 78 ff. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 125 
 
 A poet for each district is no heavy charge, — 
 That is what Colmn ordained. 
 
 The same abuses of the poets which stirred up hostile 
 legislation called forth much unfavorable comment in Irish 
 literature, and in one case they produced a counterblast 
 which ranks among the best pieces of humorous writing 
 in Middle Irish. This is the Imtheaclit na Tromdhaimhe 
 (Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution), which has 
 been several times referred to.^^* The account of Senchan 
 and the mice, already quoted from it, shows the spirit of 
 extravagant burlesque which pervades the whole, and which 
 can hardly be reproduced in a condensed simimary of the 
 story. The chief episodes are as follows : The bards, 
 under Senchan, their newly elected chief, decided to make 
 a professional visit to Guaire, the king of Connaught, 
 who had never been satirized for lack of hospitality ; and 
 out of special consideration for him they took with them 
 only thrice fifty poets, thrice fifty students, thrice fifty 
 hounds, thrice fifty kinswomen, and thrice nine of each 
 class of artificers. Guaire greeted them all cordially, only 
 regretting that he could not give a personal welcome to each 
 member of the large company ; and they were quartered in 
 a great mansion and told to ask for whatever they might 
 desire. "It was, however, a great diflSculty to procure all 
 things for them ; for it was requisite to give to each of them his 
 meals apart and a separate bed ; and they went to bed not any 
 night without wanting something, and they arose not a day 
 without some of them having longing desires for some things 
 that were extraordinary, wonderful, and rare, and difficult 
 of procurement. It was a task for all the men of Ireland to 
 find that which was longed for, and unless the person who 
 desired it obtained it within twenty-four hours, it was use- 
 less ever after to procure it for him." Muireann, the wife 
 of Dalian Forgail, on the very first night moaned aloud and 
 declared that she should die unless she could have "a bowl 
 of the ale of sweet milk, with the marrow of the ankle-bone 
 of a wild hog ; a pet cuckoo on an ivy tree between the two 
 Christmases; her full load on her back, with a girdle of 
 
 ^ See p. 96, above. 
 
126 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 yellow lard of an exceeding white boar about her; and to 
 be mounted on a steed with a brown mane, and its four 
 legs exceedingly white ; a garment of the spider's web around 
 her, and she humming a tune as she proceeded to Durlus." 
 Another woman of the company desired a skirt full of black- 
 berries in January, and also that Guaire's people might all 
 be stricken down with disease. For the fulfillment of 
 these and other equally preposterous demands Guaire 
 sought the aid of Marban, his brother, the holy hermit; 
 and by miracles of heaven the king's honor was saved, like 
 that of the saints in the stories previously related. 
 
 When all the desires of the company had been fulfilled, 
 they sat down to a great feast. Senchan, however, took 
 whimsical offence at the hearty eating of the servants, and 
 refused all food. Guaire in distress sent a favourite steward 
 to prepare a wild goose and serve it to Senchan with special 
 care. But Senchan refused it because the young man's 
 grandfather was chip-nailed. And when a favourite damsel 
 of Guaire's household was sent, Senchan would not take 
 food from her hands because her grandmother had once 
 pointed out the road to lepers. At last, after several days' 
 abstinence, Senchan consented to eat a hen's egg, but the 
 mice got at it, with results that have already been described. 
 When Senchan was saved by St. Kieran from the clutches 
 of Irusan, the great cat, he complained at his release, for he 
 would rather by his death have given occasion for the sati- 
 rizing of Guaire. 
 
 Marban, in the meantime, though a saintly hermit, had 
 lost all patience with the unreasonable demands of the 
 poets, and determined to obtain some redress. Accordingly 
 he made his way to their mansion, declared that he was con- 
 nected with poetry through the grandmother of his servant 's 
 wife, who was .descended from poets, and claimed his choice 
 of music from the company. Then he demanded the per- 
 formance of a crondn (a low humming tune) till he should 
 declare that he had enough. He would not be satisfied 
 with the ordinary crondn, but insisted on the bass or gut- 
 tural crondn, in the hope that they would break their heads, 
 feet, and necks, and that their breathing would be the sooner 
 exhausted. One company of singers after another was worn 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 127 
 
 out by the performance. Efforts were made to put off 
 Marban with riddle contests, but he always defeated his 
 antagonists in questions, and then reverted to his first 
 demand — "Perform as much Qrondn as we desire." At 
 last, when no one else could respond, Senchan himself had 
 to perform, and he made such exertions at the guttural 
 crondn that his eye burst out upon his cheek. Marban was 
 satisfied with this revenge, and restored the eye to its place. 
 Then he laid bonds upon the bards to obtain for him the 
 saga of the Cattle-Spoil of Cooley ; and the rest of the 
 story is taken up with their adventures in discharge of the 
 obligation. 
 
 In this way the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe is brought 
 into connection with the old saga-cycle. But it is really a 
 comparatively late work,^^^ and in effect, as has already been 
 said, a satire on the satirists. Satire in the loose or primi- 
 tive sense furnished material for satire in the stricter defi- 
 nition of the word. It would not be fair to say that the one 
 passed over into the other, and no such suggestion is here 
 intended. The Imtheacht is cited rather as a significant 
 piece of testimony to the extensive development of the old 
 satire of malediction. •- 
 
 It would be easy to multiply references to satire from all 
 branches of early Irish literature, but the passages which 
 have been discussed illustrate the more important aspects 
 of the subject. And it is beyond the compass of the pres- 
 ent study to trace the history of satire through Irish liter- 
 ature of the modern period. SuflBce it to say, of this later 
 development, that although real satire, as opposed to in- 
 cantational verse, increases as time goes on, the old concep- 
 tion of the destructive satirist, the poet with superior power, 
 whom it is dangerous to displease, has never disappeared 
 among the Gaels of either Ireland or Scotland.^^ But the 
 
 '^ The text is late Middle Irish. In some parts old material is made use of. 
 Compare, for example, the story of the leper, in the latter part of the Imtheacht, 
 with the similar narrative in Cormac's Glossary, under Prull. 
 
 ^^ An extended study of modem Irish satire is greatly to be desired. Interesting 
 illustrations both of real literary satire and of the incantational type are referred to 
 in O'Donovan's introduction to O'Daly's Satire on the Tribes of Ireland (Dublin. 
 1864). The Pairliament Chloinne Thomais, edited by Stern in the Zeitschrift 
 fUr Celtische Philologie, 6. 541 3., may also be mentioned as a representative sa- 
 
128 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 village rhymester of to-day, though he may, like Chaucer's 
 Somonour, have 
 
 In daunger ... at his owene gyse 
 The yonge girles of the dioeyse, 
 
 is far less important in power or influence than the magi- 
 cian-poet of saga times. He represents, so far as one can 
 judge, the expiration of a tradition or custom which in 
 mediaeval Ireland was still vigorous and productive of re- 
 sults in literary development. 
 
 For the practices of the old Irish satirists have, in addition 
 to their merely curious interest, a wider bearing on literary 
 history. Attention has already been called ^^^ to their con- 
 nection with the development of the 'fly ting,' or verse debate, 
 a matter which cannot further be treated at this time. And 
 their obvious relation to the beginnings of ordinary satire 
 also deserves more consideration than it has received from 
 students of the subject.^^ One might hesitate just now, 
 when fashion among critics and scholars is turning against 
 Liedertheorien and doctrines of popular origin, to lay stress 
 upon such a development. The folklorists and ballad col- 
 lectors are charged, not unjustly, with many extrava- 
 gances : with ill-judged enthusiasm for poor productions, 
 just because they are popular ; with wild speculation about 
 popular composition ; and with a kind of easy-going satis- 
 faction in the collection of popular parallels as if they ex- 
 
 tirical document of much interest. For the survival of destructive or incantational 
 satire there is plenty of evidence in the editions of the modem Irish poets. See, 
 for example, in addition to the references already given on rat-rhyming (p. 96, above), 
 Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy (1831), 2. 358, n. ; O'Daly's Poets and Poetry of 
 Munster (Second Series, 1860), p. 218, n. ; Dinneen's edition of Egan O'Rahilly 
 (Publication of the Irish Text Society), pp. xxxi. ff. ; Hyde's edition of Raftery, 
 Abhrain At4 Leagtha ar an Reachtuire (1903), pp. 15 ff. ; Lady Gregory, Poets 
 and Dreamers (1903), pp. 8 ff. ; and with special reference to Scotland, Zeit- 
 schrift fiir Celtische Philologie, 2. 28. Hyde points out that even the praise of the 
 poets is feared, and it is beheved that no man who has had a song made about him 
 will live long. ™ See p. 117, above. 
 
 '^ This relation, which has been clearly involved in most of the preceding dis- 
 cussion, has doubtlessly been observed by nearly all scholars who are famiUar with 
 Celtic Uterature, but due account has not been taken of it in general discussions of 
 satire. That it has not escaped the keen vision of Professors Kittredge and 
 Gummere, in their investigations of popular poetry, is apparent from a note in 
 Gummere's Old English Ballads (1894), p. xxxiv. 
 
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 129 
 
 plained the mature products of art. Nevertheless, in spite 
 of its peccant humours, the study of folk literature has 
 yielded solid results, and the " thrice-battered Grimm," 
 as Mr. Gummere once called him, .is not to be abjured as 
 a Philistine god. Popular or communal composition, in 
 some such reasonable sense as Mr. Gummere also has most 
 fully defined and illustrated, must be recognized as a signifi- 
 cant fact in the history of poetry. Popular material, in 
 various forms of mythology and tradition, has entered into 
 the highest products of art, and the understanding of it is 
 often essential to the comprehension of Chaucer or Shake- 
 speare or Goethe. In a word, the historian of poetry will 
 never again be at liberty to disregard the popular basis of 
 the poetry of art. 
 
 Now satire, which belongs conspicuously to the poetry of 
 art, doubtless owes little, in its developed phases, to such 
 simple products as the quatrains of Nede and Coirpre. Yet 
 it is unquestionably a very old poetic form, originating in 
 early stages of society and having definite relations with vari- 
 ous kinds of popular verse. On one side a source has been 
 found for it in the rude, rustic songs of mockery which exist 
 among many peoples. ^^' In another aspect its connection 
 with gnomic writing is well recognized ; and one scholar has 
 gone so far, in discussing old Germanic poetry,"" as to assume 
 that people who possessed a gnomic literature must also have 
 had satire. The close association of these two types could 
 also be admirably illustrated from Irish literature, which 
 furnishes, in such collections of proverbial morality as the 
 ancient Instructions of Cormac, many passages of well- 
 developed satire. ^'^ But a still more intimate and essential 
 relation seems to exist between satire and the kind of verse 
 that has been described in this paper. And it is interesting 
 to find that an observation by M. Brunetiere, whom nobody 
 
 ''' Such, for example, as the Etruscan fencennina, and the Germanic Schnader- 
 hiipfl. Compare Gummere, Beginnings of Poetry, pp. 400 ff. ; Hirt, Die Indo- 
 germanen, 2. 728; and Erich Schmidt, Antange der Literatur (Kultur der Gegen- 
 wart), pp. 19 ff. 
 
 130 Kogel, in Paul's Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie, 2d ed., 2. 48. 
 
 '" The Instructions of King Cormac Mac Airt ( Tecosca Cormaic) have been 
 edited by Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy, 
 vol. 15 (Dublin, 1909). 
 
130 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS 
 
 will accuse of undue partiality for popular literature, points 
 towards its recognition. He concludes an admirable survey of 
 the general history of satire with the following definition : ^^^ 
 "Opposer, en nous moquant d'eux, ou en les invectivant, — 
 c'est affaire de temperament, — notre maniere de penser, 
 de sentir, ou de voir a, ceux qui ne voient, ni ne pensent, ni 
 ne sentent comme nous, tel est, on I'a pu voir, le trait essen- 
 tiel et commun qui relie les unes aux autres toutes les formes 
 de la satire. Le poete Archiloque, ayant sur la fille de 
 Lycambe des vues que Lycambe n'approuvait point, il les 
 exprima d'une fagon si virulente que Lycambe, et m^me 
 sa fille, dit la legende, s'en pendirent. Voila le fond de 
 toute satire." The French critic, though chiefly concerned 
 in his essay with the more elaborate and literary forms of 
 satire, yet finds its essential nature to be personal invective. 
 If his observation is sound, and it is certainly not unreason- 
 able, the old Irish satirists were in the main line of develop- 
 ment, though very far up the line; and the evidence with 
 regard to them shows that the poetry of enchantment must 
 also be included in the reckoning. For in the days of the 
 magician-poet invective, mockery, and malediction are seen 
 to have been almost inseparably bound together. 
 
 "2 See La Grande Encyclopddie, under Satire. 
 
 Cambridge, 
 
 February 14, 1911. 
 
ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL 
 
 (from the old French) 
 
 Edward Stevens Sheldon 
 Harvard University 
 
 The fabliau ^ of which a nearly complete translation fol- 
 lows may serve to illustrate the materialistic crudity of some 
 mediaeval conceptions of the life to come as well as a familiarly 
 irreverent tone equally natural under the circumstances.^ 
 Neither the idea that this or that class of men is excluded 
 from hell ^ nor the gambling for souls should be assumed to 
 be confined to this minstrel's production and not elsewhere 
 found .^ But they occur here combined in a story which is 
 told in a not uninteresting way, and moreover the gambling 
 scenes — gambling is at first treated in this fabliau as a 
 vice — offer a special interest, partly because of such light 
 as they throw on the old games with dice, partly because 
 of the very difficulties of comprehension for the modern 
 reader.^ 
 
 The translation is intended to be a pretty close and line- 
 
 ' In Montaiglon and Raynaud's Reeueil general et complet des fabliaux, 5. 65-79. 
 
 ^ Cf. Bedier, Les Fabliaux, p. 317 (2d ed.)- 
 
 ■'" For a different remark concerning minstrels in hell see Aucassin et Nicolette. 
 6. 25 ff. (ed. of Suchier), with the words (line 39), "et si i [into hell] vont harpeor 
 et jogleor," etc. 
 
 * See W. Hertz's notes on the translation of this fabliau into German in his Spiel- 
 mannsbuch. 
 
 ' I have derived much help from the excellent study by Franz Semrau (Wurfel 
 und Wiirfelspiel im alten Frankreich, 23. Heft of the Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur 
 romanische Philologie, Halle, 1910), whose explanations of the games and the 
 passages concerned I have, for the most part, accepted. My notes on vv. 177, 183, 
 191, 202, 208, 212, 231, and probably 168, are all based on his work even where I 
 am inclined to disagree with him (see my note on vv. 177, 208) ; and I have ac- 
 cepted his changes in punctuation or assignment of speeches in vv. 181, 308, 319, 
 322. He has printed with notes w. 3-8, 27, 28, 134-251, 291-330, 353-355, 370- 
 378; in all somewhat less than half of the whole. 
 
 131 
 
132 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL 
 
 for-line translation, in approximately the tone and the metre 
 of the original. To do this and also to imitate the rhyme 
 would have been impossible for me, and I have accordingly 
 avoided rhyme altogether. That beside at least one rather 
 coarse colloquialism I have occasionally used a word or 
 a phrase which is not modern and colloquial may be harder 
 to justify ; but it can be pleaded in excuse that the original 
 is some six centuries old, and that a translator may be al- 
 lowed to let his rendering at least hint at such age now and 
 then. The verses are numbered so as to correspond to those 
 of the original. It will be seen that a few lines have been 
 omitted ; some of these can hardly have been in the fabliau 
 as originally composed, and the others are unimportant.^ 
 
 There was a minstrel once at Sens 
 5 Who truly was of low estate ; 
 
 His costume was but seldom whole ; 
 
 I know not by what name he went ; 
 
 But oft he lost his all at dice ; 
 
 He often was without his fiddle, 
 10 Barelegged and without a coat, 
 
 So that against the chilly wind 
 
 He often had nought but a shirt. 
 
 Do not suppose I'm telling lies. 
 
 He had not often shoes to wear. . . . 
 22 The tavern was his chief resort, 
 
 The brothel next he visited ; 
 
 Those places tempted him the most. . . . 
 27 He loved dice and the tavern much. 
 
 And all his earnings there he spent. . . . 
 31 With a green chaplet on his head 
 
 He would each day were holiday ; 
 
 He greatly longed for Sunday's coming. 
 
 He ne'er Uked noisy quarrelUng, 
 35 In foolish living still kept on. 
 
 Now you shall hear what happed to him. 
 In foolish sins he spent his time ; 
 
 When he had lived out all his life 
 
 He had to die and pass beyond. 
 niO A devil, who can never cease 
 
 From tricking and attacking men, 
 
 Came to the corpse to get the soul. 
 
 ' An earlier English translation is in Bruce- Whyte's Histoire des langues romanes 
 (1841), 3. 122 ff. It is very tree and contains in all only 167 lines, omitting much 
 of the original. 
 
EDWARD STEVENS SHELDON 133 
 
 A month he had been outside hell 
 
 And not one soul as yet had caught. 
 45 So when he saw this minstrel die 
 
 He ran at once to seize the soul ; 
 
 And since the minstrel died in sin 
 
 No opposition there he found. 
 
 Forthwith he took him on his back, 
 50 And ran with speed towards hell again. 
 
 His comrades roaming through the land 
 
 Had captured many a human soul ; 
 
 The one brings with him warriors' souls. 
 
 Another priests, still others thieves, 
 55 And monks, and abbots, bishops too. 
 
 And knights, and many sorts of men, 
 
 Who all had been in mortal sin, 
 
 And so were taken at the end. 
 
 These devils now return to hell 
 60 And meet their master Lucifer. 
 
 When he sees them thus laden come, 
 
 "My faith," says he, "I welcome you. 
 
 You've not been idUng all this time. 
 
 These souls shall surely ill lodge here." 
 65 And in the cauldron they were put. 
 
 "But, sirs," says he, "it seems to me. 
 
 By all that I thus far have seen. 
 
 You have not all come back again." 
 
 "Yes, Sire, we have, save one alone, 
 70 A wretched one, a luckless devil. 
 
 Who has no skill to capture souls. 
 
 And knows not how men to deceive." 
 Just then they see this devil coming 
 
 And bringing leisurely enough 
 75 Upon his back the minstrel man. 
 
 Who was indeed in evU case. 
 
 All naked he has entered hell ; 
 
 And he has thrown the minstrel down. 
 
 The master spoke, addressed him thus : 
 80 "Vassal," he said, "attend to me; 
 
 Were you a rogue, traitor, or thief ?" 
 
 "Not so," says he, "a minstrel I. 
 
 With me I bring the havings all 
 
 My body used to own on earth. 
 85 My body suffered many a chill. 
 
 And many a hard word had to bear ; 
 
 Now I am lodged in here in hell. 
 
 And I will sing, if that's your wish." 
 
 "With singing we have nought to do, 
 - 90 You must Uve here in other wise ; 
 
134 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL 
 
 But since I see you are so bare 
 And are so very poorly clad, 
 Under the cauldron keep the fire." 
 "By St. Peter, with all my heart, 
 
 95 For keeping warm is good for me." 
 
 Then down he sat beside the hearth. 
 And tends the fire quite at his ease, 
 And warms up just as suits him best. 
 One day it chanced the imps of heU 
 
 100 Had gathered all together there ; 
 
 They sallied out from hell to catch 
 The souls of men o'er all the earth. 
 Their master came this minstrel near. 
 Who kept the fire both night and day : 
 
 105 "Minstrel," says he, "now list to me. 
 
 I trust to you my people all ; 
 Guard well these souls, or lose your eyes. 
 For I should put your eyes both out 
 Were you to lose but one of them ; 
 
 110 And I should hang you by the neck." 
 
 "My lord," said he, "fear not to go; 
 I'll guard them all most loyally, 
 The best I possibly can do, 
 All your souls I'll return to you." 
 
 115 "On that I trust them all to you; 
 
 But know this well, be sure of it, 
 If you should lose a single one 
 You'd surely be devoured alive. 
 But know this too, I do not lie, 
 
 120 When we come back, our work all done, 
 
 I'll see that you shall well be served 
 With some fat monk done to a turn 
 With gravy made of usurer. 
 Or maybe with whoremonger sauce." 
 
 125 So forth they go ; he stays behind 
 
 And in good earnest stirs the fire. 
 Now I will tell how then he fared, 
 This minstrel thus confined in hell, 
 And how St. Peter managed things. 
 
 130 Straight into hell the saint came in. 
 
 And well indeed was he attired. 
 His beard was black, moustaches curled. 
 He all alone came into hell. 
 And brought a dice board and three dice ; 
 
 135 Beside the minstrel sat him down 
 Most quietly and spoke to him : 
 
 "My friend," quoth he, "wish you to play ? 
 See what a board for gambling on ! 
 
EDWARD STEVENS SHELDON 135 
 
 And I've three dice of full size all. 
 140 You may well win in play with me 
 
 Good silver coins here privately." 
 
 And then he lets him plainly see 
 
 The purse in which the silver lies. 
 'But, sir," the minstrel answers him, 
 145 " I swear by God, without deceit, 
 
 I've nought i' th' world except my shirt. 
 
 Sir, in God's name, go you away, 
 
 I say I have of money nought." 
 
 Replied the saint, "My fair sweet friend, 
 150 Put up of these souls five or six." 
 
 The minstrel said, "I should not dare, 
 
 For if I lost a single one 
 
 My master would me much maltreat. 
 
 And he would eat me up alive." 
 155 The answer came, " Who is to tell ? 
 
 A score of souls will ne'er be missed. 
 
 See here the silver that's so fine : 
 
 These pretty pieces from me win. 
 
 All newly minted too, you see. 
 160 Now, twenty shillings, that's my stake : 
 
 Put up the worth of that in souls." 
 
 And when he saw so many coins 
 
 He coveted the silver much. 
 
 The dice he took, he bandied them, 
 165 And to the saint he said straightway : 
 
 "Now let us play, and be my risk 
 
 One soul each time and only one." 
 
 "Oh, two," said he, " that's cowardly,' 
 
 And whoso wins shall add one more, 
 170 I care not which, blonde or brunette !" 
 
 The minstrel said, "We are agreed." 
 
 And said St. Peter, "You begin." 
 
 "But first, before the throw, the devil ! 
 
 Put down the money on the board." 
 175 "With all my heart, i' th' name of God." 
 
 Then he lays silver down for play. 
 
 They sat them down to tremerel,^ 
 
 ' That is, the proposal of one only is cowardly. 
 
 ' In this game apparently one player throws each time tor both, the one to throw 
 being, each time after the first, the player who won last. Each time the first throw 
 is for the other player, and the second one is for the thrower himself. According 
 to vv. 168-169, Peter, winning, gets two souls and one more, making three. Thb 
 win of three is the next stake, but the winner from now on gets twice the stake 
 plus a fixed number, in this case three, each time ; and this number is (by chance 
 only?) the same as the first win of three. Cf. vv. 188, 197-198, 214, and my 
 notes there. This practically amounts to doubling the stakes (the previous win- 
 
136 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL 
 
 The saint and he, close by the fire. 
 
 "Throw you for both," St. Peter said, 
 180 " For you have very skilful hands." 
 
 The minstrel throws, as I believe. 
 
 "My word," the saint said, "I have eight. 
 
 If now you next should throw hasart ' 
 
 Three souls shall I get on my side." 
 18S The other throws trey, deuce, and ace. 
 
 And said St. Peter, "You have lost." 
 
 "Indeed I have, by St. Denis ! 
 
 Let three put down now count for six." ^^ 
 
 And said St. Peter, "I consent." 
 190 Then he at once has thrown and got 
 
 Twelve points at this try with the dice ; " 
 
 "You owe me nine, now I'm in luck." 
 
 "'Tis true," said he, "I've lost again. 
 
 If I risk more will you accept ?" 
 195 "Yes," said the saint, "upon my word." 
 
 "These nine then first that I owe you 
 
 And count twelve more whoever wins." ^^ 
 
 "Accursed he that should refuse." ^' 
 
 nings) each time and adding three, which is the way Semrau describes it, but the 
 technical difference between his account and that here given (based on the original) 
 may possibly help in explaining v. 214 and v. 296 (this last verse he finds unclear), 
 though the game in those two places is not iremerel; cf. my notes on both verses 
 and that on v. 208, also v. 218. Compare double or quits in English. 
 
 Thus Peter wins three the first time ; the second time the stake is accordingly 
 three, and Peter wins six (twice three) plus three more, or nine in all ; the next 
 time he wins eighteen (twice nine) plus three, or twenty-one in all. 
 
 This way of counting implies that the previous winnings are ignored, except as 
 fixing the stake, the successive winnings not being added together (three plus nine 
 plus twenty-one would make thirty- three), but the grand total being given after 
 each time. One might assume a third way and say that the immediately preced- 
 ing winnings are each time added, and that accordingly Peter wins the second 
 time the stake of three, plus his previous win of three, plus the fixed number 
 three, and that he wins the third time the stake of nine, plus his previous total 
 of nine, plus the fixed number three. But this does not serve to explain so well 
 V. 296 (where the winnings are to be three times the stake) ; see my note there 
 and that on v. 214. 
 
 ' In this game a certain bad or losing throw, of an unknown number of points. 
 
 "> That is, the stake is three, but the winner will get twice that number, or six. 
 The word avani ("put down" in the translation), whether in the sense of 'forward,' 
 'put forward' (as the stake), or in the temporal sense 'first,' 'beforehand,' refers to 
 the stake ; cf. vv. 196, 214. 
 
 " This counts for the saint. The throw counting for the minstrel is not men- 
 tioned; it was of course less. 
 
 ^ More literally: "let it count (vaille) for-twelve [more] for whoever wins." 
 Cf. V. 218. The "twelve more" is nine plus three in the original: Qu'il le fera 
 valoir quarante (the stake is twenty). 
 
 " The rhyme qui I'ait is suspicious, repeating exactly the end of the preceding 
 
EDWARD STEVENS SHELDON 137 
 
 Said then the minstrel, "Your throw now." 
 200 "With pleasure," says he, "look at that ! 
 
 I see hasart, it seems to me : " 
 
 You owe me three plus ten plus eight." '^ 
 
 "See here," said he, "now, by God's head. 
 
 That ne'er occurred at play before. 
 205 Now, by the faith you owe to me. 
 
 Are you not using here four dice ? 
 
 Or else your dice are numbered wrong. 
 
 I want to play now for most points." ^' 
 
 "Friend, in the Holy Spirit's name, 
 210 I'll gladly meet your every wish : 
 
 Now be it then just as you choose. 
 
 Shall it be once each time or twice ?" i' 
 
 "Once be it," says the minstrel. "Now, 
 
 Here twenty, winner twenty more !" '* 
 215 And said St. Peter, "Help me God !" 
 
 And then he threw without dispute 
 
 verse. I am inclined to read lait in one word instead of I'ait in v. 198 ; i.e., 'leaves 
 undone,' 'fails to do' (the thing in question). This gives a suitable sense. Pos- 
 sibly the preceding qui stands for quil (= qui le), the I being lost before the 
 following I. 
 
 " The last clause should perhaps go with what follows rather than with the pre- 
 ceding part of this line. 
 
 " This hasart (v. 201) counts for the minstrel, and he loses of course. St. 
 Peter's throw is not mentioned. 
 
 '* A different game ; the winner each time is he who gets the highest number 
 of points. In the game as seen in this fabUau each player throws for himself, and 
 the stakes, or more exactly the winnings, seem to be doubled as before (this seems 
 not to be Semrau's opinion), and as before the winner gets an additional three. Cf. 
 w. 214 (and note), 218, 226. The peculiar throw called hasart in tremerel does not 
 appear. 
 
 " That is, "shall each of us have one throw whenever his timi comes, or two 
 throws in immediate succession?" 
 
 '* Why twenty is not clear. We should expect twenty-one (v. 202). Below 
 (v. 226) the saint claims forty-three as his winnings. I explain this as twice twenty 
 plus three. The number forty- three seems to take no account of the twenty-one 
 previously won at tremerel; it may be simply the amount won this time, or the pre- 
 \'ious winnings may be ignored as in tremerel (see note on v. 177.) The new stake, 
 indeed, was perhaps not necessarily the same as the total winnings just before; 
 all that was necessary was probably that it should be such that if the loser up to 
 this time should now win he would at least be out of debt. Now a stake of twenty, 
 bringing the winner a total of forty-three, would, if the minstrel wins, cancel his debt 
 of twenty-one and give him a claim to a money equivalent of twenty-two souls. 
 Cf. v. 208 (note) and w. 218, 226, also 296, 319, and notes there. Semrau's sug- 
 gestion that twenty is taken instead of twenty-one, as being a round number, seems 
 improbable. 
 
 The original has in this line : Ces .xx avant et .xx. apr^s. As I take avant here 
 to refer to the stake (see note on v. 188), so I take apres to refer to what follows 
 the throw; that is, the winnings. As to counting "twenty more," cf. n. on v. 197. 
 
138 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL ' 
 
 Points seventeen, and now he boasts 
 
 This shall count him for forty souls. 
 
 The minstrel answered, "That's all right. 
 220 Now after you I come in turn." 
 
 And then he throws upon the board. 
 
 "That throw is worth less than a herring," 
 
 St. Peter said, "you've lost again. 
 
 For I see fives on your three dice. 
 225 To-day I'm not in great distress. 
 
 You owe me now two score and three." i' 
 
 "Indeed," says t'other, "by God's heart,"" 
 
 I ne'er saw such a game before ; 
 
 By all the saints that are in Rome 
 230 I'd not trust you nor any man 
 
 That said you hadn't placed the dice." ^'■ 
 
 "Why don't you throw ? have you gone mad ?" 
 
 "I think you were an arrant thief. 
 
 Since you are still so much a cheat 
 235 That you still can't restrain yourself 
 
 From changing dice or placing them." 
 
 St. Peter heard, was wroth at that, 
 
 In anger he gan say to him : 
 
 "You lie in that, so save me God ; 
 240 But that's the usage of a rogue. 
 
 When others do not as he likes. 
 
 He tells them that they change the dice ; 
 
 A curse on him charged me with that. 
 
 And on whoever placed the dice. 
 245 A very foolish rascal you. 
 
 Since you took me to be a thief ; 
 
 I'm much inclined, by St. Marcel, 
 
 To wipe your ugly mug for you." 
 
 "For sure," says he, with rage on fire, 
 250 "A thief you are, you old man, you. 
 
 Wishing to spoil my game for me. 
 
 You shall not carry off a penny." 
 
 "Oh, no ! for you'll seize all yourself.^ 
 
 " See note on v. 208. 
 
 '" The original is par le cuer bieu, literally, 'by the heart of God' (bieu is a dis- 
 guised form for Dieu). It is perhaps worth notice that in Chaucer's Pardoner's 
 Tale the passage against hasardrye leads up to verses against idle swearing which 
 contain the line, "By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles" (v. 323), as a dicer's 
 oath. I have preferred to use a corresponding form in modem English rather than 
 adopt one of the many disguised oaths of similar origin in English (cf . the Oxford 
 English Dictionary, a. v. Ood, 13, 14). 
 
 ^ That is, set them down carefully so as not to let them roll. 
 
 ^ These two lines (253-2S4) I assign to St. Peter ; in the printed text used they 
 are taken as part of the minstrel's speech. "If you can" is an addition of mine. 
 
EDWARD STEVENS SHELDON 139 
 
 Come on and take them, if you can." 
 255 Up springs t' other the spoil to snatch. 
 
 St. Peter, without more ado. 
 
 Gives him a blow below the ribs. 
 
 And he at that lets fall the coins ; 
 
 And he was much enraged at heart. 
 260 The saint he seizes by the beard. 
 
 And pulls at it with all his might. 
 
 St. Peter too took hold and tore 
 
 His clothing aU, down to the waist. 
 
 Never the minstrel felt such rage 
 265 As now, to see his naked flesh 
 
 Exposed as far as to his belt. 
 
 Much have they scratched each other then. 
 
 And beaten, pounded, hauled about. 
 
 Full well the minstrel sees at last 
 270 That his strength here avails him nought. 
 
 For he is not so strong nor big 
 
 As is the saint, nor powerful ; 
 
 And if he keeps on with the fray 
 
 His clothes will all be so in rags 
 275 They never will serve him again. 
 
 "Now, sir," said he, " let us make peace. 
 
 We've tried each other's strength enough ; 
 
 Now let us play again like friends. 
 
 If it suits you and pleases you." 
 280 St. Peter said, "It grieves me much 
 
 That you blamed me about my play. 
 
 And that you me a thief did call." 
 
 "Sir," answered he, "I spoke as mad. 
 
 And I regret it, do not doubt. 
 285 But you have done stiU worse to me, 
 
 For you have torn my clothing so 
 
 That I shall suffer much distress ; 
 
 Now call it quits, and so will I." 
 
 And said St. Peter, "I agree." 
 290 At that they kissed in all good faith. 
 
 "Friend," said St. Peter, "Ust to me, 
 
 Soxils forty- three to me you owe." ^ 
 
 'Tis true," says he, "by St. Germain, 
 
 Too early " I began the play. 
 295 Now let's resume, if it please you, 
 
 ^ He seems to be referring only to his winnings in the second game (v. 226), not 
 counting twenty-one won at tremerd; cf. notes on w. 177, 214. 
 
 ^ The sense is apparently : I began playing too early in the day, before I had 
 full possession of aU my faculties, or before I was fully awake. Semrau translates 
 the phrase (trap main) by "mit zu wenig Erfolg," without further explanation. 
 Hertz has "zu mager." 
 
140 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL 
 
 And be the count threefold or quits. . . ." ^' 
 
 "In God's name," says the saint, "agreed; 
 
 But, my dear friend, just list a bit : 
 300 Will you pay me without dispute ? " 
 
 "Yes," answered he, "with all my heart, 
 
 Entirely at your wish I will. 
 
 In knights, or ladies, canons too. 
 
 Or thieves, or fighting men, or monks ; 
 305 If freemen you prefer or chiu-ls. 
 
 Or priests, or chaplains, as you will." 
 
 "Friend," said the saint, "you're talking sense." 
 
 "Now make your throw and do not cheat." 
 
 St. Peter threw and got this time 
 310 A five, a four, and just one trey. 
 
 The minstrel said, "That's twelve I see." 
 
 "Oh dear !" St. Peter said, "oh dear ! 
 
 If Jesus takes not pity on me. 
 
 This last throw brings me nought but shame." 
 315 The other throws with eagerness. 
 
 It's fives and deuce, and nothing more. 
 
 "My God," the saint said, "good result 
 
 Will yet come for me from this tie. 
 
 Now twenty-two, win I or lose !" '^ 
 320 The minstrel said, "So let it be. 
 
 Then throw ; the risk is twenty-two." 
 
 "I throw now, in St. Julian's name." 
 
 St. Peter throws without delay 
 
 Two sixes and a single ace. 
 325 The saint said, "I have thrown in luck, 
 
 For I beat you by just one point." 
 
 " See how he's almost done for me. 
 
 Beating me by a single point ! 
 
 I never yet was fortunate 
 
 2' As it seems, a new start is made with no stake mentioned at first ; later, after 
 the tie, twenty-two seems to be the stake (v. 319) ; the last win of forty-three is 
 admitted, but the game starts afresh without regard to that number. It may be 
 observed that when the change was made before, the number seemed wrong (see 
 V. 214 and note there). Here, if the stake is twenty-two, we should expect the 
 winner to get sixty-six (three times twenty-two, instead of the former arrangement 
 by which the winnings would amount to twice the stake) plus three as before, or in 
 all sixty-nine. But no number at aU is mentioned below. As at v. 214 the stake 
 proposed, with a total of sixty-nine this time for the winner, would, if the minstrel 
 wins, clear his debt of forty-three (plus perhaps twenty-one lost at tremerelf), or 
 in all at most sixty-four, and give him a claim on some of the money. 
 
 '^ Let the stake be twenty-two souls, hit or miss (i.e., whether he wins or loses). 
 He will win, it seems, if he throws more than the number (twelve) at which the 
 two players were just tied. The other player has no throw, as Peter gets thirteen 
 and so wins. 
 
EDWARD STEVENS SHELDON 141 
 
 330 But always was a luckless man, 
 
 A wretched man, a hapless man. 
 
 Both here and in the world alway." 
 
 Now when the souls that were in fire 
 
 Heard this and clearly understood 
 335 That St. Peter had won indeed, 
 
 From aU sides they called out to him : 
 
 "Sire, for God's sake the glorious. 
 
 We fully trust ourselves to you." 
 
 And said St. Peter, "I accept. 
 340 I trust you all ; do you trust me. 
 
 From torment here you all to save 
 
 I risked at play my money all 
 
 But if I had lost everything 
 
 You would have had no chance at all. 
 345 If it please God, before this night 
 
 You all shall be companions mine." 
 
 At that the minstrel was struck dumb. 
 
 And then he spoke : "One thing or t'other ! 
 
 I'U either square my debt in full 
 350 Or else I'll lose my all for good. 
 
 The souls each one and my shirt too." 
 
 I will not tire you with details : 
 
 The saint kept up the game so long 
 
 And held the minstrel so at play 
 355 That he at last won all the souls. 
 
 From hell he led them out in throngs. 
 
 And led them up to Paradise. 
 
 The minstrel stayed behind abashed. 
 
 In grief of mind, in anger too. 
 360 Lo, now the devils have come back : 
 
 When their chief was once more at home 
 
 He looked about and all around. 
 
 But saw no soul in front, behind. 
 
 In furnace none, in cauldron none. 
 365 The minstrel then he summoned forth : 
 
 "Speak up," he said, "where have they gone. 
 
 The souls that I left in your charge ?" 
 
 "My lord," quoth he, "I'll tell it you. 
 
 For God's sake, mercy have on me ! 
 370 An old man came but now to me. 
 
 And brought in money, past aU count. 
 
 I thought indeed to get it all. 
 
 And he and I for it we played. 
 
 But it turned out amiss for me, 
 375 He must have played with loaded dice, 
 
 The trickster, the deceitful man. 
 
 I had no luck, upon my word, 
 
142 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL 
 
 And I have lost your people all." 
 Now when the chief heard him speak thus 
 380 He all but hurled him in to bum : 
 
 "You whoreson rogue," quoth he, "you wretch. 
 
 Your minstrelsy costs me too dear. 
 
 A curse on him that brought you iu ! 
 
 By my head, he shall pay for this ! " 
 385 They made straight for that luckless imp 
 
 Who'd brought the minstrel's soul within. . . , 
 393 So well they beat and hustled him 
 
 That he at last gave them his word 
 395 Never again at any time 
 
 To bring a minstrel into hell. 
 
 Their chief spoke to the minstrel then : 
 
 "Fair friend, be off from my abode ! 
 
 A curse light on your minstrelsy, 
 400 Since I have lost my houseful by 't. 
 
 Be off from here, I tell you, go ! 
 
 I have no care for such a servant. 
 
 I ne'er will seek a minstrel's soul. 
 
 Nor wUl I lodge one of that breed. 
 405 I'll none of them, go they their way. 
 
 Let God have them, for he loves joy ! 
 
 Be off to God, they're not for me." 
 
 And he makes off fast as he can ; 
 
 The devils drive him out of hell. 
 410 Towards Paradise he took his way. 
 
 And when St. Peter saw him come 
 
 He ran to ope for him the gate ; 
 
 Fine lodgings he allotted him. 
 
 Now let the minstrels all make merry, 
 415 Be gay and joyous as they please. 
 
 For hell's torment is not for them. 
 
 There's one has saved them from that fate 
 
 Gambling away the souls at dice. 
 
THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 Morris Jastrow, Jr. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 I 
 
 The search for the soul has always been one of the favorite 
 pursuits of man's speculative instincts from the remote 
 period of primitive culture down to our own age, which, 
 although so predominatingly scientific, has not — fortunately 
 perhaps — succeeded in brushing away all the cobwebs of 
 popular fancy. Hence it can happen that, in our own days, 
 experiments should be undertaken in a serious spirit to weigh 
 the human soul, — attempts which rest essentially on the 
 same crudely materialistic conceptions that led simple folk 
 and even philosophers in antiquity to locate the soul some- 
 where in the human body. 
 
 The earliest philosophy of mankind is necessarily materi- 
 alistic. In man's first endeavors to find a solution for the 
 two most striking mysteries of which he is conscious, the 
 world of phenomena about him and the fact of his own ex- 
 istence, it is natural that he should, on the one hand, trace 
 the origin of the world to some single substance as the 
 starting-point of the evolution of matter, and that on the 
 other, he should be led to localize in himself an element that 
 would appear to him to constitute the essence of his own 
 life. One might have supposed the blood to be the sub- 
 stance that would most naturally suggest itself as the 
 source of life ; and as a matter of fact, among many na- 
 tions, both primitive and advanced, we find blood closely 
 associated with life. This is the view that underlies the 
 Biblical tale of Cain and Abel. The actual shedding of 
 Abel's blood is dwelt upon as the cause of his death, and 
 hence the ordinary expression for murder in Hebrew is the 
 
 143 
 
144 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 ' pouring out of blood.' Similarly the word for blood is used 
 synonymously with the term for 'life' or 'soul.' Yet, al- 
 though the sight of blood flowing from an inflicted wound 
 would suggest in the case of both man and animals that 
 life is to be found in the blood, inasmuch as death ordinarily 
 ensues without violence and without any actual loss of 
 blood, the conclusion would be drawn that there is some- 
 thing else besides the blood which conditions life. 
 
 Early thought does not distinguish sharply between con- 
 ceptions that in a more scientific age would be kept apart, 
 and we must pass down to the period of Greek philosophy 
 before we encounter a differentiation between soul and life. 
 To the primitive mind, and even in popular parlance among 
 the advanced nations of antiquity, soul and life, even when 
 two separate terms exist, are used interchangeably. The 
 problem of life, therefore, as it presented itself to antiquity, 
 was to seek for some locality in the body which might be 
 regarded as the ultimate source of life, and hence as the seat 
 of the soul. 
 
 Scholars have hitherto recognized that the heart was 
 widely regarded in antiquity as the seat of life. This was 
 the view currently held in ancient India. In Sanskrit litera- 
 ture the heart is the seat of thought, and since thought is the 
 most significant and most direct manifestation of the soul, 
 the heart is identified with the soul, and, as such, becomes 
 also the source of all emotions and the general symbol of 
 vitality. In the Atharva-Veda we read of " the fluttering 
 mind that has found place in the heart." ^ Agni is pictured 
 as confounding the evil intent of adversaries — " that which 
 is in their heart " — and he is called upon to consume them 
 in their hearts with pangs. ^ Not only is all 'thought' and 
 ' design ' placed in the heart,' but in the philosophy of India 
 the spirit of man is actually described as dwelling in the 
 heart and pictured as about the size of a thumb, or in an- 
 other passage as smaller than a seed of corn or rice, and 
 yet, despite its smallness, endowed with infinity of being, 
 and identified with the all-embracing universal soul. Even 
 a particular spot in the heart is assigned as the seat of the 
 
 ^ Whituey-Lanman, Atharva-Veda, 1. 294 (vi. 18. 3). 
 
 2 Ibid., 1. 86 (iii. 2. 3-5). ' Ibid., 2. 651-653 (xi. 9. 1 and 13). 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 145 
 
 soul, and in sleep the soul is supposed to transfer its seat to 
 the heart bag. 
 
 Among the Greeks and Romans we find practically the 
 same view both in popular beliefs' and among the early phi- 
 losophers, as well as among the physicians down to a certain 
 period. In Homer, all the intellectual and emotional fac- 
 ulties, including love and courage, are placed in the heart, 
 which thus becomes equivalent to being the seat of soul- 
 activity.* And despite the fact that under the influence 
 of anatomical knowledge, which established the important 
 function of the brain — even before the days of Plato, it 
 would seem — the view arose which gave to the head the 
 distinction of containing the soul, in popular usage as well 
 as in some scientific circles the older notion survived. Anac- 
 reon ^ advised perfuming the breast, beneath which is the 
 heart, in the belief that the perfume would bring calm to 
 one's spirit; and Athenseus, who reports this of Anacreon, 
 expressly adds that this was done, because according to 
 Praxagoras and Philotimus — both physicians — ■ the soul 
 was located in the heart. 
 
 The more advanced view, which placed the soul in the 
 brain, is attributed to Pythagoras and Democritus, but finds 
 a more definite expression in Hippocrates (ca. 460-377 B.C.), 
 who not only distinguishes between the intellectual and 
 the emotional faculties, but within the latter recognizes two 
 divisions : the higher emotions, like courage, and the lower, 
 among which are the passions and appetites. The higher 
 are located in the heart, the lower in the region of the liver. 
 Practically the same view is taken by Plato, although, as 
 we shall see,^ he also attempts a compromise between older 
 and later views; but the greatest of Greek philosophers, 
 Aristotle, still clings to the view that the seat of the intel- 
 lectual functions is in the heart. While differentiating be- 
 tween soul and intellect, he makes the nous a part of the 
 psyche.'' 
 
 * Seymour, Homeric Age, p. 489. 
 
 ' Athenseus, Deipnosophistae, Book xv, § 36. ' See below, p. 166. 
 
 ' De Anima, iii. 4. Aristotle specifies that the voSs, 'spirit,' is that wherewith 
 the soul i'pvx'fi) thinks and grasps. See Jastrow, Aspects of Religious Belief and 
 Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 153, note 1. 
 
146 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOXJL 
 
 The argument of Aristotle in favor of the heart as the 
 seat of the soul is curious, coming from one who is usually 
 swayed by purely scientific considerations, but also interest- 
 ing as illustrative of the tenacious hold of traditional con- 
 ceptions even on men of science. Aristotle argues that the 
 soul must be located in the noblest organ of the body, and 
 that is the heart. The highest expression of man's being 
 must come from the noblest part. 
 
 The Stoics may also be cited as examples among Greek 
 philosophers who clung to the older view. Plutarch has an 
 interesting passage * which shows that the change from heart 
 to brain was only gradually brought about, and that after 
 considerable discussion as to a number of places in the head 
 where the intellect was supposed to be located. While 
 Plato and Democritus placed it in the head in general, Strato, 
 he says, fixed the seat of the intellect between the eyebrows, 
 Erasistratos underneath the scalp, Herophilos at the bottom 
 of the head. Parmenides and Epicurus were among those 
 who clung to the view which placed the intellect — and 
 the soul — in the breast, the Stoics placed it in the heart, 
 while Diogenes specified the ventricles of the heart, and 
 Empedocles the blood of the heart — an interesting com- 
 promise between blood and heart as coextensive with life. 
 Others, he adds, placed the soul in the arteries of the heart, 
 some in the pericardium, and again others in the diaphragm, 
 — a compromise between liver and heart. The eclectic 
 disposition reaches its limit in the views of those who, like 
 Pythagoras, made the soul extend from the head to the 
 heart or even to the diaphragm.^ Among the arguments 
 used by the Stoics in support of their preference for the 
 heart as against the head, Galen (ca. 130-200 a.d.) furnishes 
 the one offered by Zeno, which is curious enough to be 
 added.^** Zeno reasoned as follows : The voice comes 
 through the throat. If it came from the head, it would not 
 pass through the throat ; whence the voice comes must also 
 
 * De Placitis Philosophorum, iv. 5. 
 
 ' In judging of these strange and erratic opinions, it is well to bear in mind that 
 as late as the Middle Ages the belief was quite general, even among physiologists, 
 that the soul was located in a particular spot at the base of the brain. 
 
 '" CEuvres de Galen, 2. 244 f . (edited by Daremberg). 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 147 
 
 be the seat of the intellect. Hence the head cannot be the 
 seat of the intellect. 
 
 In Hebrew, likewise, the heart is the seat of the intellect, 
 and although the literary language differentiates between 
 intellectual and emotional processes — the emotions being 
 placed beneath the diaphragm in the bowels or kidneys — 
 there are numerous passages in the Old Testament, especially 
 in poetry (see below, p. 148), which prove the persistence of 
 the older conception that concentrated within the heart all 
 the intellectual and emotional functions associated with 
 the manifestation of man's soul-activity. 
 
 In illustration of Latin usage, we find Persius (Satires, 
 vi. 2) employing the phrase 'cor jubet hoc Enni ' as the equiv- 
 alent to Ennius hoc jubet ; " and as further evidence for the 
 strength which this older view maintained even among men 
 of science down to a late day, it is sufficient to quote the ut- 
 terance of Paracelsus, " Cseterum non corpus homo est sed 
 cor est homo,"^^ or the saying of a late Spanish chronicler 
 that "The root of man is his heart." Vauvenargues reflects 
 the same view when he declares, " Les grandes pensees 
 viennent du coeur," and we speak of 'learning by heart' and 
 'knowing something by heart,' '^ just as our word 'record' 
 takes us back to the age which believed that knowledge was 
 deposited in the heart. In sacrificial rites among various 
 nations the heart of the victim is accorded special honors as 
 the seat of life, and in further illustration of this distinction 
 accorded to the heart, we have the large number of instances, 
 from the days of Robert d'Arbrissel (died 1117) down to our 
 own days, of special burials for the hearts of rulers, saints, and 
 warriors.'* 
 
 ^ Ennius, who spoke three languages, Greek, Oscan, and Latin, significantly 
 says of himself that he has 'three hearts' (Gellius, Noctes, Book xvii. 17), — an- 
 other indication of the identification of the heart with the seat of intellect. 
 
 " Interpretatio alia totius Astronomiae (Paracelsi Opera, 2. 670, Geneva, 1658). 
 
 " Compare the French 'apprendre par coeur,' 'je sais par coeur.' 
 
 " See the long list of illustrations in Andry, Kecherches sur le Coeur et le Foie 
 (Paris, 1856), pp. 106-122. It was customary also for the hearts of the rulers of 
 Bavaria to be taken out of the bodies and to be buried in the church at Ettal, 
 even when the bodies were placed elsewhere. 
 
148 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 II 
 
 There is, however, considerable evidence at our disposal 
 to show that in a still earlier age than the one which selected 
 the heart as the seat of the soul, there was another organ to 
 which this distinction was accorded, namely, the liver. 
 In Greek poetry, it has been observed,'^ the word ^^rap 
 is introduced where in prose the word for 'heart' would 
 be used. When the poet wishes to say of one that he is 
 mortally wounded, he does not say that 'he is struck in 
 the heart' but that he is 'hit in the liver.' ^^ Megarus, 
 disconsolate over the death of his children, prays that he too 
 may die through a poisoned arrow in his liver." The late 
 Professor Lamberton informed me that he did not recall 
 a single instance in Greek poetry in which the word 'heart' 
 was employed as indicative of the seat of vitality. Such a 
 circumstance points unmistakably to a time when the liver 
 was regarded as the seat of life, or, what in popular fancy 
 amounts to the same thing, as the seat of the soul. Poetic 
 speech, by virtue of the general archaic character of poetry, 
 retains the earlier view. Bion ^* makes Venus express the 
 hope at the sight of the slain Adonis that the last breath of 
 her son may pass into her liver, i.e. into her soul, and so 
 Hecuba, vowing vengeance for her husband's death, declares 
 that she will not rest until she has devoured 'the liver' of 
 Achilles." 
 
 The myth of Prometheus chained to a rock, as the punish- 
 ment sent by the gods, with a vulture eating his liver, rests 
 on the same belief, the liver being selected as the seat of 
 vitality. Incidentally, this touch reveals the antiquity of 
 the myth, and the same applies to the story of Tityus, the 
 son of Jupiter, who, for having violated Latone, is punished 
 by having a serpent (or vultures) pick at his liver.^" 
 
 In Hebrew likewise there are traces of this earlier view. 
 While, as we have seen, the word for 'heart' (leb) is used 
 as a synonym of nephesh, 'soul,' there are two passages in 
 
 '' See Stephanus, Thesaurus Linguse Graecae ; or Passow, Griechisches Worter- 
 buch, under ^wap ; Blecher, De Extispicio, p. 58. '^ Cf . Anacreon, Ode 3. 
 " Moschus, IdyU iv. 30. i* Bion, Idyll 1. 47. " Iliad, xxiv. 212. 
 
 '" Hyginus, Fabulse, Iv. ; according to Homer, Iliad, xi. 578, by vultures. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 149 
 
 the Old Testament in which the word for 'liver' (kabed) 
 occurs instead. In Lamentations ii. 11 the poet saj's : 
 
 Poured out on the earth is my liver, over the destruction of my people, 
 
 where the expression of the liver being poured out is synony- 
 mous with the more common one of the blood or the soul 
 being poured out.^^ Since the gall belongs to the liver, the 
 phrase in Job xvi. 13 of the "gall poured on the ground," 
 is synonymous with the usage in Lamentations. 
 
 Again, in Proverbs vii. 23, in a description of how one who 
 falls into the meshes of the lewd woman is lured on to de- 
 struction, we read : 
 
 UntU the arrow pierces his liver, as the bird rushes to the trap, not 
 knowing that it means his life (nephesh). 
 
 Here there is a direct juxtaposition of 'liver' and 'life' (or 
 soul), the two terms being used synonymously, as elsewhere 
 'heart' and 'life.' In the Psalms likewise there are a num- 
 ber of passages in which by the consensus of scholars we 
 must read kabed, 'liver,' instead of kabod, 'honor,' as the 
 text has it. So e.g. Ps. vii. 6 : 
 
 Let him tread down my life to the earth, and drag my liver to the dust. 
 
 Here again we have the juxtaposition of 'life' and 'liver.' 
 So also in Ps. xxx. 13 the correct reading is 
 
 That my liver may sing praise unto thee and not be silent, 
 
 synonymous with the frequent phrase 'let my heart be glad,' 
 or 'let my soul rejoice.' 
 
 It is interesting to note also that there are some passages 
 in which the earlier and later views are combined by the in- 
 troduction of both organs, heart and liver, that together sum 
 up what we should call soul. In Ps. xvi. 9 the Psalmist says : 
 
 Therefore my heart is glad, and my liver exulteth. 
 
 In Ps. cviii. 2 : 
 
 My heart is steadfast, God ! I will chant and I will sing — aye, my 
 Uver (shall sing). 
 
 ^' In Malay, similarly, blood and liver are used as synonymous (Fasciculi Ma- 
 layenses. Part i. p. 178). 
 
150 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 Here the phrase 'aye, my liver' is equivalent to 'aye, my 
 soul.' ^^ The use of the liver or of the gall in ancient medi- 
 cine reverts to the same conceptions held of the liver as 
 the seat of vitality. From the Talmud ^' we learn that the 
 liver of the dog was a remedy against hydrophobia. Tobit 
 restores the sight of his father by rubbing his eyes with the 
 gall of a fish.^^ Both remedies are clearly based on the sup- 
 position that the liver as the seat of life or of the soul is 
 capable of restoring the intellect and sight, which are mani- 
 festations of soul life. The angel Raphael tells Tobit that 
 by burning the liver of the fish the demon may be chased 
 away, and it is only the other side of the picture if the gall 
 is viewed as destructive of life, as, e.g., in the famous passage 
 in Matthew xxvii. 34, according to which Jesus on the cross 
 is given 'gall' mixed with vinegar. It is a common phe- 
 nomenon in popular traditions that what gives life is also 
 capable of taking it away. Corresponding then to the use 
 of the liver in restoring the mind of man, the drinking of gall 
 is portrayed by Habakkuk (ii. 15) as depriving a man of his 
 reason. 
 
 The natives of the Tonga Islands ^^ attribute left-handed- 
 ness to the fact that the liver lies more to the left side, while 
 in the case of ambidextrous persons, the liver is supposed 
 to be situated toward the middle between the two sides. 
 The underlying belief is evidently in this case also that the 
 liver is the seat of movements which a later age attributed 
 to the brain as the seat of the soul, and the same belief 
 accounts for the fact that these natives attribute liver 
 diseases to the gods, who select this organ as the seat 
 
 ^ There are good grounds for believing that the phrase keb6d Yahweh, 'glory 
 of God,' stands in some connection with the view that makes the liver the seat of 
 the soul. The 'glory of God,' in the sense in which we modems take it, has no place 
 in ancient Hebrew (or Semitic) thought. The real meaning of the phrase comes 
 nearer to the notion of 'spirit,' 'essence,' of God. The substantive form kabdd 
 may, therefore, ultimately rest upon the identification of kabed, 'liver,' with 
 'soul,' 'life,' 'vitality,' 'spirit,' and the like. SeeVoIIers, Archiv fur Eeligionswis- 
 senschaft, ix. 180 f. ^ Yoma (BabU), 84a. 
 
 " Chap. xi. 4, 8, 13. See also vi. 7-9. Some texts reflecting later practices 
 read, 'the heart, gall-bladder, and liver.' 
 
 2' See Mariner, Tonga Islands, 2. 127, quoted by Andry, pp. 78 and 233. It is 
 merely a shifting from Uver to heart that leads Nicholas Massa to explain left- 
 handedness and right-handedness according to the position of the heart. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 151 
 
 of vitality to punish those guilty of transgressing taboo 
 ordinances. 
 
 In Arabic, too, although the word for heart is used as the 
 seat of the intellect, we have instances of the occurrence 
 of the term kabid, 'liver,' in a connection which shows that 
 the Arabs at one time associated the liver with the soul. 
 
 In answer to a question whether a Moslem might expect 
 to receive divine reward for good deeds to animals, Mo- 
 hammed is reported to have said, "for every moist liver 
 there is a reward." ^* The 'moist liver' is the 'living liver,' 
 and the 'living liver' is the 'living soul.' On the occasion 
 of a great grief, when the fidelity of his favorite spouse was 
 questioned, Mohammed says of himself, "I cried two nights 
 and one day, until it seemed as though my liver would 
 split," ^^ equivalent to our phrase 'as though my heart 
 would break.' In Arabic poetry the word for liver is used, 
 as in Hebrew poetry, as a synonym for 'soul,' and there is 
 an instance of a variant reading ' laceration of the soul ' for 
 'laceration of the liver.' ^* 
 
 An abundance of additional evidence for the same belief 
 among various other nations is at our disposal, all point- 
 ing to the circumstance that at an earlier period the liver 
 was accorded the position subsequently assigned to the heart, 
 and still later to the brain. ^' So, to give only a few more 
 examples, the Armenians speak of a 'broken liver,' where 
 we should say a 'broken heart,' '" and the Persians to ex- 
 press the idea of fear say that 'one's liver has melted.' 
 Among the Chinese,'^ in popular beliefs as well as in medical 
 treatises, the liver is regarded as the seat of the soul. Its 
 predominance over the heart is indicated by the designa- 
 tion of the liver as the 'mother of the heart,' that is to say, 
 the source of the functions assigned to the heart. Among 
 
 '« Bokhari (ed. Krehl) 2. 78 (chap. 42. 9). " /jj^.^ p ^55 (^jjap. 52. 15). 
 
 ^' Ghuzuli Matali' al-Budur (Cairo ed.) 1. 198, line 6 ; Thousand and One 
 Nights (2d Bulak ed.) 2. 236. I owe these references to my friend. Professor 
 C. C. Torrey, of Yale University. 
 
 ^' Gathered by Felix Andry, Recherches sur le coeur et le foie (Paris, 1856), 
 pp. 225-279, without, however, recognizing the real significance of the valuable 
 material amassed by him with such diligence. 
 
 '" Andry, p. 231, on the authority of Mr. Dulaurier. 
 
 '' Scheube, in Neuburger and Pagel, Handbuch der Geschichte der Medizin, p. 25. 
 
152 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 the Chinese we find the belief, current also among other 
 nations, that if one eats the liver or gall bladder (as a part of 
 the liver) of one's enemy, one obtains the enemy's courage.'^ 
 
 In the Latin poets we encounter the liver as the seat of 
 anger, but also as the seat of love, of pity, as well as of fear 
 and the passions in general.^^ When Ovid '* refers to the 
 custom of making an image of the enemy, and piercing the 
 region of the liver with a needle, as a form of sympathetic 
 magic, to bring about the death of the enemy, we have 
 another illustration of the primitive conceptions which were 
 connected with the liver, and which were subsequently 
 transferred to the heart ; ^^ and when Hippocrates,'* despite 
 his advanced position in assigning the highest functions of 
 life to the brain, still declares that the liver is the seat of the 
 blood, he is simply giving expression in more scientific form 
 to the primitive view, which places in the liver the seat of 
 life. Blood being associated with life, the liver as the seat 
 of the blood would be at the same time the seat of life. 
 
 Even in our own modern and Occidental speech traces of 
 this view regarding the liver which was once so general have 
 survived. Rabelais '^ uses the phrase " Je t'ayme du bon du 
 foye," where liver is the equivalent of 'heart' or even soul. 
 The English expression 'white-livered' (see below, p. 168), 
 like its Greek equivalent XevK-rjiraTiw;, is used as a term of 
 reproach for the cowardly man, but it rests for all that on 
 the belief that the liver is the seat of courage. It is the pale 
 color that transforms the courageous into a timid man, 
 and this is in accord with the usage among primitive peoples, 
 who regard a large liver as an index of great bravery.^' 
 In German, one still describes a man of frank, open mind 
 by saying 'er spricht frisch von der Leber weg' ('he speaks 
 directly from the liver'), and it is only a slight modification 
 from the same underlying view when we say, of one who is 
 
 ^ Andry, p. 232. ^ See the collection of passages in Andry, p. 240. 
 
 ^ Heroides, vi. 91-92. 
 
 " See the picture of -i pig's heart transfixed with pins and thoms, an English 
 rustic's malicious charm. (Joseph Jastrow, MaUcious Animal Magnetism, in 
 Hampton's Magazine, October, 1910, p. 451.) 
 
 '« Andry, p. 277. See below, p. 166. 
 
 " Quoted by Andry, p. 276. 
 
 38 Andry, p. 232, reports this of the inhabitants of the Tonga Islands. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 153 
 
 dull and colorless, that 'he has no bile'; '^ and so illustra- 
 tions might be multiplied almost ad infinitum. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The definite proof that the location of the soul was at 
 one time quite generally placed in the liver is furnished by 
 the divination rites prevailing among people living in a 
 state of primitive culture. In Borneo, Uganda, Burma, and 
 elsewhere, when it is desired to forecast the future, to know 
 the outcome of sickness, the result of a military expedition, 
 and the like, the invariable method is to kill a pig or fowl 
 or goat, and to inspect the liver. From the shape and color 
 of the organ, and from peculiar symptoms noted on the lobes 
 or the gall-bladder or on the various ducts, the will and in- 
 tention of the gods are determined.^" Similarly among the 
 inhabitants of Nadravia it is believed that by examining 
 the liver — also the spleen — of a pig one can determine 
 how the winter will turn out, whether the crops will be 
 good, whether the early or the late seed will thrive.^^ Such 
 
 " Also in French usage (Andry, p. 235), " qui ne se fait pas de bile ' ; and in Ger- 
 man, 'er hat keine Galle.' 
 
 *" Fumess, Home Life of Borneo Head Hunters, p. 43. Dr. Fumess kindly gave 
 me a copy of a drawing made by him of a pig's Uver inspected in his presence in 
 November, 1897, in Borneo, to obtain omens for a great peacemaking between hos- 
 tile tribes. See also Haddon, Head Hunters, p. 336 f . ; Hose and McDougal in 
 Journal of the Anthropol. Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1901, p. 180 
 f . ; H. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, 1. 190 ; R. G. Latham, Descriptive 
 Ethnology, 1. 61 f . ; J. G. Scott, Gazetteer of Upper Burma, 1. 552. A mal- 
 formed liver or one of an unusually dark color is an unfavorable omen ; a smooth 
 and pale-colored one is favorable. Mr. J. G. Frazer in a letter to the writer 
 (June 20, 1907) quotes from his notes of a conversation with Messrs. Roscoe and 
 Miller, missionaries to Uganda, that "divination was practised in Uganda, goats 
 were killed, and from an inspection of the inwards the diviner made his prediction. 
 The liver was especially consulted." Many travellers in describing divination 
 rites among primitive peoples speak in an indefinite way of the " entrails," others of 
 the heart and lungs (see the quotations in Blecher, de Extispicio, p. 73 f.), but 
 one may be permitted to doubt whether the explorers in question actually witnessed 
 the itispection. It will probably be found that the 'entrails' were in reaUty the 
 Uver; and when Spenser St. John speaks of "signs discovered upon the heart" of 
 the pig among the Sakarang Dayaks (Life in the Forests of the Far East, 1. 63 f .), 
 it was in all probability a liver that he saw, or that was described to him. Unless 
 an explorer has his attention especially directed towards it, he might easily mistake 
 one part of a victim for the other. 
 
 "■ Matthaeus Prsetorius, Delicise Prussicse (ed. Pierson, Berlin, 1870). I owe 
 this reference to Dr. L. H. Gray. 
 
154 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 rites rest on the belief that the liver is the seat of life, and 
 can be satisfactorily explained only on this assumptiori. 
 As will be pointed out below, the soul of the animal, dedi- 
 cated to a deity and accepted by him, reflects the soul of 
 the god. If, therefore, one reads the soul of a pig, fowl, or 
 goat as the case may be, one obtains, as it were, an insight 
 into the soul of the god. The rite on this assumption be- 
 comes intelligible, and it may be put down as an axiom 
 that primitive rites everywhere rest on a well-defined theory, 
 — frequently elaborate and complicated, — and are not the 
 outcome of mere caprice or fancy. 
 
 The view that the liver is the seat of life or of the soul 
 crops out also in such beliefs found among primitive peoples 
 as that the liver of the dead guru transmits to the one who 
 eats it the powers of its former possessor,*^ or that the dried 
 and pulverized liver of buflfaloes, when given to cows, insures 
 their fertility .*» 
 
 The same method of divination plays a most prominent 
 part in the Babylonian-Assyrian ritual, and it is suflficient 
 to refer for the full exposition of the rite with copious ex- 
 amples to chapter 20 in the writer's Religion Babyloniens 
 und Assyriens (2. 213-415). The antiquity of the rite and 
 hence its direct descent from primitive conditions is shown 
 by the references to it in the earliest Babylonian texts," 
 while the strong hold that the rite had secured follows from 
 its persistence from the oldest period down to the end of the 
 Neo-Babylonian Empire. On all occasions when it became 
 important to determine what the gods had in mind for the 
 country or the individual, divination through the liver of 
 a sacrificial animal — invariably a sheep — was the means 
 resorted to. So closely indeed was the liver bound up with 
 divination that the cuneiform sign for liver was also used 
 as the designation of an omen.** That the Babylonians, 
 indeed, also reached the stage in which the important func- 
 tions of the heart by the side of the liver were recognized, 
 
 ^ Dehon, Religion and Customs ofthe Uraons (Memoirs of the Asiatic Society 
 of Bengal, 1. 143). 
 
 ^ Klinghardt, Beobachtungen aus Mpororo (German Africa), in Globus, 87. 308. 
 
 ** Gudea (ca. 2350 B.C.). See Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens und Assyrians, 
 2. 273. *' Jastrow, Religion, 2. 217. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 155 
 
 is to be granted, and follows from the phrase so frequently 
 found in lamentation hymns addressed to an angered deity : 
 "May thy heart be at rest, thy liver be appeased." ^^ Here 
 'heart' and 'liver' sum up the personality of the deity; 
 and it is reasonable to conclude that in this combination 
 'heart' represents, as in Hebrew, the intellect, and 'liver' 
 the emotions. Despite this diflferentiation, however, the 
 heart does not appear at any time to have found a place in 
 the divination rites of the Babylonians and Assyrians. 
 This is a valuable confirmation of the thesis that the loca- 
 tion of the soul in the liver represents the older and more 
 primitive view, and, therefore, was assigned a place in the 
 ritual to the exclusion of the heart. 
 
 The prominent part played by divination through the 
 liver, or hepatoscopy, among the Babylonians and Assyrians 
 from the oldest to the latest period illustrates not only the 
 importance attached to the rite, but also the persistency of 
 the belief in the theory underlying the rite. That theory 
 may be briefly stated as follows :^^ 
 
 The god in accepting the animal offered to him assimilates 
 himself with the animal, much in the same way that a man 
 becomes one with the food that he eats. The pouring or 
 smearing of the animal's blood over the altar or stone that 
 is the seat of the deity is merely a symbolical expression of 
 the view that the god is actually united to the animal. The 
 soul of the god and the soul of the animal are thus put in 
 complete accord. The two souls may be compared to two 
 watches regulated to show exactly the same time, so that 
 if you see the one, you know the indications furnished by 
 the other. The liver of the sacrificial animal as the seat of 
 the soul thus becomes the exact reflection of the soul, i.e., 
 therefore, the mind and thought of the god. If one can 
 read the indications furnished by the animal's liver aright, 
 one enters thereby into the mind of the god and can de- 
 
 ^* Jastrow, Religion, 2. 29, 76, 78, 82, 85, 98, etc. (in all of which passages the 
 word in question is kabitlu, and should therefore have been literally translated as 
 'Leber,' and not 'Gemiit'). 
 
 *' For a fuller statement see a paper by the writer, "Hepatoscopy and Astrology 
 among the Babylonians and Assyrians" (Proceedings American Philosophical 
 Society, 49. 646-676) and chapter iii in the writer's Aspects of Religious Belief 
 and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (N.Y., 1911). 
 
156 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 termine his innermost thought. liiver divination is there- 
 fore the earhest forna of 'mind reading,' and the prognosti- 
 cation of the future follows as a natural corollary. The 
 future being in control of the gods, if one knows what is in 
 the mind of the gods, one knows what is going to happen 
 on earth. 
 
 IV 
 
 There are two points of view from which the study of 
 liver divination among the Babylonians and Assyrians as- 
 sumes an importance transcending the mere significance at- 
 tached to an old religious rite. Through this study we are 
 led to a view of animal sacrifice which has hitherto escaped 
 the notice of investigators, and the very antiquity of the 
 rite makes it at least possible that the offering of an animal 
 for the purpose of divining the future through the inspec- 
 tion of the liver may represent the oldest motive for animal 
 sacrifice in general. Certainly, among the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians, the actual killing of the animal in honor of 
 a god appears to have been undertaken solely as a means of 
 divining the will and intentions of the gods. The evidence 
 is both abundant and conclusive that the offering of an ani- 
 mal was always associated with the divining of the future, 
 and was viewed as a divination rite among the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians. The thought of a sacrifice as a means of 
 communion between the worshipper and the deity, what- 
 ever may be the facts among other nations,^^ is conspicuous 
 for its absence in the civilization produced in the Euphrates 
 Valley ; and even sacrifice as a tribute appears to be secondary 
 in character. Without entering into the details of the sub- 
 ject here, which would carry us too far, the suggestion may 
 be thrown out that sacrifice as tribute, which is fundamental 
 to the rite as set forth in the Pentateuchal codes, repre- 
 sents a higher and later view. The compilers of these codes 
 must, of course, have known that animal sacrifice was a rite 
 common to the nations around. In embodying it as a rite 
 in their code, both in connection with the expiatory and puri- 
 
 ■"* It is suflScient to refer here to Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 251 
 f ., and the same author's article on ' Sacrifice ' in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 
 (10th edition). 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 157 
 
 fication ritual and as a symbol of thanksgiving, they sought 
 to invest it with a new meaning that would separate it from 
 associations distasteful to them, and for this reason con- 
 ceived of it as a tribute to the deity.*' 
 
 Sacrifice as a symbol of communion between the worship- 
 per and the god appears to be incidental to the rite, prompted 
 by the desire or instinct to sanctify the blood on the one 
 hand, and on the other to participate actively in this sancti- 
 fication. 
 
 Liver divination has wider bearings also from another 
 point of view. It marks the beginnings of the study of 
 anatomy,^" for in the effort to note the signs on the liver, the 
 organ itself was studied, and a terminology developed which 
 distinguished its various parts. Thus the right and left 
 lobe were distinguished as the right and left wing, the gall- 
 bladder was designated as the 'bitter' part, the cystic duct 
 by an ideograph which appears to have conveyed the idea 
 of a penis, while the hepatic duct was spoken of as the 'foot.' 
 The upper lobe, known in modern terminology as the lobus 
 caudatus, was likewise distinguished by a separate designa- 
 tion, as were the two appendices attached to this lobe, the 
 larger one (the processus pyramidalis) being appropriately 
 named the 'finger' of the liver. The porta hepatis was de- 
 scribed as a 'womb,' while the markings on the liver, due 
 for the most part to the tracings on the Hver surface of the 
 subsidiary ducts gathering the gall from the liver into the 
 hepatic duct, were known as 'holes,' 'paths,' or 'weapons,' 
 and fantastically associated, according to their constantly 
 varying forms, with the weapons of the gods. 
 
 The method of divination rested largely on association of 
 ideas. A long cystic duct was interpreted as pointing to 
 long life, or to a long reign ; the swollen gall-bladder, to 
 increase, with a further differentiation according as the 
 swelling appeared on the right side or on the left side. As 
 
 ^' From this point of view the protest against sacrifice as a divination rite, 
 embodied in the ordinance to burn the 'flap over the liver ' (the processus pyra- 
 midalis), becomes all the more intelligible. See on this ordinance. Professor G. F. 
 Moore's paper in the Noeldeke Festschrift, pp. 761 fl., and the note by the writer in 
 Jastrow, Religion, 2. 231. 
 
 '" See a paper by the writer on 'Divination through the Liver and the Begin- 
 nings of Anatomy' (Transactions of the College of Physicians, 29. 117-138). 
 
158 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 among other nations, the right was the favorable, and the 
 left the unfavorable side. A 'doubled' hepatic duct on the 
 right side indicated assistance from the gods, a well pre- 
 served 'finger' (processus pyramidalis) meant good luck. If 
 the hepatic duct lay well in the porta hepatis and firmly 
 attached to it, the omen was favorable ; if loosely attached 
 or separated from it, unfavorable ; and the like. It will be 
 readily seen how endless the variations would turn out to 
 be. No two livers ever presented exactly the same appear- 
 ance, and thus in the course of time a vast collection of signs 
 with their prognostications were gathered by the priests at- 
 tached to the temples, that served the purpose of guides or 
 handbooks to determine the general result in any particular 
 instance. The various parts of the liver and all the mark- 
 ings and other peculiarities were examined, and according 
 as the majority of them proved favorable or unfavorable, a 
 general conclusion was drawn as to whether the gods M^ere 
 favorably disposed towards any proposed undertaking, or 
 whether the moment chosen was not opportune. 
 
 In view of the fact to which attention was above directed,*^ 
 that divination through the liver is still practised among 
 people living in a primitive state of culture, the conclusion 
 is warranted that the Babylonian system is based on the 
 primitive custom, representing an elaboration of the early 
 popular practice brought about through the fear?i-priests. 
 More than this, it was because of the perfection of this 
 elaborate system that the rite managed to survive through- 
 out the phases of culture through which the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians in the course of many centuries passed. 
 From the earliest period down to the days of the last king 
 of Babylonia, ^^ hepatoscopy continued in force as the 
 official method of divining the future; and while other 
 methods were also resorted to, none equalled in importance 
 and scope the system of divination through the liver. 
 
 Outside of Babylonia, the most significant instance of 
 hepatoscopy is furnished by the Etruscans, among whom 
 likewise an elaborate system was developed. The evidence 
 for this, drawn from the Latin writers, was so conclusive as 
 
 " See above, p. 153 f. ^ See the proof in Jastrow, Religion, 2. i873 f. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 159 
 
 to lead Bouche-Leclercq thirty years ago ^' to sum up the 
 Etruscan system of divination as "I'etude du f oie est le tout 
 de I'art." His view has been confirmed by later students,^* 
 and more particularly through the discovery of a bronze 
 model of a liver covered with Etruscan inscriptions.^* This 
 model forms a striking companion piece to a clay model of 
 a liver acquired by the British Museum in 1891, which 
 dates, as the writing shows, from the Hammurapi period, 
 i.e. ca. 2000 b.c.*^ Like the latter, it must have been used 
 as an object lesson in hepatoscopy for the instruction of the 
 young aspirants to the priesthood. In both models the chief 
 parts of the liver are indicated, and the inscriptions show 
 that the liver was regarded as a means of divining the 
 future. Further evidence that the liver was regarded as 
 the organ of revelation is furnished by a monument of an 
 Etruscan augur, who holds a liver in his hand as his trade 
 mark." We have, therefore, the proof that among the 
 Etruscans likewise the belief which placed the seat of the 
 soul in the liver survived up to the advanced period when 
 the primitive method of divining through the liver was de- 
 veloped into a system, and taught to the priests as an integral 
 part of their training. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the Romans adopted their, 
 methods of divination from the Etruscans, as is shown by 
 the fact that the augurs in Rome and those who accom- 
 panied the Roman armies on their expeditions were almost 
 invariably from Etruria.^* That among the Romans like- 
 wise divination was at first restricted to the liver is attested 
 by the notice in Pliny, that at the time Pyrrhus was driven 
 from Italy, corresponding to the year 274 B.C., the heart was 
 for the first time used as a means of divining the future.^' 
 The conclusion is therefore warranted that up to this period 
 
 ^ Histoire de la Divination dans I'Antiquite, 4. 69 (Paris, 1877). 
 
 " See especially Thulin, Die Etruskische Disciplin, 2. 20 f. (Goteburg, 1905). 
 
 *' Korte, "Die Bronzeleber von Piacenza, " in Mitteilungen des kaiserlichen 
 deutschen archaologischen Instituts (Romische Abteilung), 20. 348-379. It dates 
 from about the third century B.C. '^ Cuneiform Texts, etc.. Part vi, PI. 1. 
 
 *' See the illustration in Korte's paper, PI. XIV ; also in Blecher, De Extispicio, 
 Tab. Ill, fig. 2. 
 
 *' Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 41, who also tells us that it was customary to 
 send the children of the principal senators to Etruscan tribes to be instructed in 
 divination. '' Hist. Nat., Book xi. § 71. 
 
160 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 the liver alone was examined ; and the fact that in the omens 
 referred to by the Latin writers it is the liver that is in most 
 cases mentioned, bears out the conclusion. 
 
 A most interesting passage is to be found in the eleventh 
 book of Pliny (§ 73), devoted to a description of the various 
 organs and parts of the body of animals. "The liver," says 
 Pliny, "lies on the right side, and that part of it which is 
 called the head (caput)*" presents a great variety." At the 
 time of the death of Marcellus, who perished in the conflict 
 against Hannibal, it was missing among the exta. On the 
 following day (in connection with the sacrifice) a double 
 caput appeared. The caput was missing also at a sacrifice 
 which C. Marius brought at Utica, likewise in the case of 
 Gains on the first of January of the year in which he entered 
 upon the consulate and during which he was killed, and again 
 in the case of his successor Claudius in the month in which 
 he was poisoned.*^ When the Emperor Augustus on the 
 first day of his rule offered up victims, the livers were found 
 folded (replicata) from the lower end (fibra). The omen 
 was interpreted as pointing to a 'duplication' of the extent 
 of his power within the year. 'If the head is split,' we are 
 told, it is always a bad sign, except when one is in trouble 
 and pain. In such cases it indicates a removal of the evil. 
 Pliny refers also to the use of the gall-bladder for purposes 
 of divination, and mentions that on the day of Augustus's 
 victory at Actium, a double gall-bladder was found in the 
 sacrificial victim. 
 
 Livy has many passages in which he refers to the exta 
 examined on various occasions,®^ but the only specific indi- 
 cations furnished by him are in reference to signs on the liver. 
 So e.g. in the 27th book of his History he gives a detailed 
 account of the death of Marcellus, and in agreement with 
 Pliny states that at the first inspection the 'head of the liver' 
 (caput jocineris) was missing, and that in the case of the 
 victim on the following day the 'head' appeared doubled.*' 
 
 '" The processus pyramidalis, which in Greek hepatoscopy is designated as 
 6 Xo/36s. See below p. 162, note 71, and above, note 49. 
 
 *' Other examples of this omen are given by Andry, loc. eit., p. 245 f . 
 
 ^ See the passages in Blecher, De Extispicio, pp. 11-14. 
 
 ^ Book xxvii. 26. See also Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia, i. 6. 9; Plutarch, 
 Marcellus, § 29. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 161 
 
 On another occasion, when Q. Petihus sacrificed a victim, 
 the 'head' of the liver was missing,'* and the same phenome- 
 non is noted by him at other inspections.** Similarly Julius 
 Obsequens specifies in four instances mentioned by him 
 that the 'head' of the liver was not found,'* and only in one 
 case does he refer to the heart. *^ It would appear, there- 
 fore, that even after the inspection of other organs — nota- 
 bly the heart — was added to that of the liver, chief attention 
 was still paid to the signs on the liver — an indication that 
 hepatoscopy was at one time the prevailing method of div- 
 ination among the Romans, as among the Etruscans and 
 Babylonians. The addition of the heart to the liver corre- 
 sponds manifestly to the time when, instead of regarding the 
 liver as the seat of vitality, the heart was accorded this dis- 
 tinction; and this change reflected no doubt the progress 
 in anatomical knowledge, through which the important 
 functions of the heart were more clearly recognized. Andry 
 has shown that everywhere the investigation of the anatomy 
 of the heart is later than the knowledge of the functions of 
 the liver. With the addition, however, of the examination 
 of the heart to that of the liver, the theoretical basis upon 
 which hepatoscopy rested, namely the belief that the liver 
 was the seat of the soul, was lost sight of. With the modi- 
 fication of this belief through the transference of the seat to 
 the heart, the rationale of hepatoscopy disappeared. Con- 
 sistency would have demanded that heart divination should 
 take the place of liver divination. By retaining the latter 
 and adding to the examination of the liver that of the heart, 
 a compromise with advancing anatomical science was ef- 
 fected, with the fatal result, however, of changing the rite 
 into a meaningless superstition. To this period, after the 
 disappearance of the theoretical basis of hepatoscopy, be- 
 longs the general term exta, which is invariably used by the 
 Latin writers when referring to divination through a sacrifi- 
 cial animal. Through the analysis here given we can now 
 understand why, despite the employment of the general 
 term, it is not the 'entrails,' as is generally assumed by 
 
 " Book xli. 14. 65 Book ^li. 15. »6 De Prodigiis (ed. Rossbach), 17, 35, 47, 55. 
 " § 67, on the occasion when Caesar was invested. See also Cicero, De Divina- 
 tione, i. 119. 
 
162 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 investigators, that were the subject of examination, but pri- 
 marily, even to the latest days, the liver, and by the side of 
 the liver, in the first place the heart, and then the lungs, 
 and occasionally the milt.** The term exta was merely in- 
 troduced as a general one, to embrace the entire scope. 
 
 Similarly, in the Greek wi'iters we encounter a general 
 term lepd or lepela, 'the sacred parts,' ** used for divination 
 through a sacrificial animal. And yet, as a matter of fact, 
 when we examine the passages in which specific instances of 
 such divination are given, it is again the liver or parts of 
 the liver that are almost invariably mentioned. So e.g. 
 the messenger in the Electra of Euripides, describing how 
 Orestes stole upon iEgisthos, as the latter was bending over 
 the lepd of the sacred victim to ascertain what the signs 
 portended, says : ''° 
 
 Holding the sacred parts in his hands 
 
 iEgisthos examined ; and there was no lobe " 
 
 To the entrails ; '^ the gate '^ and the bag of the gall-bladder black, 
 
 Portending evil prognostications to the one examining (them). 
 
 Similarly, when iEschylus describes the benefits conferred 
 by Prometheus on mankind, the art of divination through 
 the flight of birds and through the sacrificial victim is prom- 
 inently mentioned ; and although in the description of the 
 latter method the general term (yTrXd'yyva, 'entrails,' is 
 employed, the specific organ referred to is the liver,^* 
 
 "^ See Thulin, Die Etruskische Disciplin, 2. 23. 
 
 «' See the passages in Blecher, De Extispicio, pp. 3-11. "> Lines 826-829. 
 
 '1 The lobe •par excellence in Greek hepatoscopy is the finger-shaped appendix 
 known as the processus pyramidalis, corresponding to the caput jecoris (or jocineris), 
 'head of the liver,' in Roman hepatoscopy. See above, p. 160. This term 6 Xo^6s is 
 employed in the Greek translation of the Pentateuch for the Hebrew equivalent 
 of the ' processus pyramidalis ' (see above, p. 157, note 49), an interesting indication 
 that the translators were familiar with the terminology of Greek hepatoscopy. 
 This 'appendix' is described in Nicander, Theriaca, 559 f., as "the top lobe growing 
 from the table {i.e., the lobus caudatus), and bending over near the gall-bladder 
 and the gate (porta hepatis) . " 
 
 '2 (nr\d-YX'"^, a general term corresponding to the Latin exta, but evidently in- 
 tended in passages like this for the liver. 
 
 " iriiXoi, the designation of the depression between the upper lobe (lobus 
 caudatus) of the liver and the left lower lobe (lobus sinister). The term still sur- 
 vives in modem anatomical nomenclature, which designates this part of the liver as 
 the porta hepatis, 'gate of the liver.' See Jastrow, Beligioo (German ed.), 2. 220. 
 
 '^ Prometheus, lines 495-499. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 163 
 
 The entrails' smoothness, 
 
 what color would be pleasing to the gods, 
 
 the well-proportioned shape of the gall and lobe.'* 
 
 Particularly significant in this reSpect is the testimony 
 of Xenophon, who in his various writings has frequent 
 references to omens, derived from the examination of the 
 victim.^* He contents himself in all but two passages with 
 the general term lepd, and in these passages '^ he specifies 
 that " the liver was without a lobe," which was regarded as 
 unfavorable. The same inauspicious omen is mentioned by 
 Plutarch in connection with an incident in the campaign of 
 Alexander against Babylonia. Upon being told by Pytha- 
 goras, the diviner, that the lobe of the victim's liver was 
 lacking, Alexander exclaimed, "Alas, the omen is terrible." '* 
 Great stress is laid upon the same omen in Arrian's account 
 of this campaign of Alexander. ^^ Plutarch in the life of 
 Aratus (§ 43) refers to the appearance of a " double gall- 
 bladder, enclosed in one bag," a phenomenon that is not in- 
 frequent in the case of diseased livers of sheep. The omen 
 was interpreted as foreshadowing a covenant that Aratus 
 would make with his greatest enemy,*" and the same Plutarch 
 recounts *' how the death of one of his relatives was an- 
 nounced to Pyrrhus by a diviner because of the absence of 
 the lobe of the liver on the occasion of a sacrifice. Thus 
 it is always some part of the liver or some mark on the liver 
 that is specified whenever divination through a sacrificial 
 victim is spoken of in Greek writers. There does not in fact 
 appear to be a single passage in which any other organ 
 
 '' I.e. again the processus pyramidalis. 
 
 '''E.g., Anabasis, i. 8. 15; ii. 2. 3; v. 2. 9; 4. 22; 6. 28; vi. 2. 15; 4. 9; i. 13; 
 4. 16; 4. 17; 4. 19; 5. 2; vii. 6. 44; 8. 10; Hellenica, iii. 1. 17; 3. 4; 4. 15; iv. 
 4. 5 ; 7. 7 ; 8. 36 ; Cyropsedia, ii. 4. 18. 
 
 " Hellenica, iii. 4. 15 ; iv. 7. 7. " Life of Alexander, § 73. 
 
 " Arrian, Anabasis, vii. 18. 2-5. Four instances are cited. 
 
 *" By a natural association of ideas the 'double' gall-bladder in one bag is 
 interpreted as referring to a close union. Aratus — so the narrative proceeds — 
 soon thereafter was invited to a feast by his former enemy Antigonus, to whom 
 he had been reconciled. Aratus felt cold, and a slave covered him and Antigonus 
 with the same garment — corresponding, therefore, to the double gall-bladder in 
 a single bag. "Aratus," Plutarch adds, "remembered the omen, burst out laugh- 
 ing, and told the king about the sacriSce and the prophecy." 
 
 *' Life of Pyrrhus, § 30. Plutarch adds that Pyrrhus, disregarding or oblivious 
 of the omen, sent his son Ptolemy into the battle, and the latter was killed. 
 
164 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 than the Hver is specified ; and the practical synonymity 
 of Tjirap, 'Hver,' and (nrXdyxvC', 'entrails,' follows also from 
 a passage in Pausanias (vi. 2. 4), where he describes a dog, 
 "cut in two, like a sacrificial victim, with his liver exposed," 
 lying next to the statue of Thrasybulos, and immediately 
 thereafter speaks of the rite of divination through the 
 'entrails' of dogs, which appears (he suggests) to have been 
 established by Thrasybulos. 
 
 The conclusion, therefore, is justified in the case of the 
 Greeks, as in that of the Romans, that divination through 
 the sacrificial animal was at one time restricted to the use 
 of the liver of the animal ; and since we have no direct evi- 
 dence that the Greeks inspected also the heart and lungs, 
 the term 'sacred parts' may have been introduced to in- 
 clude the gall-bladder, the various lobes and ducts which 
 might appropriately have been grouped together, as lepd 
 or lepeta, while the vague term cnr\dy')(^va may also have 
 been intended — at least originally — to embrace the same 
 parts. 
 
 That there is some connection between Babylonian and 
 Greek hepatoscopy is generally taken for granted by 
 scholars, but it is still a question open to discussion whether 
 the Greeks obtained their method directly from the Baby- 
 lonians or through the mediation of the Etruscans. If, as 
 seems probable, the Etruscans came from Asia Minor, they 
 may well have left traces of their influence upon the Greek 
 settlements near the coast, who in turn may have carried 
 the rite across to Hellas. Clay models of livers, similar to 
 the one above referred to,*^ have been found recently at 
 Boghaz-Keui,*' — the ancient centre of a Hittite empire, — 
 testifying to the existence of the rite of hepatoscopy at an 
 early period in the very district from which the Etruscans 
 may have come. We thus obtain an uninterrupted chain 
 of Babylonian influence, embracing Etruscans, Greeks, and 
 Romans, as well as Hittites. We have also the definite 
 proof, furnished through the prevalence of hepatoscopy 
 among all these groups, of the widespread character of the 
 
 ^ Page 159. The University of Penn. Museum also has such a model. 
 ^ The Berlin Museum has three such clay models with Babylonian inscriptions 
 in which the same technical terms occur as in the Babylonian 'liver' texts. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 165 
 
 theory on which the rite rested, and through which it finds 
 an explanation, to wit, the belief that the liver was the seat 
 of the soul.*^ 
 
 The transition to more rational views regarding the liver 
 which followed in the wake of advancing anatomical knowl- 
 edge is illustrated by the statement of Vitruvius (De Archi- 
 tectura, i. 18) that it was customary before settling in a 
 region to examine the livers of animals in the district. If 
 the livers were found diseased, it was an indication that the 
 locality was unhealthful. We may be certain that originally 
 the animal was slaughtered as an offering to secure the favor 
 of the local deity, and that the liver was inspected for signs 
 to ascertain whether the genius loci would look with favor 
 upon the proposed settlement. The transformation of the 
 old divination rite into a hygienic measure represents an at- 
 tempt at a rationalistic interpretation, which is so frequently 
 the last resort to justify a custom that has outlived itself. 
 The statement of Vitruvius reminds one of the attempts 
 to explain the food taboos in the Pentateuch al codes as hy- 
 gienic measures. That some of these may be hygienic may 
 be admitted, but we may be equally certain that their basis 
 is not hygienic, and that they are survivals of primitive be- 
 liefs. In primitive religions precautions are prescribed to 
 protect oneself from the saliva of an enemy or a sorcerer, 
 for fear that it might be used as a spell. In order to protect 
 people from germs of disease, modern boards of health 
 also pass ordinances against spitting, but as a recent writer 
 says, "The order of thinking in which the one fear finds 
 a place is centuries apart from that of the other." *^ He 
 might have said milleniums. 
 
 Old beliefs, like old rites, die hard, and both pass through 
 
 ** It may be of Interest to note the following instance of divination through the 
 liver in our own country. Dr. Haddon informs me that when the colony of 
 Igorrotes (of the Philippine Islands), who had been taken from place to place for 
 exhibition purposes after the St. Louis Exposition, were informed that they would 
 soon be sent back to their homes, they killed a pig and inspected the liver, in order 
 to ascertain whether the day selected for the beginning of the homeward journey 
 was an auspicious one. This inspection took place in Chicago in 1901. 
 
 '' Joseph Jastrow in Hampton's Magazine, October, 1910, p. 418. 
 
166 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 many transformations before they finally disappear. The 
 thesis of Hippocrates above referred to,»« that the liver was 
 the seat of the blood, or, as he also puts it, the starting-point 
 of the veins, is put forward as a scientific theory, but it would 
 not have arisen had not the liver once been regarded as the 
 seat of vitality. In so far, Hippocrates is still under the in- 
 fluence of primitive views, though he already foreshadows 
 the new age in assigning disease to four sources : to the brain, 
 to the heart, to the spleen, and to the liver, the most prom- 
 inent place, however, being accorded to the liver." Galen, 
 four centuries after Hippocrates, betrays the same influence 
 in making the liver the seat of the bodily heat, a view closely 
 aUied to that of making that organ the seat of the blood. 
 Such survivals are the less surprising, if it be borne in mind 
 that Galen still believed in dreams as well as in sorcery and 
 charms. In fact, he tells us that he was prompted to the 
 study of medicine through a dream that his father had. 
 But perhaps the most interesting illustration of the hold 
 which the old view regarding the liver as the seat of the soul 
 continued to exercise, long after the absurdity of its rationale 
 had been recognized, is furnished by Plato, who so often 
 surprises us by his compromising endeavors to pour old wine 
 into new bottles. He assigns to the heart and not to the 
 liver the distinction of being the starting-point of the vems 
 and he recognizes the functions of the brain as well as those 
 of the heart ; but yielding to the temptation to find a justifica- 
 tion for the prominence once accorded to the liver, he sets 
 forth in the Timseus *^ the theory that man has two souls — 
 an inferior or mortal soul, by the side of a superior and 
 immortal soul that comes direct from the Creator. He 
 places the seat of the lower functions, as eating, drinking, 
 and the satisfaction of other bodily needs, between the mid- 
 riff and the navel, " contriving," to quote Jowett's transla- 
 tion,*' "in all this region a sort of manger for the food of 
 the body ; and there they {i.e. the gods) bound the desires 
 down as a wild animal which was chained up with man, and 
 must be nourished, if man was to exist." In this inferior 
 
 I See above, p. 152. " Andry, p. 237 f . «» Tim., 69-72. 
 
 8» Dialogues of Plato, 2. 562. 
 
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 167 
 
 soul, however, God framed the liver to act as a kind of 
 transmitter to the lower soul of that which originates in the 
 mind. The liver reflects the thought " as in a mirror which 
 receives and gives back images to th^ sight." Through the 
 liver a means of divination is given to mankind; "for the 
 authors of our being, remembering the command of their 
 father when he bade them make the human race as good as 
 they could, thus ordered our inferior parts in order that they 
 too might obtain a measure of truth, and in the liver placed 
 their oracle, which is sufficient proof that God has given the 
 art of divination to the foolishness of man. . . , Such is 
 the nature and position of the liver, which is intended to 
 give prophetic intimations. During the life of each indi- 
 vidual these intimations are plainer, but after his death the 
 liver becomes blind, and delivers oracles too obscure to be 
 intelligible." 
 
 Plato seems to be making a polemic against divination 
 through the liver in the case of slaughtered animals (when 
 the liver is 'blind'), but on the other hand he also appears to 
 make a concession to the prevailing rites, by admitting that 
 the liver is an organ of divination. 
 
 Jowett says of the Timseus '" that of all the writings of 
 Plato it is "the most obscure and repulsive to the modern 
 reader," and scholars are not agreed exactly what position 
 to accord to the Timseus in Plato's system of philosophy ; 
 but so much seems certain, that he endeavored in this treatise 
 to give to ancient myths and popular beliefs and traditions 
 a rational interpretation, though with doubtful success. 
 The higher and better part of the mortal soul he places above 
 the diaphragm, and assigns the seat of nobler emotions, as 
 love and courage, to the heart ; whUe the brain, the seat of 
 the intellect, and exercising the highest functions, is the place 
 of the immortal soul. The passions and all of the lower 
 emotions, such as jealousy and cowardice, are thus made 
 to originate in the liver as the centre of the inferior phase 
 of the lower or mortal soul. 
 
 The interesting point for us in this intellectual gymnastics 
 is the transition that it foreshadows to the views still popu- 
 larly held. 
 
 »° Dialogues of Plato, 2. 455. 
 
168 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL 
 
 Current usage, without attempting to justify its position 
 on scientific grounds, still divides, as did Plato, the chief 
 manifestations of human action among the three organs, 
 the brain, the heart, and the liver, thought being associated 
 with the brain, the higher emotions with the heart, and the 
 lower ones with the liver — " Liver, brain, and heart, these 
 sovereign thrones." '^ Plato also foreshadows the very un- 
 favorable view taken of the liver in popular fancy, justified 
 only to a limited extent by physiological considerations. 
 Ill-humor, bad temper, and moroseness, as well as all manner 
 of disagreeable manifestations of a crabbed disposition, are 
 popularly ascribed to the liver, though most persons who 
 show these unpleasant traits have very healthy livers, and 
 a disordered stomach or a bad headache is apt to produce 
 the same effects on one's mood as a torpid liver. Nothing 
 that can be said against the liver seems too bad, and the 
 popular conception of it is well illustrated in an announce- 
 ment of a London newspaper, that commends itself to the 
 public by advertising that it is "all brain and heart, but no 
 liver." One cannot help feeling a pang of sympathy for the 
 liver, that to the ancients spelled life, and now is associated 
 only with what is least commendable and desirable in life. 
 To call a man 'white-livered' is among us a term of re- 
 proach, whereas in Babylonia it might have been the phrase 
 to convey all that is implied in the colloquial expression, a 
 ' white ' man — pure, virtuous, of superior intellect — in 
 short a noble and rare soul, as among the Arabs a white 
 heart is a pure heart. '^ 
 
 '^ Twelfth Night, act I, scene 1. See also Cymbeline, act V, scene 1, "Liver, 
 heart, and brain of Britain." 
 
 ^ Andry, p. 5, gives an instance of the same usage among the Kafirs. 
 
THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 Maurice Bloomfield 
 
 Johns Hopkins University 
 
 Every attempt to describe or analyze any one of the 
 many later varieties of Hindu religion meets with the same 
 standard difhculty, namely, the difficulty of differentiating. 
 From the time of the Upanishads on, India is axiomatically 
 monistic or pantheistic. In Buddhism the All-Spirit has faded 
 out into a blank, but we can tell the precise spot where once 
 stood the conception of the True One that hath no Second, 
 the Brahma. His mighty shadow hovers over Buddha's 
 agnostic teaching.^ It is even difficult to point out what Bud- 
 dhism can accomplish that may not be equally well accom- 
 plished by Brahmanism (Vedanta) in its highest moods. 
 AU Hindu religion, at its best, is spiritual, is directed towards 
 emancipating the individual ego from an illusory, negligible 
 world. No higher Hindu religion is, or indeed can be, ac- 
 tuated by any communistic or national ideal, nor by any 
 other ideal that we are accustomed to consider practical. 
 The doctrines of the late sect of the Sikhs or 'Disciples' 
 are no exception to the universal Hinduism of all native re- 
 ligious thought in India. It comes, therefore, as a surprise, 
 when we read in a recent comprehensive work on this re- 
 ligion, that "it would be difficult to point to a religion of 
 greater originality, or to a more comprehensive ethical 
 system." Sikh religion is not original, but universally Hindu. 
 Its ethics, like those of all higher Hindu religions, are inci- 
 dental, because the supreme conception of Hinduism is 
 really removed from quality, good, bad, or indifferent. At 
 the best the new thing in Sikhism is, as we shall see, its shift 
 of attitude, both positively and negatively, towards certain 
 
 ' Cf. the story of Malukya or Malunkyaputta in Majjhima-Nikaya, 63. 
 
 169 
 
170 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 of the ancient Hindu institutions, and the attunement, to 
 some extent, of the universal Hindu gospel of resignation or 
 despair to the most necessary requirements of national exist- 
 ence, at a time when national existence was in danger of 
 being wiped out by Mohammedanism. 
 
 The work referred to is that of M. A. Macauliffe, The 
 Sikh Religion, six volumes, published by the Oxford (Claren- 
 don) Press, in 1909. Mr. Macauliffe devoted twenty years 
 of obviously loving study to his subject, part of the time 
 while engaged in judicial duties in India, and part after 
 resigning his post for the very purpose of carrying on his 
 Sikh studies more undisturbedly. He spent many years 
 among the Sikhs, and with them studied their sacred texts. 
 His work consists in the main of the lives of the ten Gurus 
 (Teachers or Pontiffs), beginning with Nanak and ending 
 with Govind Singh, and a translation of their prayers, 
 hymns, and acrostics, as contained in the Granth Sahib or 
 'Holy Bible.' To these are added the biographies of the 
 so-called Bhagats (Sanskrit Bhagavat), or Hindu reformers 
 before Nanak. The Granth is written not in one language, 
 but in many : Old Hindi, Mahratthi, Panjabi, Multani, 
 and to some extent even in Persian. Sound philological 
 basis for the study of Sikhism is wanting, so long as there are 
 no editions, by competent hands, at least of the texts of the 
 Adi-Granth, or 'Original Bible,' which was compiled by the 
 fifth Guru, Arjan (1581-1616). Arjan gathered carefully 
 the religious poems of his predecessors in the pontificate, 
 adding to them a rich anthology from the sayings of the 
 Bhagats, — men like Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, and even the 
 Persians, Farid and Bhikan. The Granth contains the wise 
 sayings of fourteen of these Bhagats. Even a perfervid 
 poem by a princess of the name of Mira Bai, full of mystic 
 love (bhakti) of God in the form of Ej-ishna, has found a 
 place in the collection. 
 
 On the whole and in the main, Mr. Macauliffe's work im- 
 presses one as a reliable account of Sikhism as the Sikhs see 
 it — that, but nothing more. The quasi-historical accounts 
 of the Gurus are based upon zealot Sikh sources full of fond 
 and unbridled fancies. By every token these lives of the 
 Gurus are legendary, fantastic, and largely incredible. Also 
 
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD 171 
 
 as regards the interpretation of the poetry and religious 
 thought of the Granth, I am sure that something will have 
 to be deducted on account of the author's compulsory re- 
 liance on the old Gyanis, or professional interpreters, who 
 are now dying out. The traditional translations (sampardai 
 arths= Sanskrit sampradaya-artha) of the present day must 
 have about the same value as the traditional interpretations 
 of other ancient Hindu religious texts. Mr. Macauliffe 
 remarks that he met so-called Gyanis who could perform 
 tours de force with their sacred writings, and give different 
 interpretations of almost every line of it. As regards his 
 own renderings, he remarks, that "when second and third 
 interpretations seemed possible, they have been appended 
 in the notes." Decidedly this reminds us of the Sayanas, 
 Madhavas, and their ilk. Sikh philology of the remoter 
 future will gratefully remember Mr. Macauliffe's work, but 
 it will remember it as a great work of orientation rather than 
 a critical analysis of Sikh teachings or an unprejudiced his- 
 tory of the development of the Sikh nation. 
 
 Sikhism arose in the north of India during the period of 
 its greatest oppression by the Mohammedan (Mogul) con- 
 querors. Nanak, the first Sikh prophet, seems to have been 
 imprisoned and made to work as a slave by Emperor Babar. 
 He speaks of his times as follows : 
 
 This age is a knife, kings are butchers ; justice hath taken wings and 
 fled. 
 
 The fifth Guru, Arjan, was tortured to death by Emperor 
 Jahangir partly on account of his religion, and partly because 
 he had extended hospitality to Jahangir's rebellious son 
 EZbusrau. In his defence the Guru said : "I regard all people, 
 whether rich or poor, friend or foe, without love or hate; 
 and it is on this account that I gave thy son some money for 
 his journey, and not because he was in opposition to thee. 
 If I had not assisted him in his forlorn condition, and so 
 shown some regard for the kindness of thy father, the Em- 
 peror Akbar, to myself, all men would despise me for my 
 heartlessness and ingratitude, or would say that I was afraid 
 of thee. This would have been unworthy of a follower of 
 Guru Nanak, the world's Guru." 
 
172 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 The bloody Emperor Aurangzeb slew his own brother 
 Darah Shukoh, that enlightened prince to whom we owe 
 the Persian translation of the Hindu Upanishads, the so- 
 called Oupnekhats. He also caused the death of the ninth 
 Guru, Teg Bahadur, persecuted the tenth and last Guru, 
 Govind Singh, and brought about the death of his four 
 sons. Then ended the spiritual dynasty of the Gurus. 
 
 Nanak, the originator and first Guru of Sikhism, was born 
 A.D. 1469. At that time about one-third of the population 
 of Northern India had become Moslem. Mohammedan 
 monotheism, through its abhorrence of idol-worship, had 
 shaken the complicated and abased forms of lower Hinduism ; 
 had attracted the lower classes of the population, who could, 
 through it, free themselves from the oppression and degra- 
 dation of caste ; and had introduced into the pantheistic 
 ideal of higher Hinduism a strong dash of monotheism, which 
 promoted its own marked inclination in the same direction. 
 In practice, however, both Hinduism and Mohammedanism 
 were effete religions, despised by many religious thinkers 
 who preceded Nanak. One of the hymns of the Bhagat 
 Kabir (born a.d. 1398) satirizes Hindu practices : 
 
 If union with God be obtained by going about naked, 
 
 All the beasts of the forest shall be saved. 
 
 What mattereth it whether man goeth naked or weareth a deerskin. 
 
 If he recognize God in his heart ? 
 
 If perfection be obtained by shaving the head, 
 
 Why should not sheep obtain salvation ? 
 
 If, O brethren, the continent man is saved, 
 
 Why should not a eunuch obtain the supreme reward ? ^ 
 
 Or Nanak used to say : 'If God is a stone, I will worship a 
 mountain,' He refers to the myriad stone images of Hindu 
 idolatry. Namdev (born a.d. 1270) preached impressively 
 against stone idols. 
 
 No better than the formalism of Hindu sectarian religion 
 comes off worldly, unspiritual Moslemism. Nanak says : 
 
 The Qazi sitteth to administer justice ; 
 
 He turneth over his beads and invoketh God. 
 
 But he taketh bribes and doeth injustice. 
 
 If called to account he will read and cite texts. 
 
 ' Cf. Bohtlingk, Indische Spruche, 4376, 4873. 
 
MAURICE BLOOMPIELD 173 
 
 Even-handed justice is dealt out to both religions. Just 
 as their formalism, superstition, or corruption is derided 
 and execrated, so the essential truth in both is the same. 
 Saith the Granth : 
 
 Some men are Hindus and some are Mussulmans ; . . . the Creator 
 and the Beneficent are the same ; . . . the Temple and the Mosque are 
 the same; . . . Allah and Alakh (Sanskrit Alaksa, 'Without Attribute') 
 are the same ; the Purans and the Quran are the same ; they are all alike, 
 it is One God who created all. 
 
 The thousands of Purans and Mohammedan books teU that in reality 
 there is but one principle. 
 
 To one who is acquainted with India's religious past, the 
 conditions under which operated the thought of Nanak's 
 time are very transparent. Many centuries before Nanak 
 the Upanishads had made nought of all religious works and 
 forms, not expressly, but by a kind of implication which lost 
 no eloquence through its silence. In the place of all prac- 
 tice it had put the One True Being, of which every living 
 thing is a part, and salvation from the round of existence 
 (samsara, transmigration) through fusion with the One. 
 As time went by, this monism was touched up monotheis- 
 tically; ever since the day of Yajnavalkya and his wife 
 Maitreyi transcendental theoretic monism keeps shaping 
 itself over in practice into mystic longing of the creature to 
 become fused with the One. This is bhakti, 'love of God,' 
 found with every Brahmanical sect and every Brahman- 
 ical philosophy. It is the eclectic philosophical theosophy 
 of the Bhagavatgita, the 'Song of the Exalted One,' the 
 type of belief which had become common property in 
 Nanak's time : a Creator has created the world and its 
 beings through a kind of "fake" process. Most of it is 
 maya, 'illusion.' The world and its beings are not of him ; 
 they are aside from him. Only one thing is excepted, 
 namely, the soul of man. That soul is, in reality, the soul 
 of the Creator ; ^ fervid devotion to the Creator finally 
 results in fusion with him, which is salvation. 
 
 ^ So the Bhagat Ravidas : 
 Between Thee and me, between me and Thee, what difiFerence can there be ? 
 The same as between gold and the bracelet, between water and its ripples. 
 
174 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 Such, then, is the very unoriginal theosophic basis oi 
 Sikhism. It is an ideal which wavers between chilly, abstract 
 monistic pantheism, on the one hand ; and perfervid an- 
 thropomorphic theism, in the manner of the Christian 
 Mystics, on the other hand. I can easily gather from Nanak s 
 hymns support for both ends of this line. At one time he 
 says : "The imperceptible God was Himself the speaker and 
 preacher ; Himself unseen, He was Everything." At another 
 time he insists that God is a Being who must be longed for 
 as a bride longs for the bridegroom, or, must be approached 
 and loved as a fond and faithful wife loves her spouse. 
 
 Like every other Hindu sect, the Sikhs believed in trans- 
 migration. Escape from its toils can be accomplished only 
 by fusion with Akal Purukh (Sanskrit Akala Purusa), 
 the 'Timeless Spirit.' Paradise or heaven (Sach Khand) 
 is but a temporary reward; it does not make immune to 
 transmigration, suffering, fear, and the long train of life's 
 evils. " What is hell and what heaven, the wretched places ? " 
 exclaims Kabir, one of Nanak's predecessors; "the saints 
 have rejected them both. God and Kabir have become 
 one ; no one can distinguish between them." And Nanak 
 says (i. 159) : 
 
 The Guru's word is speech of nectar ; by drinking it man becometh 
 acceptable. 
 
 When man performeth service at God's gate to obtain a sight of Him, 
 what careth he for paradise .'' 
 
 The names or designations of the Creator, or the funda- 
 mental power, vary between ancient personal designations 
 borrowed from the sectarian Pantheon, and ancient philo- 
 sophical abstractions. God is spoken of plainly as Krishna 
 Govind, Rama, Brahma, and, above all, Hari. This is one 
 mood. On the other hand, he is Paramesur (Paramegvara), 
 'Supreme Lord'; Sunn (Cunya), 'The Solitary'; Alakh 
 (Alaksa), 'Without Quality'; Akal (Akala), 'Timeless'; 
 
 Cf . Angelas Silesius (cited in my Religion of the Veda, p. i876, note) : — 
 
 Ich bin so gross wie Gott, 
 Er ist wie ich so klein ; 
 Ich kann nicht unter ihm, 
 Er iiber mir nicht sein. 
 
MAURICE BLOOMFIBLD 175 
 
 Aksliar (Aksara), 'Imperishable' ; Purukh (Purusa), 'World- 
 Man, ' or ' World-Soul ' ; very frequently combined, Akal 
 Purukh, 'Timeless Soul.' But the favorite and most ec- 
 static Sikh expression for the Divine 'is simply 'Name.' It 
 is employed almost cabalistically. At the head of Nanak's 
 hymns stand the words Sat Nam, "True Name.' The Guru 
 was asked why this was so. He replied : "The Name is the 
 God of all Gods. Some propitiate Durga, some Shiv, some 
 Ganesh, and some other Gods ; but the Guru's Sikhs worship 
 the True Name and thus remove all obstacles to salvation." 
 We are reminded on the one hand of the 'name of Allah'; 
 on the other, of ' thousand-named ' Vishnu : likely enough 
 this feature reflects Mohammedan influence (cf. Amos vi. 
 10). 
 
 In the pure Hindu philosophies and in Buddhism man's 
 destiny is governed by karma, 'deed.' The key-note is 
 struck at a very early time. So the 'Great Forest-Upani- 
 shad' (4. 4. 3), one of the earliest theosophic tracts of India : 
 "Man is altogether desire (kama) ; as is his desire so is his 
 insight (kratu) ; as is his insight so is his deed (karma) ; 
 as is his deed so is his destiny." Man's acts attach themselves 
 to the soul and determine its next abode in the course of its 
 migrations. So also Nanak : 
 
 Impute not blame to any one, but rather to thine own karma. 
 I have suffered the consequences of my acts ; I may blame no one else. 
 
 In the Sikh writings the karma is generally construed as 
 sinister, as 'evil deed,' manmukh karm (Sanskrit manomusa 
 karma). This comprises the ordinary human sins. The 
 karma that elevates character and insures rebirth as a higher 
 being, even a god, is rather ignored. In common use karma 
 gets to mean sin committed in a previous existence — that 
 and nothing more. 
 
 Another, less ancient idea, which at a comparatively 
 early time entangles the Hindu mind in a paradox, takes 
 the place of the more philosophical karma. It is the idea 
 of fate or decree (Sanskrit daivam).' So the distinguished 
 
 ' See Professor Wintemitz's interesting paper, 'Das Schicksal im Glauben und 
 Denken der Inder,' Allgemeine Zeitung, May 3d and Sth, 1902. 
 
176 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 Sanskrit poet Bhartrhari, in his famous Centuries of Lyric 
 Stanzas : ^ 
 
 The wise Creator wrote upon thy brow, 
 
 When thou wast born what wealth should once be thine ; 
 
 The sum was great perhaps or small ; yet now 
 
 Thy fate is fixed, and sure the law divine. 
 
 For if thou dwell within the desert's rim. 
 Thou shalt have nothing less than is his will ; 
 Nor will there more apportioned be to him 
 That hastes to Meru's gold-abounding hill. 
 
 In the same spirit says Nanak : 
 
 The die is cast, no one can undo it. 
 What know I of the future's happening ? 
 Whate'er pleases Him, that hath occurred ; 
 No one but Him doth act. 
 
 Ravidas boldly denies free will : 
 
 Were I not to sin, O Timeless Spirit ! 
 
 How could thy name be Purifier of Sinners ? 
 
 In practice the Sikhs throughout their secular history are 
 quite as fatalistic as the Mohammedans, and up to a certain 
 point their fatalism contributed to their political success. 
 
 Here, again, there is no new doctrine, and nothing that the 
 rest of the Hindu people of the time disavowed or hesitated 
 to apply when they were so minded. If, after all this, it is 
 plainly impossible to find anything that is at the same time 
 important and new in Sikh theology, we may inquire whether 
 the renovating factor of Sikhism is contained in its institu- 
 tions, rather than in its spiritual doctrines. For, after all, 
 Sikhism was a new religion, which offered real shelter to many, 
 and in time fitted its adherents to become successful oppo- 
 nents of the followers of Islam in the North of India. 
 
 Nearly two thousand years before Nanak's time. Bud- 
 dhism had negated and abolished caste through the inherent 
 quality of its teaching. But Buddhism had passed out of 
 the peninsula of India, and caste controlled non-Islamic 
 India. In the light of the monistic high thought of India, 
 
 * See Ryder, Woman's Eyes, p. 24. 
 
MAURICE BLOOMPIELD 177 
 
 which postulates the identity of all men's souls with the 
 One, caste has always been a perplexing paradox as well as 
 a corrosive institution. Ramakrishna, the modern saint, or 
 Paramahansa, knows this, and is williilg to share a bone with 
 a dog, his brother.* But, of course, as a good Hindu, he 
 recognizes that this is only for the Emancipate ; in ordinary 
 life he admits the need of caste.^ There is a great difference 
 between occasional academic protest, and the express, 
 sincere invective against caste in the Sikhs' Gurus' utter- 
 ances. In that Mohammedan time, in that Moslemic coun- 
 try, the disavowal of caste was the irreducible minimum of 
 concession which a new Hindu religion must make before it 
 could hope to succeed. With the Gurus' revived and in- 
 tensified sense that all men depend upon the 'Name,' and 
 are alike an efflux from the 'Timeless Spirit,' the wooden- 
 ness and cruelty of caste, as practised by the Hindu sects, 
 became a conviction, sincere, fiery, polemical ; at the same 
 time it enabled the Sikhs to compete successfully with Mo- 
 hammedanism. The Gurus attacked the caste system and, 
 at the same time, other Hindu notions of impurity in many 
 necessary and harmless acts of ordinary life : 
 
 Castes are folly, names are folly ; 
 All creatures have one shelter (God). 
 
 Thus Nanak states in simplest words the most immediate 
 consequence of his knowledge of the Divine. Before Nanak, 
 the Bhagats Ramanand, Kabir, Namdev, and Ravidas had 
 all arrived at the same conclusion. 
 
 In various other ways also Sikhism pointed the way to 
 freedom from galling, cruel Hindu practice and superstition, 
 and to saner and cleaner life. The Gurus forbid idolatry, 
 widow-burning, infanticide, pilgrimages to the sacred rivers 
 and tanks ; they preach philanthropy, justice, truth, and 
 domestic virtue. Indeed, the theory of their religion is well- 
 nigh a counsel of perfection. And yet it is doubtful whether 
 all this accounts for the rapid spread of the teachings of the 
 Gurus and their development into a religious system which 
 
 ° Bamakrislina, His Life and Sayings (edited by Max Miiller), p. 122. 
 ' Ibid., pp. 146, 147. 
 
178 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 in its final form marks off the Sikhs from the rest of the Hindu 
 world, not only as a religious body, but as a people of singular 
 character and individuality. Into the making of Sikhism 
 another ancient Hindu institution has entered as a very im- 
 portant factor : perhaps we may say the prime factor. 
 
 The name Sikh (Sanskrit 5isya) means ' disciple ' ; the name 
 Guru, 'teacher.' The Sikh texts, as a rule, speak of the 
 Gurus and their Sikhs, that is, the 'Teachers and their Dis- 
 ciples ' ; or, even more compactly, of the Gurus' Sikhs, the 
 'Teachers' Disciples.' The relation of teacher and pupil in 
 India has always been pious, sentiniental, and sacramental. 
 The so-called 'House-Books' (Grhya-siitras) show that the 
 initiation (upanayana) of an Aryan Brahmanical boy was 
 an affair of very considerable solemnity.' Teacher and pupil 
 stand in front of the sacred fire. The pupil begins, " I 
 have come to study ; receive me, let me be thy pupil, incited 
 thereunto by God Savitar" (the god who incites to piety). 
 The teacher replies, "Who art thou, what is thy name.''" 
 "My name is Devadatta." The teacher then says, "May I, 
 O God Savitar, fulfil my purpose with this boy Devadatta." 
 Like an apprentice in the time of the guilds the boy lives with 
 his teacher, serves, and obeys him. Mornings and evenings 
 he gathers wood for his fire, and begs alms for him, beginning 
 his begging tour with his own mother. When the teacher 
 addresses the pupil while the latter is seated, he must rise 
 before he makes answer ; if the pupil is on his feet, he must 
 run up to the teacher and answer. 
 
 Beyond this external formalism a tenderer bond unites 
 the two. In the course of the initiation the teacher touches 
 the heart of the boy and pronounces these solemn words, 
 "Thy heart shall dwell in my heart; thy spirit shall follow 
 my spirit ; with willing ears hear my words." After a long 
 term of study the young man graduates, with various so- 
 lemnities, which include a sacramental bath. Then he goes 
 by the name of Snataka, 'Bathed.' In the Taittiriya- 
 Upanishad the Snataka is bidden to speak the truth always ; 
 to cultivate the study of the Veda ; to perform his duties as 
 a householder ; and to honor parents and teacher like unto 
 gods. 
 
 ' See Hillebrandt, Alt-Indien, pp. 100 B. 
 
MAURICE BLOOMPIBLD 179 
 
 The teacher remains a sacred person ; he is the typical 
 "Reverend," and, even more than parents, the pivot around 
 which turn all lessons that inculcate reverence. The ancient 
 Law-Book of Apastamba (1. 1. 13) has it : "He from whom 
 the pupil gathers (acinoti) the knowledge of his duties is called 
 teacher (acarya) . Him he must never offend. For he causes 
 his pupil to be born a second time by imparting to him the 
 sacred knowledge. Father and mother produce the body 
 only." The association of the idea of spiritual fatherhood 
 remains a permanent factor of Hindu thought and senti- 
 ment. The name 'Twice-born,' that is, 'Regenerate,' be- 
 longs to high-caste Brahmanical Hindus precisely because 
 they are in duty bound to get from a teacher their new birth 
 through knowledge of sacred things. The relation of teacher 
 and pupil is not weakened by time, nor cloyed by familiarity ; 
 the responsibility of the pupil towards the teacher holds 
 through life. "He who, though able, does not support his 
 mother, his aged father, his true wife, his not grown-up 
 child, his Brahman Teacher, and any one that comes to him 
 for protection, dead is he, even though he breathe." So says 
 the Bhagavata Purana (10. 45. 7). With the systematic 
 rigor of a sort of proverb, the Mahabharata fixes the position 
 of the Teacher among the five very most important persons 
 and things in all the world: "Five sacred (fires) must be 
 tended with unremitting care : father, mother, the (actual 
 sacred) fire, one's own self, and one's teacher" (Mahabh. 
 5. 33. 74). 
 
 It is easy to see that the word "teacher," instead of imply- 
 ing merely a person who imparts, for a consideration, more or 
 less useful knowledge, has assumed the high value of spirit- 
 ual guide and superior. In its final outcome, in the view of 
 Hindus who are interested in the burning question of their 
 ultimate destiny, who crave the unique salvation which is 
 fusion with the Absolute One, the Guru is the John the Bap- 
 tist who heralds the great event, and the guide who points 
 the way to that great event. "As when going to a strange 
 country, one must abide by the directions of him who knows 
 the way, while taking the advice of many may lead to con- 
 fusion, so in trying to reach God one should follow the single 
 Guru who knows the way to God." So saith the modern 
 
180 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 saint and ascetic, theParamahansa Ramakrishna, and he con- 
 tinues : 
 
 The Guru is a mediator. He brings man and God together. 
 
 The note, too, of papal infallibility is struck exigently : 
 
 The disciple should never criticise his own Guru. He must implicitly 
 obey whatever his Guru says. 
 
 As a Bengali proverb has it, 
 
 Though my Guru may visit tavern and still. 
 My Guru is holy Rai Nityananda stiD.' 
 
 After all this, it is hardly necessary to say that Brahmanical 
 literature in endless iteration condemns violence to teachers 
 as one of the deadly sins. In the history of ethics the Hindu 
 conception of the relation of Teacher and Disciple stands 
 out as one of the most perfect and sensitive conceptions, 
 removed alike from selfishness and loosely attached altruism, 
 and is entirely fit to be regarded as the final test of Hindu 
 ethical feeling and practice. 
 
 It seems to me that the most distinctive feature in Sikhism 
 is the development of this time-honored relation between 
 individual teacher and individual pupil into an ecclesiastico- 
 political force, which finally led up to a sort of church-state, 
 and a sort of nation. It is easy to see how a single teacher 
 of very holy repute might gather about him many pupils 
 who would feel and show such veneration as is implanted 
 in every Hindu by his own intrinsic spirituality and by im- 
 memorial tradition. Pupils in larger mass might shower 
 presents upon the teacher, put into his hands the means for 
 luxurious and courtly living, surround his person with watch- 
 ful care against envious detractors and personal enemies, 
 and finally, as it were, press upon him a pontificate not at 
 all wanting in temporal or secular advantages. This is pre- 
 cisely what happened in Sikhism. 
 
 The legends of the Gurus are still to be sifted for the per- 
 haps not too numerous grains of real history which they with- 
 out doubt contain. One thing is quite certain, namely, that 
 
 ^ See Ramakrishna, pp. 132, 133. 
 
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD 181 
 
 the early Gurus were simple, modest men without any per- 
 sonal aspirations. Nanak, the first Guru, was a travelling 
 fakir ; he was not a priest either by birth or education. His 
 sole claim to notice and distinction was that he was possessed 
 of a high grade of deistic emotionalism. The unity of God 
 and the need of righteousness were the two unoriginal and 
 not altogether consanguineous propositions which he had to 
 offer his followers. He travelled from place to place and 
 chanted his hymns of praise to the lute of a player, by the 
 name of Mardana, who accompanied him in his travels. He 
 was one of those gentle, pitiful, messianic Hindu teachers, 
 anxious to steer suffering and superstitious humanity across 
 the ocean of individual, divided existence to the haven of 
 union with the One. Yajnavalkya and Buddha are his 
 ancient prototypes ; the Bhagats that preceded him, his 
 direct teachers. Nevertheless the note of Guruship as well 
 as that of apostolic succession is struck in the legend of 
 Nanak. He exacted obedience from his adherents. He 
 passed his pontificate over the heads of his own unsteady 
 and disobedient sons to a disciple whom he had put through 
 the severest tests of obedience. The story has it that he 
 made Angad, his successor, eat of a corpse and do other re- 
 pulsive things in order to see how stout was Angad's faith 
 in Nanak's Guruship. When Nanak's end approached, he 
 placed the umbrella of spiritual sovereignty over Angad's 
 head and bowed to him as the future Guru. In his last 
 moments Nanak drew a sheet over himself and blended his 
 light with Guru Angad. The Guru remained the same. 
 Hereafter all Gurus are Nanak — a sort of composite pho- 
 tography. And it is curious to observe that Nanak is in 
 ecstatic moments really identified with the Timeless Spirit 
 — an extreme but not unlogical conclusion. 
 
 The second and third Gurus, Angad and Amardas, con- 
 tinued the pontificate as humble teachers, obscure heads of 
 one of the sects that kept springing up mushroom-like in those 
 days among the Hindus, as a rule to be lost in some new 
 form of religious emotionalism. But the fourth Guru began 
 to accumulate wealth and exhibit power. The gifts of the 
 Disciples flowed so freely that he was able to start building 
 the gorgeous temple of Hari (Hari-mandar), in the middle of 
 
182 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 the lake called 'Nectar-Lake,' or Amritsar, and so lay the 
 foundation of this most famous sanctuary, which became 
 in due time the Mekka of Sikh religion and nationality. His 
 work was completed by the fifth Guru, Arjan. 
 
 This last-mentioned pontiff compiled the Adi Granth, to 
 which he himself contributed a large part, thus furnishing 
 the Disciples with a bible, and the world with one of its most 
 noteworthy theistic documents. Next to Nanak, Arjan was 
 the most spiritual of the Sikh pontiffs. But Arjan was econo- 
 mist and statesman as well as shepherd and churchman. He 
 instituted most significant economic and secular reforms. 
 He substituted for the free gifts of the Disciples definite 
 taxation, and in his last will and testament ordered his son 
 and successor in the Guruship to sit fully armed on his throne, 
 and to maintain an army. Arjan died a cruel death, pre- 
 sumably through the machinations of a personal enemy by 
 the name of Chandu, minister of finance at Delhi, whose 
 daughter he did not think good enough to accept in marriage 
 for his son, Har Govind. Furthermore, as stated above 
 (p. 171), he had exposed himself to Emperor Jahangir's wrath 
 by giving aid and comfort to his fugitive, rebellious son, 
 Khusrau. That the Sikh Guru and his numerous devoted 
 adherents had by that time become an important political 
 factor in the Mogul empire, and that the Guru pontificate had 
 become an object of suspicion to the Mogul emperors, the 
 story shows very clearly. 
 
 The sixth Guru, Har Govind, followed the political in- 
 tentions and the expressed wishes of his father and prede- 
 cessor. The old simple insignia of Guruship were the seli, 
 a woollen cord worn as a necklace, and the turban. These 
 Har Govind exchanged for something much more regal : 
 "My seli shall be a sword-belt, and I shall wear my turban 
 with a royal aigrette," he exclaimed to his old adviser Bhai 
 Budha. He also carried two swords as emblems of both 
 spiritual and temporal authority. He celebrated his ac- 
 cession by a large banquet given to his Sikhs. He issued 
 an encyclical letter to the tax collectors (masands) in which 
 he said, significantly, that he should be pleased with those 
 who brought arms and horses instead of money. He built 
 a magnificent throne-house of solid stone masonry, the so- 
 
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD 183 
 
 called Akal Bunga, and took his seat in it. He enrolled as 
 his bodyguard fifty-two heroes, to which were added five 
 hundred youths, to each of whom he gave a horse and arms. 
 This force he organized under centurion captains of a hundred 
 horse each. To while away his time, he devoted himself to 
 the chase. 
 
 Chandu, the traducer of his father, became very uneasy at 
 this exhibition of power. Again he offered his daughter to 
 Har Govind in marriage, but Har Govind refused, saying: 
 "The torture that thou didst inflict on such a peaceful and 
 philanthropic Guru as my father must bring its vengeance 
 in time. Thou shalt die trodden in the dust, and dishonored 
 by shoe-beatings inflicted by Pariahs." Chandu then re- 
 newed his machinations against the Sikhs, and managed to 
 have Har Govind cited to the dangerous presence of Emperor 
 Jahangir at Delhi. But Sikh influence had by that time 
 grown strong at court, and Har Govind's personality was 
 very attractive. After some danger and vicissitudes the 
 tables turned themselves on Chandu, so that he was delivered 
 into the power of Har Govind. Between the lines of the 
 Sikh legend we can read that the Guru wreaked terrible 
 vengeance on Chandu. He committed him to the care of 
 two faithful Sikhs who "took off his turban, tied his hands 
 behind his back, and showered blows of slippers on his de- 
 voted head. While being thus castigated, he was led through 
 the streets of the city, a warning to all men." Chandu's 
 wife and son were also surrendered to the Guru, who punished 
 them by showing them Chandu "made over to Pariahs as 
 if he were a dog." Dirt and filth continued to be poured 
 on him, and he was reduced to a condition in which no one 
 could recognize him. After showing them that, he let them 
 go. Naively, the legend says, "everybody congratulated the 
 Guru on the mercy he had shown them." The Guru after- 
 wards took Chandu to Lahore, the scene of his father's death. 
 Here he was delivered over to scavengers, who led him round 
 the streets to beg. " He who used to take bribes of thousands 
 of rupees was now glad to get kauris and the leavings of others 
 for his support. For a sacrificial mark on his forehead he 
 had now the marks of shoe-beatings, and for necklaces of 
 pearls and diamonds he had old slippers suspended from his 
 
184 THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 neck." After fifteen days of this treatment in Lahore, death 
 at the hand of one of the Guru's enraged Sikhs came to his 
 rehef ; scavengers threw his body into the river Ravi. But 
 the Guru prayed, characteristically, that as Chandu had 
 suffered torment for his sins in this life, God would pardon 
 him hereafter. 
 
 The Sikh legend does not cover up the fact that Har 
 Govind had become a powerful, power-craving, ostentatious, 
 pleasure-loving potentate who was rather given to larding 
 his worldly acts with the pious sayings of his more spiritual 
 predecessors. His love for the chase was so great as to in- 
 volve him in war with the next Grand Mogul, Shah Jehan. 
 A white hawk of the Emperor, which had been presented to 
 him by the King of Iran, had made its way into the Guru's 
 hunting camp, and his huntsmen refused to return it to the 
 Emperor. This brought about a war which ended, so the 
 Sikh story goes, in a bloody but glorious victory of the Sikhs 
 over the Mohammedans near Amritsar in 1628. There is no 
 reason to doubt that the Sikhs had become by that time a 
 nation within a nation, or a landless empire within an empire. 
 
 Bhai Gur Das, a contemporary of the fourth, fifth, and 
 sixth Gurus, composed an analysis of the tenets of the Sikh 
 religion in which, of course, much emphasis is given to the 
 functions of the Guru and the true relation between the 
 Guru and his Sikhs: 
 
 By the Guru's hymns the mind is satisfied, and man reaches his own 
 home. 
 
 By the Guru's instruction the four castes were blended into one society 
 of saints. 
 
 The true Guru, the real king, putteth the holy on the high road to sal- 
 vation. He restraineth the deadly sins, evil inclinations, and worldly 
 love. By the spell of the Name he hath inculcated love, devotion, charity. 
 As the lotus remaineth dry in the water, so doth the Guru keep the holy 
 man unaffected by the world. 
 
 He who seeks not the Guru is blind, even though he have eyes. He 
 who listeneth not to the Guru's words is deaf, even though he have ears. 
 He who singeth not the Guru's hymns is dumb, even though he have a 
 tongue. Even though he who smelleth not the perfume of the Guru's 
 feet have a nose, it is as if it were cut off. He who doeth not the Guru's 
 work, even though he have hands, is without them, and waileth in sorrow. 
 He in whose heart the Guru's instruction abideth not, is without under- 
 standing, and obtaineth not entrance into God's court. 
 
MAURICE BLOOMFIBLD 185 
 
 I believe that the preceding exposition has laid bare the 
 mainspring of Sikhism, so that no one need fail to see it. 
 Let me point out once more that on the side of doctrine or 
 philosophy Sikhism contains absohitely nothing new, noth- 
 ing that is not to be found elsewhere, in some place, at some 
 time, in India. As regards institutions and minor folk be- 
 liefs, Guru Arjan claims that, 
 
 The egg of superstition hath burst; the mind is Ulumined, 
 
 The Guru hath cut the fetters off the feet and freed the captive. 
 
 We have seen that such is the case as regards many perni- 
 cious Hindu institutions, but there can be no doubt that this 
 result was quickly overtaken by a new growth of somewhat 
 dubious quality, such as fatalism, brigandage, and exceeding 
 worldliness, thinly veiled by pious wordiness. The truly 
 potent element in Sikhism is euhemeristic. Some years 
 ago I pointed out, not at all originally, that "the impressive 
 object-lesson of superiority, physical or spiritual, may make a 
 god of a tribal chief, a Roman emperor, or a Hindu ascetic.'" 
 We know that there are in India to this day leading preachers 
 of the Brahma, so holy, so sanctifying in character and ex- 
 ample, that their canonization by popular consent as Para- 
 mahansas, 'Supreme Spirits,' comes dangerously near to iden- 
 tifying them with the Divinity. This is, when we ponder 
 it, exactly on all fours with the monistic Brahma. The truly 
 new thing in Sikhism is the surcharging of this euhemerism 
 with temporal, practical, and finally political factors. For 
 once, under the stress of the irksome Mohammedan environ- 
 ment, the Hindus were led to recoin the ancient institution 
 of spiritual Guruship into militant leadership — a thing 
 not dreamt of before in India. This enabled them to gain 
 a new station in the despised world, after their former sta- 
 tion had become, paradoxically speaking, so despicable that 
 they could no longer endure it. Sikhism reformed stridently 
 and effectively some of the blatant abuses of Hindu religious 
 practice, yet remained at the core an essentially Hindu re- 
 ligion. The really new idea was the fighting, euhemeristi- 
 cally deified Guru and his fighting Sikhs. But for the Sikhs, 
 
 'See my article, 'The Symbolic Gods,' in Studies in Honor of B. L. Gildersleeve, 
 p. 38. 
 
186. THE SIKH RELIGION 
 
 all or most of India might have been Mohammedanized ; or, 
 at least, Mohammedan failure in this respect is probably 
 due in a considerable measure to Sikh resistance. In this 
 way this errant child of Hinduism has contributed largely 
 to the preservation of Hinduism. It would seem as if — 
 that service done — the jaded child were at last returning 
 to the bosom of its aged but not yet altogether decrepit 
 mother. The Sikhs are now reverting, to some extent, to 
 Hinduism, and are again worshipping Hindu gods in Hindu 
 temples. 
 
 Baltimoee, 
 
 January, 1911. 
 
YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 George Aaron Barton 
 Bryn Mawr College 
 
 There is no more fascinating problem in the whole field 
 of the history of religion than the origin and development 
 of the worship of Yahweh. Within the last few years new 
 facts concerning it have been brought to light, and various 
 and somewhat conflicting theories have arisen to explain 
 them. It is the purpose of the present paper to examine, 
 sift, and coordinate the most important of these facts and 
 theories. 
 
 We may begin with a reference to the theory that Yahweh 
 was of Kenite origin, though this view has been discussed so 
 often of recent years that it is unnecessary to enter fully 
 into it here. It was first suggested by Ghillany ^ in 1862, 
 was supported by Tiele,^ strongly urged by Stade,^ more 
 fully worked out by Budde,* and has been accepted by 
 Guthe,5 H. P. Smith,« Wildeboer,^ Cheyne,* Paton,^ and 
 Burney.^" The present writer has twice expressed his ad- 
 hesion to it," and Addis accepts it as a possibility.^^ The 
 reasons for accepting it have been succinctly stated by Budde, 
 Paton, and the \NTiter, and need not be repeated here. They 
 follow from the prevailing Pentateuchal documentary theory, 
 
 ' Theologische Briefe an die Gebildeten der deutschen Nation, 1. 216, 408. 
 
 2 Vergelijkende Geschiedenis van de Egyptische en Mesopotamische Gods- 
 diensten, p. 559. 
 
 ^ Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 1. 130 f . ; BibKsche Theologie, pp. 42 f. 
 
 * Religion of Israel to the Exile, chapter i. 
 
 ' Geschichte des Volkes Israel, pp. 21, 29. ^ Old Testament History, p. 57. 
 
 ' Jahvedienst en Volksreligie in Israel, pp. 15 f. 
 
 » Encyclopaedia BibUca, col. 3208. » Biblical World, 28. 116 f. 
 
 " Journal of Theological Studies, 9. 337 ff. 
 
 " Semitic Origins, pp. 272 f., 275 f., and Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible in 
 One Volume, p. 410. 
 
 ^ Hebrew Religion to the Establishment of Judaism under Ezra, p. 70. 
 
 187 
 
188 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 SO that from the Biblical evidence as thus understood this 
 formerly seemed the only natural hypothesis. 
 
 Several new theories have, however, been urged in recent 
 vears, two of which are based on facts outside the Old Testa- 
 ment. These have been thought to challenge or overthrow 
 the Kenite hypothesis. If they really do so, that theory 
 should be reexamined or discarded. 
 
 The first of these theories is based upon the belief that the 
 name Yahweh has been found on Babylonian tablets of 
 the time of Hammurabi or earlier. The occurrence of such 
 names was first announced by Professor Sayce,'' but the 
 announcement did not attract attention until Professor 
 Delitzsch delivered the famous lecture which started the 
 'Babel und Bibel' controversy." He brought into prom- 
 inence two names, Yawa-ilu ^^ and Yaum-ilu,^^ claiming 
 the first to be equal to Yahweh-el and the second to Joel. 
 Many scholars accepted the latter name as probably rep- 
 resenting Yahweh,'^ but the first one was doubted, not 
 only because the sign read wa might be read fi, but because 
 in the hundreds of names in the Old Testament in which 
 Yahweh is the first element, this element is always con- 
 tracted to Yo or Y'ho.^^ More recently it has been thought 
 to be proved that Delitzsch misread the name Yawa-ilu and 
 that it should be read Yapi-ilu.^^ This view is based on the 
 discovery of a name Ya-pa-ilu in a tablet of the same period.^" 
 It is not, however, quite certain that this disproves the pres- 
 ence of the divine name Yahweh, for Johns has pointed out 
 that if we take labe,^^ the pronunciation of the Tetragram- 
 maton to which Theodoret testifies, as a starting point, the 
 Babylonian divine name lb may come into comparison. 
 
 1' Expository Times, 9. 522. Cf. Hommel, iUi. 10. 42. 
 
 " See his Babel and Bible, translated by Johns, pp. 70 ff. 
 
 '"• Spelled Ya-a-wa-ilu, in Cuneiform Texts, 8. 20. 3a, and Ya-wa-ilu, ihxd. 34. 4a. 
 In each case the sign read wa might be read jn, making Yapi-ilu. 
 
 '* See Cuneiform Texts, 4. 27. 3a. The m is apparently the well-known mimma- 
 tion. 
 
 " So, for example, A. T. Clay, Light on the Bible from Babel, pp. 236 f., and 
 Rogers, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 92 ff. 
 
 18 See Clay, op. dt., pp. 236 and 239. " So Clay, Amurru, p. 207. 
 
 '" See Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler, 8. no. 16. 39. 
 
 ''■^ lab^ was really pronounced Yahwe. This does not affect the fact that 6, p, 
 and TO all may represent in Babylonian the Hebrew waw. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 189 
 
 One individual at Dilbat was named ilu-Ib-ilu-Iau, i.e. 'the 
 god lb is my god Yau.' ^^ The god lb was then identified 
 with Yau, who was perhaps Yahu or Yahweh. It has been 
 demonstrated that in Babylonian p, b, and m all interchanged 
 with waw.^ If laba was, as Johns suggests, one of the Baby- 
 lonian ways of expressing Yahweh, this may also have been 
 expressed in Babylonian writing by Yapa. In that case the 
 name of Yapa-ilu referred to above, so far from disproving 
 Professor Delitzsch's contention that Yawa-ilu or Yapi-ilu 
 contains the divine name Yahweh as its first element, would 
 actually confirm it. 
 
 It must be confessed, however, that this identity is very 
 uncertain. WhUe it may be that all three forms Yawa, 
 Yaba, and Yapa represent an original Yahweh,^^ that it really 
 was so is not yet proven. 
 
 When Yahweh as the first element of a personal name was 
 written in cuneiform in the Persian period, it was sometimes 
 written 'Ya-,' sometimes 'Yau-,' and sometimes 'Yahu.'^^ 
 If we may reason that the same varieties of phonetic ex- 
 pression existed in the time of the first dynasty of Babylon, 
 we should find the name Yahweh as the first element in the 
 names Yahi-ilu ^^ and Yauhi-ilu ^^ which occur in texts from 
 Dilbat. This would add another group of occurrences of 
 this name in Babylonian texts of this period and also another 
 to the forms under which it appears. 
 
 The fact that in tablets of the Kassite period the name 
 Yau-bani ^^ occurs, has been urged as a reason for supposing 
 that these forms, or at least some of them, represent the 
 
 ^ Cambridge Biblical Essays, p. 49. 
 
 ^ E.g., Hebrew 'l^^ is turned into Assyrio-Babylonian as lamU, labu, and lapA 
 (Talm. ^"h, Syriac I'wd, Arabic lawa; in Ethiopic the form in the simple stem has be- 
 come lawawa, but in the reflexive talaweya the original form of the root appears) . Cf . 
 Dehtzsch, Assyrisches Handworterbuch, pp. 368, 379, and Brockelmann, Vergleich- 
 ende Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, pp. 139, 140. 
 
 ^ Daiches, Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, 22. 126, declares that the Tetragram- 
 maton is never found in the cuneiform. 
 
 " See Clay, Light on the Old Testament from Babel, pp. 236 ff., and Babylonian 
 Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, 9. no. 25. 1. 19 ; no. 28. 1. 15 ; no. 
 45. 1. 1 ; no. 55. lines 1, 14 ; 10. no. 77. 1. 3. 
 
 *' Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler, 7. no. 5. 27. 
 
 " IHd. no. 8. 3, 5, 8 ; no. 9. 39. 
 
 2* Cf. Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, 15. no. 184. 
 1. 7; no. 200. col. i. 1. 37; col. ii. lines 16, 25. 
 
190 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 divine name Yahweh. This name (Yau-bani) is parallel 
 to Bel-bani, in which 'Bel' is certainly a divine element. 
 The natural inference is therefore that Yau represents 
 a divine name. If such a god was known in Babylonia in 
 the Kassite period, this would strengthen the presumption 
 that the names which we have passed in review from the 
 time of Hammurabi's dynasty contain it also. 
 
 It has been contended that the name Yahweh as an ele- 
 ment in a proper name occurs in Babylonia still earlier. In 
 a text published by Thureau-Dangin, a granddaughter of 
 the king Naram-Sin bears a name which may be read Lipush- 
 laum,^^ 'May laum make.' Radau/" Burney/^ and Clay^^ 
 all regard this as an occurrence of Yahweh. Rogers '' 
 with more caution holds that it is doubtful, and that possibly 
 Ea is referred to. It would certainly be rash to assert that 
 this name is proof that Yahweh as a divine name was known 
 among the immediate descendants of Naram-Sin, but it is 
 clearly possible that such may be the case. As Zimmern has 
 noted (Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 468, ed. 3), 
 these names in which Yahweh appears to occur in Babylonia 
 are all borne by foreigners. In reality we cannot be sure 
 that these Babylonian names refer to a god at all until we 
 find such names as Arad-Ya, Arad-Yau, Arad-Yama, Arad- 
 Yaba, Arad-Yapa, in which the last element is preceded by 
 the determinative for god.^^ In the absence of decisive 
 evidence, however, a presumption that they contain a 
 divine name has been established, and some probability 
 that that divine element is identical with the divine name 
 which we know as Yahweh. 
 
 In addition to these Babylonian occurrences, it is thought 
 that the name Yahweh occurs in the name Akhi-yami, 
 which is, as the Murashu texts show, the Babylonian way 
 of writing Ahijah. The name occurs on a tablet found at 
 
 '" See the Comptes Rendus of the Paris Acad^mie des Inscriptions et Belles 
 Lettres, 1899, p. 348, pi. 1. The reading laum is not altogether certain. 7 is 
 expressed by an unusual sign. ^° Early Babylonian History, p. 173. 
 
 '' Journal of Theological Studies, 9. 342. ^' Amurru, p. 90. 
 
 ^ Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 94, n. 1. 
 
 " Such names as Arad-ya-um (Babylonian Expedition, 15. no. 120. 1. 2) and 
 Arad-ya-u (ibid. 17. no. 48. 1. 9) do not fulfil this condition, as they lack the 
 determinative. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 191 
 
 Taanach which was written between 1400 and 1300 b.c.'^ 
 It has long been supposed that Yahweh is the first element 
 in the name of Yau-bi'di, a king of Hamath^^ who was over- 
 thrown by Sargon II., and it has been supposed that the 
 presence of these names in Palestine and Syria as well as in 
 Babylonia is proof that the divine name Yahweh was not 
 the peculiar possession of Israel, but belonged also to widely 
 scattered Semites.'^ Of course the same uncertainty attaches 
 to the names Yau-bi'di and Akhi-yama as to the names pre- 
 viously discussed ; but in case the name Yahweh is really 
 represented in these forms, how are we to account for its 
 presence ? 
 
 The analogy of the use of other divine names among the 
 Semites would lead us to look for the explanation in the use 
 of some common epithet, rather than in the worship of the 
 same deity. Thus it has long been recognized that the names 
 Ishtar, Ashtar, Attar, Athtar, Astar, Ashtart, and Ash- 
 toreth found in the various parts of the Semitic world are 
 the same name, and that they are applied to deities so nearly 
 alike that the epithet in which the name originated was ap- 
 propriate, but that the deities were not identical.^* Athtar, 
 worshipped in South Arabia, had no relationship to Ashtart, 
 worshipped at Sidon, except the kinship due to a common, 
 though far-away, origin. Similarly the term Baal, applied 
 so often to Canaanite gods, is kindred to Bel, which was 
 applied to Babylonian deities. The deities were not, how- 
 ever, identical. Thus also Shamash, worshipped at Agade, 
 Shamash, worshipped at Larsa, Shemesh, worshipped at Beth- 
 Shemesh, and Shams, a goddess worshipped in South 
 Arabia/^ all bear the same name, but are clearly not identical. 
 Analogy would accordingly lead us to suppose that a divine 
 name which apparently was used in Babylonia in the time 
 of Hammurabi, in the Kassite period, and possibly in the 
 family of Naram-Sin, also at Taanach, at Hamath, and 
 among the Kenites of the peninsula of Sinai, as well as by 
 the Hebrews, was, like these other names, an epithet that 
 
 35 See Sellin's Tell Ta'annek, p. 115, no. 2. 2 and p. 121. no. 2. 2. 
 
 '" See e.g. Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 66 (3d ed.). 
 
 " So Rogers, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 95. 
 
 *' See e.g. Hebraica, 10. 68, and the ^Titer's Semitic Origins, chapter iii. 
 
 " C£. Mordtmann and MUller's Sabaische Denkmaler, no. 13. 
 
192 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 could be applied to different gods — deities which may have 
 had a common origin and similar characteristics, but which 
 were not identical. No one can study Semitic religion com- 
 prehensively without being impressed with the fact that all 
 native Semitic deities are in origin closely connected with 
 the primitive Ishtars. In some instances the goddess her- 
 self seems to have turned into a masculine deity, as in the 
 case of Athtar in South Arabia ; in some instances the god 
 who in primitive times was Ishtar's son has assumed a posi- 
 tion superior to Ishtar or independent of her; and in some 
 instances the gods or spirits who in the primitive polyan- 
 drous society were thought of as Ishtar's loosely married 
 husbands, have undergone a development more or less inde- 
 pendent of the goddess herself.*" As Semitic tribes migrated 
 and settled in new environments, their deities naturally took 
 on many new functions or attributes from the new surround- 
 ings. As empires brought different tribes or cities into 
 political unity, pantheons were formed, and in course of time 
 special functions were assigned to different gods ; but in the 
 case of many deities, and these the most prominent, one can 
 still trace, in the characteristics of the god, in the hymns that 
 are sung to him, or in elements of his ritual, the marks of his 
 former history. In the case of the prominent Semitic gods, 
 the predominant common feature is the element of fertility, 
 accentuated in the fashion peculiar to the Semites. This 
 feature is the link connecting these deities with their common 
 source. This source was common in the sense that the 
 different tribes were moulded by a similar environment and 
 developed similar social and religious institutions, not that 
 all the gods were descended from one goddess and her 
 polyandrous family. 
 
 There are features connected with the worship of Yahweh 
 in Israel and conceptions concerning him which clearly 
 connect him with this common Semitic source. He was the 
 god of fertility, the god who ' opened the womb ' ; *^ to him 
 an oath was taken by putting the hand 'under the thigh.' *^ 
 
 <» See the writer's Semitic Origins, pp. 87, 125 ff., 133 ff., 190 ff., 289 ff. ; Biblical 
 Worid, 24. 169. n. 3 ; Paton, American Journal of Semitic Languages, 19. 57. 
 " Cf . Genesis xxix. 31, xxx. 22, xlix. 25 ; Exodus xiii. 2 ; Psalm cxxvii. 3 ; etc. 
 '^ Genesis xxiv. 9. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 193 
 
 Yahweh's autumn festival was preceded by a wailing, which 
 was probably a survival of an earlier wailing for the son of 
 the old mother goddess, variously called Tammuz, Adonis, 
 and Dhu-1-Shara in dififerent parts of the Semitic world.^' 
 If other Semitic peoples really had gods called Yahweh, these 
 were probably sufficiently similar to the Yahweh of early 
 Israel, either in origin or in nature, to permit the epithet 
 Yahweh, whatever it may mean, to be applied to them. 
 As already noted, the analogies of other deities show that this 
 is the nearest approach to identity that it is necessary to 
 assume. 
 
 Two consequences seem to follow from the foregoing con- 
 siderations. We should probably look for the origin of the 
 name Yahweh in some early home of Northern Semites in 
 Arabia, whence migrations occurred to Babylonia, Palestine, 
 Sinai, and Hamath; and we should expect that name to 
 denote some feature of deity as the giver of fertility. Not 
 much importance can be attached to an argument from the 
 etymology of the Tetragrammaton, as so many origins have 
 been suggested only to be shown inadequate.^* Neverthe- 
 less, one etymology which has been suggested several times *^ 
 is so in harmony with the conditions to which the above con- 
 siderations point, that in the light of our present knowledge 
 it seems possible that it is correct.*^ This etymology derives 
 the name Yahweh from the Arabic verb haioiya, 'he loved 
 passionately,' 'he desired.' This would give a meaning so 
 suitable to a god of fertility that the epithet might easily 
 stick to the numina of tribes that migrated from the region 
 where it was first used to widely separated centres. Natu- 
 rally it would be interpreted by the Hebrews in later times 
 as a Hebrew word. 
 
 These early occurrences of the name Yahweh in Babylonia, 
 if they are real, do not necessarily imply that the deity wor- 
 shipped in the time of Hammurabi was the same as that 
 afterwards possessed by the Israelites, but only that the name 
 
 « Cf. W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 411 ff., especially 414 (2d ed. ) ; 
 Semitic Origins, p. 289. " Cf. Semitic Origins, p. 282, n. 5. 
 
 « For instance, in The Nation, 76 (1902). 15. 
 
 " The present writer accepted it when writing the article 'Israel' for Hastings's 
 Dictionary of the Bible in One Volume; cf. p. 411. 
 
194 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 Yahweh as an epithet developed early in a centre from which 
 Semitic tribes migrated, and that it was, like Ishtar, Baal, 
 and Shamash, widely used — more widely than we have 
 hitherto supposed. 
 
 Another theory that has found advocates in recent years 
 is that Yahweh was a moon god. This has been urged by 
 Hommel,^' implied by Winckler,^* in part accepted by Zim- 
 mern,^^ and worked out at length by Nielsen.'" The proof 
 for this view is sought in two directions, Mesopotamia and 
 South Arabia. Abraham, who is said to have been called 
 by Yahweh to leave Harran, the seat of the moon god's 
 worship, sojourned at Kirjath-arba, which is believed to 
 have been so called from the four phases of the moon, and at 
 Beer-sheba, the name of which betrays as one of its elements 
 the seven days that measure a phase of the moon. The name 
 of Abraham's wife, Sarah, is identical with sarratu, a title 
 of the moon goddess at Harran, and Abraham's sister-in- 
 law bore a name identical with malJcatu, a title of Ishtar, 
 who was also a member of the pantheon at Harran. The 
 home of Yahweh was at Sinai, which was apparently named 
 from the Babylonian moon god Sin. In addition Nielsen 
 urges that some sexual taboos in Leviticus were identical 
 with taboos observed in South Arabia, as shown by three 
 bronze tablets which are inscribed in Sabsean characters,^^ 
 and that the feast of the new moon was observed in Israel. 
 
 Of this theory Stade has remarked '^ that, if Yahweh was 
 a moon god, no trace of the fact has survived. If this state- 
 ment is thought too strong, and the feast of the new moon 
 is considered such a trace, this nevertheless does not prove 
 that Yahweh was originally a moon god ; it would at most 
 show that at one period of his history he was for a time 
 associated with the moon, or that there had been some de- 
 gree of syncretism with a moon deity.'^ The sexual taboos 
 cited by Nielsen are proofs that both Yahweh and the gods 
 of South Arabia were deities of fertility. 
 
 " Aufsatze und Abhandlungen, pp. 159, 160. 
 
 ^' Geschichte Israels, passim. '^ Keilinschriften, pp. 364 ff. (3d ed.). 
 
 '° Die altarabische Mondreligion und die mosaische Ueberlieferung. 
 
 " Nielsen, op. cit., pp. 206 ff. ; Leviticus xv. 16, 17. 
 
 ^ Biblische Theologie, p. 42. ^ Stade, op. cit., p. 242. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 195 
 
 Another theory, advocated by Gunkel in 1901 and 1905 ^^ 
 and by Eduard Meyer in 1906/^ is that Yahweh was a 
 volcano god. This view is based on the description of the 
 appearance of Yahweh on Sinai at the time of the making 
 of the covenant with Israel (Exodus xix. 18)/^ when the 
 smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole 
 mountain quaked greatly, — a description which admirably 
 suits a volcanic eruption. Recollection of this volcanic 
 eruption is also found in Deuteronomy vv. 4 ff., 22 ff. ; ix. 15. 
 Gunkel had noted ^^ that the account of the destruction of 
 Sodom and the cities of the plain says this was accomplished 
 by fire and brimstone, and makes no mention of the Dead 
 Sea; hence he reasoned that the story was not native to 
 this locality, but had been brought here from elsewhere, — 
 as he believed, from the northeast coast of the Red Sea. 
 The story aflfords Meyer further proof of the connection of 
 Yahweh with a volcano. 
 
 There are in Arabia extensive regions of volcanic rock 
 which the Arabs call Harrats, and a number of Arabian 
 writers have described them. In 1868 Loth published ^^ 
 a description of them gathered from Yaqut's Geography, 
 and Meyer, making use of this article, concludes that the 
 original volcanic Sinai was one of those nearest to Syria 
 on the road from Tebuk by Medina to Mecca. He says 
 that nothing stands in the way of the supposition that one 
 of these volcanic peaks may have been active within the 
 historic period, even though no mention is made of it in saga 
 or literature. Meyer appears to have overlooked the fact 
 that in Wiistenfeld's translation of Samhudi's History of 
 the City of Medina ^* there is material which more con- 
 vincingly supports his theory. The Harrat Khaibar, north 
 of Medina, is called the Harrat Ndr, or Fire Harrat. Its 
 name implies that volcanic activity has taken place there 
 
 "'Genesis,' p. 19S, in Nowack's Handkommentar ; Ausgewahlte Fsalmen, 
 pp. 80 ff., 117, 180 ff. 55 Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstamme, pp. 69 ff. 
 
 '* The volcanic nature of Sinai is also advocated by Haupt in his article ' Midian 
 and Sinai,' Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 63 (1909). 
 506-530. 
 
 " Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 22. 365-382. 
 
 5' Cf . Abhandlungen der kbpigUchen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottin- 
 gen, 9. 18. 
 
196 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 within the memory of man. It is an extensive tract, over 
 one hundred miles long and in some parts thirty miles wide 
 — a wilderness of lava and lava stones, with many extinct 
 craters of volcanoes. Igneous rocks of various sorts abound, 
 and in some places the lava beds are six hundred feet deep. 
 Signs of volcanic action are still seen at Khaibar, smoke issu- 
 ing from the crevices and steam from the summit of Gebel 
 Ethan. Samhudi reports a volcanic eruption here in March, 
 1256 A.D., which lasted two days. The earthquakes were 
 felt at Medina, and the smoke darkened that city.^^ Meyer 
 may therefore be right in claiming that in the narratives 
 of the Hebrews we have traditions of volcanic eruption. 
 Such a tradition would, however, seem to be more certainly 
 present in the story of the destruction of Sodom than in the 
 story of the descent of Yahweh upon Sinai, for this last ac- 
 count might be an exaggerated description of a thunder-storm. 
 
 If there are volcanic elements in the traditions of 
 Yahweh, it is not certain that we need to go so far afield 
 as Arabia for them. Ellsworth Huntington, Palestine 
 and its Transformation, 1911, pp. 195 ff., believes that he 
 found near Suweimeh on the east side of the Dead Sea 
 sufficient evidence of volcanic activity to account for the 
 story of Sodom. 
 
 Of course if a people lived for a time near a volcano, they 
 would naturally take its activity for the activity of their 
 god; and this would introduce volcanic elements into the 
 traditions concerning the god. In the case of Yahweh, 
 however, even if it be admitted that there are volcanic 
 elements discernible, they are few. The elements of fertility 
 connected with the conceptions of him are more abundant 
 and probably earlier. He cannot accordingly be fully 
 accounted for as the god of a volcano. 
 
 Another theory of the origin of Yahweh must be men- 
 tioned, on account of its recent advocacy. Stade in 1889 
 urged many reasons for supposing that Yahweh was origi- 
 nally a storm god.^" This view the writer once held,^^ but 
 
 '' See Zwemer, Arabia and the Cradle of Islam, p. 23. Zwemer calculates the 
 date rightly; WUstenfeld incorrectly counts Gumada a.h. 654 as March, 1169, 
 instead of 1256. «» Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 1. 429 £f. 
 
 » Oriental Studies of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, pp. 86 ff. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 197 
 
 lie afterward saw that it was inadequate to account for all 
 the conceptions connected with Yahweh.^^ It has however 
 been recently revived by Dr. Ward in an article published 
 in the American Journal of Semitic Languages,^' and made 
 the basis of a theory of the origin of the worship of Yahweh. 
 The god Adad or Hadad as pictured on seals and in other 
 forms of art which come from Babylonia and Western Asia 
 is portrayed as carrying a thunderbolt ; as a god of war he 
 carries a bow, club, and spear ; and as a god of agriculture 
 or fertility he is represented as leading a bull. The references 
 to Yahweh in the Old Testament frequently represent him 
 as coming upon the clouds and in a thunderstorm ; he was 
 the god of armies — a man of war ; images of bulls were 
 made to him of gold. These resemblances led Dr. Ward to 
 conclude that Adad was the pagan Yahweh before be- 
 coming the universal god of monotheism, and he offers this 
 as a more probable theory than that Yahweh was the 
 "utterly unknown god of the Kenites of Moses' time." 
 
 This theory is evidently a very tempting one to Professor 
 Clay, who holds that the name Yahweh as it is found in 
 Babylonia is of Aramaean or Amorite origin, and that the 
 tradition that Abraham was an Aramaean from Harran shows 
 that Yahweh was an Aramaean deity. He does not, however, 
 fully commit himself to the view that Yahweh was a Hadad. ^^ 
 Dr. Ward has rendered a real service in calling our atten- 
 tion to the rich material which his special subject, Babylonian 
 and Hittite seals, has to contribute to our understanding of 
 the various gods which were called Adad or Hadad ; but 
 the theory itself is not a satisfactory solution of the known 
 facts concerning either Hadad or Yahweh. Its author has 
 not given due weight to some of the facts which he himself 
 presents. A people unskilled in art might represent their 
 god by a picture borrowed from a neighboring people with- 
 out having borrowed their god at all. Both the scholars 
 who advocate the Aramaean origin of Yahweh have over- 
 looked one very important factor which is deeply embedded 
 in our Biblical sources, viz. the positive testimony to the 
 Kenite origin of Yahweh. This is treated more fully below. 
 
 «2 Semitic Origins, pp. 279 ff. « 25. 175-187. " Amurru, pp. 86-90. 
 
198 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 Dr. Ward rightly recognizes that Hadad was not a storm 
 god pure and simple, but also a god of fertility and a god of 
 war. He recognizes that the Hadads were of composite 
 origin and were the tribal gods of henotheistic clans. His 
 general outline is in close harmony with that made by the 
 present writer in 1901/^ although from his new material he 
 now rightly emphasizes the war-god characteristics of the 
 Hadads as was not possible before. It is however a defect 
 in his argument that he fails to recognize that the Hadads 
 themselves were not borrowed from one another, but were 
 the product of similar origins and developments. They 
 probably originated in a desert and oasis environment as 
 the tribal deities of henotheistic clans, and in doing all that 
 a god ought to do for their tribes they naturally became 
 gods of war ; also, when these tribes moved into lands where 
 the necessary water came from the clouds and not from 
 springs, the deities were naturally thought to express them- 
 selves in storms, and in the thunder and lightning which ac- 
 companies rain.'^ This view is supported by the fact that 
 springs were sacred to Hadad, and that as Adad in Baby- 
 lonia ^' he is associated with Ishtar, and at Mabug with 
 Attar.«' 
 
 Indeed, as the Semitic people were a practical folk and not 
 given to abstractions like the people of India, it is doubtful 
 whether even in Babylonia the gods were at the beginning 
 more closely associated with the sun, moon, earth, sea, and 
 wind than in other parts of the Semitic world. That is, it 
 is doubtful whether we have any case of what Bloomfield 
 calls for India a transparent god.^' A study of the hymns 
 addressed to various Babylonian gods tends to show that 
 all Semitic and even Sumerian deities originated as tribal 
 gods, connected in one way or another with all the activities 
 
 «* Semitic Origins, pp. 225-229. 
 
 ** Tliis is in substance the origin of Hadad as sketched by the writer in 1901 
 {loc. cit.). The account of the god which Dr. Ward gives confirms the probability 
 of this origin. He adds from the seals the war-god feature ; otherwise his sketch 
 accords fully with mine. The seals were inaccessible to me. 
 
 " As in the city of Lulubi ; see Recueil de Travaux, 14. 10(}-106. 
 
 " Cf. Lucian, De Syria Dea, §§ 14, 31. The god is here called Zeus, but he stands 
 on a bull and so is probably Hadad. 
 
 ^' Meaning by the term a god that is clearly the deification of a natural phe- 
 nomenon, like the sky or sun. See Bloomfield, Religion of the Veda, chapter iv. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 199 
 
 of a tribal deity, and that the later special association given 
 them with different functions of nature or different planets, 
 and the different spheres assigned to them, never quite sup- 
 pressed the traces of their origin. ^1 
 
 If then we have regard to the development of Semitic 
 deities in general, and especially to the development of Hadad, 
 there is no convincing proof in the facts adduced in support 
 of the theory that Yahweh is derived from Hadad. If an 
 Arabian tribe of Midianites whose tribal god of fertility 
 was Yahweh engaged in wars, as they no doubt did, Yahweh 
 would inevitably become a god of war. If they moved for 
 a time to the peninsula of Sinai or had that as a part of the 
 tract where they roamed, their god would inevitably become 
 the god of storms, thunder, and lightning, for severe thunder 
 storms occur there to the present day.^^ The Kenite theory 
 of the origin of Yahweh supplies all the conditions necessary 
 to account for all the resemblances which have been urged. 
 When we remember that it was in all probability similarity 
 of conditions alone which created the resemblance between 
 Hadad and the Hittite storm god (for here there can hardly 
 have been borrowing) the evidence adduced for the Hadad 
 theory turns out to be only evidence for the Kenite theory 
 of Yahweh's origin. 
 
 This view, moreover, seems to be forced upon us when we 
 turn our attention to the second consideration mentioned 
 above. This is the fact that the only positive testimony we 
 
 '" That Nergal, one of the sun gods, was also a god of fertility, is shown by some 
 lines of a hymn translated in King's Babylonian Magic, p. 89 (lines 9, 10), and by 
 Bbllenriicher, Gebete uud Hynmen an Nergal, p. IS (lines 9, 10). That this holds 
 good for the moon god Sin is shown by Cuneiform Texts, 17. 15, translated by Perry, 
 Hynmen an Sin, p. 17 ; by Vanderburgh, Sumerian Hymns, p. 43 ; and by Langdon, 
 Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. 297. Vanderburgh's rendering brings out the 
 thought most clearly. In another hymn Adad is a bull god, which clearly connects 
 him with agriculture and fertility, although the rest of the hymn is occupied with 
 his power in storm, lightning, and thunder. Cf. Cuneiform Texts, 15. 15. 19, trans- 
 lated by Vanderburgh, op. cit., p. 56, and by Langdon, op. eit., p. 283. Again the first 
 of these translations is to be preferred. That Ishtar was primarily a goddess of 
 life and only loosely associated with the planet Venus is too patent to need illustra- 
 tion. Even Anu, who seems of all the Babylonian gods most like an abstraction, 
 was also a god of f ertihty, as the name Anu-banini, ' Anu is our begetter, ' shows. 
 Nidaba, the grain deity of Umma, can hardly have been an exception, as she was the 
 tribal deity of a city. The one exception, Gibil, the fire god, is not a primitive 
 deity. " See Agnes Smith Lewis in the Expository Times, 17. 394. 
 
200 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 have in the Bible as to where Yahweh came from, is that he 
 came from Horeb, and that Jethro, who is sometimes called 
 a priest of Midian and sometimes a Kenite, offered the sacri- 
 fice which initiated the Hebrew leaders into his worship. ^^ 
 This positive tradition of the fact that Israel first learned 
 the worship of Yahweh in Horeb, the country of the Midi- 
 anites, is found in the North Israelitish document of the 
 Pentateuch — from the very part of Israel in which presum- 
 ably Aramaeans from Harran would be most likely to settle, 
 and in which the Biblical traditions from Aramaean elements 
 would therefore be most abundant. It is only in Judah, 
 where the Kenites settled, that the impression prevailed that 
 the name Yahweh had been known from time immemorial. 
 This testimony is strengthened by the fact that the earliest 
 proper name in the Old Testament in which Yahweh appears 
 as an element is Jochebed, the mother of Moses, who may 
 have been a Kenite. There is abundant evidence in the 
 Pentateuch that the Israelites recognized that they had an 
 Aramaean inheritance in their blood, and that in the stories 
 of Abraham they traced a part of that inheritance to Harran. 
 Since Aramaeans formed a part of the Israelitish nation, it 
 would be natural that they should fuse some of the ideas 
 that they formerly entertained of their god with their ideas 
 of Yahweh, but we have no evidence that these particular 
 Aramaeans worshipped Hadad at all. Not all Aramaeans 
 had him for their god. Zkr, for example, worshipped the god 
 Alor or Alur,'^^ and at Harran the god of whom we actually 
 know was the moon god Sin. There is no evidence to con- 
 nect the Yahweh which is perhaps an element in Babylonian 
 proper names with Harran, nor is there any which connects 
 Adad with Harran. To suppose then that if Abraham came 
 from Harran he worshipped Adad under the name Yahweh 
 is pure assumption. The testimony of the document which 
 was treasured as their book of origins by the North Israelites, 
 the very Israelites who had in them the Aramaean strain in 
 its greatest purity and who lived in closest contact with the 
 Aramaeans, that the name Yahweh came from Kenite Horeb, 
 
 " See Exodus iii. 1 ff. ; Judges i. 16 ; Exodus xviii. 12. 
 
 " See Pognon, Inscriptions S^mitiques de la Syrie, de la M€sopotamie et de la 
 region de Mossoul, no. 86. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 201 
 
 must, so far as I can see, be decisive,^* unless we assume that 
 they themselves knew nothing about the matter. We do 
 violence to the one bit of information that they have given 
 us on the point, if we seek the origin of the name Yahweh 
 as it was applied to the god of Israel anywhere but among the 
 Kenites. So far from being the " utterly unknown god of the 
 Kenites," Yahweh's adoption by Israel has made him in 
 some ways the best known of all Semitic deities. As he 
 appears in the early days after Israel adopted his worship 
 he is a god of fertility, a god of war, and a god whose voice 
 is the thunder. It is difficult to see how we could know 
 any more about him if we had his picture on a few seals. 
 We do not know so much concerning any single Hadad. 
 
 It remains to mention one other theory. Professor Haupt, 
 in the Orientalische Literaturzeitung, 12. cols. 211-214,^* 
 holds that Yahweh was originally the god Esau of Edom, 
 from which country he was borrowed by the Israelites. 
 The real arguments advanced in support of this view, apart 
 from those which are secured by emendations of the text, 
 are that in the song of Deborah Yahweh is said to have 
 marched from Seir and Edom (Judges v. 4) and that the name 
 Yahweh is a late priestly translation of Esau. Esau, from 
 HIT!?, he interprets as meaning 'creator,' and Yahweh 
 he interprets as a hiphil of ^^'^, meaning 'he who causes 
 to be' or 'he who brings into being.' This etymology of 
 Yahweh is not new, having been held by Le Clerc, Gesenius, 
 Schrader, Baudissin, Schultz, Kuenen, Lagarde, and for- 
 merly by the present writer.^* To regard it as a translation 
 of Esau is however new. This theory of the origin of Yahweh 
 is unsatisfactory for the following reasons : 
 
 1. It is directly contrary to the testimony of the E docu- 
 ment, already discussed on page 199 f., that Yahweh was 
 a Kenite-lVIidianite deity. 
 
 2. There is no real evidence that Esau was a god at all. 
 
 '* This testimony is not invalidated even if one should, with Eerdmans, Alt- 
 testamentliche Studien, regard the Elohim of the document as polytheistic. The 
 present writer is not, however, convinced of the correctness of this view. 
 
 " Cf . also his article, Zeitschrif t der Deutschen Morgenlandischen GeseUschaf t, 
 63. 506 ff. 
 
 " Semitic Origins, p. 282, n. 5, and the references given under § 4 of the note. 
 
202 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 So far as the evidence of theophorous proper names goes, 
 Edom was the god of the Edomites as the name Obed-Edom 
 witnesses, but I know of no name in which Esau appears 
 as a theophorous element. There is the name 'Asayah 
 ('"'t^?) which occurs in 2 Kings xxii. 14, and which the 
 Chronicler has thrust into the older genealogies of the Levites 
 and Simeonites (1 Chronicles iv. 36, vi. 15 (Eng. 30), ix. 5), 
 but it more naturally means 'Yau has created' than 'Yau 
 is Esau.' There is also the name '^KHU?^, 'God has 
 created,' a brother of Joab (2 Samuel ii. 18, etc.), as well as 
 bx^'trs, which the Chronicler has added to Simeonite clans 
 (1 Chronicles iv. 35), but in these as in the other, n'\V^ is 
 a verbal element. 
 
 3. Historically it would seem impossible that such borrow- 
 ing could have occurred. The Kenizzites, of whom the Caleb- 
 ites were a clan, may have become in part an Edomite 
 tribe, but the absorption of a part of that tribe into Judah" 
 is no proof that Yahweh and Esau were identical. 
 
 4. Etymologies are at most only proof that a thing is 
 possible. To show that what etymologically is possible 
 was in history a fact we must depend upon other evidence, 
 and in this case such evidence is wanting. 
 
 5. The expression in the Song of Deborah is not proof that 
 Yahweh was borrowed from Edom, but only that his home 
 was in a region beyond Edom. It would fit Meyer's vol- 
 canic Sinai in Arabia as well as Edom. We cannot suppose 
 that geographical names were used in such ancient poetry 
 with absolute geographical exactness. 
 
 The Esau theory, therefore, like the Hadad theory, lacks 
 support. It is of course true that Yahweh and the god Edom 
 were both Semitic deities and had a similar origin. Both 
 were tribal gods ; probably both were gods of fertility ; and 
 as the kindred clans lived in neighboring regions, probably 
 both underwent a similar development as gods of war and 
 of storm ; but more than this cannot safely be asserted. 
 
 While the evidence of the Bible clearly indicates that the 
 name Yahweh came into Israel from the Kenites, it is of 
 course true that in a nation, like Israel, formed of composite 
 
 " See the article 'Keiuzzites' in Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible in One 
 Volume. 
 
GEORGE AARON BARTON 203 
 
 elements, there would be legends concerning Yahweh which 
 came from different sources. The ritual practices of his cult 
 as well as the emblems by which he was represented may also 
 have come from many quarters. The history of Christianity 
 both in Europe and in the East affords numerous instances 
 of the transfer of feasts, legends, and practices of an old cult 
 to a new religion. Since the Midianites in their nomadic 
 wanderings penetrated for some distance into the Arabian 
 desert,^^ it is possible that Israel took over with the worship 
 of Yahweh the traditions to which residence near a volcano 
 had given rise among the Kenites. The introduction of 
 the feast of the new moon may possibly have been due, 
 like the stories of Abraham's migration, to the influx of 
 Aramaeans from Harran, where the god Sin was wor- 
 shipped, though it is quite as possible that it came from 
 Arabia, or that it originated independently. That the 
 Canaanitish beliefs and practices which were absorbed by 
 Israel after the settlement in Palestine contributed Canaan- 
 itish elements to the pre-prophetic conceptions of Yahweh, 
 is freely claimed by the prophet Hosea and is as freely 
 admitted by modern scholars. Possibly the Aramaeans 
 and Edomites who were absorbed into Israel also con- 
 tributed some elements to his cult from that of the god 
 Hadad or of the god Esau ; but these are the two theories 
 which seem to lack all positive proof. We need first some 
 evidence that the Aramaeans who merged with Israel had 
 ever worshipped Hadad, or that Esau was really a god. 
 
 It seems therefore that the view that the name Yahweh 
 originated in Arabia and was carried thence by some slight 
 migrations to Babylonia; that it was the name employed 
 by the Kenites to designate their god ; that the Kenites 
 probably attributed to him volcanic activity ; that wander- 
 ing into the peninsula of Sinai they added to him the qualities 
 of a storm god; that Yahweh was then adopted by the 
 Israelites, and some few elements of ritual from the god Sin 
 of Harran or some other moon god may have mingled with 
 the forms of his service ; and that the conceptions concern- 
 ing him as a god of fertility which had been entertained 
 
 '* See the articles ' Midianites ' in Hastings's Dictionaries of the Bible and in 
 the Encyclopedia BibUca. 
 
204 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES 
 
 from the beginning were heightened by association with the 
 Baals of Palestine, — is the most scientific theory concerning 
 the origin of Yahweh which we can at present frame ; for it 
 best explains all the facts known to us, and explains them 
 in accordance with what is known of the evolution of Semitic 
 religions. We may admit with Marti '^ that it is only an 
 hypothesis, as is true of all else connected with Israel 
 before the time of Moses, but it remains the most probable 
 hypothesis. 
 
 " Die Religion des Alten Testaments (Tubingen, 1906), p. 6; Religion of the 
 Old Testament (London and New York, 1907), p. 17. 
 
 Bbtn Mawr, 
 
 December, 1909. 
 
DER SCHLUSS DES BUCHES HOSEA 
 
 Kabl Budde 
 Marburg University 
 
 Das schone Stiick Hosea xiv. 2-9, das letzte vor der 
 schriftgelehrten Moral (Vers 10), wird heute weit iiber- 
 wiegend dem Propheten Hosea abgesprochen. Den Spuren 
 eines Cheyne und Marti sind in dem einen Jahre 1905 Har- 
 per, Stade und Sievers gefolgt. Wellhausens Urteil, dass 
 in xiv. 2-10 "nur weniges von Hoseas Hand herriihren 
 diirfte," hatte dieser Entwickelung schon seit langer Zeit 
 den Weg gebahnt. Die Versuche von Volz und Nowack 
 einen echten Kern herauszuschalen, die Bedenken Drivers, 
 die ruhige Behauptung bei Cornill und Gautier, die mann- 
 hafte Verteidigung von George A. Smith fallen der entschie- 
 denen Ablehnung gegenuber nicht ausreichend ins Gewieht.^ 
 Man ist eben gar zu geneigt, der Skepsis den scharferen 
 Blick zuzutrauen. 
 
 In Wirklichkeit sind die Griinde, die fiir die Echtheit von 
 Hosea xiv. 2-9 sprechen, sehr stark, die fiir fremden und 
 spateren Ursprung aeusserst schwach. Fiir das Zuriick- 
 kehren zu Jahwe in Vers 2, den grundlegenden Begriff des 
 ganzen Stiicks, verweist man auf Jer. iii. 12, iv. 1 statt auf 
 Hos. ii. 9, v. 4, vi. 1, xi. 5. Neben dem ersten Satz des 
 Gelobnisses in Vers 4, Verzicht auf die Hiilfe Assyriens, der 
 durcli V. 13, vii. 11, viii. 9, xii. 2 als gut hoseanisch erwiesen 
 wird, besteht man darauf, den zweiten "auf Rossen woUen 
 wir nicht reiten " von dem gleichen Verzicht ftir Aegypten zu 
 verstehn, und ftigt hinzu, dass sich der Ausdruck dafiir nur 
 
 ' Am wenigsteu Eindruck wird die Verteidigung des Abschnitts durch W. 
 Staerk machen (Das assyrische Weltreich im Urteil der Propheten, 1908, p. 
 36 ff.), da er es daneben fertig bringt, im Anschluss an Marti ein unerfindbares 
 Stiick wie Kap. 3 zu streichen und Hosea, den Prediger der Liebe Jahwes, auf 
 der Hohe seines Wirkens zum Vertreter bedingungsloser Vernichtmig zu stempelu. 
 
 205 
 
206 DER SCHLUSS DES BUCHES HOSEA 
 
 ous Abhangigkeit von Jes. xxx. 16 begreife. Damit ware 
 nachhoseanische Abfassung erwiesen. Aber der dritte Satz, 
 Verzicht auf Gotzendienst, wieder nach Inhalt und Form 
 durch viii. 6, xiii. 2, u. s. w. in Hosea's Bereich gezogen, 
 beweist, dass von klappendem Parallelismus nicht die Rede 
 sein kann, dass vielmehr auch der mittlere Satz etwas fiir 
 sich bedeuten muss. Das aber ist, dem schlichten Wortlaut 
 entsprechend, der Verzicht auf die eigene kriegerische MacM- 
 entfaltung, mit dem bbsen Beigeschmack, den das Streitross 
 fiir Israel immer gehabt hat. Nicht auslandische Hiilfe, 
 nicht eigene Kraft, nicht die Gunst der Gotzen, das ist der 
 Sinn von Vers 4a, alles echt hoseanisch. Das Straucheln 
 durch die eigene Siindenschuld in 2b findet sich genau so 
 V. 5, vgl. iv. 5 ; zu dem Erbarmen Jahwes in 4b vgl. den 
 Namen der Tochter in i. 8 und dessen Ausbeutung in Kap. 
 ii ; zu seinem Heilen (Vers 5) v. 13, vi. 1, vii. 1, xi. 3 ; zu 
 seiner Liebe ebendort ix. 15 und das ganze Buch Hosea ; zu 
 dem Sitzen im Schatten Jahwes (Vers 8) iv. 13 ; zu v. 8f . im 
 ganzen, der Verheissung reicher Ernten als Geschenk Jahwes, 
 nicht der Gotzen, ii. 7 ff. Man muss in der Tat schon mit 
 Marti Wert darauf legen,dass rip)1"', ' Schoss ', und tl^, ' Pracht ', 
 nur bei spateren Autoren vorkommen, oder etwa gar, dass 
 der Oelbaum sonst bei Hosea nicht erwahnt wird, und 
 dass ri3^1t> als Blumenname sich nur im Hohenlied und 
 einigen Psalmen findet, um Beweise spaterer Sprache oder 
 unhoseanischer Gedanken beizubringen. 
 
 Das ganze Stiick ist vielmehr so hoseanisch wie mbglich, 
 da es geradezu das Programm Hosea's enthalt, die Umsetz- 
 ung der Allegoric ii. 7 ff. in die eigentliche Aussage von dem 
 Volke Israel. Die Stelle am Schluss des Buches, die es jetzt 
 einnimmt, ist natiirlich durchaus unverbindlich, da wir 
 keinerlei Gewahr dafiir haben, dass die iiberlieferte Reihen- 
 folge der Stiicke auf Hosea zuriickgeht, allerlei Verwirrung 
 vielmehr als selbstverstandlich vorausgesetzt werden muss 
 und im einzelnen nachgewiesen werden kann. Aber ander- 
 seits bedarf es auch nicht erst der Annahme, dass das Stiick 
 friiher eine andre Stelle eingenommen habe, um seine Echt- 
 heit zu verteidigen (so z. B. Smith, Gautier, Staerk). Denn 
 dass Israel Jahwes Gnade erfahren werde, wenn es sich, sei 
 es jetzt und ganz, sei es nach schweren Schlagen in seinem 
 
KARL BUDDE 207 
 
 Reste, zu Jahwe bekehre, das ist Hosea's Glaube und Predigt 
 bis zu seinem letzten Atemzug geblieben und konnte bei 
 seinem Einblick in Jahwes Wesen gar nicht anders sein. 
 Auf Grund dieser Einsicht wird man vielmehr sagen miissen, 
 dass Kapitel xiv. sich viel besser zum AbscMuss des Hosea- 
 bucbes eignet als eine Unheilsverktindigung wie xiii. 9-xiv. 1 
 oder gar die hochste Steigerung des Zornes Jahwes, wie sie in 
 ix. 10 ff. einmal auflodert. 
 
 Und dennoch lasst sich das Verwerfungsurteil bei xiv. 
 2-9 leichter begreifen als bei manchen andren Abschnitten. 
 Die selbstverstandhche Voraussetzung jeder prophetischen 
 Heilsverheissung, auch bei Hosea, ist die Wilrdigkeit der 
 Empfanger oder ihre Bekehrung im Fall der Unwiirdigkeit. 
 In Kap. ii. und iii., auch v. 15, vi. 1 ff., ist diese Bekehrung 
 unmissverstandlich vorausgesagt ; in xiv. 2-4 ist nur der 
 Rat dazu erteilt, und darauf folgt in V. 5 ff. die Heilszusage 
 unbedingt und uneingeschrankt. Die einzige Begriindung 
 dieser Verheissung bildet die Aussage 5b, dass Jahwes Zorn 
 von Israel gewichen sei, so unvermittelt und nichtssagend, 
 dass Marti sie fiir eine Glosse noch innerhalb des spaten 
 Anhangs erklart. Hier klafft eine Liicke. Solange es nicht 
 gliickt, sie mit Wahrscheinlichkeit auszufuUen, hat man das 
 Recht, die Herkunft der Verse von Hosea zu bestreiten; 
 denn bedingungslose Heilsverheissung ist auch bei ihm 
 nicht zu erwarten. Aber der Schaden will nicht durch den 
 Feldscher beseitigt sein, der kein andres Mittel kennt als 
 das Absagen des kranken Gliedes, sondern durch die sach- 
 kundige und geduldige Hand des Chirtu-gen, der die Erhalt- 
 ung und den gesunden Gebrauch des unersetzlichen Gliedes 
 stets im Auge behalt. 
 
 Jeder weiss, dass die Voraussetzung der Textverderbnis 
 nirgend naher zur Hand liegt als beim Buche Hosea; dass 
 xiv. 2-9 diese seine Lazarusgestalt, die schon nach dem 
 Befunde der LXX sicher in frtihe Zeit zuriickgeht, in vollem 
 Masse teilt, soUte allein genugen, mit der Zuweisung an eine 
 spate Hand nicht zu eilig zu sein. Hier fehlt vor V. 5 sehr 
 wenig, um alles Folgende als echte Fortsetzung von V. 2-4 
 verstandlich zu machen, namlich der Wunsch in Jahwes 
 Munde, dass Israel den erhaltenen Rat befolge, ein solches 
 Bussgeliibde ablege, sich aufrichtig bekehre. Sobald dieser 
 
208 DER SCHLUSS DES BUCHES HOSEA 
 
 Wunsch ausgesprochen ist, ordnet er sich alles Folgende 
 unter, und alle die herrlichen Verheissungen werden damit 
 nur zum verlockenden Bilde dessen, was Israel sich durch 
 Busse und Bekehrung sichern kann. Ein einziger Satz 
 wiirde dafiir geniigen, und ich glaube in der Tat, dass er, 
 nur wenig entstellt, aber zum Teil von seiner Stelle ver- 
 drangt, sich erhalten hat. Dem V. 5 geht unmittelbar vorauf 
 das Wort ^^^1, 'die Waise,' das vaterlose oder elternlose 
 Kind. Israel spricht in der ersten Person plural. ; warum 
 fiir das 'wir' hier auf einmal 'die Waise' eintritt, fiir die 
 schlichte Rede ein im hochsten Grade unpassendes Bild, ist 
 schlechterdings nicht einzusehen. Selbst Ps. x. 14, 18, 
 Ixviii. 6 sind schlechte Belege dafiir, dass Israel sich als 
 Waise bezeichnen kann, und Evangelium Johannis xiv. 18 
 darf man doch gar nicht vergleichen. Marti hat daher ganz 
 Recht, wenn er in dieser Fassung gegen den Satz Einspruch 
 erhebt. Aber die einfache Streichung (so auch Sievers) 
 hilft hier doch ebensowenig; denn die Begrundung durch 
 ein abschliessendes positives Bekenntnis zu Jahwe ist nach 
 den drei Negationen von 4a gar nicht zu entbehren. Auch 
 die Versetzung von 4b hinter V. 3 (Harper) mag metrischen 
 Postulaten Geniige tun, dient aber im iibrigen nur dazu, 
 diese grosse sachliche Schwierigkeit erst recht fiihlbar zu 
 machen. 
 
 Sobald man aus ^D'^l, das dem falschen Subjekt OlMJ ange- 
 passt ist, das allein mbgliche ^f'^? herstellt, gewinnt man 
 einen guten Sinn : " sintemal wir in Dir Erbarmen er- 
 fahren." 'In Dir allein' ware erwiinscht, und es liegt so 
 nahe wie moglich, nach dem dreifachen Verzicht, der vor- 
 ausgegangen, das T'l?? dafiir hinter 1? einzuschieben. 
 Woher aber das unbrauchbare 2''^'' ? 
 
 Wir haben gesehen, dass an dieser Stelle ein Wunschsatz 
 sich vermissen lasst. Die beste Einleitung dafiir ware J?^. ""^ : 
 eben diese sehe ich in dem iiberschtissigen Wort. Von den 
 Konsonanten ]^''''^ tin"l3 ist ein ^ und ein "' iibergangen und 
 dann Jf^' zu ^^1 ausgedeutet und in ^1^^^ verdeutlicht worden. 
 Der Rest, durch dessen Abhandenkommen dieser Notbe- 
 helf zustande kam, findet sich nicht weit davon in eben dem 
 Satze 5b, den wir schon oben als mit dem Zusammenhang 
 unvereinbar erkannt haben. Er ist es doppelt, wenn V. 5 S. 
 
KARL BUDDE 209 
 
 nicht die schlichte Zusage des Heils enthalten, sondern die 
 Ausmalung dessen, was eintreten wiirde, wenn Israel sich 
 aufrichtig bekehrte. Gerade dies 2^J, das wir hinter f^^ ^P 
 nach V. 2 erwarten miissen, steckt' in dem 3tr''3^ womit 5b 
 beginnt, und ' Ephraim ' = D''"lSi< als Subjekt dazn in dem 
 Rest 13S2Ji''£S. Durch ein Versehen sind diese Worte von 
 der Stelle hinter V. 4 in die nachste Zeile hinabgeglitten und 
 dann, soweit nicht Verderbnis schon dazu geholfen hatte, 
 dem Fortschritt der Rede nach Kraften angepasst worden. 
 Der bis dahin ermittelte Satz nna« 2t!>; |n': ^a, 'Q dass doch 
 Ephraim sich bekehrte ! ' konnte vollstandig sein ; aber 
 ebensogut konnen die unverwendeten Buchstaben 1^^ noch 
 die Stelle einer kleinen Erganzung einnehmen, etwa ^^^, 
 'zu mir,' oder besser noch ^^^?, 'aufrichtig.' Jedenfalls 
 schliesst sich nun das Folgende vortreflBich an : " Wie woUt' 
 ich heUen ihren Abfall, sie aus freien Stiicken lieben !", u.s.w. 
 Es wird sich empfehlen, von hier aus zunachst die Rede 
 Jahwes bis zu Ende zu verfolgen und nach Kraften herzu- 
 stellen. Der Name Ephraim, den wir vor V. 5 wiedergewon- 
 nen haben, findet sich auch V. 9 — nebenbei ein weiterer 
 Fingerzeig, dass xiv. 2-9 schwerlich nachjeremianische 
 Mache ist — wahrscheinlich ist aber iiberdies in V. 8, vor n"lS^, 
 ein n^^BSI verloren gegangen. Man sieht aus diesem Vor- 
 schlag schon, dass ich mit den von Sievers so fein durch- 
 geftihrten Funfern keineswegs einverstanden bin. Sucht 
 man nach bestimmten Versmassen, so lassen sich Verse von 
 gleichschwebenden Zeilen, Doppeldreier untermischt mit 
 Doppelvierern, wie Hosea sie auch sonst liebt, leichter gewin- 
 nen. Die Verse 6-8 bilden je drei Zeilen.^ Und nun weiter 
 in der Herstellung des Textes. In V. 7 ist Wellhausens 
 I??? nicht anstatt sondern hinter T^??? oder njn?? am 
 Platze, weil der Weinstock sich durch die reiche Aus- 
 breitung seiner Schtisse iiber der Erde (in Palastina wag- 
 recht gelegt) auszeichnet, wie andre Baume durch die ihrer 
 Wurzeln. Am Ende von V. 7 ist doch wohl i^JI^^S, 'wie 
 Weihrauch,' zu lesen. Dass das Subjekt sich in V. 8 in den 
 
 ' Wer auf einem durchlaufenden gleichen Versma^s besteht, mag daher daran 
 denken, diese Verse auszuscheiden, zumal sie auch sachlich nichts wesentlieh Neues 
 herzutragen. Aber man beachte wohl, dass auch V. 4 in drei Zeilen gelesen werden 
 muss. 
 
210 DER SCHLUSS DES BUCHES HOSEA 
 
 Plural umsetzt, bleibt in dem iiberlieferten Text ohne 
 Erklarung; hinter ^^'^1 wird 1??, 'seine Sohne,' iibersehen 
 sein, womit zugleich die bildliche Rede in die eigentliche 
 iibergeht. Langst ist t^? ^^'^1 hergestellt; dann aber ist 
 in '''f^ gut und nur waiter zu lesen 1?^ ''ITlS^'j, ' und werden 
 Weinstocke zum Treiben bringen,' unter Streichung des ^ 
 nach LXX. So fallt der "Mischmasch von eigentlicher und 
 bildlicber Rede " fort, an dem Wellhausen Anstoss nimmt. 
 Die dritte Zeile muss von dem Erzeugnis ihres Weinstocks 
 reden (J?? mannlich wie x. 1). Ob der Libanon damals 
 schon beriihmten Wein erzeugte, wissen wir nicht; viel- 
 leicht darf man nach Hes. xxvii. 18 P^^'^ berstellen. Neben 
 'i'^3?1, 'und sein Ruf,' mag l"!?^*! 'und sein Rauschtrank,' 
 wie Num. xxviii. 7 vom Weine, in Frage kommen. Auch 
 I^SU^ "Ipll ware moglich. FUr V. 9 scheint es mir geratener, 
 nach dem einzigen T^^, das auch von LXX bezeugt wird, 
 die Anrede iiberall durchzufiihren, als dies und das ^^ im 
 Anfang in die dritte Person Singularis umzusetzen. Dann 
 ergibt sich mit V. 9 ein tiefer Einschnitt : in zartlicher An- 
 rede schaut Jahwe das Ersehnte voUendet und zieht den 
 letzten Schluss daraus. Vor dem graphisch sehr leichten, 
 sachlich recht fernliegenden Vorschlag von Wellhausen, in 
 die zweite Person umgesetzt 'l^l^^^ '^C'??, deine 'Anat und 
 deine Ascheren,' scheint mir der von Volz JHl ^"'"T^ T'^'''?? "'5^, 
 'ich erhore dich mit Most und Getreide,' nach ii. [7] 11, 
 24 bei weitem den Vorzug zu verdienen. Vor ^1"123 ist '^P 
 kaum entbehrlich und der Ausfall leicht zu erklaren. 
 
 Ein Blick auf den Anfang mag endlich noch lohnen. Die 
 Ktirze von 2b und 3a macht sofort den Eindruck der E3ag- 
 liedverse (Fiinfer) und gibt den Anstoss sie auch fernerhin 
 zu suchen, wie das Sievers durchgefuhrt hat. Aber hinter 
 mn'' in 3a bietet LXX noch ^5"''^'^, das man keine Ursache 
 hat abzulehnen, und vor !t?'^^ in V. 2 wiirde ein '^3 
 noch gute Wirkung tun. Die "Worte" in V. 3 hat man oft 
 unzulanglich gefunden, und in der Tat ist ein Zusatz wie 
 0''?'it2, 'begutigende Worte,' kaum zu entbehren. In dem 
 ratselhaften ^It^TlpI^ fur das Graetz die hiibsche Lesung 
 nxffirjl vorgeschlagen hat, mbchte ich eine Randbemerkung 
 sehen, die bestimmt war, das ubersehene C^ltO nachzu- 
 tragen. Das folgende I^TZ'I ist gewiss nach V. 2 verschrieben. 
 
KAEL BUDDE 211 
 
 nur 'I^SI ist hier am Platze. Fiir '^ hat LXX noch ^^ 
 gelesen ; die Verderbnis wird dadurch entstanden sein, dass 
 man das '^ von ^?^^zu einem iiberflussigen 1 y^ erganzte. 
 Man streiche also 1''^^ und lese**^^!!! ^t*^. Das 1 von Hpl 
 wird man zuriickziehen und dann 'l^?1? lesen diirf en : 'Ach, 
 du wirst unser Schuld vergeben ! ' Das ^?^ ware zur Ein- 
 fiihrung demtitiger Rede gebraucht wie Gen. xlii. 21 ; 2 Sam. 
 xiv. 5 ; 2 Kon. iv. 14. Ueber I^TlStT D''"lS brauche ich dem 
 bisher Gebotenen nichts hinzuzufiigen. 
 
 Das sind gewiss reichliche Vorsclilage zu Textanderungen ; 
 aber wer sich davor scheut, soil die Hand nicht an das Buch 
 Hosea legen. Auch der weitestgehende Verzicht hilft bier 
 nichts; denn gerade wer alles, was ihm verdorben scheint, 
 uniibersetzt lasst, wird am haufigsten iibersetzen, was er 
 nicht verantworten kann. Hier hUft nur ein Verfahren : 
 sich mit aller Hingabe in den grossen Gedankengang eines 
 Stiicks hineindenken und dann aus dem Vollen des so gewon- 
 nenen Verstandnisses tapfer an die Herstellung gehn. Wer 
 nicht wagt, gewinnt nicht. Mochte, was ich geboten, 
 wenigstens auf dem richtigen Wege liegen ! 
 Mabbubg, 
 
 Juni, 1910. 
 
THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 E. Washburn Hopkins 
 
 Yale University 
 
 In an article recently published,^ I have discussed the 
 magical power of water and its holiness, which leads to the 
 belief current in India that simple immersion in any water, 
 provided one thinks of a sacred river or pool, frees from sin,^ 
 and to the parallel idea that, as water purifies from sin, so 
 it purifies from all that pollutes, stains, darkens, obscures; 
 and hence pure wisdom, which frees from all obscurity, is 
 typified by water, and the god of wisdom and water are 
 identified, just as they are in Babylon (cf. the Teutonic 
 fountain of wisdom). In the present paper I shall take up 
 the behefs in regard to the sacred rivers of India as these are 
 handed down in the epic poetry, but this will not include 
 a dissertation on the Tirthas or holy watering places, which 
 are generally to be found at certain spots in rivers otherwise 
 holy. The cult of such places is not particularly modern; 
 but to enumerate even the names, much more the legends 
 connected with these names, would take a small volume. It 
 is rather the cult and legends of the rivers themselves which 
 are here in question. For the same reason, the philosophical 
 and religious aspect of bathing and purification, though 
 intimately connected with the subject of rivers, must be 
 passed over with the comprehensive remark that, silly as 
 seem some of the epic dicta (such as for example that a bath 
 in a certain pool purifies just so many ancestors from sin), 
 the poets often rise to heights like that of xiii. 108. 12, where 
 
 • Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 49. 37. 
 
 ^ Mahabharata, xiii. 125. 49. In this passage the holy places enumerated in 
 connection with the bath that purifies are Kurukshetra, Gaya, Ganga (Ganges), 
 Prabhasa, and the Pushkaras. [References below are to the Mahabharata in the 
 Bombay text unless otherwise stated; those to the Ramayana follow the South 
 Indian text.] 
 
 213 
 
214 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 it is said, in calm rejection of the lower level marked by the 
 folly of Tirthas, that "true purification is the purification 
 through knowledge," and one should bathe in "the Tirtha 
 of the mind." For, says this teacher, "he has not taken 
 the bath {i.e. of purification) who is merely limb-bathed; 
 but he has bathed who has bathed himself in self-restraint, 
 who has made himself pure within and without" {ihid. 8 f). 
 
 The belief that all rivers are holy is expressed in the great 
 epic with the words "all rivers are Sarasvatis," xii. 264. 40, 
 where the poet wishes to inculcate the doctrine that for 
 purposes of holiness and religion one river or one mountain 
 is as holy as another, since " the soul is the watering-place ; 
 one should not travel to places" (do not be a degdtithi). 
 The Sarasvati is the Jordan of India ; but there is more said 
 about it than can be localized, since this name, which means 
 only 'the stream,' was applied first to the Indus, then to an 
 insignificant but holy stream which debouched into and was 
 lost in the desert, and finally to the continuation of this last 
 stream in the Ganges, where in popular fable its Arethusian 
 course really terminated.^ In much the same way the 
 goddess Ganges was brought by the Saint Vasishtha to Lake 
 Manasa and there "became the river Sarju," xiii. 156. 24. 
 In this same book, 167. 17 f., the Sarasvati is distinct from 
 both Ganges and Indus and is grouped with the sacred streams 
 of the Punjab in a list of rivers which covers territory from 
 the southern Cauvery (mentioned twice as a sacred river, vss. 
 20 and 22) to the Oxus, a stream rarely alluded to (the 
 Vakshu or Vankshu).* 
 
 The list of rivers in this passage contains, with the excep- 
 tion of the Indus, Oxus, and Lohita (ma^anarfa), only feminine 
 names, although "rivers male and female" are often alluded 
 to,* and one would think that they were regarded as of either 
 sex indifferently. Such is indeed the case in many instances, 
 
 ' Yet in ix. 35. 90, the Sarasvati, "lost at the Tirtha of Udapana," unites with 
 the ocean at Prabhasa (where the moon recovered from consumption by bathing, 
 ibid. 77). 
 
 * The Bombay text has Cakshu for Vankshu of the Calcutta text, B. xiii. 166. 
 22 = C. 7648 ; cf . ii. 51. 20, Vankshu = Vakshu (Oxus). The reading of the South 
 Indian text agrees with that of Bombay (S. I. 271. 22). 
 
 ^ E.g., viii. 79. 74. Cf. the epithet of ocean, nada-nadi-paii, 'Lord of rivers male 
 and female,' in Ramayana, iii. 35. 7, etc. 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 215 
 
 for example in Ramayana, iii. 60. 11 ; yet in their mytholog- 
 ical aspects, as well as in their poetical application,® rivers 
 are distinctly feminine. 'Lady Ganges' is typical of all 
 the rest, since even a masculine name does not serve to pre- 
 serve the 'ruddy Cona' from becoming the Cona. The 
 Tirthas, however, remain neuter even when personified, 
 as in the case of the "eldest Pushkara," xiii. 125. 49, etc. 
 These watering-places gradually become holier than the 
 rivers to which they owe their holiness; for example, "the 
 Tirtha of SarasvatI surpasses in holiness the Saras vati," 
 just as the Sarasvati surpasses the holy land of Kurukshetra, 
 xii. 152. 11 f. But of course not all rivers are holy before 
 their Tirthas. At whatever spot Rama bathes, the river is 
 hallowed (whether the whole river be holy or not), but also 
 "rivers are hallowed if Rama bathes in them," Ramayana, 
 ii. 48. 9. The Ganges is holy anyway, but doubly holy at 
 Cringaverapura, because Rama crossed over it there, iii. 85. 
 65, and Ramayana, ii. 83 to 89. The Gumti (Gomati) is 
 famous because Rama sacrificed upon its banks, iii. 291. 70. 
 In general, any confluence is sacred, whether it be of two 
 rivers, or of a river and ocean. Examples are the Sarasvati 
 or Indus or Ganges uniting with the ocean, and Sarasvati 
 uniting with the Aruna or Ganges with the Jumna. ^ 
 
 The epic of Rama and the South naturally deals more with 
 the rivers of that part of India, and the Pampa, Cauvery, 
 and other southern streams are described and revered as 
 fully as those of the North.* In fact, even in this epic the 
 
 ' TamrapamI (river) sought the sea "as a woman in love her lover," Ramayana, 
 iv. 41. 18. Compare ibid. 40. 20, and especially the description (ibid. 30. 28, re- 
 peated V. 9. 51) of rivers showing sandbanks in autmnn "Uke women exposing their 
 hidden beauties," navasangamasankridd jaghanamva yoshitah. 
 
 ' The varied reading at xii. 152. 13 removes the absurdity of saying that the 
 "Sarasvati and Drishadvati unite in Manasa lake" (B. sangamo mdnasa^saras ; 
 South Indian text, sevamdno 'nusanjvaret. The passages referred to above on the 
 confluences will be found at iii. 82. 60 and 68 ; 83. 152 f . ; and 85. 83. The last 
 section, vss. 22 and 33, agrees with Ramayana iv. 41. 15 in ascribing the special 
 holiness of the Cauvery to the nymphs that haunt it, as saints haunt the Godavari. 
 In later legend the Cauvery is regarded as ' halt the Ganges 'and is personified as 
 the daughter of Yuvanagva and wife of Jahnu, Harivanga, 1421 f . The South In- 
 dian text at xii. 82. 48, corasamyutd, makes the Cauvery a resort of thieves. 
 
 ' Pampa is the name of both lake and river, described Ramayana, iii. 73 S. and 
 75 ; also ibid. iv. 1. 1. The Narmada is both fisd and durgd, ibid. 41. 8 (described 
 ibid. vii. 31. 18 ff.), that is, it is a violent yet gracious river. 
 
216 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 northern rivers are better described, partly because they are 
 better known and partly because Rama's journey takes him 
 over the famous northern streams, while he ascends to 
 heaven at the "holySaryu" (Ramayana, iv. 28. 18 L;ibid. 
 vii. 110. 7 f.). The Godavari owes its sanctity to the fact 
 that Rama sojourned there (ibid. iii. 13. 21, etc.). He crossed 
 without getting out of his chariot the rivers Vedagrutl and 
 GomatI and Syandika (ibid. ii. 49. 10 ff.). In her distress 
 Sita invokes Ganges and Jumna, the latter being called 
 Angumatl nadl, which I have difficulty in believing means, 
 as the scholiast says, ' the daughter of the sun.' ' The 
 Yamuna is a Tirtha which (Ramayana, vi. 12. 28) is filled 
 once (yearly ?) by the Yamuna (Jumna) ; according to 
 (Mahabh.) iii. 84. 44, it should be at the source of the river 
 Jumna. 
 
 The lists of these holy rivers begin as early as the Rigveda. 
 The epic lists vary. In vi. 9. 14 f. the rivers in India proper 
 (Bharata-land) are mentioned, and, ibid. 11. 31 f., those in 
 Caka-land. Other lists are given at iii. 188. 102 f., iii. 222. 
 22 f., and xiii. 166. 19 f. There are more than one hundred 
 and sixty names in the first of these lists. To consecrate 
 Rama, water was brought from five hundred rivers and 
 the four seas (Ramayana, vi. 131. 53). Compare the list 
 ibid. iv. 40. But the old term 'Five Rivers' (Punjab) or 
 'Seven Rivers' (the Persian and classical designation) still 
 obtains. Compare in vii. 101. 28, "the ocean-going (streams) 
 with Indus as the sixth," which go but "return not," ibid. 
 vs. 3 and vii. 45. 7. The epic seven (cf. Vergil's JEneid, 
 ix. 30) are not fixed. In one passage, cited below, p. 226, the 
 Ganges is mentioned with six others, and in another the 
 Ganges with six entirely different streams, so that Ganges 
 
 ' Both epics call the Jumna Kalindl (from the mountain Kalinda), and Sita 
 offers this stream "a thousand cows and an hundred jars of brandy," perhaps in- 
 tended for the priests, as explicitly stated when Ganges is invoked, Ramayana, ii. 
 55. 4, 6 and 19; iv. 40. 19. Bharadvaja's holy hermitage is "at the union of Ganges 
 and Jumna." The Jumna represents the stream of youth, " which passes and comes 
 not back," Ramayana, ii. 105. 19, ydty eva and v. 20. 12, yad aiitam punar nditi. 
 From the heights of air Sampati views rivers as "threads" on earth, Ramayana, iv. 
 61. 8; ibid. 40. 20 and 30, the Sone is "red, swift and without ford." It is men- 
 tioned here with the Kaugiki (Kosi), SarasvatI, Mahl, etc., and with another "Sone" 
 which is unknown but may be the first carelessly repeated. The Yamuna here re- 
 ferred to is probably the mountain Kalinda {ihid. vs. 19). 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 217 
 
 alone remains common to both lists, while it is certain that 
 the Seven of antiquity did not have the Ganges at all. 
 None of these lists includes what Sir George Birdwood in his 
 letter to the London Times (MarCh 10, 1910) calls one of 
 ' the proverbial ' Seven Rivers, namely, the Kumarl. Ganges 
 herself is sevenfold (see below, p. 226). 
 
 A very puzzling thing to one ignorant of the historical 
 development of the epic is the way in which the land of the 
 holy rivers is there regarded. Sometimes it is a sort of 
 holy land, and sometimes it is looked on askance as the 
 abode of sinful people. In viii. 44. 6, "the Indus as the 
 sixth" refers to five other holy rivers remote from the de- 
 spised Vahikas, who have been "excluded by Himavat, 
 Ganga, Sarasvati, Yamuna, and Kurukshetra, and are re- 
 moved from the five rivers having the Indus as the sixth." 
 The town of these people is Cakala (Sagala), the river is 
 Apaga, and the Vahikas themselves are Jarttika-nama 
 (Jats), ibid. vs. 10 (= South Indian 37. 20, where the text 
 has Candala-nama). The five rivers named here {ibid. vss. 
 31 f.) are the (modern) Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chinab, and 
 Jhelum, so that the land is that of the holy rivers. Yet the 
 region is not holy but sinful, the land of Arattas or Vahikas.^" 
 Only low Brahmins live there. A list follows of those "thus 
 blamable," Prasthalas, Madras, Gandharas, Arattas, Kha- 
 gas, Vasatis, Sindhusauviras. It is clear that as the demons 
 live in the old Punjab river, assumed as the origin of the 
 name of the sinful Vahikas, the place cannot be other than 
 the Punjab itself, though the taint extends, as explained in 
 the subtended group, westward (to Kandahar and perhaps 
 to Balkh). In iii. 82. 83 and 89, Pancanada is the name of 
 a special Tirtha as well as of the Punjab in general, and the 
 Beas Tirtha in particular is noted as the home of the Naga 
 Takshaka; it is "in Kashmir" {ibid. vs. 90) an elastic term 
 (cf. the origin of Takshagila, Ramayana, vii. 101, where 
 Taksha is son of Bharata). 
 
 '° The name Aratta refers to the place, Vahifca to the people {ihid. vs. 45 ; but B 
 has vdhikam ndma tajjalam). The origin of the name Vahlka is said to be from 
 ^'ahi and Hika, two Pigacakas (demons) living in the river Beas. The South 
 Indian text, 37. 43 and 56, reads Bahllkam ndma tadvanam and drattd ndma Bdhlikd 
 (eteshv dryo hi no vasel) and also gives the names of the Pigacakas as Bahlika and 
 Hika. This text has Eravati (jtic) ! 
 
218 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 The rivers are sweet of voice and as a congregation they 
 unite in "praising god Indra" in the most orthodox fashion, 
 V. 17. 22, etc. But when the great god (^iva comes, they, 
 like the birds, are overawed and cease to make a sound, iii. 
 96. 6. Unconsciously, owing to their purity, they free from 
 ill as well as from sin ; but also, as in the case of the Beas and 
 Samanga, they consciously save the good man who falls into 
 their waters." The rivers Nanda 'and Apara-Nanda "re- 
 move both sin and fear," iii. 110. 1. Apart from magical 
 phenomena connected with the rivers, the physical aspects 
 spoken of are chiefly commonplace : the swiftness and 
 whirls of the current, the sandy shores, the creatures that 
 live in the stream, the hermitages on the banks — nothing 
 particularly mythological. In one regard, however, the 
 rivers have changed. In the good old days of Suhotra all 
 rivers "ran gold, free to all," but nowadays only Ganges has 
 gold in its bosom, which is a by-product of the seed of 
 Civa cast upon its waters when the war god Skanda (Alex- 
 ander ?) was born.^^ 
 
 Like the "bloody (or ruddy) Sone," the Sarasvati is "red," 
 ix. 5. 51, and several rivers are called "golden." The golden 
 Hiranvati of the holy land seems to be sacred, but its holi- 
 ness does not prevent its use as a moat, owing to the fact 
 that it is easy to get to and has no mud or sharp stones, v. 
 152. 7. The Sita river has this peculiarity, that boats sink 
 in it, xii. 82. 44. Both Ganges and Narmada are "divided 
 in two" when they run against a hill, vii. 30. 30; xii. 52. 32 
 (the Narmada is divided by the Rikshavat Mountains). 
 If these are physical attributes, the statement that " Ganges 
 is not much disturbed at the coming of rain" (Ramayana, 
 V. 16. 4) implies feeling. When anything untoward happens, 
 
 " iii. 139. 9 ; xiii. 3. 13. 
 
 ^ Compare, for the old state of affairs, vii. 56. 6 and for Civa's seed, the passages 
 cited below. Obvious statements in regard to the rivers are that they increase as 
 they debouch into the ocean, v. 110. 17, etc.; Ramayana, ii. 62. 18; and that a 
 river is one of the things that "increase by moving" (answer to a riddle, iii. 
 133. 29 = 313. 62). The origin of rivers is doubtful, like that of saints and great 
 families, v. 35. 72. They have no owners, xiii. 66. 36, being in this regard like 
 mountains and forests and Tirthas. A poor river is easy to fill. This seems to be 
 a proverb : "Easy to fill is a poor river and a mouse's hand," supurd vdi kunadilcd 
 supuro mushikdnjalih, v. 133. 9; it is also "easy tQ ford," vii. 119. 5. The Sone 
 has pearls (Ramayana, iv. 40. 20). 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 219 
 
 rivers are apt to "run backward," which of course also in- 
 dicates mentality ; it is an evil omen as well, vii. 75. 5 ; ix. 
 58. 58 f. When the great knight JCarna died, "The rivers 
 ceased to flow, the sun sank, and the planet Mercury ran 
 athwart the sky, gleaming like the sun," viii. 94. 49. 
 
 The personification of rivers is especially prominent in 
 their married relations, of which more anon, but it appears 
 also in the casual conversations held with rivers. One type 
 of these conversations is where they talk with their kind, 
 that is, with other waters. Thus in xii. 113. 2 f.. Ocean, who 
 is naturally the "Lord of Rivers," holds a conversation with 
 Ganges. He is curious to know why the rivers are always 
 bringing down huge trees yet do not convey the slender reeds 
 which line the banks of all streams. Ganges explains that 
 the trees resist and are overwhelmed, whereas the reeds bend 
 and so escape destruction. Another type of conversation is 
 based on the womanly character of rivers, and the talk is here 
 between the stream and the goddess wife of Civa, in re- 
 gard to the conduct of good women. Uma, the goddess, xiii. 
 146. 17 f., asks Ganges and other rivers how exemplary 
 women ought to behave. Incidentally some of the holiest 
 rivers are named at this place, viz. SarasvatI, the "best of 
 rivers and first of all streams running into the ocean," and 
 then 
 
 Vipdgd ea Vitasta ca Candrahhaga Iravatl 
 Catadrur Devikd Sindhuh Kdugiki, Gdutaml tathd, 
 
 (Beas, Jhelum, Chinab, Ravi, Sutlej, Sarju, Devika, Indus, 
 Cosy, Gumti), and finally Ganges, "the goddess who came 
 from heaven to earth, and is the best of all." ^' 
 
 Those named, however, are not the only holy streams of 
 the Punjab, since Caradanda is a holy river there, beside 
 which grows a tree divine that is called satyopaydcana, that 
 is, ' assuring the wishes ' of whoever begs of it, and near this, 
 to the west, is the Ikshumati, called "holy" (Ramayana, ii. 
 
 '' This is an etymological laud : gagandd gam gaid dem gangd aarvasaridvard. 
 The conversation ends with a lecture by Uma herself, vs. 33 f. The wife should 
 regard her husband as her god and be so devoted to him that she will not even look 
 at another man or male, even at sun or moon (as males), or at "a tree with a mascu- 
 line name" {ibid. 43). Above read Gomati (?), or Gautami is the Godavarl. 
 
220 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 68. 16 f.), while the Calmall (ibid. 19) is in the vicinity of 
 the Beas. 
 
 Divinities live beside the rivers, tlravdsinas, but the 
 streams themselves are invoked to flow with wine and brandy 
 and water sweet as sugar, although in response they actually 
 bring milk (Ramayana, ii. 91. 15 and 40). The lakes, how- 
 ever, supply the needed wine at the request of the saint 
 {ibid. 69) . Both trees and rivers fear at the approach of the 
 fiend Ravana, and as the trees do not dare to move a leaf, 
 so the rivers are "silent with fright" {ibid. iii. 46. 7 and 48. 9). 
 When the trees and rivers are invoked to tell where Sita is, 
 they will not answer, not because they cannot, but, as is 
 rather quaintly said, they "thought about it but would not 
 speak" (Ramayana, iii. 64. 9; cf. ibid. 49. 32). Only the 
 animals, by facing south, show mutely the direction, in- 
 dicating that "they wished to speak" {ibid. iii. 64. 15). 
 
 Elsewhere ^* I have alluded to the case of a mountain be- 
 getting a daughter by a river ; but the poets do not hesitate 
 to ascribe similar relations to rivers and human beings, as 
 in the case of the Cauvery already cited. SatyavatI, the 
 sister of the Vedic saint Vigvamitra and wife of the seer 
 Riclka, became the river Kaugiki because in death she 
 followed her husband to heaven, whence she descends as the 
 river, — a pretty though illogical legend of the Ramayana, 
 i. 34. 8. So in Puranic legend the river Bahuda is Gauri, the 
 wife of Prasenajit, now turned into one of the many streams 
 pilgrimage to any one of which exalts a man after death to 
 the high heaven of Goloka." The Bahuda in the pseudo- 
 epic is the name of a holy Himalayan stream south of 
 Kubera's lake, Nalini, perhaps the Ganges of Kailasa called 
 Mandakinl, located just south of the Golden (haima) 
 Mountain, xiii. 19. 28 f., 84. Other cases of river wives are 
 
 " Journal of the American Oriental Society, 30. 11. 
 
 1* As the list at xiii. 102. 45 f. enumerates the holiest watering-places, it may be 
 given here : Prabhasa, Manasa, Pushkarani, Mahat-saras, Naimisha (Tirtha), 
 Bahuda, Karatoyini ( = °toya), Gaya, Gayagiras (South Indian Hayagiras), Vipaja, 
 Sthalavaluka, Krishna, Ganga, Pancanada, Mahahrada, GomatI, Kaugiki, Pampa, 
 Sarasvati and Drishadvati (dual), Yamuna. The South Indian reading has for 
 Krishna, Ganga, and Pancanada, tushnim-gangdm Qandir-gangam, which I take to be 
 localities. South Indian, xiii. 159. 46. The Bombay and Southern recensions of the 
 Ramayana, verse 4, 41, 13 (B) omit the southern Bahuda. The Punjab is its real 
 place, later transferred to north and south. 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 221 
 
 known to the epic poets. Thus the river Narmada became 
 the wife of king Purukutsa, xv. 20. 13. In xiii. 2. 18 and 
 38 f., the same river (modern IS^rbudder) is said to have 
 fallen in love (cakame) with Duryodhana, son of Durjaya, 
 by whom she had a daughter, Sudargana.'^ This girl's son 
 married OghavatI, daughter of Oghavat (Nriga's grand- 
 father), and half of her became a river. But this is not 
 altogether a novelty; the Cauvery is "half Ganges." The 
 girl Amba, whose conduct, in marked contrast to that of 
 OghavatI, was crooked, continued in life half as a human 
 being and half as a crooked river. ^^ 
 
 The great sage of the epic bears the name 'River-born' 
 because he is the son of Ganges ; and Crutayudha is the son 
 of the god Varuna (vii. 92. 44 f.) by the river Parnaga.^^ 
 
 Some rivers have themselves a mythological origin in that 
 they come from the juice of celestial trees (see the references 
 in the paper cited above in the Journal of the American 
 Oriental Society) ; but of earthly rivers the Chumbal (un- 
 known to Valmiki ?) has the most curious origin in that it 
 arose from the flood of secretions and blood flowing from the 
 multitudinous cattle slaughtered by the good king Rantideva, 
 a legend referred to on several occasions.^' 
 
 Before speaking more particularly of the Ganges, which 
 ever remains the first of rivers, a word may be said in regard 
 
 '* At a Tirtha on Narmada Yayati fell from heaven, and gods and saints hasten 
 there, iii. 89. 1 f. 
 
 '' Nodi vatseshu hanyd ca, v. 186. 41. Kdusambi is the chief town of the Vatsas, 
 and Amba is connected with ambu, 'water' (cf. Kujamba). 
 
 '* Bhishma, son of Ganges, is called dpagdsuta, dpageya, nadija, i. 63. 91 ; 95. 47 ; 
 iv. 39. 10; 61. 34; v. 148. 32, etc. Sarasvati also bore a son, Sarasvata, to Dadhica 
 and was blessed so that she "pleased the gods and manes with her waters and be- 
 came holiest of holy rivers," ix. 51. 17 f. ; 54. 38 f. The great-grandmother of the 
 famous Dushyanta was the Sarasvati, who at the end of a twelve-years' sacrifice 
 "chose Matinara as her husband and became the mother of Tansu" (Tmisu), i. 95. 
 27. The river who bore a daughter to a mountain (above) was called CuktimatI 
 i. 63. 35 f., the name of both river and town of the Cedi. Her daughter married 
 Vasu. 
 
 '' Compare vii. 67. 5 ; sdi. 29. 123 ; xiii. 66. 42, etc. The name Carmanvati 
 evidently suggested that it had a leathery, carman, origin. Such etymologies give 
 rise to various myths. The river Samanga referred to above is interpreted to mean 
 'with limbs complete' and thus makes whole the "eightfold cripple" Ashtavakra 
 who enters it, so that he reappears "with limbs complete," iii. 134. 39. This stream 
 used to be called MadhuvUa, and Indra on bathing in it was released from the sin 
 of slaying Vritra, ibid. 135. 2. 
 
222 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 to the half-mythological and allegorical rivers. Some of 
 these are frankly of the latter sort and deserve remark only 
 as illustrative of rhetoric, not as rivers.^" 
 
 But there is also an allegorical river which so runs into 
 and is wantonly confused with the mythological river of 
 death and of the underworld that it is difficult to disentangle 
 myth and allegory. Without any allegory the river of hell 
 is a filthy, blood-filled stream which is "one hard river to 
 cross," and hence is called Vaitarani.^^ Now in the descrip- 
 tions of battles nothing is commoner than for the poet to 
 describe the river of blood shed by the valiant hero, and this 
 river then inspires a complete picture of the stream, the 
 various parts and implements of the army serving as meta- 
 phorical parts and adjuncts of the river, the birds upon it, 
 the fishes within it, the trees beside it, etc. Such rivers are 
 not merely allegorical. They "lead to Yama's home," as is 
 said in viii. 52. 33, and so coincide with the real, mythological 
 " river of death." Thus a hero says that he will make a 
 river flowing to the other world, carrying thither corpses, as 
 in iv. 61. 20, "I will make a river to course to the other 
 world," of which the water is blood, the crocodiles are the 
 elephants slain in battle, etc. A similar river in iv. 62. 17 is 
 "like the time at the end of the ages," that is, full of terror. 
 In viii. 77. 44, the battle-river "leads to the home of the 
 dead," but is "like Vaitarani, which is terrible and hard to 
 cross for those of imperfect soul ; so terrible and hard to 
 cross is it for cowards." ^^ The metaphorical use of rivers 
 
 2° Such, for example, is "the river of illusion guarded by the gods" (i.e. life), v. 46. 
 7 ; or the "soul-river" in which one should bathe, since its water is truth, its Tirtha 
 is piety, its banks are steadfastness, and its waves are pity, v. 40. 20. This is only 
 another aspect of the "river of life," which is elsewhere described as having desire 
 and wrath as its crocodiles, the five senses for its water, and "firmness is the boat 
 with which one may cross its awful stream," ibid. vs. 22. Compare the "Tirtha 
 of the mind" in xiii. 108. 1 f., "that pure pool of truth," which is the Manasa Lake 
 of the intelligent. 
 
 2' The hell-river of Yama, god of death, is called Pushpodaka in iii. 200. 58, which 
 may be said to be its only exclusive name, since its ordinary appellation, Vaitarani, 
 is shared, oddly enough, by one of the many sacred streams (in Kalinga). But 
 this section, iii. 200, appears to be an interpolation. Section 201 begins where 199 
 leaves off, with " having heard the story of Indradyumna," i.e., section 199; (this 
 verse, however, is bracketed in South Indian). 
 
 ^ Rarer than this river allegory is the parallel forest allegory of battle. In ix. 
 24. 52 it is confused with the flood metaphor: "He entered the flood of the foes' 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 223 
 
 is similar in the Ramayana, e.g., C vi. 58. 29 (not in text B), 
 Yamasdgaragdminl, "a battle-river going to the Hades-ocean." 
 
 THE GANGES 
 
 As a goddess, Ganges is subservient to the Great Father, 
 whom she adores, i. 96. 4 ; and in the passage cited above from 
 xiii. 146, in which her name is derived from her "going to 
 earth," ^ she is represented as humble before Uma, her 
 younger sister and co-wife of Civa. 
 
 In human form Ganges becomes the wife of Cantanu, i. 
 98. 5, and the mother of Gangeya (the 'river-born') Bhi- 
 shma, i. 95. 47. She is called the "daughter of Jahnu," i. 98. 
 18 (Jahnusuta, also Jahnavi) and the "daughter of Bhagi- 
 ratha" (also Bhagirathi) ; but only by courtesy (adoption), 
 as she is really the daughter of Himavat (Haimavati), vi. 
 119. 97. Among the gods she has acquired the title of Ala- 
 kananda (-atd), and on reaching the world of the dead she is 
 identified with the VaitaranI, i. 170. 22, also called there 
 Pushpodaka; see above, note 21. 
 
 In the geographical section of the sixth book of the epic, 
 vi. 6. 28 f., the threefold (three-pathed) Ganges, called 
 Sarasvati, is said to issue from the world of Brahman and to 
 fall like milk from the top of Mount Meru into the lake of the 
 moon (created first by her descent), after she had been 
 upheld for 100,000 years on Civa's head. Here she is said 
 to divide into seven streams, called Vasvaukasara, Nalini, 
 Pavani, Jambunadi, Sita, Ganga, and "seventh the Indus" 
 (Sindhu). She is both visible and invisible, vi. 6. 50. The 
 Nalini is especially Kubera's stream, though conceived, as 
 in Ramayana vi. 13. 12, as Brahman's also (cf. vii. 80. 27). 
 The Ramayana, i. 43. 12, has the Hladin! and Sucakshu for 
 the first and fourth in this list. 
 
 Bhagiratha was first enabled to draw her from Bindusaras, 
 where "she, the divine one, was first established" (revealed 
 
 forces, a forest of bows, where darts were the thorns, clubs were the stones, and cars 
 and elephants were the great trees " (following the reading of the South Indian text). 
 ^ The name Ganga is really a derivative from gd, 'to go.' From similar roots 
 meaning go, move, flow, etc., come the names of many rivers in India and else- 
 where, Sarasvati, Sarju, Indus, Rhine, Arethusa, etc. Each to its own people is 
 'the run' (river). 
 
224 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 on earth, vi. 6. 44 f. So in Ramayana i. 43. 10, the Ganges 
 falls into Bindusaras) . Bhagiratha visited Himavat and 
 asked Ganges to baptize the bones of Sagara's sons, saying, 
 "There is no abode for them in heaven till thou baptizest 
 their bodies (bones) with thy waters," iii. 108. 18. The 
 Ramayana has a famous description of the descent of the 
 river at i. 43. Ganges is called the daughter of Bhagiratha 
 because when weary she sank upon his lap ; and since she 
 had blessed the bones of the Sagaras she assumed by adoption 
 the place of his son ("she chose him for her father"), vii. 60. 
 6 and 8.^^ Compare the account in iii. 109. 18 f., where she 
 "descended to earth to fill the sea." Here the South Indian 
 recension inserts a passage (cf. Ramayana, i. 43. 5 f.) telling 
 of Ganges' anger at being forced to fall from the sky. It is 
 a very undignified addition in maiorem gloriam of Civa. 
 Ganges says if she has to go to hell to baptize the Sagaras 
 she will take Civa with her. But she gets caught in Civa's 
 hair for her folly and there wanders about for a long time 
 "like a grain of ripe corn in a field of grass." ^^ 
 
 It is in falling that Ganges becomes divided sevenfold. As 
 the river of sky, earth, and the lower regions she is three- 
 fold, "going through three worlds," "having three paths." -^ 
 
 The mystic TrivenI, 'three-stranded' Ganges, is Ganges 
 bound together with the Yamuna and the SarasvatI, which 
 comes underground to the union, at Prayaga (Allahabad), 
 but this title is not epic, though venikrtajald, 'having water 
 in strands,' is an epithet of 'three-path' Ganges, Rama- 
 yana, ii. 50. 16 (where she is described as "wife of Ocean"). 
 
 " For urvagl South Indian has urdhvagd, but this is not so good a reading. Com- 
 pare xii. 29. 68, where Nilakantha vouches for the word urva^ as implying the 
 lap (uru) ; also the similar derivation of urm as title of earth, from the fact that 
 Kagyapa took her (earth) on his lap, xii. 49. 73. To take upon the lap is to imply 
 parentage. 
 
 ^* The addition in the South Indian text also retells the story how the Sagaras 
 attacked Kapila and were burned by his glance, and describes Dilipa's succession 
 to the throne and his character (cf. Vishnu Purana, iv. 4. 1 f.). The story is often 
 told, i. 106 f . ; iii. 142. 9 (Ganges falls on the head of Civa, Vrishanka) ; v. 111. 8, etc. 
 When falling, Ganges is described as "girdling the sky," gaganamekhald, iii. 109. 9 
 (the Milky Way). Compare Ramayana, iii. 52. 35. 
 
 '' Trilokagd, i. 96. 19 ; trivartmagd, xiii. 26. 84 ; tripathagd, ii. 52. 11 ; Rama- 
 yana, i. 44. 6 ; vi. 126. 47 ; tripathagdmini, i. 98. 8. A Tlrtha called Sapta-Ganga 
 is mentioned along with a Tri-Ganga, iii. 84. 29 ; xiii. 25. 6 and 16 (cf. the Saptasa- 
 rasvata Tirtha). 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 225 
 
 It is rather curious that the sanctity of Prayaga is not fully 
 established. Bhishma has doubts in regard to the value of 
 T^rthas anyway, as is mentioned several times, for example 
 in xiii. 25. 5, but it is especially said tliat "it is not in accord- 
 ance with the word of the Veda" to visit Prayaga with the 
 idea of dying there as at a sacred spot, iii. 82. 6 ; 85. 82 
 and 83. This heresy, however, is introduced merely to be 
 overthrown. The hohness of Prayaga, in fact, leads to gro- 
 tesque exaggeration in deifying the river, which is wor- 
 shipped by gods and seers. The glory of Ganges at this 
 point exceeds even that of the Yamuna (i.e. Jumna, the 
 goddess sister of Yama). Part of this piety is repeated 
 ipsissimis verbis in another glorification of the river in 
 the thirteenth book (below). Prayaga is the base or lap 
 (jaghana, upastha) of the earth, and a bath there imparts 
 virtue equal to that given by the four Vedas. Ganges is 
 here the one Tirtha of this (Kali) age, iii. 85. 75 and 90. A 
 meeting of two armies is compared to the furious confluence 
 of Ganges and Jumna or of Ganges and Sarayu, at the full 
 water of the early rains, vii. 17. 49 and 95. 8, compare 
 Ramayana, v. 43. 15. At Prayaga the Ganges is called 
 Civodakd (Ramayana, ii. 83. 22), probably not 'Civa's 
 water' but 'beneficent.' Jars of "the water of Ganges at its 
 union with Jumna" are used at the coronation described in 
 Ramayana ii. 14. 34 ; 15. 5. The two are invoked together 
 by Sita, the Ganges as "wife of Ocean," Udadhirdja, to- 
 gether with all the "divinities of the fords," Ramayana, 
 ii. 52, 82 f. Ganges is especially the "home of seers and 
 ascetics," ibid. vii. 42. 33, and "destroyer of sin," ibid. 46. 23. 
 The modern ghats (landing places) of Benares may be 
 referred to in iii. 145. 50 f., where it is said that the seven- 
 fold (-vidhd) Ganges (ibid. 139. 2) after flowing by (anu) 
 the great jujube tree in Kailasa, has easy fords, cool water, 
 and lotuses; "and gems, corals, and trees adorn its stairs" 
 (prastdra). The commentator says that prastdra is 'ghats,' 
 and as corals do not grow in the river he is probably right. 
 According to i. 228. 32 the huge flshes called jhashas swim 
 in the Ganges.^' 
 
 *' It will be observed that nowhere in the epic is there found support for the 
 slander that live children are thrown to the crocodiles of the Ganges. That bath- 
 
226 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 Generally the sevenfold character of Ganges is explained as 
 consisting in the seven forms of distinct rivers. At vi. 119. 
 76 and vii. 36. 13 it is indeed said that Ganges enters the 
 ocean sevenfold and makes a vortex there, but this may be 
 only the equivalent of the statement in i. 170. 19 f., that 
 Ganges comes from Himavat and enters the ocean by seven 
 streams, "and one is purified from sin who drinks the 
 waters of Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvatl (Plakshajata), Ra- 
 thastha, Sarayu, Gomati, or Gandaki." This list differs, as 
 already observed from the seven streams of vi. 6. 50, there 
 called "the seven Gangas famous in the three worlds." Yet 
 there is still a later division known to the Ramayana, i. 43. 
 12 f. ; the three rivers Hladini, PavanI, Nalini, are the three 
 Ganges of the east ; Sucakshu, Sita, and Sindhu are the three 
 western Ganges, and the seventh is she who became Bha- 
 glratha's daughter.^^ 
 
 The most sacred spots of the Ganges are, and always have 
 been Gangotri, the place of origin in the mountains ; the 
 Gate ; ^ the junction of Ganges and Yamuna ; and the place 
 
 ing in the stream purifies from sin is everywhere admitted, e.g., iii. 85. 66 and 69 ; 
 no Tirtha is equal to Ganges, iftid. 96. The "golden sands" of Ganges (s«j;arraa*i- 
 katd) are seen near the jujube (Tlrtha), where the water, "which used to be cold, 
 is now warm," iii. 90. 26. Compare, for the ghats, the tiraruha trees in the descrip- 
 tion at Ramayana ii. 50. 19. Here too Ganges (ibid. 24) is dityd pdpandsint, 'divine 
 destroyer of sin.' Mr. Birdwood's remark, in the letter referred to above (p. 217), 
 "Sanscritists say . . . that there are intimations of it [the superior sanctity of the 
 Ganges] in the epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana," is putting the case too 
 mildly. The mother of Ganges, according to the Ramayana i. 35. 16, is Manorama 
 by name (tiar. lee. Mena), 'daughter of Motmt Meru,' who was the wife of Hima- 
 vat (Himalaya) and bore him two daughters, Ganga and her (younger) sister Uma 
 (wife of Civa). Mena or Menaka is the mother of Ganges according to Puranic 
 legend, and Manorama is probably the same person, though usually these names 
 are applied to different nymphs (Apsarasas). Compare also ix. 37. 37-55 and 38. 
 3 f. on Sarasvatl, Manorama, etc., and the Sapta Savasvata. 
 
 ^ The Sucakshu is probably the Oxus (above). These are different streams, 
 sroidnsi, which "went to the eastern (and western) district," while Ganges, the 
 seventh, " followed Bha^ratha." At this place the anger of Jahnu at being 
 disturbed by Ganges' flood is described. The great saint swallowed the river 
 but then let her out through his ears on condition that she should be recognized 
 as his issue. Therefore, because she came from him, she was called the "daughter 
 of Jahnu." The Hladini is west of the Sutlej (Ramayana, ii. 71. 2). 
 
 ^'The place known as Ganga-dvara, 'Ganges-gate' (now known as Haridvara, 
 Hardwar) is still a place of pilgrimage, as are the other sacred spots in the course 
 of the river. The epic speaks in one place of the gate Ganga-Mahadvara, and 
 says that the spot is guarded by Dhamas, that is, "Mahatmas of unknown ap- 
 pearance who speak the truth." It is peculiar, however, that this place is regarded 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 227 
 
 where the river debouches into the gulf of Bengal. In xiii. 
 26 there is a whole chapter devoted to Ganges, who is 
 said (vs. 88) to bear gold in her bosom ; to have three paths 
 by which the three worlds are embdlished (vss. 72 and 84, 
 of. the trisihdna of Civa, where the river turns north, xiii. 
 25. 15) ; and, by descending upon the head of Civa, to 
 have saved the sons of Sagara (vss. 72 and 80). Ganges 
 cures all bodily infirmities (vs. 82) and all sins; even the 
 sight of her waters removes sin and saves one's ancestors 
 to the seventh generation (vs. 61 f.). On beholding her one 
 is freed from sin, as snakes lose their poison at sight of Tark- 
 shya (Garuda) . She is to men what ambrosia is to the gods, 
 svadhd to the Manes, and sudhd to the Nagas (vss. 44 and 49) . 
 She is to other rivers what the sun is to the gods, the moon 
 to the Manes, the god-lord (devega, king) to men (vs. 74). 
 She is identical with Prigni (Nilakantha says this is "mother 
 of Vishnu"), and with BrihatI (Vac). She is daughter of 
 the Earth-upholder (Avanldhra, Himavat), wife of Civa, 
 and mother of Guha (Skanda). She is called Vishnupadi 
 (this may imply the otherwise late legend, Ramayana, ii. 50. 
 26 ; Vishnu Purana, iv. 4. 15, that she came from Vishnu's 
 toe), and she was brought to earth by Bhagiratha (vss. 86- 
 89, 93 and 96). They never lose heaven whose bones have 
 been laid within her waters ; and one may live as a sinner 
 and yet die blessed if one ends his life beside her sacred 
 stream, for "as long as one's bones lie in Ganges, so long 
 is one magnified in heaven" (vs. 28 f.).'" 
 
 as so far north that "farther (north) than Ganga-Mahadvara no (mere) man has 
 ever gone," v. 111. 17 and 19. Possibly Hardwar is not meant, but the exit of 
 Ganges from the caverns of the mountain at Gangotri, where the river has its 
 udbheda, ' breaking out,' among ' Civa's locks,' that is, amid the icicles at the 
 mouth of the cave. Ganga-dvara (without the mahd, 'great') is, in xiii. 166. 26, 
 one of the holy places of pilgrimage. 
 
 •" In iii. 99. 32, Ganges comes from the locks of Civa (Cambhu), whose wife she 
 is (above) ; but as in iii. 187. 19 and Ramayana, ii. 50. 25, samvdramakiski, she is 
 also called "the dear wife of Ocean," who receives her. Like a mother "she floods 
 the Deccan district, running down the slopes of the hills like the wife of the king 
 of snakes." In iii. 139. 16, after a general invocation to gods and other rivers, 
 Ganges is thus addressed : "O goddess Ganges, from the golden mountain of Indra 
 (Mandara) I hear thy sound. O Subhaga (blessed one), do thou who art daugh- 
 ter of the mountains ddUasutd), guard this king from the (perils of the) mountains 
 and give him, as he enters them, thy protection." "The kapild cow is the best 
 of cows, even as Ganges is the very best of rivers,'' xiii. 73. 42; 77. 8. 
 
228 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA 
 
 The names or titles of Ganges are not confined to the seven 
 synonyms given above, nor to the common patronymics, 
 Bha^rathl, Jahnavi, and Haimavatl. As a heavenly stream 
 she is called MandakinI (a name shared by earthly rivers, 
 cf. Ramayana, ii. 95 and 103), Mahabharata, v. 111. 12, etc. 
 Cuka sees the "lovely Mandakini" as he sails through space, 
 and sees also the naked nymphs that sport in the stream, 
 xii. 334.16. In xiii. 80. 5 this heavenly river is called Man- 
 dakini vasor dhdrd, 'stream of wealth,' and is the haunt of 
 nymphs and angels. The Ganges also gives her name to 
 Skanda, who like Bhishma was at first called Gangeya (cf. 
 Kumarasu), and one of his four forms, called Naigameya, 
 revered her especially, ix. 44. 16 and 38. It is as the 
 heavenly Ganges that she is revered under the name of 
 Akaga-Ganga, iii. 142. 11, 'Ganges of the air,' and the 
 South Indian recension (i. 186. 2) gives her the further title, 
 "the river of the world," Lokanadi. She is called also 'the 
 river of the gods,' Devanadi mahaganga, iii. 156. 98 (on 
 Gandhamadana), and Suranadi, which has the same mean- 
 ing : "As the sweet water of Suranadi becomes salt on reach- 
 ing the ocean, "vi. 83. 5, and Ramayana, i. 35. 25. As the 
 underground river she is also called Vaitarani. 
 
 Ganges is often represented as appearing to men and re- 
 proving, advising, or helping them. Thus in v. 178. 68 f., 
 "she who is courted by saints and angels" advises her son 
 Bhishma not to fight with Rama and asks each in turn to 
 desist from battle ; while in the following story she "stands 
 in water" (jale sthita) and reproves Amba for her crooked 
 ways, V. 186. 30. Neither the holiness of the goddess nor 
 filial piety, however, prevents the fight in the prior tale, and 
 then Ganges appears like a Greek goddess on her son's chariot, 
 aiding him in the fight, though still described as "best of 
 rivers." Along with her were eight attendant saints blazing 
 like the sun or fire, who helped her support Bhishma, so that 
 he did not touch the earth. Then, when his charioteer fell, 
 his goddess mother controlled the steeds with her own hand 
 and guarded him, until in warrior shame he begged her not 
 to intervene, v. 182. 12 f. 
 
 No passage in the epic or anywhere else shows more clearly 
 how thoroughly natural phenomena were personified by 
 
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 229 
 
 the Hindus. Ganges is not a remote celestial personifica- 
 tion. The river is within sight of the poet as he writes ; 
 by the side of the warrior of whom he sings. She is still 
 th estream; she still "stands in water"; yet at the same 
 time she holds the reins of the warrior's steeds. Nothing 
 could be more personal and humanly divine than Jahnavl, 
 'daughter of Jahnu,' as here depicted. 
 
 More conventional is the conduct of Ganges when Bhishma 
 is wounded unto death. She sends the great seers to salute 
 and comfort him on his death-bed, from her far-off home 
 in the mountains. They fly as swans to the dying hero and 
 with their wings cool his fevered face, vi. 119. 97. But this 
 hero takes long to die, and the lament of Ganges comes in 
 more appropriately on his actual decease, at xiii. 169. 21 f., 
 when she is consoled bj' the news that her hero was really 
 a god, who for a curse had been born as a man {vasur esha 
 mahdtejds, etc., ibid. vs. 31). 
 
 As a river goddess she here rises from the Ganges River, 
 where the obsequies of her son are performed, and "weeps 
 bitterly, overcome with grief," asking passionately why her 
 heart does not break when her warrior son is dead, and 
 proudly recounts his glorious deeds. It is a little surprising 
 that so great a goddess does not know that her son is a Vasu 
 god; but here also the womanly character submerges the 
 divine, and the revelation is made to her by a still greater 
 divinity, Vishnu himself in human form. 
 New Haven, 
 
 August, 1911. 
 
THE TWO GREAT NATURE SHRINES OF 
 ISRAEL: BETHEL AND DAN 
 
 John Punnett Peters 
 
 St. Michael's Church, New York 
 
 Let me commence with an extract from the diary of my 
 second journey to Palestine, bearing date August 5, 1902, when 
 I approached Bethel by the road from the north : "A little 
 beyond Yabrud we came to the top of all things. Behind us 
 the mountains were like the waves of a stormy cross sea,with 
 a white village perched here and there on their tops, like 
 foam on the crests of the waves. To the west, bevond a 
 series of mountain tops, stretched far below the blue Medi- 
 terranean. To the south, descending, there was a great 
 plateau, in which in the distance Jerusalem lay spread out in 
 imposing state. Only to the east we could see no whither, 
 as the land was still as high as we or higher. Just a little 
 lower than we, and close at hand was Beitin. And now I 
 thought I understood why Bethel had been so great a high 
 place. To the north of the village, and a little above, almost 
 on the roof of the world, was a stone field of marvellously 
 piled up natm-al stone heaps. Until I went in and exam- 
 ined them I really thought they had been built by man. I 
 could imagine that one of these was Jacob's stone, and here 
 the ladder into heaven, and this the site of the famous shrine 
 of Bethel ; but I could find no signs of ancient occupation, 
 no remains of old walls, no whitish ruin soil, so distinct from 
 the red virgin earth, no pieces of pottery, not even fragments 
 of worked flint. Some distance to the east, across a deep 
 ravine from Beitin, lie some ruins known as the Burj, but 
 these are late. In the village itself the only ancient remains 
 are part of the walls of a very large pool, now used as the 
 village threshing floor. To the west of the village are visible 
 
 231 
 
232 NATURE SHRINES OF ISRAEL 
 
 the foundations of a wall. On the road to Bireh, below 
 Beitin but close to it, were some interesting remains of pools, 
 a rock-cut aqueduct, troughs, etc., intended to utilize springs 
 which come out of the rocks. There was also a grotto of 
 considerable size cut in the rock, with rock-hewn pillars sup- 
 porting the roof, and niches, as though for statues, a little 
 way from the door on both sides. The whole reminded me 
 of the grotto of Pan at Banias." 
 
 I came near to the truth in this account, but I was still 
 hampered by a mistaken idea of what I ought to find at 
 Bethel. Twelve years before, fresh from my explorations 
 in Babylonia and along the Euphrates, I had visited the place 
 and had searched the neighborhood for the remains of an 
 ancient temple. I came away at that time with a sense of 
 disappointment, because I found no ruins of any apparent 
 moment. It had not occurred to me to examine the natural 
 phenomena of the place. I had not approached it by the 
 same route, and those had not forced themselves on my at- 
 tention. But even if they had, I doubt whether at that time 
 I should have perceived their significance, because I was still 
 under the bondage of traditional ideas with regard to the in- 
 terpretation of Jacob's vision in Gen. xxviii., and with regard 
 to the nature of the temple and the worship at Bethel. Now, 
 my attention aroused, I went back not once, but several times, 
 and searched Bethel and the whole country thereabout most 
 carefully. 
 
 In the visit recorded above I had noticed troughs, rough 
 cuttings in caves along the road southward and westward 
 from Beitin, between that and Bireh. These I found, in 
 looking up sources, had been overlooked or very cursorily 
 examined and described by former travellers. On them, 
 commencing with the cave or grotto nearest Bireh and about 
 half-way between that and Beitin, I made the following 
 notes, dated August 19, 1902 : 
 
 "These are called by Guerin and Robinson 'Ain er-Ghazal, 
 a name which we could not hear. Baedeker mentions their 
 existence, and says that they were called 'Ayun Haramiyeh 
 in the Middle Ages. The Survey of the Palestine Explora- 
 tion Fund notes at this spot 'Ain Kussis and 'tombs.' There 
 are no tombs, and the proper name is 'Ain Kus'a. There is 
 
JOHN PUNNETT PETERS 233 
 
 a terrace of natural rock, from eight to twelve feet above the 
 present road. To this steps were cut on the western side. 
 In the face of the rock above this terrace, following, appar- 
 ently, a rotten vein through which water oozed, a channel 
 seven feet high and three feet broad has been cut in the rock 
 for about ten feet, when it turns sharply to the east and runs 
 a little distance further. In the bottom of this are six to ten 
 inches of water. From its mouth channels carry water to an 
 extensive system of rock-cut basins of all sorts, shapes, and 
 sizes, to the east. A much deeper and broader channel leads 
 to the edge of the terrace or platform, then turns westward 
 at a right angle, and conducts the water into the side of a 
 cave, the door of which opens on the present road, being cut 
 in the face or scarp of the rock which forms the terrace above. 
 This cave is about forty feet east and west, by twenty-five 
 feet north and south, and the roof is supported by two col- 
 umns hewn out of the living rock. In front of it in the road 
 is visible the coping of a circular pool, a beautiful piece of 
 masonry. A little further on [i.e. eastward], in the face of 
 the rock, under the system of rock-cut basins mentioned 
 above, was another spring oozing out of a rot or flaw in the 
 rock, which had been hollowed out artificially for some dis- 
 tance. The water from this was caught in a rock-cut trough, 
 beneath which was another rock-cut trough, and on both 
 sides the copings of rectangular pools are visible in the pres- 
 ent road. There is another small cave, dry, and two or 
 three niches in the rock face at this level, which have given 
 rise to the statement of the Survey that there are tombs at 
 this place. These are in reality, I fancy, the commencement 
 or intention of large caves, like the one mentioned above. 
 Tombs are relatively rare in this section. There is a large 
 one across the wady southward, some little distance to the 
 east, and one or two small ones elsewhere in this valley, but, 
 speaking roughly, they are infrequent and inconspicuous. 
 The stream which runs into the large cave seems to be in- 
 termittent at this season, as I have seen it running and seen 
 it dry. The cave is full of mud and water, in which grow 
 beautiful ferns. Near the steps above mentioned, on the 
 edge of the scarp, a wine press was hewn in the rock, with two 
 steps descending into it. The front of the vat is now broken 
 
234 NATURE SHRINES OF ISRAEL 
 
 down. Against the stone wall by the side of the road, about 
 opposite the mouth of the large cave, lies a large stone olive 
 press. This extraordinary system of rock-cut waterworks 
 and the like lies about midway between Bireh and Beitin, 
 villages which have an abundant water supply of their own, 
 in the neighborhood of no village or ruin. About five min- 
 utes to the east of these waterworks, on the right of the 
 road, is a very well-built oval pool, served by an under- 
 ground channel from a spring on the hillside above [to the 
 left of the road], dry at this season. This has no name that 
 we could learn. About ten minutes further, as one ascends 
 the hill toward Beitin, on the right-hand side of the road, is 
 another spring, oozing out of a fault in the base of the rock, 
 the water of which is or was caught in a pool inferior in work- 
 manship to those mentioned above. The Survey calls this 
 pool 'Ain es-Sultan; we heard the name 'Ain Aqabeh."^ 
 
 Of Bethel itself and the curious stone formations in its 
 immediate neighborhood I made, as already stated, a num- 
 ber of very careful investigations. The following memoran- 
 dum from my diary, bearing date of August 21, 1902, may 
 supplement the description already given : 
 
 "Finding nothing new at Beitin, we crossed the beautiful 
 and highly cultivated valley to the east, among the fig trees 
 of which, on the sides of the hill, there were, they told us, 
 some tombs, which we could not see, to Burj Beitin, on the 
 hill beyond. Here there was a church, and the stone orna- 
 mentation found fixes this in the fifth or sixth century a.d. 
 Out of these ruins the Arabs presumably built the small 
 castle, the ruins of which constitute the present Burj. Then 
 we circled around on the hill [to the north and west] to the 
 strange stone circles or masses to the north of Beitin. These 
 are masses of rock worn into strange shapes by the weather, 
 looking in many cases as though hewn by the hand of man, 
 or as though at least man had set one stone upon another. 
 I presume that it is this field of stones, with its weird and 
 artificial aspect, which gave rise to the story of Jacob's pil- 
 low and pillar at Bethel. None of us could find any signs of 
 
 1 1 had the pleasure of calling the attention of Rev. Mr. Hanauer and Mr. Mac- 
 alister to these springs and waterworks, which they examined carefully, publishing 
 their accounts in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1903. 
 
JOHN PUNNETT PETERS 235 
 
 artificial working of the stones. Here and at Burj Beitin, 
 strangely enough, I found fragments of corrugated Roman 
 pottery, but pottery fragments were scarce at both places, 
 and in the stone field the soil was red, virgin earth." 
 
 In general the natural phenomena of Bethel and its neigh- 
 borhood may be thus described. Bethel is on the southern 
 slope of the crest of the watershed between north and south, 
 2890 feet above the sea. Just north of it the watershed 
 rises in the form of a rocky crest, sharply marked, the ground 
 falling off rapidly to north and south. This is a genuine 
 climax, to transliterate the Greek word (icXifia^) by which 
 the ladder of Gen. xxviii. is translated in the Septuagint. A 
 little below this crest, on its southern slope, a few rods east- 
 ward of the highroad and northward of the modern village 
 of Beitin, is the remarkable stone group just described, a 
 field rather than a circle of stone columns. Beyond this, 
 eastward, the land drops, forming the commencement of the 
 wady, which, passing to the east of Bethel, forms the natural 
 road down into the Jordan valley. Across this wady, at 
 its very head, there is another smaller group of similar rock 
 columns. 
 
 Bethel itself is admirably situated, not for defence, but as 
 a centre of pilgrimage. A natural road to the Jordan valley 
 debouches, as already stated, at or immediately below the 
 town, where a road from the Mediterranean plain over the 
 Beth-Horon pass connects with it. It is also on the natural 
 highroad from north to south. There is an excellent supply 
 of water at Bethel itself, not to speak of the various fountains 
 southward, which I have already mentioned, with their 
 curious rock-cuttings. On the other hand there are in all 
 that neighborhood no evidences of any great walled town or 
 any large temple building, such as distinguished Jerusalem; 
 nor, in point of fact, should we expect these things at Bethel. 
 
 The political and religious revolt of Israel under Jeroboam 
 was a revolt against what was represented by Jerusalem and 
 its temple. It was a call back to the simplicity of the past 
 in state and church, in protest against the Phoenician temple, 
 palace, and citadel of Solomon. Now while the Jerusalem 
 temple was built on a height, utilizing a natural rock altar 
 with a grotto beneath it as its central feature, it was 
 
236 NATURE SHRINES OF ISRAEL 
 
 never a nature shrine. It achieved its significance by its 
 great temple erected, after Phoenician models, by Phoenician 
 workmen. This temple, connected with the palace of the 
 king, was an essential feature of the magnificent Oriental 
 despotism which Solomon undertook to establishing Israel. 
 It symbolized and was connected with the standing army, 
 the foreign guards, the compulsory service (kourbash) of the 
 people, and especially those not of the tribe of Judah. 
 
 Israel was not ripe for such conditions, and, rebelling 
 against them, asserted its ancient tribal and local freedom, 
 and at the same time and for the same reason on the religious 
 side reverted to the old primitive, nature, out-of-door worship, 
 in opposition to the artificial Phoenician temple worship of 
 Jerusalem. But if a kingdom was to be established with any 
 sort of organization, capable of holding its own against the 
 organized kingdom of the Davidic dynasty, with its grand 
 new temple, it was necessary to localize this primitive worship 
 and centralize it as much as possible within the limits of the 
 kingdom of Israel. Famous nature shrines there were with 
 which Israel was connected by tradition, like Beersheba or 
 Horeb or Sinai, but these lay outside of Israel, and the way 
 to them led past Jerusalem. Within the kingdom itself 
 there were two great nature shrines, — Bethel, at the extreme 
 south, and Dan, at the extreme north, the former, and 
 presumably the latter, recognized before the time of the 
 Israelites as places of the special indwelling of God, by 
 reason of their peculiar nature formations, the one con- 
 necting itself with stone worship, the other with water or 
 fountain worship. 
 
 In Jacob's vision in Genesis xxviii., as recorded by E, un- 
 doubtedly in this particular the older of the two sources com- 
 bined in the present narrative, we have a very vivid descrip- 
 tion of the natural features of Bethel.^ The word sullam, 
 translated 'ladder' in this narrative, is a avra^ Xeyofievov in 
 classical Hebrew. It occurs, however, in late Hebrew and 
 Aramaic, Phoenician, and Arabic, meaning a ladder or a 
 
 ' Gen. xxviii. 11, 12, 17, 18, 20-22. The narration of J is contained in verses 
 10, 13, 14, 16, 19a. For further descriptions of situation cf . Gen. xii. 8, xiii. 3 ; Josh, 
 vii. 2, viii. 9-12, xii. 9. In Judges iv. 6, we find that the Palm of Deborah was near 
 Bethel. 
 
JOHN PUNNETT PETERS 237 
 
 ladder-like ascent or height. It is the name applied to the 
 promontory southward of Tyre, known to-day as the 'lad- 
 der of Tyre,' and also to the passage of the Euphrates through 
 the Taurus Mountains. It appears to indicate in these cases 
 a natural, steplike ascent, precisely such as we have at 
 Bethel. The great divide above Bethel was a sullam or 
 ladder, a great stage-tower, if we may so put it, where 
 Jacob, the ancient sage and hero, held communion with 
 God, because this ladder was at one of the doors from heaven 
 to earth. And here, at the foot of this ladder, Jacob erected 
 stones of memorial, because there he saw the heavenly high 
 place. 
 
 The erection of stones of memorial or testimony was a cus- 
 tom of the most remote antiquity, as of the present time. One 
 need only refer to such a passage as Gen. xxxi. 47 f. in proof 
 of their ancient use in Palestine. To-day one finds such 
 stones of testimony or memorial all over the country. At 
 the point where a Moslem first catches sight of a weli or 
 shrine he erects such a pile, saying, "Oh ! so-and-so, as I 
 bear testimony to you now, so bear testimony for me in the 
 day of judgment." As you come up the road from the 
 Philistine plain by way of Beth-Horon, at the point where 
 you first catch sight of Jerusalem, there is a great number of 
 such heaps, — more, I think, than I observed at any other 
 one spot. 
 
 In shape these pillars of testimony or stones of memorial 
 are identical with the curious natural columns in the stone 
 field north of Bethel. The stones in these pillars of testi- 
 mony are simply set dry upon one another. They are of dif- 
 ferent sizes and shapes ; sometimes a larger stone is set upon 
 a smaller, but the natural tendency is to taper upward. In 
 shape they are identical with the natural columns in the 
 field north of Bethel, although the latter are many times 
 larger. So exactly, however, do these resemble memorial 
 pillars in shape and general appearance that, unless one exam- 
 ines them closely, one can scarcely be induced to believe that 
 they are not made of separate stones artificially placed one 
 upon the other, but are really the result of erosion of a rock 
 field. To the ordinary eye they present an appearance as 
 though some one with many times the strength of an ordinary 
 
238 NATURE SHRINES OP ISRAEL 
 
 man had piled up huge boulders for pillars of testimony. 
 Precisely this it was which the pre-Israelites and the Israelites 
 believed had been done by Jacob, the mighty hero of the 
 past. When, in the vision of the night, he realized that he 
 was at the foot of the ladder of God, where heaven and earth 
 were joined, he took stones and set them one upon another 
 as pillars of testimony. 
 
 Recent excavations at Gezer have made us familiar with 
 one ancient out-of-door temple and have shown us how small 
 a part buildings made with hands played in that ancient 
 worship. It was my good fortune, in 1902, to be present and 
 watch the excavation of that temple by Mr. Macalister. 
 From my notes of September 23, 1902, 1 extract the follow- 
 ing, describing the stone temple as I saw it : 
 
 "It commences on the south side with two huge stones, 
 slightly turned one toward the other. Between these is a much 
 smaller phallic stone, rubbed smooth on the top and upper 
 sides by much kissing, touching, and anointing, apparently. 
 This seems to have been the original sacred stone, by which 
 the two huge stones had been set on either side to form, as 
 it were, a sanctuary for it. To the north of these stretched 
 a line of five stones of different sizes, some of them very large 
 and phallic in shape. I can only suggest that these were 
 added from time to time in token of reverence. All about 
 these stones, especially on the western side and near the orig- 
 inal phallic stone, were found quantities of phalli of dif- 
 ferent sizes, almost all of stone. At a lower level and to the 
 east of the stones is a large cave with several openings. - - At 
 one point on this side were burials of infants in jars. - - To 
 the west of the row of pillars, and in front, I think, of the 
 fourth one north from the phallus, was a huge square block 
 of quarried stone, with a square basin in the top. - - The 
 worshippers appear to have approached on the west, and on 
 that side especially were found the votive, or ritual, phalli of 
 stone and pottery." 
 
 As at Gezer, so, I fancy, it was at Bethel. Whatever there 
 may have been in the way of original building was insignifi- 
 cant, and played an unimportant part. The stones were the 
 objects of worship ; they constituted the temple and its shrines, 
 in which dwelt God or the gods. Somewhere at Bethel I 
 
JOHN PUNNETT PETERS 239 
 
 suppose, stood the golden bull, by which the worship of that 
 sanctuary was technically connected with Yahaweh. There 
 probably were also booths or hufs for the accommodation 
 of priests and prophets, but there were no important struc- 
 tures. The worshippers camped about in the open. They 
 came to the stones and presumably touched them with their 
 hands and kissed them. Some one stone, I fancy, was a spe- 
 cial mazzebah, the others constituting the sm-rounding shrines 
 or sanctuaries, as at Gezer. At the latter place, as already 
 noted, we can still identify the original mazzebah, because it 
 has been rubbed smooth by the anointing, kissing, and 
 handhng of the worshippers. But that was protected from 
 the weather under a great mass of earth. The stones of Bethel, 
 through all these ages, have been exposed to wind and weather, 
 and any marks of handling have long since been worn away. 
 
 When the nature of the great Israelite temple at Bethel 
 and the character of its worship are once realized, a new 
 significance is given to the frequent use of the word Rock as 
 a title of God in Hebrew literature and particularly in He- 
 brew poetry, which naturally preserves the older forms and 
 uses.' Rock worship was, as we know, common in Israel, 
 as it had been through all that region in earlier times, as it 
 was in primitive Greece, in Ireland, England, and in fact 
 among primitive peoples the world over. Sacred stones, in 
 which there was a special presence of God, are still used in 
 many parts of the land, but for Israel this stone worship 
 found its most striking expression and, so to speak, its can- 
 onization in Bethel.* 
 
 If in Bethel we find stone worship canonized, similarly in 
 Dan we find a canonization of the worship of God as the 
 life-giving power, expressing himself in the outpouring of 
 the waters from the deep beneath the earth. I venture 
 again to quote from my diary under date of July 24, 1902, 
 an account of a visit to Tel Kadi and Banias : 
 
 ' Cf. Ps. xviii. 2, xxviii. 1 ; Deut. xxxii. 4, 18, 30, 31 ; 2 Sam. Jtxii. 32, xxiii. 3; 
 Is. xvii. 10, xliv. 8. Cf. also the proper names in Num. i. 5, 6, 10, iii.SS, xxxiv. 28. 
 Gen. xlix. 24 may be a direct reference to Bethel. If 1 Sam. xxx. 27 really refers to 
 Bethel, then in this case Bethel and Bethsur seem to be synonymous. Cf . LXX. 
 
 * For the great sanctity of this place through the whole of: preexilic history cf . 
 Gen. XXXV. 1-16; 1 Sam. vii. 16, x. 3; 1 Ki. xii. 29-33; 2 Ki. ii. 2f., 23; Amos 
 vii. 13, and many other passages in Amos and Hosea. 
 
240 NATURE SHRINES OF ISRAEL 
 
 "Tel Kadi was a delightful surprise. It is a hill about 
 1000 feet long and one-third as wide, rising at the southern 
 end perhaps 70 to 100 ^ feet above the plain, at the northern 
 a little less, and lower in the middle. It is covered with a 
 thick growth of trees. Out of the west side come many 
 springs uniting in one large stream, and out of the very 
 centre of the tel gushes a still finer stream with a great roar. 
 The whole air is full of the sound of ' water pipes ' calling to 
 one another, as the 42d Psalm has it. That psalm was 
 composed by the side of one of these great rushing, roaring 
 sources of the Jordan, presumably at the ancient temple of 
 Dan, which stood hereabout. Near where this stream 
 throws itself over the edge of the tel to the south, by the grave 
 of a Moslem sheikh, under a couple of magnificent terebinth ® 
 trees we rested. - - By the side of the stream at the southern 
 end of the tel is its highest point, and here are rough remains 
 of older buildings of basalt blocks. But in general the tel 
 shows a brown, virgin-colored earth, not the whitish soil 
 characteristic of all old ruin sites in this country. A little 
 over half an hour to the east, up in a nook on a low terrace 
 in the mountain, another spring bursts [or rather several 
 springs] out of the ground in front of a huge cave. These 
 springs are not so impressive in volume as those at Tel 
 Kadi, and the roar and rush is less. On the other side the 
 position, just below a great cave in the side of a cliff, is 
 grand; and this site was holy in the Greek period. A 
 grotto to Pan was cut out by the side of the great cave, 
 above which is a niche for a statue. Two other niches with 
 statues stood a little lower down. Underneath all of these 
 were inscriptions and reliefs cut in the rock ; these have been 
 effaced, presumably by the Arabs, but a few letters have 
 been deciphered, enough to show their general purport. 
 Under the niche next west from the grotto I made out, as I 
 thought, a ram. Above the cave, a little to the west, is a 
 Moslem weli, showing that the sanctity of the place has 
 lingered on to the present day. It is somewhat of a ques- 
 tion whether this rather than Tel Kadi was not the site of the 
 old temple of Dan." 
 
 * Authorities give it variously, I find, as from 30 to 78 feet and over, apparently 
 varying according to the point at which they view it. ^ Eeally oak, I believe. 
 
JOHN PUNNBTT PETERS 241 
 
 In relation to the site of Dan as of Bethel travellers and 
 writers on the antiquities of Palestine have, I think, been led 
 astray by a false conception of the nature of the remains of 
 the ancient temple and town which' were to be sought at that 
 spot. Doubtless the whole neighborhood of the sources was 
 sacred, but I am inclined after most careful consideration ' 
 to think, from the situation itself, as well as from the Bible 
 references, that the Israelite sanctuary was by the great 
 fountain Leddan on Tel Kadi.* George Adam Smith in- 
 clines toward Banias, because there is no evidence about Tel 
 Kadi of walls, fortifications, and the like. We should expect 
 them at this site no more than at Bethel. The very essence 
 of this sanctuary was, so to speak, its openness. It was a 
 nature sanctuary. 
 
 Bethel plays a large part in Bible story, Dan a small one. 
 That is owing, I presume, not to any inferiority of sanctity 
 in Dan, but to the position of Bethel in relation to Samaria 
 and Jerusalem, especially the latter, the source from which 
 our knowledge of the history and the remains of the litera- 
 ture of Israel is derived. There is, however, one little col- 
 lection of psalms in which we have, I believe, an echo of the 
 sanctity of Dan, and fragments of the songs which were sung 
 at the great pilgrim festivals held there. Obscured as it is by 
 later revisions made for the purpose of adapting it to the use 
 of the Jerusalem temple, Psalm xlii. still throbs with the 
 memory of the waters and fountains that rush and roar at 
 Dan ; and Psalm xlvi., of the same collection of the psalms 
 of the sons of Korah, celebrates the sanctuary whose claim 
 to sanctity was that it lay at the source of " the river whose 
 streams make glad the city of God, the shrine of the dwell- 
 ing place of the Highest." 
 
 ' Before visiting the place I had favored the site at Banias. My visit in 1902, 
 when I spent several days in the neighborhood, and my subsequent studies, have 
 caused a change of view. 
 
 ' Can Tel Kadi be the " little hill " or hill of Mizar in Psabn xlii. ? 
 
ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK 
 MYTHOLOGY 
 
 William Hayes Wakd 
 New York City 
 
 In an article contributed to the current volume in honor 
 of Professor Charles A. Briggs, I have attempted to show 
 how the chief Hittite, or Asianic, deities passed over into 
 the Ionian and Greek mythology and kept to a great extent 
 their Oriental form and attributes. I urged that very little 
 influence came either from Phoenicia or from Egypt, and 
 very little directly from either Babylonia or Assyria, but 
 that whatever influence came from Babylonia was trans- 
 mitted to the Ionian coast through Hittite and Mitannian 
 mediums. Indeed, it is clear, I think, that almost nothing 
 was derived from the Semitic AssjT-ians, who accepted more 
 from their northern neighbors than they gave. 
 
 While special interest attaches to the chief three or four 
 Hittite deities and their transfer to the Greek religion, there 
 are yet other lines of connection which perhaps have not 
 been sufficiently considered, and to some of these it is the 
 purpose of this paper to call attention. 
 
 The Greek ideas of the lower world, the world of the dead, 
 deserve some study. They come down to us from the story 
 of the Trojan War. Were they Asianic .'* 
 
 The Greek mythology gives us an underworld where the 
 good live in bliss, and the wicked suffer punishment ; where 
 the ruler and judge is Hades, also called Pluto. He sits on 
 his throne as ruler of the shades, holding his sceptre as his 
 mark of authority, and three judges stand by him as assessors, 
 Minos, Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys. He has a wife Perseph- 
 one, whom he seized by force. There is classical authority 
 for the belief that he was the original god of the Caucones, 
 who dwelt, according to Strabo, on the seacoast of Bithynia 
 
 243 
 
244 ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY 
 
 and PapUagonia ; that is, lie was an Asianic rather than 
 a Greek divinity. His three assessors, or judges, Minos, 
 Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys, are credited to Crete, where 
 they are said to have lived at a period three generations 
 before the Trojan War. We now know that the flourishing 
 Minoan period of Knossos and Crete, as excavated by Evans 
 and others, goes far back of the Achaean immigration. It 
 had close relations with both Asia Minor and Egypt, the two 
 seats of culture, but developed its own peculiar civilization. 
 
 Equally with Greece, the Babylonians placed a god and 
 a goddess in control of the lower world. Their notion of 
 the lower world was much the same as that of the Greeks, 
 but very little like that of the Egyptians. If the Greek 
 doctrine was derived from any outside source, it was from 
 Asia and not from Egypt. Both the Greeks and the Baby- 
 lonians had their stories of the descent into the lower world. 
 We have that of Ishtar and Hasisadra on the one side, and 
 those of Herakles, Theseus, and Odysseus on the other. 
 Such stories and such beliefs must have had a common origin. 
 
 The two rulers of the Greek underworld. Hades (or Pluto) 
 and Persephone, are the parallels to Nergal and Allat as the 
 rulers of the Babylonian realm of the shades. As Nergal 
 obtained his spouse by violence, such was the rape of Per- 
 sephone by Pluto. The Babylonian story was very old, for 
 we have it apparently figured on two seals of a period as old 
 as the elder Sargon (see Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western 
 Asia, pp. 149-151, figs. 399, 400). In one of these seals 
 Nergal, identified as a god by his solar rays, attacks the bent 
 tree under which Allat sits on her throne ; while on the other 
 we have two scenes, one the attack with the axe against 
 the tree, and the other her forced acceptance of him as her 
 spouse. It would seem that there must have been some 
 connection between the two stories and a common origin, 
 yet I do not believe that this Greek mythologic element 
 came directly from Babylonia. It is much more likelj'^ that 
 it came in a modified form through the Hittite civilization 
 of Asia Minor. 
 
 I have spoken of the three assessor judges, Minos, Aiakos, 
 and Rhadamanthys. In the Egyptian religion there were 
 forty-two such judges, who sat while Thoth weighed the heart 
 
WILLIAM HAYES WARD 245 
 
 of the dead. It might seem that the Greek court of three 
 judges was derived directly from the Egyptian, but I think 
 not. There were no scales held by Pluto, and the three 
 judges had an authority superior to that of the forty-two 
 Egyptian assessors before whom the dead passed, declaring 
 in the presence of each that he had not been guilty of some 
 specific sin. Once more, I think, we have evidence that the 
 three were derived from an early Asianic source. If we 
 except the two designs already mentioned representing the 
 seizure of Allat by Nergal, I do not remember any clear 
 Babylonian representation of the lower world ; for the ex- 
 traordinary funerary tablet described by Clermont-Gan- 
 neau, and several others of the same sort, seem to be very 
 late. But we do have on the seal cylinders several repre- 
 sentations of the underworld from the Asianic region and 
 period. In one of these (Seal Cylinders, p. 283, fig. 857), 
 we see the deceased lying on a bier with flames rising from his 
 burning body. Below is the food for his use in the lower 
 world, both meat and drink. The god of the lower world 
 sits on his throne, and a bifrons herald presents three figures, 
 indicated by their pecuhar reversed crook, or lituus, as kings. 
 Were this the only case in which we find them, we might not 
 understand what is their relation to the scene ; but we again 
 find {ibidem, fig. 855) these same three in the same position 
 before the god. In yet another case (fig. 854) the lower 
 register shows the attendant spirits of the lower world bring- 
 ing food to the ghost of the dead. It is more than probable, I 
 think, that the three royal figures that stand before the seated 
 god correspond to Minos, Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys of the 
 Greek judgment scene. 
 
 A word as to Artemis. The many-breasted Diana of the 
 Ephesians is as different as can be conceived from the con- 
 ventional Greek Artemis, the modest maiden goddess who 
 ':'hanged Aktaion to a stag hunted by his own hounds for 
 the crime of having seen her at her bath. That there is an 
 Artemis native to Asia Minor is abundantly recognized, apart 
 from any Greek Artemis ; but the two were confused, and 
 the most composite of all Greek deities is Artemis. She is 
 the moon, sister of Apollo, the sun ; she is also the daughter 
 of Demeter and identified with Persephone and Hekate, the 
 
246 ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY 
 
 goddess of the underworld. She is the modest huntress 
 maiden, and yet is, with Dionysos, honored with obscene 
 dances and orgies. She is the fighting goddess who, as an 
 infant, slew the daughters of Niobe, and who killed giants, 
 and yet, as Eileithyia, she is the goddess of childbirth. She 
 is a complex, arising from the worship of a Greek and autoch- 
 thonous population of Greece and the Greek islands and 
 that of Asianic peoples. We know of no Asianic goddess 
 of the moon, although we have the Phoenician Astarte. 
 
 The familiar Greek Artemis appears to have very little 
 relation to the Diana of the Ephesians whose image fell 
 down from Jupiter. Nor is there any Hittite goddess to 
 whom she seems allied. A winged goddess on a bronze plate 
 from Olympia (Roscher, sub voce, 'Artemis,', vol. 1, part 1, 
 col. 564), lifting two lions by the hind foot like Gilgamesh, 
 is called the Asiatic Artemis, because Artemis was the hunter 
 and the protector of wild beasts. The Assyrian Ishtar, who 
 differs from the Babylonian Ishtar, might seem to be re- 
 lated to the Greek Artemis. She is decked with bows and 
 stars, and stands on a lion. To be sure the Ephesian Diana 
 also stands on a lion, but there is no other relation between 
 the two, and there is no clear evidence that Artemis was 
 related to the Assyrian Ishtar, although not improbably 
 the Assyrian Ishtar, standing on a lion, and figured in the 
 same position in Egyptian art as an Asiatic goddess, was re- 
 lated to the Greek goddess of the chase as truly as to the 
 Babylonian Ishtar. 
 
 There is a considerable number of cases in which the 
 parallel is so close between the Greek myth and the Oriental 
 myth or art that it seems in every way likely that the later 
 Western was derived from the older Eastern. We who 
 live in a scientific age cannot appreciate the easy credulity 
 with which pictures or sculptures of strange composite 
 beings would lead to the belief that such creatures had actual 
 existence in some distant land. The unicorn was supposed 
 to be a veritable animal simply because the bull was figured 
 in profile with but one horn showing. Unicorns had been 
 carved as stone pictures on temple walls ; gods and monsters 
 of all sorts figured on seals and silver bowls carried in trade 
 everywhere; and it was natural to believe that 
 
WILLIAM HAYES WARD 247 
 
 ' a grjrphon through the wilderness. 
 
 Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 
 Had from his wakeful custody purloined 
 The guarded gold." 
 
 — Milton's Paradise Lost, ii. 943. 
 
 It did not seem incredible to our ancestors a few generations 
 ago that St. George killed a dragon, yet all the evidence that 
 there were dragons was based on the familiar art that had 
 come down from a hoary antiquity. Art made such "gor- 
 gons and hydras and chimeras dire," seem as veritable to 
 them as trolls and giants "and yellow-skirted fays" to our 
 childhood. Why then should not the Ionian Greeks have 
 believed in the actual existence, farther to the East, of the 
 monsters which they saw figured on amulets and seals and in 
 larger form on the friezes of the palaces and temples of the 
 peoples with whom they traded and lived ? and why should 
 they not have adopted them into their own mythology and 
 art ? Such a composite monster as that from a Syro- 
 Hittite palace at Senjirli, a sphinx springing from the shoulder 
 of a lion, might well have given origin to the Greek chimera 
 slain by Bellerophon, with its second head growing out of the 
 back of a lion. 
 
 Whence did the Greeks get their griffins, centaurs, and 
 sphinxes ? The griffins were ornaments on vessels in Egypt 
 from the eighteenth to the twentieth dynasties, but they did 
 not originate in Egypt ; they originated in Asia, and it was 
 from Asia that they entered into Mycentean art; we find 
 them familiar in the Hittite period. Neither did they come 
 directly from Babylonia, for the early composite of Baby- 
 Ionia was a monster with the head of a lion and the body of 
 an eagle, while the true griffin has the head of an eagle and 
 the body of a lion. Egypt and Greece both took the griffin 
 from the Hittite culture of Asia Minor. 
 
 The centaurs were the youngest of these composite figures. 
 The Greeks had the feeling that they were foreign, and rep- 
 resented them as beaten back by the young Greek Lapithse, 
 the old order yielding to the new. It was the manful story 
 which Phidias told on the Parthenon. We have the centaur 
 in the art of the Hittite period on two seals (Seal Cylinders, 
 
248 ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY 
 
 figs. 631-633), which are not Assyrian. The centaur does 
 not belong to Babylonian or Assyrian art. To be sure, he 
 finally becomes Sagittarius and was placed in the heavens, 
 but that is, I think, comparatively late. 
 
 It must not be thought that any sort of composite monster 
 may be devised independently in different regions. Each 
 country has its own. The griffin of the Hittites is a complex 
 of the lion and the eagle different from that of Babylonia. 
 The monsters of Egypt are not those of Babylonia. A sphinx 
 does not originate twice. It is transferred, imported. So 
 a centaur is the product of one national source, and if we 
 find it elsewhere it is adventive. Originating with one of the 
 Asianic peoples, possibly with the Kassites (Seal Cylinders, 
 fig. 21), it spread over Asia Minor to the coasts and was 
 adopted into Greek mythology as truly as the sphinx whose 
 riddle was guessed by (Edipus. 
 
 The sphinx is the only one of these composite monsters 
 adopted into Greek mythology which originated in Egypt, 
 where it goes back into the earlier dynasties, and from which 
 country it passed over into the coasts of Asia and thence 
 eastward into Assyria and westward into Greece. In the 
 case of the sphinx, Phcenicia and Syria may well have been 
 the region from which the Greeks, and before them the 
 earlier inhabitants, received the foreign mythological 
 figure ; for it was familiar first to the Egyptianized Hauran 
 region (Seal Cylinders, fig. 811), being found on seals that 
 seem to go back of the eighteenth dynasty, and it was com- 
 mon in the later Hittite period. It did not reach Assyria 
 till later, not being familiar there much before the reign of 
 Assurbanipal. It is not characteristic of Mycenaean art, 
 although found on gold ornaments that were probably im- 
 ported. The Greeks learned of the sphinx later. 
 
 In Greek story Atlas supported, the heavens on his shoul- 
 derg, a very curious conceit. But the Hittites had a similar 
 conceit which became familiar also to the Assyrians. It 
 represents the winged disk, Ashur, or Anu, god of heaven, 
 supported by two stalwart human-headed bulls, doubled for 
 symmetry. We have it on the famous procession of Boghaz- 
 keui, and it is often repeated. The figure of the bull is that 
 of Eabani, friend of Gilgamesh, and we remember that 
 
WILLIAM HAYES WARD 249 
 
 Herakles, the Greek Gilgamesh, was the friend of Atlas, and 
 on one occasion took for a while Atlas's load. For the Greek 
 myth of Atlas it is likely that we can find the source in the 
 Hittite supporters of the winged disk which represents the 
 god of Heaven, the Arj^an Varuna. 
 
 The phoenix is by its very name Asianic, although classi- 
 cal writers also assigned its origin to Egypt. Herodotos 
 relates it to Arabia, and adds that the Assyrians call it 
 phoenix. It was often referred to Ethiopia ; but by 
 Ethiopia was meant the Cush, or Kash, of Elam. One 
 would like to find the phoenix in Oriental as well as in classical 
 art. Very likely we have it, but while in the vast multitude 
 of classical objects of art we find the phoenix distinctly rep- 
 resented building his nest for his incineration and resur- 
 rection, or already in the flames, we have only one cylinder 
 (Seal Cylinders, p. 35'2) with a Sabsean inscription, from 
 Arabia or from Arabian influence, which appears to repre- 
 sent the phoenix. It is evidently a mythical bird, of com- 
 posite form. I do not know that the phoenix appears in either 
 the old Babylonian or in the later Assyrian art. To be sure, 
 we have the composite bird with the lion's head which is 
 known as the eagle of Lagash, and in the Assyrian art the 
 ostrich and various composite birds take the place of the 
 dragon with which Bel Marduk fights or which guards the 
 tree of life ; but none of these seem to suggest the phoenix. 
 Equally we miss it in the literatiu-e of Assyria so far as that 
 is recovered; but I am inclined to find it on the broken 
 Sabsean seal referred to. It is an importation into Greece 
 from the East, but not through the usual Ionian channel. 
 
 Dionysos, or Bakchos, was held to be a Thracian god, and 
 was also worshipped in Phrygia, for the Phrygians and 
 Thracians were near neighbors. In the earlier worship of 
 Dionysos he was not distinctively the god of the vine; 
 Homer does not know him as such. Although we have no 
 definite knowledge how he happened to assume that role, 
 we may conjecture that it was through a Hittite in- 
 fluence ; for we have one figure of a locally worshipped 
 Hittite god, not one of the principal gods, carved on a rock 
 at Ibriz and nowhere else found, who corresponds exactly to 
 the more familiar character of Dionysos. He appears all 
 
250 ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY 
 
 girdled with grapes and holding as a staff tall stalks of grain. 
 He would be instantly recognized as Dionysos but for the 
 accompanying old Hittite inscription. We may think of him 
 as the original of the Greek deity of the vine, who as such was 
 a comparatively late god. 
 
 The old Roman Janus is a bifrons. The earliest knowledge 
 we have of a bifrons is from archaic Babylonian art, where, 
 by a naive convention, the divine attendant of a superior 
 god leads in a worshipper or a criminal for judgment before 
 Shamash ; and one face turns with respect to the seated god, 
 while the other watches the personage behind him. I would 
 not believe that any Latin people had any knowledge of the 
 art of that early period, but the convention was continued 
 in the northern regions (Seal Cylinders, figs. 854-857), and 
 Hittite art shows the same convention in a region from which 
 it might well have been transferred to the settlers of the 
 Ionian coasts and thence to Magna Grsecia and the Etrus- 
 cans, — for Janus was the oldest of all the Latin gods. 
 
 We have the Greek story of Ganymedes taken up to 
 heaven by an eagle to be the companion of the gods. Gany- 
 medes was the son of Tros, and brother of Ilos and Assarakos. 
 Now those names, Tros, Ilos, and Assarakos, are suspiciously 
 Asiatic, or even Semitic, and the story of his being carried 
 to heaven by an eagle is surprisingly like the story of Etana 
 lifted to heaven by an eagle. This story of Etana is several 
 times represented in Babylonian art (Seal Cylinders, p. 144). 
 We see him astride the eagle mounting to heaven, while the 
 two dogs which helped him in herding his sheep gaze up- 
 ward to watch his flight, just as on a Greek design Gany- 
 medes' hunting dog looks up in wonder to see him taken by 
 the eagle. I do not put any weight on the presence of the 
 dogs in both, and in the same attitude, for the dog was 
 equally the companion of the shepherd and the hunter ; yet 
 the Greek myth might seem to have its origin in that of 
 Babylonia. The known representations of the ascent of 
 Etana belong to an early period of Babylonian art, probably 
 from 2500 to 3000 B.C. ; but that the Ionian Greek may 
 have borrowed the kernel of the Babylonian story is made 
 plausible by the fact that it is told on tablets from the 
 library of Assurbanipal nearly 2000 years later. The related 
 
WILLIAM HAYES WARD 251 
 
 story of Adapa and the eagle was a schoolboy's tale found 
 with the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. 
 
 The very curious design shown in the work cited, fig. 
 643, of a god or hero slaying a female monster, instantly 
 suggests the exploit of Perseus in beheading the Gorgon 
 Medusa. There would be no question of this if it were 
 found on a Greek vase instead of on a seal cylinder. I do 
 not assume to judge with any certainty of its age, for the 
 type is too unusual to be compared with objects of known 
 age; but probably it is of a period as early as 600 to 800 
 B.C. Even so, it is early to be borrowed from Greece, and it 
 is not likely that it was engraved under Greek influence. 
 We see the Gorgon, if it be she, with strangely divided feet, 
 and we remember that in Greek art her limbs may end in 
 serpents, or she may even be a centaur. The attacking 
 figure, like Perseus, has his head turned back, as if to escape 
 her stony gaze ; and he carries a sickle-like weapon. It is 
 a question whether we have here the original of the Greek 
 myth of Perseus, or one of the representations in Asianic 
 art of the Gigantomachia. 
 
 The myth of the war against the Giants seems to be 
 Asianic rather than Greek. It is the Oriental Herakles who 
 overthrows them. The very fact of a war of the gods implies 
 that an old order and religion were being overturned by a 
 new, just as the Greek god Zeus overthrew Kronos, who was 
 very likely Pelasgian, and who bore the ap-n-rj, the sickle- 
 shaped sword, which came from the East. We seem to have 
 the Giants in old Asianic art, and we are told of one of the 
 most ancient of them that he came from Cilicia. I have said 
 that the scene previously mentioned may be meant to give 
 us an Asianic myth like that of Perseus killing the Gorgon, 
 rather than a war with the Giants; but there are others 
 that cannot represent the Gorgon. Such is fig. 642 of the 
 same work, where two gods attack a giant-like figure which 
 is possibly, but not probably, feminine. The attacking 
 figures are seen to be gods by the bows tipped with circles on 
 their shoulders, like those of Adad, and they bear the axe 
 of Adad. In another case, fig. 644, the kneeling giant figure 
 is distinctly bearded. The attitude on the knee is pre- 
 cisely the same as that of the supposed Gorgon ; but that 
 
252 ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY 
 
 may have been required by the necessity of representing 
 the attacked figure as superior in size to his conqueror; 
 there was not room for him to stand upright. These seals 
 do not seem to be Assyrian, but belong to some one of the 
 outlying provinces. We may well have here an early 
 Asianic representation of the Gigantomachia. 
 
 The discovery that the Hittites spoke an Aryan language 
 and that they ruled Asia Minor and Syria and Phoenicia from 
 a period long before the Greek theogony was developed, re- 
 quires us to reconsider all our old notions that the Oriental in- 
 fluence which entered into the Greek religion was Phoenician. 
 It may have been Aryan. The influence of Phoenicia has 
 been vastly exaggerated. Its colonies were much later than 
 has been supposed, for the great freebooter sailors up to 
 1200 or 1400 B.C. were from the southern coasts of Asia 
 Minor. It is the influence of Asia Minor on Greek religion 
 and mythology as against Phoenicia, and hence of an Aryan 
 rather than a Semitic influence, which it has been the pur- 
 pose of this paper to illustrate, while showing that the East 
 has a considerably larger influence on Greek religion and 
 art than has usually been recognized. Such deities as 
 Kronos, Poseidon, Ares, Dionysos, and Aphrodite, and many 
 other personages in Hellenic mythology, are doubtless wholly 
 or partly Oriental, while others, like Zeus, Apollo, Athena, 
 and Pan, are Hellenic. 
 
 In this discussion I have recognized very little Egyptian 
 influence. In early times the Egyptian influence must have 
 been very slight in Greece or in the neighboring islands. 
 The seafaring traders were not Egyptians ; the Egyptians 
 established no colonies nearer than the Hauran and the 
 Canaanite coast. What Egyptian influence entered in was 
 earlier through the Hauran, and later through Phoenicia ; 
 and I suspect that the story of Medea offering to bring to 
 life the old king Pelias after he had been cut to pieces by 
 his daughters was related to the primitive Egyptian method 
 of cutting up the bodies of the dead. We find it in the story 
 which tells how Osiris was cut in pieces by the wicked Set, 
 and the pieces brought together by Isis and Horus, and Osiris 
 thus reconstituted and brought to his throne. 
 
 To the Egyptians of old the Greeks were mere children. 
 
WILLIAM HAYES WARD 253 
 
 late comers on the stage of history. To our modern vision 
 they are the upper and nearest stratum of the pre-Christian 
 civihzation, one that, as in geologic evolution, has developed 
 and improved the forms of life that had appeared in the strata 
 below it. The excavating spade has brought to light these 
 unknown lower stages of racial culture. As the present 
 horse is evolved out of the older hipparion, and that out of 
 an earlier eohippus, so the Greek gods and the Greek myths, 
 with all their fascinations, have risen out of lower and coarser 
 myths and gods of older races and times. All the culture 
 of the various East was gathered into the Greek soul and 
 there clarified and illuminated by the new element of beauty ; 
 so that the new supreme civilization, having reached its 
 highest intellectual perfection, and needing nothing more 
 except the spiritual impulse to be caught from David and 
 Jesus, should mightily spread and diffuse itself over the con- 
 tinents and flow down all the succeeding ages. Greece was 
 the child of all the cultures that had gone before. From her 
 we inherit them all, and it is for us to search the garrets 
 and cellars for our heirlooms. As was said of the celestial 
 Jerusalem, Athens is free and is the mother of us all. We all 
 trace our descent from that little peninsula, scarce noted on 
 the world's map, but the omphalos of the oUovfievr), the 
 sacred, central, perennial spring of all succeeding civiUza- 
 tions. 
 
THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS^ 
 
 George Foot Moore 
 Harvard University 
 
 The Arian controversy had led the church to affirm the 
 union of God and man in Christ, but the relation of the divine 
 and human natures to each other and to the personality of 
 Christ was left unsettled. Arius, like Lucian of Antioch 
 before him, had denied that Christ had a human soul ; the 
 (created) Logos assumed a body without a soul (a-cbfia a^vx^ov). 
 His opponent, Athanasius, in the zeal of his contention for 
 the divine, uncreated Logos, identical in essence with the 
 Father, expressed himself similarly: "As the Logos is from 
 eternity God and Son, so by the assumption of flesh from 
 the Virgin (the Mother of God, ©eoTOKO'i), he became also 
 man." Marcellus is more explicit : the Logos is the Ego 
 in the personality of Christ ; the human nature which is the 
 organ and substratum of the Logos is impersonal. 
 
 ApolUnaris, on the basis of the Platonic trichotomy, 
 taught that man consists of a material body, an animal soul, 
 the principle of life, and a mind or spirit (i^oO?), the principle 
 of wisdom and self-determination. If then the Logos be 
 supposed to unite with a complete man, there would be in 
 Christ two principles of self-determination, two free wills, 
 and consequently two persons between which no true union 
 exists. Accordingly he held that in Christ the Logos fills 
 the place of the rational soul. 
 
 Against these theories of a mutilated human nature in 
 
 ' The statutes of the School at Nisibis were published by I. Guidi, Giornale della 
 Societa Aslatica Italiana, 4 (1890), 165-195. German translation by E. Nestle, 
 Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 18 (1897-1898), 211-229. 
 
 Chabot, J.-B., L'Ecole de Nisibe, son histoire, ses statuts. Journal Asiatique, 
 Neuvieme Serie, 8 (1896), 43-93. 
 
 Kihn, H., Theodor von Mopsuestia und Junilius Africanus als Exegeten. 1880. 
 
 255 
 
256 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS 
 
 Christ — Arian or Apollinarian — the Antiochian School 
 contended for a complete humanity,^ including free will, and 
 gave to the historical Christ a place in theology from which 
 the development of Christological dogma was step by step 
 excluding him. Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mop- 
 suestia laid stress upon the development of Jesus, not only 
 in body but in mind and character (Luke ii. 52) ; on the 
 reality of his temptations ; the evidence of human weakness, 
 fear, and suffering of mind and body ; the limitations of his 
 knowledge. They held that he was in fact sinless, but would 
 not admit that it was by the constitution of his nature im- 
 possible for him to sin. A human nature without a rational 
 soul and all that that implies is not really human nature. 
 The mode of union, for which the word awdcfjeia is employed, 
 they admit to be undefinable ; but they could only conceive 
 the indwelling of God in Christ as analogous to his indwelling 
 in prophets and apostles and godly men, although in Christ 
 this indwelling was so complete as to constitute a unique be- 
 ing. The divine and the human in him preserved each its full 
 integrity and distinctive characteristics, so that the union was 
 rather moral than physical or substantial, and was thus 
 progressively realized, becoming more intimate with time, 
 and in the end inseparable. The dwelling of God in the man 
 Jesus was neither Kar ovaiav nor Kar ivepyeiav but KaTei/So/ciav. 
 A real transfer or interchange of the predicates of the two 
 natures they would not acknowledge. It would be per- 
 fectly correct, Theodore says, to speak, not merely of two 
 natures, but of two persons, in Christ, for a being (uTro'o-Tao-t?) 
 is not perfect except as a person. Their position here may 
 be better appreciated by contrasting it with a writing at- 
 tributed to Athanasius which speaks of "the one enfleshed 
 nature of the God-Logos." Their emphasis on self-deter- 
 mination as the essence of personality logically led the 
 
 ' Other opponents of ApoUinaris, such as the Gregories, and Athanasius himself 
 (in 362 A.D.), also give Christ a rational soul, but — with a manifest trend toward 
 monophysite theories (and in Hilary with a docetic tendency) — taught that the 
 humanity is penetrated by divinity or assumed into it in such a way as to become 
 one with it by a ^poio-is ^utri/ti; (Athanasius). So Cyril, in the Nestorian con- 
 troversy, maintained that the Logos assumed the human nature into the unity of 
 his being without undergoing change, so that there was one indivisible subject; 
 the union was with the human nature, not with a human individuality. 
 
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 257 
 
 Antiochians to take the Pelagian side in the Western con- 
 troversy. 
 
 The doctrine of Nestorius is essentially the same as that 
 of Theodore. When he went to Constantinople as Patriarch, 
 in 428, he found notions of the person of Christ current which 
 logically implied ApoUinarian premises and were irreconcil- 
 able with his true and full humanity. The conflict was pre- 
 cipitated by a sermon of Anastasius, the private secretary of 
 Nestorius, who had accompanied him from Antioch, in which 
 the preacher objected to the application of the epithet Beoro- 
 KO'i, Mother of God, to the Virgin : "She was but a woman. 
 It is impossible for God to be born of a human being." 
 In the commotion which followed, Nestorius warmly sup- 
 ported Anastasius. "How," he wrote, "can Mary be @eo- 
 to'ko? ? Has God a mother ? Then the heathen must be 
 right who give their gods mothers, and Paul a liar who says 
 of the divinity of Christ that he was aTrdrmp koI aurjTmp. 
 Mary did not bear God, a creature bear the uncreated, but 
 she bore a human being who is the organ of divinity." The 
 union of the divine nature and the human implied no deifi- 
 cation of the human nature. 
 
 Cyril of Alexandria became the leader of the attack upon 
 Nestorius. As a result of his unscrupulous tactics, with the 
 support of the Bishop of Rome, Coelestine, the Council of 
 Ephesus (431 a.d.) proceeded not only to condemn the teach- 
 ing of Nestorius, but to depose him. But inasmuch as the 
 teaching of Nestorius was not essentially different from that 
 of Diodorus and Theodore, the condemnation tacitly in- 
 volved these venerated teachers, and did not readily find 
 acceptance in the Syrian schools, where their influence was 
 greatest. Bishop Rabulas, a vehement champion of the 
 decrees of Ephesus, found himself constrained in 431 or 
 432 to remove the teachers of the great theological school at 
 Edessa for maintaining, in accordance with the tradition of 
 the school, the views of Theodore ; but under his successor, 
 Ibas (Bishop in 435), the school was reopened, and the same 
 doctrines were again heard in its lecture-rooms, until finally, 
 in 489, at the instance of Bishop Cyrus, the Emperor Zeno 
 closed it altogether as a well-spring of heresy. The ex- 
 pulsion of the Nestorian ecclesiastics by Rabulas (431) drove 
 
258 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBI8 
 
 some of them across the border into Persian territory, 
 among them Barsumas, who shortly after became Bishop 
 of Nisibis (435-489). The fact that the Nestorians were 
 persecuted in the Roman Empire was suflBcient reason why 
 they should be favored by the Persians ; and in the first period 
 of this favor Nestorian Christianity gained ground rapidly 
 in Persia, partly at the expense of the orthodox, partly by 
 conversions from Mazdaism. 
 
 The closing of the school of Edessa in 489 drove the pro- 
 fessors and students to Nisibis, where they were cordially re- 
 ceived by Barsumas, and the fame and influence of the school 
 there dates from this time. Its first head was Narses, who 
 had a great reputation as scholar and saint; his successors 
 worthily followed in his footsteps, and at the end of the sixth 
 century, when the school had reached its highest point, it 
 numbered about eight hundred students. Other schools 
 were established, at Seleucia for example, but none of them 
 rivalled Nisibis, which was for two centuries or more the 
 principal institution for the training of the clergy of Persia 
 and of the Nestorian missionaries who carried Christianity 
 to the remotest quarters of Asia. Its decline is coincident 
 with the general decay of Christianity in the East, but only 
 in the ninth century did it yield the preeminence to the 
 school at Bagdad, the capital of the Califate. 
 
 The statutes of the school at Nisibis at two periods in its 
 history have been preserved ; those adopted in 496, shortly 
 after its foundation, and reaflBrmed in 530, and new regula- 
 tions from the year 590. Inasmuch as it is the only insti- 
 tution of the kind with whose organization we are acquainted, 
 these statutes are of considerable interest. 
 
 The school was a corporation, with various privileges and 
 a considerable degree of self-government, though subject 
 ultimately to the authority of the Bishop. The Superior 
 was chosen from the professors, among whom the Professor 
 of Biblical Exegesis was the first in rank. The administra- 
 tion was committed to a Superintendent elected annually 
 by the convocation of the members of the college, who ful- 
 filled the duties of a steward, dean, and librarian ; but in im- 
 portant matters he was required to obtain the approval of a 
 Council consisting of the Superior and the leading brethren. 
 
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 259 
 
 Like institutions for the training of the clergy in the West 
 until a comparatively recent time, the school at Nisibis re- 
 sembled a monastic foundation. The students, and doubt- 
 less the teachers, lived in the coUfege, and many of the rules 
 in the statutes regulate this common life. By the supple- 
 mentary statutes, non-collegiate students are allowed to live 
 in private quarters in the city when there is not room enough 
 for them in the college. Students were admitted after 
 satisfying the Superintendent and the Council of their fitness 
 and being made acquainted with the statutes — a kind of 
 matriculation; the statutes were also publicly read once a 
 year. The entrants promised to remain unmarried ; students 
 who married during their course of study were expelled. 
 
 The course of theological study lasted three years, with 
 a vacation of three months, from August to October. The 
 instruction was free, but the students had to provide for their 
 living out of their private means or to earn it by working in 
 vacation. Those unable to work might receive aid from the 
 Superintendent so far as he had means at his disposal ; beg- 
 ging from house to house was, however, strictly prohibited. 
 In term time students were not allowed to undertake any 
 occupation, lest it should withdraw them from their studies ; 
 even tutoring boys in the city was forbidden. During the 
 vacation they might work at an honest handicraft in the city 
 of Nisibis itself ; but if they engaged in merchandising of any 
 kind, it must be outside the city, in order, probably, not to 
 infringe upon the privileges of the tradesmen's guilds. 
 
 Study hours were long. At cockcrow the students took 
 their places in the study hall, and spent the entire day copy- 
 ing books, hearing lectures, and learning to intone the services. 
 After chapel in the evening they were obliged to retire to 
 their rooms. Talking about ordinary affairs or making a 
 disturbance in the schoolroom was punished by removal. 
 Idling was visited with reproof; and if that did not work 
 an amendment, relegation followed. Professors who, with- 
 out permission of the President or without urgent cause such 
 as illness, omitted their lectures, had their salary reduced 
 and were excluded from the Council. Students had to take 
 their meals in common in their quarters ; they were forbid- 
 den to eat in bakeshops or inns, to spend the night in the 
 
260 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS 
 
 city, and to take part in picnics or garden parties. The 
 sick were cared for by their companions in their rooms or in 
 an infirmary which was later estabhshed. Students were 
 enjoined to pay attention to their personal appearance ; 
 when they went into the city they must be decently and 
 modestly clothed ; they must neither shave off all their hair, 
 nor wear it in the long frizzed locks which were affected by 
 the young dandies of the time. 
 
 The order of studies is not defined in the statutes. A 
 regulation which has often been quoted in this connection 
 really refers only to the copying of the Scriptures and 
 practice in reciting the liturgy. In the first year students 
 copied the Book of Paul (that is, as Kihn plausibly surmises, 
 the lectures on Biblical Introduction of which we shall have 
 to speak later) and the Pentateuch ; in the second year, the 
 Psalms and the Prophets ; in the third, the New Testament ; 
 and in each year, also, one-third of the second division of the 
 Nestorian Old Testament, the so-called mauthdbe. If every 
 student was required to copy the entire Bible during his 
 course for his own use — church copies would of course be 
 made by professional scribes — the ministry of the Nestorian 
 church must have been better provided than any other at 
 that time. 
 
 About the character of the instruction we know a good 
 deal from other sources. The Nestorians made themselves 
 the heirs of Antiochian Biblical scholarship. Theodore of 
 Mopsuestia was for them "the exegete"; at Nisibis his 
 authority was indeed in later time so great that for a pro- 
 fessor to contradict his interpretation was sufficient ground 
 for removal. 
 
 The first distinguished name in the school of Antioch is 
 that of the bishop and martyr Lucian (died in 311 or 312), 
 whose fame rests upon his work as critic and editor of the 
 text of both Old and New Testaments. The great period 
 in its history opens with Diodorus (died 394), who long 
 taught at Antioch before he became Bishop of Tarsus (378) . 
 Among his hearers were Chrysostom (died 407) ; Theodore 
 (died 428) and his brother Polychronius ; Isidore of Pelusium 
 (died 434), from whom we have the best exposition of the 
 hermeneutics of the school. Nestorius (died 440) was a pupil 
 
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 261 
 
 of Theodore ; and Theodoret (died 457), a pupil of Chrysos- 
 tom and Theodore — the catalogue includes the greatest ex- 
 egetes of the Greek church. 
 
 In opposition to the Alexandrfans, who followed Clement 
 and Origen and cultivated the allegorical-mystical method 
 of interpretation of which the Jewish theologian Philo was the 
 great exemplar, depreciating the literal and historical sense, 
 the Antiochians developed the principles of a rational exe- 
 gesis. It is the business of the interpreter, in the use of all 
 the means which philology and history put in his hands, to 
 find out the literal sense which is everywhere present in 
 Scripture, the meaning of the author. They recognize that 
 the language of Scripture is often figurative, but to explain 
 the meaning of figures of speech is part of the literal inter- 
 pretation. In many persons and events in the Old Testa- 
 ment they saw types of the New Testament dispensation 
 which may be regarded as prophecies in fact ; ^ but the 
 historical reality and significance of the events is not evap- 
 orated, as it is by allegorists. The predilection of these 
 scholars for Aristotle, especially for his logical and methodo- 
 logical writings, appears in their hermeneutics, as the influ- 
 ence of his rational philosophy is dominant in their theology, 
 while the Alexandrians Platonize and Philonize. 
 
 Theodore of Mopsuestia represents the tendencies of the 
 Antiochian school in their freest development. In his exe- 
 gesis the historico-critical side is especially developed, and 
 in the field of what is called the higher criticism he displays 
 both acumen and boldness. He rejected, for example, the 
 titles of the Psalms as no part of the inspired text and as 
 historically worthless, and attempted, in the same way as 
 modern critics and to some extent with the same results, 
 to refer the individual Psalms on internal evidence to par- 
 ticular periods or circumstances. Seventeen Psalms are thus 
 referred to the Maccabaean times ; only nineteen to David 
 and his age. Direct predictions of Christ he admits in but 
 four Psalms, though many others contain typical prophecies 
 of the Messianic age or the future consummation. It would 
 be interesting to compare Theodore on these points with 
 
 ' It has been remarked that their attitude resembles in many ways that of the 
 "Federal" school of theologians. 
 
262 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS 
 
 Calvin, "the exegete" of the Reformation, who had in other 
 ways no slight affinity with Theodore. 
 
 Theodore's views on the canon are radical. He not only 
 excludes the books of the Old Testament which Protestants 
 call the Apocrypha, along with Chronicles, Ezra, Nehe- 
 miah, and Esther, which the Syrian churches never received, 
 but he did not acknowledge the inspiration of Job, in which 
 he saw a drama patterned after Greek models. The Song 
 of Solomon, which he also rejected, was an altogether secular 
 poem, composed for Solomon's wedding with the Egyptian 
 princess, and as a defence or excuse for his conduct in that 
 matter. 
 
 Theodore recognized different kinds and degrees of in- 
 spiration. The inspiration of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, 
 for example, was very different from that of the prophets : 
 " Proverbia et Ecclesiastica, quae ipse (sc. Salomo) ex sua 
 persona ad aliorum utilitatem composuit, cum prophetiae 
 quidem gratiam non accepisset, prudentiae vero gratiam, 
 quae evidenter altera est praeter illam secundum beati 
 Pauli vocem (1 Cor. xii. 8)." Sound advice for getting on 
 in the world is a very different thing from the revelation 
 of the Kingdom of God. These propositions were con- 
 demned by the Second Council of Constantinople. 
 
 The Antiochian theory of prophecy was not only more 
 rational than the Platonic-mantic doctrine of inspiration in 
 the Alexandrian Fathers, but was a sounder interpretation of 
 the phenomena, and more just to the historical significance 
 of prophecy and its end in the economy of revelation ; and 
 among the Antiochians Theodore gives the clearest and 
 sanest exposition and application of the principles. Every 
 prophecy was given in a particular historical situation, and 
 in its primary significance and application has to do with 
 the prophet's present and the immediate future. But proph- 
 ecy has also a remoter motive and end, to prepare the way 
 for the Kingdom of God, for the coming of Christ and the 
 redemption of mankind, and beyond that for the glorious 
 fulfilment in the world to come. The twofold meaning of 
 prophecy is not properly a double sense ; the Messianic fulfil- 
 ment is pragmatically connected in the divine plan with the 
 events of the prophet's time. "Thus the prophecies set 
 
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 263 
 
 forth conditions and events which are organically related to 
 one another, for the purpose of furthering the development 
 of the Kingdom of God on earth and bringing to realization 
 the divine plan for the redemption ©f all mankind."^ 
 
 The historical interpretation of prophecy is therefore the 
 first task of the interpreter ; the historical understanding is 
 the premise of the Messianic interpretation. In his com- 
 mentary on the Minor Prophets Theodore applies these 
 principles with intelligence and sobriety. In many prophe- 
 cies which the Fathers in general took as plain predictions 
 of Christ, he finds neither a direct nor a typical Messianic 
 sense, but refers them exclusively to events in the history of 
 Israel. 
 
 In his views on the mode of prophetic inspiration, Theo- 
 dore is equally sane. There are in both the Old Testament 
 and the New instances of ecstasy with complete suppression 
 of the prophet's consciousness, the impressions of sense and 
 the activities of his intelligence being alike inhibited ; but 
 the ordinary mode of revelation is an inner illumination, 
 the Holy Spirit awaking in the inmost soul of the prophet 
 thoughts and images by a spiritual perception, without 
 sensible forms, so that the (inner) "vision" is equivalent to 
 the "word of the Lord," which itself is no audible commu- 
 nication, but an inner experience. 
 
 By singular good fortune, a course of lectures on Biblical 
 Introduction by a professor in the school at Nisibis has been 
 preserved under the name of Junilius Africanus. The man- 
 ner of its transmission is interesting. The dedicatory pref- 
 ace is addressed to Primasius, who was Bishop of Adrume- 
 tum in North Africa in the middle of the sixth century. The 
 writer, Junilius, was not, as was formerly supposed, a bishop, 
 but a jurist, and an official at the court of the Emperor 
 Justinian, where he filled the high office of Quaestor Sacri 
 Palatii. On a visit to Constantinople, Primasius had asked 
 Junihus whether there was any one among the Greeks who 
 was conspicuous in Biblical science. Junilius replied that 
 he had met a certain Paul, a Persian (i.e. a subject of the 
 Persian empire), who had been educated in the school of the 
 
 * Kihn, p. 97 f . 
 
264 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS 
 
 Syrians at Nisibis, "where instruction in the divine law is 
 systematically and regularly given by public professors, as 
 among us grammar and rhetoric are taught as branches of 
 secular learning." Junilius had obtained from him a text- 
 book on hermeneutics which he was accustomed to give in 
 the form of lectures to his students at the beginning of their 
 course as an introduction to the study of Scripture. Of this 
 book Junilius sent Primasius a Latin translation in catechetic 
 form, under the title Instituta Regularia Divinae Legis. 
 
 Biblical science, so the treatise begins, has two branches, 
 one of which deals with the form, the other with the content, 
 of Scripture — we should say, Biblical Criticism and 
 Biblical Theology. The problems of Biblical Criticism may 
 be grouped under five heads : 1, the class of literature to 
 which a book belongs — historical, prophetic, gnomic, di- 
 dactic ; 2, the authority of the book ; 3, its authorship ; 
 4, its literary form — poetry or prose ; 5, its place in the 
 economy of revelation — Old Testament, New Testament. 
 
 These topics are taken in order. After concisely defining 
 history as the narration of past or contemporary events, 
 the author enumerates the historical books of both Testa- 
 ments. Besides the seventeen historical books which he 
 acknowledges, "many include Chronicles (two books), Job, 
 Tobit, Ezra (with Nehemiah), Judith, Esther, two Books of 
 Maccabees," which the author denies a place in the canon 
 because they are not acknowledged by Jews.^ Prophecy is 
 defined as the disclosure by divine inspiration of things 
 otherwise unknown, whether past, present, or future. 
 Among the prophetic Scriptures the Psalms are reckoned. 
 The prophets are arranged, not in the order of the Greek 
 Bible, but chronologically, Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, and 
 so on, ending with Malachi. The Orientals have grave 
 doubts about the canonicity of the Revelation of John.® 
 To the gnomic literature belong the Proverbs of Solomon 
 and the Song of Songs.'' In the last category, didactic, 
 
 ^ There is some inaccuracy about this statement. Jerome, who is quoted, refers 
 only to the Apocrypha. Perhaps Junilius is at fault. 
 
 • This is cautiously worded, perhaps, by Junilius. A Syrian would have ex- 
 pressed himself more positively about a book which his church had never accepted. 
 
 ' Ecclesiastes is not mentioned in either class. 
 
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 265 
 
 the Epistles of James, Second Peter, Jude, Second and Third 
 John, are included "by very many"; the author himself 
 does not rank them as canonical. 
 
 The author's teaching on the authority of Scripture is 
 a corollary of his views on the canon : of perfect authority are 
 the unquestioned canonical books ; of qualified authority the 
 books which the author, with the Nestorians generally, did 
 not accept, but which some branches of the church included 
 in the canon ; other books reputed inspired were of no au- 
 thority whatever. The distinction between the authority 
 of books universally accepted and those whose canonicity 
 was disputed is made also by Augustine, De Doctrina 
 Christiana, ii. 8, and anticipates the classification of Scripture 
 as canonic and deuterocanonic by Sixtus Senensis and later 
 Cathohc scholars. 
 
 Passing to the second branch of Biblical science. Biblical 
 Theology, the relation of the Old Testament to the New in 
 the economy of revelation is thus defined : the purpose of 
 the Old Testament is to point to the New by figures and 
 foretellings, of the New to kindle men's souls to the glory 
 of eternal blessedness. 
 
 The law of God is either the law of conscience within man, 
 or is disclosed in nature, providence, and history, or finally, 
 is given by God in the form of statute. The last is either 
 immutable, e.g. the love of God and our neighbor, or tran- 
 sient, such as circumcision or the rules about the gathering 
 of manna. Some laws are profitable in themselves, some 
 necessary on account of others ; some are carnal, like the 
 Jewish distinctions of clean and unclean, others spiritual ; 
 some are peculiar to the Old Testament, some to the New, 
 others again, such as Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, are 
 common to both. 
 
 The subject of prediction and prophetic tj^es is treated 
 at some length. A type may be defined as a real prophecy, 
 a prophecy in things or facts, in distinction from a prophecy 
 in words ; for example, the resurrection of our Lord and his 
 abiding in heaven is a type of our resurrection, and points 
 to the future habitation of the righteous in heaven ; the ark 
 of Noah is a figure of the church, and the like. Predictions 
 are classified somewhat minutely, especially the Messianic 
 
266 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS 
 
 prophecies and those referring to the caUing of the Gen- 
 tiles. 
 
 In the last chapters the author sets forth the familiar proofs 
 of the inspiration of Scripture — among which, however, the 
 testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti is not included — and 
 the norm for the understanding of Scripture. The latter 
 may be quoted as an example of the author's sound her- 
 meneutic principles : What is said must be suitable to the 
 speaker, and must accord with the reasons for which it is 
 said ; it must be congruous with the time, the place, the stage 
 of revelation, and the purpose. The purpose of the divine 
 teaching in Scripture is defined by our Lord, viz. that we 
 should love God with all our heart and soul, and our neighbors 
 as ourselves. Not to love God or our neighbor is therefore 
 a repudiation of Christian doctrine (doctrinae . . . cor- 
 ruptio est e contrario deum non amare vel proximum). The 
 root of evil is the abuse of freedom: "Quia dum libero ar- 
 bitrio a deo bene concesso inordinate utuntur, rationales 
 creaturae et malitiae et poenae causa sibimet existerunt." 
 With Theodore of Mopsuestia, the notion of original sin is 
 here rejected. 
 
 The Nestorian church in the sixth century seems to have 
 been in advance of any other branch of the church in the 
 systematic education of its ministry by a three years' course 
 in an institution exclusively devoted to theological study. 
 In its instruction the Bible had the central place; in its 
 faculty the Professor of Biblical Exegesis held the first rank. 
 Sound principles of interpretation prevailed, and critical 
 opinions were freely uttered which would not have been 
 tolerated in our own seminaries a generation ago — and in 
 many of them are not tolerated now. In the Catholic church, 
 after the condemnation of the Nestorians, the Biblical 
 science as well as the theology of the Antiochian school was 
 under a cloud; here also the Alexandrians triumphed. 
 The critical views of Theodore were condemned, along with 
 others, by the Second Council of Constantinople (533, The 
 Three Chapters) ; his works were zealously sought out and 
 destroyed. Only among the Nestorians, beyond the bounds 
 of the Empire, were his writings cherished, only there did 
 his rational method survive. 
 
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 267 
 
 Through Junilius' translation, Paul's compendious and 
 lucid Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures had, how- 
 ever, considerable influence in the West. Cassiodorus, 
 whose services as a statesman in his own time are not more 
 conspicuous than his eflforts to keep the lamps of sacred and 
 profane learning aflame in the night of barbarism that was 
 settling upon Italy, in his De Institutione Divinarum 
 Literarum, which in many ways resembles Junilius' In- 
 stituta Regularia, names Junilius among the authors of 
 treatises on Introduction, and in the institution which he 
 founded at Viviers, "an asylum of literature and the liberal 
 arts," may well have had the great school at Nisibis in mind. 
 Through the Middle Ages, the compend of Junilius along 
 with that of Cassiodorus was used as a text-book. Junilius 
 was supposed to be an orthodox bishop, and the very un- 
 orthodox teaching of the book does not seem to have dis- 
 turbed anybody. The authority of Augustine, however, 
 who in his De Doctrina Christiana laid down a method of 
 interpretation not essentially different from Origen's, neu- 
 tralized the influence of the sounder principles of the Anti- 
 ochian scholar as well as the critical tradition represented 
 by Jerome. 
 
THE TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM THE 
 ORIGINAL ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 Charles C. Torret 
 Yale University 
 
 The question of the original language (or languages) of 
 the Synoptic Gospels, or rather, of the documentary sources 
 which underlie them, is just now being earnestly discussed. 
 This is the question which perhaps occupies the central 
 point of interest in the present study of the New Testament 
 text. Recent investigations, or essays bearing on the sub- 
 ject, fall naturally into two main groups : those which ap- 
 proach the matter from the Semitic side, and those which 
 come to it from the side of a fresh study of Hellenistic Greek. 
 
 On the one hand, the progress of Semitic studies has at 
 last made it seem possible to attack these most difficult 
 problems with good hope of partial success. Owing to the 
 accumulation of important new material, and to the help 
 given by more thorough linguistic investigation, we have 
 been gaining in recent years a greater familiarity with the 
 Aramaic idioms of Palestine, as well as with classical Hebrew. 
 Much that was uncertain only a short time ago is now firm 
 standing ground. The important equipment of the present- 
 day investigator from this side, however, does not so much 
 consist in the more exact knowledge of the Semitic languages, 
 and especially of Aramaic, as it does in a clearer understand- 
 ing of the literary problems involved, and of the whole 
 historical situation in which the first Christian writings 
 appear. It is not because of advance along any one line, 
 but along many lines of investigation, that important scraps 
 of evidence, often too minute to seem worthy of serious 
 notice, are now readily recognized and used, which a genera- 
 tion ago could hardly have been either observed or inter- 
 preted correctly. It is, therefore, a fact of considerable 
 significance that an increasing number of Semitic scholars 
 
 269 
 
270 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 are holding more or less positively the theory of written 
 Semitic sources underlying at least a considerable part of 
 the Synoptic Gospels. 
 
 On the other hand, we have recently gained a very much 
 increased knowledge of the Hellenistic Greek which was 
 spoken and written at about the beginning of the Christian 
 era. Thanks especially to the great finds of papyri which 
 have been made in Egypt, a flood of light has been thrown 
 upon the Koivrj, both in its various dialects and in the 
 characteristics which it exhibits in all parts of the modern 
 Greek-speaking world. The result, for the study of the New 
 Testament in particular, has been a most important one. 
 Much of what had long been characterized as 'New Testa- 
 ment Greek' or 'Biblical Greek' is now found to have been 
 in common use elsewhere. Many peculiarities of vocabu- 
 lary and syntax which had been supposed to be due to the 
 influence of the Greek Old Testament or to that of Hebrew 
 or Aramaic dialects spoken in Palestine, are now shown to 
 have existed in regions and under circumstances where no 
 such influence could have been at work, and we are led to 
 conclude that these idioms belong to the inner development 
 of the vulgar Greek itself. 
 
 So far as the question of the original language of the Sy- 
 noptic Gospels is concerned, however, the situation has not 
 suffered any such change as some appear to believe. Thei 
 most of those students of the New Testament who have dis- 
 cussed the phenomena brought to light by the widening of 
 the horizon of late Greek have failed to make any careful 
 distinction between the Greek of Paul and that of Matthew, 
 or between that in which the Epistle to the Hebrews is 
 written and that of the Apocalypse. Many who had been 
 favorably disposed towards the theory of Semitic sources 
 in the Synoptic Gospels have abandoned that view, and 
 express their belief that "New Testament Greek" poss,esses 
 no peculiarities not shared by the profane Greek in ordinary 
 use at that time. There are thus, at present, two rival 
 camps, the one insisting on the evidences of translation 
 which appear in the first three Gospels, or elsewhere in the 
 New Testament, and the other denying the existence of 
 such evidence. The great majority of New Testament 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 271 
 
 scholars, it may be added, seem to belong to neither one of 
 these two parties, but content themselves with saying that 
 while it is quite possible that Aramaic or Hebrew documents 
 may have formed the basis of our Gospels, or of a portion of 
 the Acts, or of the Apocalypse, the fact cannot be demon- 
 strated at any point with absolute certainty. The question 
 of translation, they say, though interesting, is purely aca- 
 demic, and so far as assured practical results are concerned 
 it is of little or no use to try to go behind our Greek sources 
 in the oldest form of them which we can reconstruct from 
 evidence of manuscripts and versions. 
 
 Some very industrious students of the whole problem 
 have concluded, in view of the new evidence, that the hypoth- 
 esis of Aramaic documents rendered into Greek is not only 
 unnecessary but untenable. Deissmann's Bibelstudien was 
 influential in this direction, though it was not directly 
 concerned with the main question, but merely contributed 
 material. Wernle, in his Synoptische Frage (1899), puts 
 it down as a "still unshaken fact" (eine immer noch uner- 
 schiitterte Thatsache) that our Gospels and their written 
 sources were originally Greek. There has been, however, 
 no thoroughgoing discussion of the matter from either side ; 
 indeed, it may fairly be said that thorough treatment of the 
 material in hand can hardly be expected at present. There 
 has been but one noteworthy presentation of the case from 
 the Semitic side, namely that of Wellhausen, in his Einlei- 
 tung in die drei ersten Evangelien (first ed., 1905), supple- 
 mented by the notes accompanying his translation of the 
 Synoptic Gospels. Wellhausen's investigation, it is need- 
 less to say, is masterly so far as it goes ; it might, however, 
 have been carried much further and made more convincing. 
 I shall often have occasion to refer to it in the sequel. 
 
 One thing that has made, and is still making, a good deal 
 of confusion in the discussion of these questions is a careless 
 use of terms. The comprehensive phrase 'New Testament 
 Greek' is still used very much too loosely, as though all of 
 the documents which make up this collection of writings were 
 written in one and the same approximately homogeneous 
 idiom. 
 
 To take one or two examples : Professor J. H. Moulton in The 
 
272 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 Expositor, 1904, p. 68, after speaking of the exploded theory 
 that " the New Testament writers" wrote in a Greek which 
 derived its pecuharities chiefly from the Greek Old Testa- 
 ment and from the influence of the vernacular Aramaic, goes 
 on to say: "And now all this has vanished, for Biblical 
 Greek is isolated no more. Great collections of Egyptian 
 papyri published with amazing rapidity by the busy ex- 
 plorers who have restored to us so many lost literary treas- 
 ures during the last decade have shown us that the farmer 
 of the Fayum spoke a Greek essentially identical with that 
 of the Evangelists. The most convincing 'Hebraisms' 
 appear in the private letters of men who could never have 
 been in contact with Semitic influences." And on p. 67 : 
 "The disappearance of that word 'Hebraic' from our defini- 
 tions marks a revolution in the conception of the language in 
 which the New Testament is written." And, again, on 
 p. 74 : "But the papyri have finally disposed of the assump- 
 tion that the New Testament was written in any other Greek 
 than the language of the common people throughout the 
 Greek-speaking lands." ^ 
 
 But what is "Biblical Greek"? And what is the "lan- 
 guage in which the New Testament is written"? If the 
 question of possible Semitic sources for parts of the New 
 Testament is to be discussed seriously, this is a very bad way 
 to begin. So far as Semitic coloring is concerned, there are 
 great differences which need to be taken into account at the 
 outset. The Synoptic Gospels stand at a considerable dis- 
 tance from the Gospel of John in this regard, in spite of their 
 close literary relationship, while between the Synoptic 
 Gospels and the writings of Paul, for example, there is a 
 great gulf fixed. A layman after reading such statements 
 as those which I have just quoted would be likely to suppose 
 that the evidence of the papyri has already settled, or 
 nearly settled, the question of 'translation-Greek' in the 
 New Testament; that it has shown, at all events, that the 
 hypothesis of such translation is not anywhere absolutely 
 necessary. But as a matter of fact, the evidence furnished 
 by the papyri and by inscriptions has hardly touched the 
 
 ' Repeated in his Grammar of New Testament Greek (1906), p. 18 f. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 273 
 
 real question at all. In the case of most of the documents 
 of the New Testament, the question of translation from a 
 supposed Semitic original could never arise, among properly 
 equipped scholars. It is only in the dkse of a few of the writings 
 that the probability has been shown, and the line needs now 
 to be drawn more sharply than ever between these writings 
 and their fellows. 
 
 As Professor Moulton says (in this same series of articles, 
 passim), it has been shown that a good many words and 
 idioms which had been regarded as glaring Hebraisms, such 
 as IBov (used like Heb. Hin, etc.), ava /leaov, and evdnnov 
 (like Heb. ''iSb, etc.) are occasionally met with in docu- 
 ments which are certainly not translations from Semitic 
 originals. This is not surprising, and in all probability still 
 other idioms which have been quite generally regarded as 
 peculiar to the "translation" language will be found in 
 original Greek compositions of this late period. 
 
 But these facts have very little bearing, after all, on the 
 question of the original language of the Gospel of Matthew, 
 or of Mark or Luke. It is a matter of very little consequence, 
 for the settling of this important question, whether el? as 
 an ordinal number, or ei' with the instrumental meaning, 
 can be found in the Ptolemaic documents, or whether iyevero 
 is used with an infi nitive in profane Greek. Even if every 
 so-called 'Semitic idiom' in the Synoptic Gospels were 
 found, occurring sporadically, in the koivi] (a quite impos- 
 sible supposition, by the way), the real argument for trans- 
 lation would not be weakened. The demonstration of such 
 occasional occurrences does not touch the real difference 
 between vulgar Greek and translation-Greek ; for the latter, 
 it must be insisted, does have its definite and recognizable 
 peculiarities. To illustrate, from the idioms which were 
 just mentioned : if any extensive papyrus fragment should 
 come to light in which even these few idioms were all used, 
 not sporadically but constantly, and imbedded in a dialect 
 whose general characteristics were at least as obviously 
 Semitic as Greek, then the presumption would of necessity 
 be this, that the document had originally been composed in a 
 Semitic tongue. Only strong and unequivocal evidence to 
 the contrary could render any other hypothesis tenable. 
 
274 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 To return to one or two of Moulton's statements. "The 
 farmer of the Fayum spoke a Greek essentially identical 
 with that of the Evangelists." This gives an altogether 
 erroneous impression. It may well be true that the Greek 
 spoken by Egyptian peasants very closely resembled that 
 spoken by the compilers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke ; but 
 that it even remotely resembled the language in which they 
 wrote their Gospels is not true at all. No evidence which has 
 thus far come to light tends to show that such Greek as that 
 of the Gospels was ever spoken in any part of the world. 
 The idiom of the Synoptic Gospels, like that of the Apoca- 
 lypse, is half Semitic throughout. One characteristic Semitic 
 construction follows another, in verse after verse and on page 
 after page. The student of Aramaic and Hebrew is reminded 
 of these languages, not occasionally, but all the time, and this 
 is the important fact. Moulton says {ibidem), in speaking 
 of the Koivri, as exhibited in the papyri: "The most con- 
 vincing Hebraisms appear in the private letters of men who 
 could never have been in contact with Semitic influences." 
 But what is a "convincing Hebraism"? There is really 
 no such thing, so long as the discussion is concerned with 
 isolated phenomena. It is only when the idiom is one link 
 in a long chain that it becomes convincing; then, indeed, 
 it may have an absolutely compelling force. The argument 
 is cumulative ; we are concerned with the continuous im- 
 pression made by a great mass of material, rather than with 
 a number of striking instances — though these are to be had 
 in abundancie when they are sought for. The fact is, we 
 have in this well-marked group of New Testament writings 
 a series of compositions which are Semitic in structure, 
 although clothed in a Greek dress, and the just effect of 
 recent discoveries is to make this peculiarity seem all the 
 more striking. In all the mass of papyri and inscriptions 
 nothing similar has come to light, and we are therefore more 
 than ever in need of an adequate explanation. Can, then, 
 this Semitic-Greek represent a spoken dialect .'' 
 
 It is true that uneducated people of the lower class, when 
 they are forced by circumstances to speak a foreign tongue, 
 sometimes create an uncouth patois, consisting of a more or 
 less ludicrous mixture of the two dialects, which they then 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 275 
 
 use in their more careless intercourse with one another. It 
 is possible (though we have no evidence of it) that some such 
 Greek- Aramaic jargon, to which we might compare our 
 'Pennsylvania Dutch,' was used for a time in some part of 
 Palestine. But such jargons as these have obviously 
 nothing to do with the language of the New Testament 
 writings under discussion. No one of these writings is the 
 work of an unlettered man, no one of them is the work of 
 an unskilled author. In each case, we know ourselves to 
 be dealing with a man of culture, and of literary resources ; 
 one who was possessed of an extensive vocabulary, and knew 
 how to render shades of thought. When such men use a 
 mongrel dialect, they do so from deliberate choice. Here, 
 the reason for the choice is obvious, it is the translator's 
 conception of his task. No other explanation thus far 
 proposed accounts for all the facts. This will perhaps 
 become more evident in the course of the discussion which 
 here follows. If the documents which underlie the Synoptic 
 Gospels were composed in vulgar Greek, why should this 
 Greek be anything else than the Koivrj ? It is true that we 
 are not very well acquainted with the popular speech, yet 
 our knowledge of it has been much increased, until we are at 
 least able to assert with all emphasis that it is by no means 
 the language of the Gospels. The real effect of the recent 
 discoveries in the field of late Greek is, then, to isolate the 
 'translation' idiom of the Gospels from the most of the 
 remainder of the New Testament even more completely 
 than it had been isolated before. The contrast in which it 
 stands to the popular language which was ordinarily written 
 and spoken at that day is becoming more and more evident. 
 Its true affinities, on the other hand, are to be found in the 
 books of the Greek Old Testament. It will be in place, then, 
 to take some general notice of the language of the old Greek 
 renderings from the Semitic. 
 
 The translation-Greek of our Biblical books is a literary 
 product whose peculiarities deserve more attention than 
 they have hitherto received. The subject is not one that 
 can be treated satisfactorily in small compass, yet it is pos- 
 
276 TRANSLATIONS MADE PROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 sible to set forth briefly some general truths with sufficient 
 clearness to aid in the present investigation. 
 
 It is true, on the one hand, that there are varieties of 
 translation-Greek. The ancient translators did conceive 
 their tasks in ways differing somewhat according to the 
 character of the work which they were rendering, and also 
 according to the period and the circumstances in which they 
 lived. In the Old Testament, where we have the necessary 
 materials for criticising the Greek versions, we can observe 
 this fact to good advantage. We have in our Greek Bible 
 a number of different kinds of faithful translation. Leaving 
 out of account such minor literary habits as could be taken 
 for granted, it can be shown in the case of not a few of the 
 Biblical books that the individual interpreter had his own 
 peculiar principles of procedure in rendering the Semitic 
 text which he had before him. Anything like a free para- 
 phrase, to be sure, we shall rarely find, and that only in occa- 
 sional passages ; but the ideas of what constitutes a true 
 reproduction are seen to vary considerably. Nevertheless, 
 many Old Testament scholars have failed to recognize the 
 fact that these renderings are not all alike ; and most of them 
 still continue to operate with 'the LXX' (meaning the text 
 printed by Swete or Tischendorf) as though it were homo- 
 geneous, and to use it in Kings, or Ezekiel, or Koheleth, in 
 exactly the same way in which they had used it in the Penta- 
 teuch. 
 
 On the other hand, there are important particulars in 
 which the translations in our Bible, including both the Old 
 Testament and the New Testament, are essentially alike. 
 It is with these points of essential resemblance that I have 
 especially to do. As has already been said in the case of the 
 Old Testament, the Biblical translations are without excep- 
 tion close renderings, so far as we are now able to judge. 
 Speaking broadly, we can safely depend on every one of 
 them to follow its original faithfully, through thick and thin. 
 The occasional local exceptions, in more freely rendered 
 clauses or passages, do not affect the general rule. The 
 resulting idiom, viewed in passages sufficiently extended 
 to have a recognizable character, is never Greek, but always 
 a mixture ; at its best inelegant, and at its worst monstrous. 
 
CHARLES C. TORRET 277 
 
 The reasons for this are worth seeking. Why should the 
 Alexandrine translators and their fellows have produced 
 this jargon, instead of an idiom more closely resembling their 
 own spoken or written Greek ? The question is most com- 
 monly answered by saying that they were attempting to 
 render sacred writings, every word of which had its super- 
 human value ; hence the anxious adhesion to the original. 
 This fact did always exercise a very considerable influence, 
 and was doubtless a chief cause of many painfully literal 
 renderings, especially in passages containing something 
 oracular or otherwise portentous. Generally speaking, 
 the later Biblical translations were more closely word-for- 
 word than the earlier, because of the increasing reverence 
 for the inspired writings ; this rule had its exceptions, 
 however. A very frequent cause of the conflation of Biblical 
 texts was the wish to include, side by side with the old 
 rendering, a new and more exact one. But the sanctity of 
 the originals is by no means the only reason, nor even the 
 principal reason, for the extreme literalness of these early 
 versions. Contemporary translations of writings which 
 were not regarded as sacred show in general the very same 
 characteristics as do the renderings of the canonical books. 
 When the grandson of Bar Sira, for example, undertook to 
 turn his grandfather's Hebrew proverbs into Greek, in order to 
 give them the currency which they deserved, he produced the 
 same barbarous mixture — incredibly awkward now and then 
 — which we find in the other Greek versions from the Hebrew. 
 
 Another explanation of these extremely close renderings 
 in the Greek Old Testament emphasizes the fact that Hebrew 
 was at that time going out of use as a spoken language. 
 The uncouth idiom of the 'Septuagint' was the result of 
 "the effort of Greek-speaking men to translate the already 
 obsolete and imperfectly understood Hebrew" (Moulton, 
 Grammar, p. 13). This is true to some extent, namely in 
 single words and occasional passages, which had passed 
 beyond the interpreter's ken, just as certain words and 
 phrases in Chaucer, Shakespeare, and even more recent 
 writers have ceased to be understood. Words have their 
 day, and drop out of sight; local allusions, or the current 
 phrases of a certain period, soon lose their meaning, often 
 
278 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 beyond recovery. Doubtless not a few things in our Hebrew 
 Bible which would have been perfectly transparent to any 
 Israelite in the time of Jeroboam II, or of Hezekiah, could 
 have been understood by no one in the time of Haggai and 
 Zechariah. Some authors, moreover, express themselves 
 so obscurely that their writings are full of riddles, diflBcult 
 enough for contemporaries, and often quite insoluble for 
 subsequent generations. The extent to which these old 
 Hebrew texts have been changed from their original form, 
 in the course of time, must also be borne in mind. If the 
 prophet Hosea could have been confronted with his own 
 book in the shape in which it lay before its Greek translators, 
 the attempt to read and understand it offhand would cer- 
 tainly have staggered him. It is quite true, then, that 
 many queer specimens of the translator's jargon show that 
 the original was not understood ; this is very far, however, 
 from explaining translation-Greek as a whole. The Hebrew 
 language was not by any means unfamiliar, or imperfectly 
 understood, at the time when these first versions were made. 
 The author of First Maccabees wrote classical Hebrew as 
 easily and naturally as educated Swiss write High German, 
 and so doubtless did a multitude of his contemporaries, both 
 in Palestine and in the Dispersion. The Alexandrine trans- 
 lators knew Hebrew hardly less intimately than they knew 
 their own mother-tongue ; we are far more likely to under- 
 estimate than to overestimate their equipment in this regard. 
 Furthermore, the versions made from the Aramaic, while 
 it was a living language and perfectly well understood, have 
 precisely the same quality and the same peculiarities as 
 those made from the Hebrew. 
 
 The true source of 'translation-Greek' lies deeper than 
 either of these two reasons for occasional close rendering. 
 It lies in the translator's conception of his task. In what 
 way should he mirror in one language what had been written 
 in another ? In all times and places it has been the first 
 aim of the ordinary translator to render words rather than 
 ideas. Even where the version is comparatively 'free,' 
 the idiom of the original is retained. Obviously, this saves 
 time and trouble, and avoids a responsibility which would 
 generally be unwelcome. It would be a mistake to suppose, 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 279 
 
 however, that indolence was to any considerable extent 
 responsible for this method of translating. These Jews 
 of the Dispersion were willing to give any amount of time 
 and labor to their task, and wished" to do it as well as it could 
 be done. But they could not have felt it to be incumbent 
 on them, or even desirable, to render into idiomatic Greek. 
 The original was not conceived in Greek, but in Hebrew or 
 Aramaic, and what they were required to do was to present 
 the same document in a Greek dress; this was the only way 
 in which they could make it accessible to Greek readers, and 
 at the same time let it speak for itself. This was the typical 
 attitude of the ancient translator, irrespective of the nature 
 of the text to be rendered.^ In modern times and among 
 men of letters the custom of literal rendering no longer 
 prevails ; but even modern translators who are imperfectly 
 trained resort to the old method. The 'schoolboy transla- 
 tion' is often referred to, in speaking of Old Testament 
 Greek, and the comparison is an apt one. Especially in 
 the more obscure parts of the Old Testament, the translator 
 must very often have felt that his task was too hard for him. 
 What he then did was to render the difficult, and often mani- 
 festly corrupt, text with desperate faithfulness. In dealing 
 with such passages the maxim was, and in the nature of the 
 case had to be, that of the schoolboy : Try to put down some- 
 thing which shall correspond closely to each word of the 
 original ■ — and never mind the sense. 
 
 ' The two letters prefixed to Second Maccabees afford an interesting illustration 
 here, if my opinion regarding them is correct. They were certainly composed in a 
 Semitic tongue, probably Aramaic, and (if I am not mistaken) were translated by 
 the author of the book. He was one who wrote Greek with unusual fluency and 
 elegance, and was conscious of his abihty ; but the language of the two letters is, 
 as usual, the jargon of the translator, as far removed as possible from the untram- 
 melled idiom of the rest of the book. (See my article, "Second Maccabees," in the 
 Encyclopaedia Biblica.) This case can hardly fail to remind us of the beginning of 
 the Gospel of Luke, which (on any theory of the documents contained in it) pre- 
 sents a striking parallel. The prologue is written in elegant Greek ; then, without 
 warning, verse 5 begins with the uncouth mixture, a Semitic narrative merely trans- 
 ferred (and that not always successfully) into Greek words. ^Miether the author 
 of the Third Gospel translated this himself, or found it abeady translated, makes 
 little difference with the instructive fact, that a translation was not to be treated 
 as literature, but stood in a class by itself. That the author of the Gospel did net 
 compose this narrative in chaps. 1 and 2 himself, as many have supposed, I shall 
 show presently. 
 
280 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 It is always to be borne in mind, to be sure, that in the 
 ordinary course of translation, where there is no uncertainty 
 in the text, but only a smoothly running narrative or dis- 
 course, the translator allowed himself all sorts of small 
 liberties. Greek constructions and the Greek order of 
 words are freely substituted for the original Semitic — 
 though almost never consistently. Sometimes, indeed, the 
 extent to which this occasional freedom of rendering is 
 carried seems to us both unnecessary and mistaken. It 
 must be acknowledged that the translator's own literary 
 taste often seems to compel him to write idiomatic Greek 
 in sentence after sentence, in spite of the respect for the orig- 
 inal evidenced by his habit in the main. The most of the 
 renderings which constitute the Greek Bible, both Old 
 Testament and New, are admirable performances from their 
 own point of view, and in no inconsiderable part they are 
 admirable from any and every point of view, even that of 
 modern literary art. 
 
 It is with the defects of these versions, however, and 
 especially with their slavishly literal character on the whole, 
 that I am just now concerned. Reduce the ancient inter- 
 preter really to straits, and his performance — adding word 
 to word in a meaningless succession — is frequently nothing 
 short of ludicrous. 
 
 By way of illustration, I subjoin a few modern specimens 
 of translation. The first two are attempts at 'sight-render- 
 ing' recently made by schoolboys who presumably had 
 studied for several years the languages which they were 
 here required to turn into English. Each one is a serious 
 effort, made in the endeavor to pass an examination ; and 
 in each case I have printed the paper exactly as it was sub- 
 mitted, without making any alteration whatever. 
 
 The first ' translation ' (from Ovid) is evidently the work 
 of one who had gained some familiarity with the Latin 
 vocabulary, but did not regard it as any part of his duty to 
 write what should make good sense. 
 
 Postquam, Saturno tenebrosa in Tartara misso. 
 Sub love mundus eral: subiit argentea proles. 
 Auto deterior, fulvo pretiosior aere. 
 lupiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris: 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 281 
 
 Perque hiemes, aestusque, et inaeqiiales autumnos, 
 Et breve ver, spaiiis exegit quatuor annum. 
 Turn primum siccis aer fenoribus ustus 
 Canduit: et ventis glades adstricta pependit. 
 
 The translation : 
 
 "Afterwards, when Saturn was sent into darkest Tartar, he lay 
 buried under Jove. His offspring emerged at an early age, weakened 
 by the gold, and made prettier by the yellow bronze. Jupiter 
 dragged the season of former spring ; and he lived for a period of four 
 years, through the winters, the summers, the extra long autiunns, 
 and the short spring. Then, accustomed to the cold of some cen- 
 txu-ies he Uved on, and hung exposed to the icy winds." 
 
 The second example illustrates especially that variety of 
 rendering in which the translator (still feeling under no obli- 
 gation to make good sense) is repeatedly misled by the appear- 
 ance of a word, mistaking it for another which more or less 
 closely resembles it. 
 
 Je tombai hier par hasard sur un mauvais livre d'un nommS Dennis; 
 car il y a aussi de michants Scrivains parmi les Anglais. Cet auteur, 
 dans une petite relation d'un sijour de quinze jours qu'il a fait en France, 
 s'avise de vouloir faire le caractere de la nation qu'il a eusi Men le temps 
 de connaitre. 
 
 The translation : 
 
 "I fell heir, through chance, under an evil life of one named Dennis, 
 for there were besides some empty cryings by the English. This 
 author, in a little adventure of a sojourn of fifteen days which he had 
 made in France, advised himself that he wished to make the character 
 of the nation which he had seen so well the time of his birth." 
 
 These two specimens are extreme cases, and it is for that 
 very reason that I have chosen them. They serve all the 
 better to illustrate the attitude of the primitive translator ; 
 it is not his business to think, but only to reproduce. I have 
 no intention of implying that the truly scholarly versions 
 made by the Alexandrine interpreters are to be classed, even 
 for a moment, with such ignorant and awkward perform- 
 ances as these ; still, the two examples will not seem irrele- 
 vant to any one who has carefully studied the Greek Old 
 Testament in the light of a thorough knowledge of Hebrew. 
 
282 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 There is no sort of blunder in these two passages which can- 
 not be paralleled over and over again in those numerous 
 parts of the Greek Bible which were hastily or unskilfully 
 rendered. Even the instances in which the translator is 
 misled by the resemblance, in appearance or sound, of an 
 English word to the French or Latin with which he is strug- 
 gling (pretiosior = 'prettier'; ustus — 'used'; hier = 'heir'; 
 livre = 'life,' etc.) will remind the experienced student of 
 the Old Testament of similar cases — in spite of the wide 
 gulf between Greek and Hebrew. 
 
 More instructive than the passages in which the translator 
 does not pretend to write anything comprehensible are those 
 in which he merely follows his original so closely as to pro- 
 duce a hideous variety of Greek, sufficiently intelligible, 
 perhaps, to those who were likely to read it. Striking ex- 
 amples of this sort are to be seen on almost every page of 
 our 'Septuagint' texts. To give a few illustrations: Num. 
 ix. 10, "Av6pa)'jro<; avdpcoirov o? eav je'vrjrai aKadapTOf eirl -yfrv)^^ 
 avdpayTTOv, r) ev oSa fiaKpav vfilv rj iv rats jeveaK vfi&v, km, 
 •KOiriaei to 7rao-%a Kvplm.^ Every reader of the Hebrew 
 Bible, even in the latest Hellenistic period, knew per- 
 fectly well that the t^X tr"'X of the Pentateuchal laws 
 meant ' whoever ' ; yet the interpreter chose to imitate the 
 phrase in this surprisingly awkward manner, and so on 
 throughout the verse. Or take 1 Chron. xv. 21 as rendered 
 in the Syrian (L) recension : koX MaTTa6ia<; . . . koX '0^ia<s 
 iv KivvpaK irepl t?)? oySorj'; tov evia'^yaai,. Or Is. xliv. 10, 11a : 
 oi irXdaaovTe'S 6eov koi ^Xvi^ovrei, Travre; avaxpeXT], Kal Travre; 
 o9ev iyevomo i^rjpdvOrjaav Kal Ka)(f>ol airo avOpwirmv • avvax^V- 
 Twaav Travre; k.t.X. The grandson of Bar Sira understood 
 his grandfather's proverbs, and turned them into Greek with 
 "much watchfulness and skill," as he informs us; he cer- 
 tainly had no need to cling anxiously to the letter of the 
 original ; yet his work of rendering is exactly like that of 
 all the others, and abounds in such performances as those 
 just cited. 
 
 When we come to the criteria by which translation-Greek 
 is to be recognized, we are on somewhat difficult ground. 
 
 ' This example of translator's Greek is given by Conybeare and Stock in their 
 Selections from the Septuagint, p. 23. 
 
CHAKLES C. TORREY 283 
 
 Long Semitic documents, dealing with familiar themes, 
 written in simple prose and containing no very difficult 
 passages, may be reproduced faithfully, clause by clause, in 
 a Greek which — though plainly not classical — sounds 
 quite like an original composition. How shall the fact of 
 translation be demonstrated ? The most obvious kind of 
 evidence, and the only kind of which use is made by the great 
 majority of investigators, is that which is found in occasional 
 phrases and constructions which "sound Semitic rather than 
 Greek." Evidence of this sort is vastly important, yet its 
 precariousness can hardly be asserted too strongly. So far 
 as it is a matter of a few isolated cases, it gives very uncer- 
 tain footing, and is not infrequently deceptive where the 
 examples seem most striking. We are not very well ac- 
 quainted with the Koivrj, after all, and are constantly liable 
 to surprise when idioms supposed to be only Semitic suddenly 
 turn up in the vulgar speech of the Hellenistic period. It 
 now and then happens, too, that some factor quite over- 
 looked by us has influenced the form of words. ^ 
 
 Another criterion to which appeal must occasionally be 
 made is that of mistranslation. Some word, phrase, or 
 sentence sounds very improbable in the context where it 
 stands ; we reduce the Greek to its equivalent in Aramaic or 
 Hebrew, and seem to discover that the translator had mis- 
 understood his original. Arguing from the double meaning 
 of certain words, the ambiguity of clause-division, the prob- 
 ability of slight corruption in the text, and the like, we restore 
 what seems to us to be the sense intended by the original 
 author. Evidence of this variety is immensely valuable in 
 the rare cases where it is convincing ; there is no other inter- 
 nal proof of translation, indeed, which is so immediately 
 cogent. But the need of caution is greater here than any- 
 where else. The more experience one has in this field, the 
 more plainly he sees the constant danger of blundering. Our 
 
 * Every list of examples of this nature is sure to contain its slips. Thus ffell- 
 hausen, Einleitung, ed. 1, p. 19, in the course of his endeavor to find traces of Ara- 
 maic circumstantial clauses in the Greek of the Gospels, says: "Ein weiteres 
 zweifelhaftes Beispiel ist Lc. 19. 44 koI tA r^Kva uov iv aol, welche Worte 
 jedenfalls nicht Object zu ida(piov<nv sein konnen.'* Nevertheless, the words ar^ 
 the object of the verb, as appears from comparison of Nah. iii. 10; Hos. x. 15, 
 xiv. 1. 
 
284 TRANSLATIONS MADE PROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 ignorance of grammar, vocabulary, literary usage, customs, 
 and history is necessarily colossal, especially in the case of 
 the Semitic peoples ; and even the most careful modern 
 exegete is likely to mistake the meaning of the ancient author 
 with whom he is dealing. Hence it happens in nine cases 
 out of ten that renewed study of the 'mistranslations' 
 which we have discovered shows us either that there was no 
 translation at all, or else that it was quite correct. 
 
 By far the most important criterion for determining the 
 fact of translation is the continual presence, in texts of con- 
 siderable extent, of a Semitic idiom underlying the Greek. 
 The demonstration of this nature is the most satisfactory 
 of all, generally speaking, but it should be added that no 
 other kind of evidence requires for its use more painstaking 
 or a longer preparation. Even, a novice in the linguistic 
 field may recognize Semitic idioms here and there ; mistakes 
 in translation may be pointed out by insufficiently equipped 
 men ; but only veterans, long trained in both Greek and 
 Semitic, and especially in the latter, can say with justified 
 confidence, after studying a composite work : These chapters 
 were composed in Semitic, those in Greek ; this was orig- 
 inally Hebrew, that was Aramaic. Indeed, where the char- 
 acter of the composition favors the use of short and simple 
 sentences, making it possible for Greek and Semite to express 
 themselves in much the same way, in page after page, it 
 may be well-nigh impossible to tell what was the tongue in 
 which the work was originally written. In any case, the 
 argument is cumulative, indications that would be quite 
 insignificant if taken by themselves becoming highly impor- 
 tant as links in a long chain. 
 
 I illustrate again by a modern instance, taking at random 
 a passage from a printed translation of a too familiar type. 
 
 Then, far from the waves, is seen Trinacrian ^tna; and from a 
 distance we hear a loud growling of the ocean, the beaten rocks, and 
 the murmurs of breakers on the coast : the deep leaps up, and sands are 
 mingled with the tide. And, says father Anchises, doubtless this is the 
 famed Charybdis ; these shelves, these hideous rocks Helenus fore- 
 told. Rescue us, my friends, and with equal ardour rise on your oars. 
 They do no otherwise than bidden ; and first Palinurus whiried about 
 the creaking prow to the left waters. The whole crew, with oars and sails, 
 bore to the left. We mount up to heaven on the arched gulf, and down 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 285 
 
 again we settle to the shades below, the wave having retired. Thrice 
 the rocks bellowed amid their hollow caverns ; thrice we saw the foam 
 dashed up, and the stars drenched with its dewy moisture. . . . 
 The port itself is ample, and undisturbed by the access of the winds ; 
 but, near it, ^tna thunders with horrible ruins, and sometimes 
 sends forth to the skies a black cloud, ascending in a pitchy whirlwind 
 of smoke and glowing embers ; throws up balls of flame, and kisses the 
 stars : sometimes, belching, hurls forth rocks and the shattered 
 bowels of the mountain, and with a rumbling noise wreaths aloft the 
 molten rocks, and boils up from its lowest bottom. . . . Lying that 
 night under covert of the woods, we suffer from those hideous prodi- 
 gies ; nor see what cause produced the sound. For neither was there 
 the light of the stars, nor was the sky enlightened by the starry firma- 
 ment ; but gloom was over the dusky sky, and a night of extreme dark- 
 ness muffled up the moon in clouds. 
 
 Any classical scholar who knows something of the history 
 of 'translation-English' in our academic life would recog- 
 nize this at once, whether he had ever read Vergil or not. 
 No amount of reasoning, or demonstration of the occurrence 
 of these same idioms, one by one, in free compositions in 
 the English language, could lead him to doubt his first con- 
 clusion. This is not an English that was ever spoken, or 
 freely composed, by any man or class of men. It is Latin 
 in more or less awkward English garb, and a product of a 
 very common type of translation. The evidence is persist- 
 ent, cropping out again and again until its aggregate amount 
 is quite decisive. It would, of course, be possible for one 
 who was completely master of both Latin and English to 
 imitate this translator's jargon by a tour de force, whether 
 as a joke or as an academic exercise. But it is needless 
 to say that such an imitation could never rise above the level 
 of an ugly curiosum. 
 
 It is the constant reiteration of indications perhaps unim- 
 portant when taken separately, but compelling in the 
 aggregate, that confronts us in such passages as Luke i. 8 fl. : 
 EyeVero iv rat? fifiepaK 'HpwSov /SacrtXe'o)? t?j?' lovSaia'i lepew ti<; 
 ovofiari Za^apta? i^ itprjfiepia^ 'A^id, Kal ywr] avTco i/c tS)V dv^a- 
 Tepav 'Aapdiv, Koi to ovofia aiiTr)^ 'EXeto-aySeT. ^aav Se BiKaioi 
 aiii^orepoi evamiov tov Oeov, iropevofievoi, iv irdaavi rats ei'ToXaZ? 
 Kal SiKUKOfiacriv toO Kvpiov dfiefiTTTOL. koL ovk fjV ainol<; tckvov, 
 KaOoTi r/v 'EXet(ra/3eT arelpa, Kot an^orepoi irpo^e^rjKOTe'i iv rat? 
 rjiiepai'i avT&v rjcrav. 'EyeWro Se iv rw lepareveiv avrov iv Ty 
 
286 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 rd^ei Trjv iiprjfiepia'; avTOV evavri tov 6eov KUTci to e6o<: Tr)9 lepa- 
 reux? eXa^e tov dv/Mtaaai. K.T.k. The Semitic idioms continue 
 to appear throughout the whole course of this introductory 
 narrative contained in the first two chapters of the Gospel. 
 Also in the poetical passages which lie imbedded in the nar- 
 rative and are quite inseparable from it occur such idioms as 
 iiroCriae KpdTo<; iv ^pw^^iovi avTOV (i. 51), inrepr)<pdvow Siavoia 
 Kap^Ca'; avTcbv (ibid.), tov Sovvai rjixlv a^oj^oo^ iic %et/3o? e')(9poiv 
 pvadevTa'i XaTpeveiv avTw (i. 74 f.), Sta aTrXd'y')(va eXe'of? deov 
 rjp.ojv (i. 78), oTTft)? civ cnroKaXv<f>d6!)C7iv e/c woWmv KapBcaiv SiaXo- 
 yia-fioi (ii. 35). This is not the koivt) of Palestine. It is not 
 "the dialect of the market place of Alexandria." It is not 
 even "the colloquial Greek of men whose original language 
 and ways of thinking were Semitic, and whose expression 
 was influenced at every turn by the phraseology of the Old 
 Testament." ^ It is translation-Greek, and nothing else. I 
 do not believe that any ancient writer, Jewish or Christian, 
 ever produced Greek of this variety by any natural literary 
 process. It could not have been produced unconsciously, 
 that is certain. Could anyone write unconsciously even 
 the smoothest of the translation-English which I have just 
 quoted ? 
 
 It has been a favorite theory in recent years that the com- 
 piler of the Third Gospel deliberately imitated the language 
 of the Greek Old Testament, in order to give his narrative 
 the flavor of the sacred books. But the motive for such a 
 grotesque performance on his part is by no means apparent. 
 The jargon of the Alexandrine translators had no exclusive 
 sanctity of its own. Some revered writings, such as the 
 Wisdom of Solomon, were composed in excellent Greek. 
 Josephus, who knew the Greek Bible as well as any man, 
 composed his history in a language free from Hebraisms. 
 There could be no purpose of archaizing, for the Greek of 
 the 'Seventy' was not archaic, it was merely the deformed 
 Greek of the translator. Luke, and his friend Theophilus, 
 and every educated man of the time, knew the difference 
 perfectly well. 
 
 But even Wellhausen thinks of the imitation of the trans- 
 lation lingo, by an evangelist who was composing freely in 
 
 ^ Conybeare and Stock, Selections from the Septuagint, p. 21. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 287 
 
 Greek, as a plausible thing. He says in the first edition of 
 his Einleitung, p. 34 : "Es giebt ein Judengriechisch, welches 
 unter dem Einfluss der Septuaginta steht und sich kennzeich- 
 net durch Aufnahme von allerhand Biblicismen. Markus 
 ist ziemlich frei davon, nicht aber Matthaus und Lukas. 
 Sie betreffen vorzugsweise das Lexicon oder die Phraseologie, 
 doch auch den Stil. Die Hymnen im ersten Kapitel des 
 Lukas sind beinah ganz aus Reminiscenzen zusammengesetzt 
 und konnen sehr wol griechisch concipirt sein, wenn- 
 gleich das nicht notwendig ist." In the second edition 
 (1911) he omits the first sentence of this quotation, and also 
 the last clause of its closing sentence, the remainder of which 
 he transposes to a place (page 8, top) where it directly follows 
 some examples of this supposed imitation on Luke's part. 
 That is, Wellhausen believes the first two chapters of Luke 
 to have been composed in Greek. 
 
 But I do not think that these views can be maintained. 
 The possibility of a "Judengriechisch" modelled upon the 
 Old Testament versions may perhaps be admitted; though 
 I feel sure of this, at least, that no specimen of the kind has 
 thus far come to light. Whenever Luke gives us a succession 
 of Hebraisms, he is either himself translating or else incor- 
 porating the translation of another. As for the hymns in 
 the first chapters of Luke, not even a very ingenious deceiver 
 could have concocted them, unless in this one way : by 
 writing them — or at least conceiving them — in a Semitic 
 tongue and then rendering them into Greek. When Luke 
 writes eTrotrjcre Kpdro<; iv ^pa^tovi avrov (a phrase not found 
 in the Greek Old Testament), he or some one else is ren- 
 dering 15l"l!3 h''n n^!? or (less probably) its Aramaic equiv- 
 alent. It is a translation of the painfully literal kind, 
 rendering word by word without regard to the meaning. 
 The same thing is true all through the two chapters; I 
 shall return to them presently, bringing decisive proof of the 
 underlying Semitic original. 
 
 The general conclusion as to the documents of the New 
 Testament whose Greek has a distinct and continuous 
 Semitic tinge is this, that they were translated; no other 
 conclusion is justified by the evidence which is at present 
 available. The hypothesis of a writer using the /coivij and 
 
288 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 writing under the strong influence of the Greek Old Testa- 
 ment falls far short of accounting for the facts. No theory 
 of imitation is tenable ; unconscious imitation could not 
 possibly produce anything like what we have, and the delib- 
 ate effort could serve no end worthy of an author who was 
 writing seriously and with high purpose. It has been cus- 
 tomary to appeal to certain books of the Apocrypha and 
 Pseudepigrapha, and to the Apocalypse of the New Testa- 
 ment, as examples of writings composed in Semitic-sounding 
 Greek ; but the fact is that all of the books thus cited as wit- 
 nesses were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and our 
 Greek versions are merely translations more or less literal.* 
 
 The problem of translation in the Third Gospel is perhaps 
 more interesting, and certainly more complicated, than 
 anywhere else in the New Testament. We know that the 
 Gospel was originally compiled in Greek ; but the most of its 
 sources were at least ultimately Semitic, and there is good 
 reason to believe that a very considerable and important 
 part of the material actually lay before the compiler (Luke) 
 in the form of Aramaic and Hebrew documents. Did Luke 
 use the 'Teachings of Jesus' (the source called Q) in Ara- 
 maic .'' Was the Greek version of this document which is 
 incorporated in his Gospel made by himself, or by some one 
 else ? Did he consult the Aramaic Gospel of Mark ? How 
 are the translations in the Third Gospel related — if they 
 are related at all — to the renderings of the corresponding 
 documents in the Gospel of Matthew ? What is the evi- 
 dence of Semitic sources used by Luke alone ? These are 
 the principal questions of this nature which need to be 
 answered. 
 
 The author of the Gospel says, in his brief but very impor- 
 tant prologue, that 'many' before his time had undertaken 
 to write narratives dealing with the life and work of Jesus. 
 He also distinctly implies, in his claim of thoroughness and 
 accuracy in his own work, that he had examined this older 
 
 ' Professor Moulton says, to be sure, in the Expositor, 1904, p. 71: "Even the 
 Greek of the Apocalypse itself does not seem to owe any of its blunders to Hebra- 
 ism." I admit that the Semitic original of the Apocalypse has not yet been satis- 
 factorily demonstrated, though it is certainly capable of demonstration. 
 
CHARLES C. TORRET 289 
 
 material and used such of it as he found valuable : 'ETreiSij- 
 irep •JToWol eVe^ei/OTjcrai' avard^aaOai, Biijyrjcnii . . ., eSo^e Kafiol 
 •KaprfKoXovOrjKOTi dvcoOev irdcnv UKpi^w icaOe^fj'i aoi ypdijfaL, . . . 
 iva iiriyvo)^ irepl &v KaTrj'x^0T]<; \6y(ov ttjV daipdXeiav. Examina- 
 tion of the Gospel shows that its author did indeed search 
 widely and successfully. In working through the two stand- 
 ard collections, that is, substantially, the 'Vita' written by 
 Mark and the 'Teachings' now designated by the letter Q, 
 there is plenty of evidence to show that he sifted his material 
 and went back to the oldest sources available. In not a few 
 instances it can be shown that his divergence from the form 
 of words given by Matthew is the result of another rendering 
 of an Aramaic original. He also found and incorporated 
 new material, not used by Mark or Matthew, and here again 
 the question of translation comes forward prominently. 
 In Palestine, the one and only land of native tradition as to 
 the life of Jesus, it was most natural that at least a consider- 
 able portion of the earliest documents dealing with his life 
 and work should be composed and circulated in the Aramaic 
 language, which was the vernacular in all parts of the coun- 
 try, and had long been used for literary purposes. An 
 Aramaic literature of considerable extent did grow up about 
 Jesus and the apostles, as we know with certainty. The 
 original Mark was composed in Aramaic, and that was also 
 the language in which the 'Teachings' (Q) were written. 
 The Semitic source underlying the first half of Acts was 
 probably Aramaic. But among the 'many gospels' and 
 briefer compositions which formed the earliest group of 
 writings dealing with the Prophet of Nazareth and his teach- 
 ings it is altogether likely that some few would have been 
 written in Hebrew. Especially after the doctrine of Jesus 
 the Messiah had been well developed, and the conviction that 
 the lives of Jesus and John the Baptist were the true and 
 necessary completion of the Old Testament history had 
 taken its mighty hold on the Jewish Christians, the sacred 
 tongue, Hebrew, could hardly fail to be used in some liter- 
 ary work designed to bridge the apparent gap between the 
 two great periods. It is probable a priori that to any col- 
 lector of traditions, discourses, and other historic material 
 these Semitic documents would appeal as especially 'au- 
 
290 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 thentic' No other man of whom we have knowledge would 
 have been so Hkely as the author of the Third Gospel to 
 search out the remains of this literature and make use of 
 what he could find. Inasmuch as the greater part of it 
 (at least) must have been published only a few decades 
 before the time when he wrote, it would be strange indeed 
 if the most of the documents were not still to be had, in 
 one form or another; the only question could be whether 
 he was able to get at them. Luke's attitude in this matter, 
 the measure of his success in finding 'authentic' material, 
 the form in which the documents came into his hands, and his 
 mode of procedure in dealing with them, are all questions of 
 far-reaching importance for the study of the Synoptic Gospels. 
 
 The best starting point is afforded by the 'Gospel of the 
 Infancy,' comprising the first two chapters of Luke. Here 
 is a narrative which was certainly not invented by Luke 
 himself. It is not based on oral tradition, in fact it has none 
 of the characteristics of such tradition, but is from beginning 
 to end the conception of a littirateur of skill and taste, who 
 wrote in the spirit of the Old Testament narratives. The 
 style, which is homogeneous throughout, is as far removed 
 from that of the preceding prologue as the east is from the 
 west. The Greek is distinctly of the ' translation ' variety, 
 altogether like that of the Greek books of Samuel, or 1 Mac- 
 cabees, or Judith. It is not a matter of occasional or fre- 
 quent Hebraisms, the style is one continuous Hebraism. I 
 have already touched upon the language of these two chap- 
 ters, in the preceding general discussion, reserving for this 
 place the proof that the narrative was composed in a Semitic 
 tongue. 
 
 Luke i. 39 reads as follows : avaaraa-a he Mapia/j, iv ral'i 
 ■^fj,€pai<i TavTUif iiropevdrj ek ttjv opecvrjV /jLera airovBrji eh ttoXiv 
 'lovBa, ^ Kal elcrrfKOev ek tov oikov Za'X^apiov, K.T.e. "And Mary 
 arose in those days and went into the hill country with 
 haste, to . . ., and entered into the house of Zachariah," 
 etc. The phrase ek ttoXlv '\ovha has been an unsolved riddle. 
 It cannot mean 'to a city of Judah (or Judea),' which would 
 be ek iroXiv ttj? 'louSaia?, as in verse 26 of this chapter. The 
 only permissible rendering is 'to the city (named) Judah,' 
 but there was no city of that name. No commentator has 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 291 
 
 been able to suggest any plausible explanation of the phrase. 
 The Greek text shows no variation, and there is no reason 
 to doubt its correctness. But as soon as we go back of the 
 Greek to the underlying Semitic, the original meaning of 
 the troublesome phrase is evident. What the author of the 
 narrative wrote was ri'Viri'' fll'^'llp b^, and the translation 
 should have been «'? rrjv xciijoai' t?j? 'lovSaia?, 'to the province 
 of Judea.' It is the phrase which occurs, for example, in 
 Ezra v. 8, snrifi 1111^7, where the Greek has ek ttjv x^P"'^ 
 T?j9 'lonSata?, and in 2 Mace. i. 1, iv ry x'^Pf ''"^^ 'louSaia? ; 
 cf. also Neh. i. 3, xi. 3. That this was the intent of the 
 author is made still more evident by the comparison of 
 verse 65, koI iv 6\tj ry opeivy t?)? 'lovSaia^ Sie\.a\eiTo . . . ra 
 prjfjLara, and ii. 4, ave^rj he koX 'Icoarjif) . . . e« Tro'Xeo)? Na^apeO 
 ek TT)v 'lovSaiav. In mentioning the journey from Nazareth 
 to the neighborhood of Jerusalem, it was most natural to 
 speak of passing through the hill country into Judea; thus in 
 the book of Judith, where the narrator is dealing with this 
 same route, he represents the high priest in Jerusalem as 
 calling upon the people of Shechem and Samaria " to hold the 
 passes into the hill country, because through them was the 
 entrance into Judea," BiaKaTaerxelv ra? ava^dc7£i<; r^y opeivrj';, 
 oTt St' avTOiv riv rj eicroBo<i eh ttjv '\ovhaiav. The reason why 
 the Greek of Luke i. 39 mistranslates is perfectly obvious, 
 and a very good one : because in the first century a.d. the 
 use of nriH in the signification ^province' was practically 
 obsolete, having been supplanted by the meaning 'dtp.' 
 As I have pointed out elsewhere,' the uniform meaning of 
 the word (whether Hebrew or Aramaic) in the Old Testa- 
 ment was 'province'; yet its use to mean 'city' was also 
 common as early as the second century B.C., as seems to be 
 shown by the old Greek translation (Tro'Xt?) in Dan. xi. 24. 
 By the second century a.d. the meaning 'city' was the only 
 usual one. Thus we have D''ph^ n^lD, 'the city of 
 Chalcis,' in the Megillath Taanith; and the translator 
 Symmachus even 'corrects' the %fo/3a of the older Greek 
 versions of the Old Testament to iroXi'; in 1 Kings xx. 14, 
 Dan. viii. 2 ; and (presumably also his correction) in the 
 
 ' " Notes on the Aramaic Part of Daniel," in the Transactions of the Connecticut 
 Academy of Arts and Sciences, 15. 259 f. (1909). 
 
292 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 conflate Hexaplar text of Neh. i. 3, iv rrj x^PI ^^ "^V '"■o^". 
 The mistranslation in Dan. viii. 2 is a perfect parallel to the 
 one in Luke, for the Hebrew reads nyittn db'^SD, which 
 Symmachus renders 'in the city ( ! ) Elam.' The word con- 
 tinued to keep its old meaning in the phrase 'the province 
 of Judea,' in Jewish circles, long after the beginning of the 
 Christian era; as appears, for example, from the occur- 
 rence of the phrase in the Midrash Echa (see Dalman's 
 Dialektproben, p. 15, line 5 from the bottom). 
 
 Taken in connection with all the other indications of 
 translation — the glaring Hebraisms, the constant presence 
 of a Semitic idiom underlying the Greek — this evidence 
 of mistranslation is absolutely decisive. I believe that the 
 original document was Hebrew, not Aramaic : for the 
 Aramaic Kn3''ll!3 I'lTl'h would hardly have been rendered by 
 et? iToXtv 'lovBa. The word TirT* could not well have been 
 misunderstood ; moreover, it does not look like the name 
 of a town, nor would it have been transliterated by lovSa. 
 It is also true in general that the idioms underlying the 
 Greek of the two chapters suggest classical Hebrew rather 
 than Aramaic. The beginning of the narrative, for example, 
 ran about as follows: "inx pb m^T -jblO D-ITin ''l!2''3 ^^'^* 
 
 ♦:j::u?''S« r\t2^^ f-in« m32a nv^a 'h^ n^Ds nntit^iai!: i»tr n'^nst 
 vtDStyai mn^ ni2iD "^dd D'^abli n^"lbKn ■'IbS ay^^t om^y 
 ,Dn^!2''D n''S3 dn-'Jiri r^^^v 53Tr''SK ^d iS'' arh pKV .n-'ian 
 
 D'''7'?BnJ2 nyn bnp b^)^" mn^ '?^^^ •?« S2 xim .'T'lspn'? 
 /iai nin^ yhti rbs k-i'.i" iDitopn ma pn?. The Hebrew 
 
 idioms fit the Greek exactly. Aramaic would not always 
 be so natural ; for example, in the phrase 7r/30/Se/3??«o'Tes iv rat? 
 rifj,epai<; avT&v, in verse 7. If the original had Q''^^ at the 
 end of verse 6, as seems very plausible, then it may well 
 be that the idiom intended was the one which is found in 
 Ps. XV. 2, Ixxxiv. 12 ; Pr. xxviii. 18, etc., i.e. Cpl) . . . W:hn 
 D'^Ssn, the adjective being really singular instead of plural. 
 
 * This is pretty certainly the verb rendered by ^Xaxc See Mishna, Tamid 
 5, 4, where the technical phrase occurs : mDp5 nW ''IS, " Whoever obtained 
 by lot the duty of offering incense," and compare the common use of the word 
 to mean ' obtain (by lot), attain,' etc. I am indebted for this suggestion to 
 Prof. G. P. Moore, who remarks that the tract Tamid is one of the oldest in 
 the Mishna, and the terminology doubtless much older still. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 293 
 
 There are other evident mistranslations in the Greek of 
 this document, aside from the one in i. 39. In i. 59-64 are 
 recounted the marvels which attended the circumcision of 
 the child John. The narrator theft adds that fear fell upon 
 all the neighbors, and that these things were talked about 
 in all that region, men saying: "What is to become of this 
 boj% for the hand {i.e. the miraculous power) o/ the Lord is 
 with him! " But our Greek translation has made the aston- 
 ished exclamation consist only of the question, "What is to 
 become of this boy .''" while the added reason, that the power 
 of Yah we was shown in these miracles which were "talked 
 about," is now changed into a general remark made by the 
 narrator himself. The original had simply 1225 Hin' T' "'D, 
 and the rendering should have been : " for the hand of the 
 Lord is with him," eVrt' instead of ^v. 
 
 The zeugma in verse 64, avecp'xdr) Be to aTOfia avrov koI 
 7) 'fK.Uxjcra avTov, 'his mouth and his tongue were opened,' 
 does not point to any similar awkwardness in the original, 
 for the very same verb, HnS3, would regularly be used 
 either of 'opening' the mouth or of 'setting free' the tongue. 
 
 In ii. 1 we read : e^rfKdev B6'yfji,a . . . cnroypdcpecrdai iracrav 
 TTjv olKovfievrjv. The original was of course J^'ISH 7D, and it 
 probably meant 'all the land' (of Palestine), not 'all the world.' 
 
 ii. 1 1 contains an obvious error of translation, in the words 
 09 ia-Tiv xpto-To? KvpLo<;. The Hebrew had mn'' tl^pti, ' Yahwe's 
 Anointed' and the rendering in Greek should have been 
 ■X^piarcK Kvpiov or 6 'x^piaTO'; tov Kvpiov (cf . vs. 26) . 
 
 The hymns which lie imbedded in the narrative — and 
 never existed apart from it — sound distinctly more like 
 Hebrew than like Aramaic. The poems most nearly akin 
 to them, in the Hebrew literature with which we happen to 
 be acquainted, are the so-called Psalms of Solomon, which 
 were written near the middle of the last century B.C. Like 
 the best of those, the hymns in Luke are fresh and vigorous 
 compositions,' which in their original form must have been 
 
 ' The fact that the language "consists largely of reminiscences" is not a blem- 
 ish. The devotional poetry of any religion of long standing must use familiar 
 phrases; it could not otherwise have its intended effect. Moreover, in this case 
 the aim of emphasizing the messianic idea necessitated an especially full and sug- 
 gestive use of the messianic phrases of the Old Testament. 
 
294 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 fine specimens of Hebrew poetry. The metrical structure — 
 lines of tliree rhythmic beats — can generally be recognized ; 
 indeed, wherever the style is lofty and the language poetic 
 the same regular rhythm returns, as in any late Hebrew 
 composition. Thus, for example, i. 13-17, 30-33, ii. 34 f. 
 In ii. 14 we seem to have a fine example of a rhymed 
 tristich : 
 
 di^aa nirT-S ion 
 
 Some of the idioms which appear most barbarous in the 
 Greek belong properly to the high style of Hebrew psalmody. 
 A case of this sort is the line ISI^D Sti H^IJ in i. 51 (already 
 mentioned). Another is in i. 78, Blo, airXdyy^va eXeov; Oeov 
 ■f]lxS}v, ya^Tw^ nori ■'^ni^, 'through the gracious compassion of 
 our God.' In all these poetical passages the translation 
 follows the original word by word, and clause by clause, as 
 is the case also in the Greek Old Testament. It is therefore 
 all but impossible to suppose that a^d/ScD? in i. 74 was con- 
 nected with Xarpeveiv (vs. 75) in the original poem. The 
 Hebrew had something like this : 
 
 ' To give us release from fear, rescued from the power of our 
 foes, that we might serve him in holiness, and in righteous- 
 ness before him, all our days.' The poetic compound 
 rTTnn"X7, 'fearlessness,' naturally gave trouble to the trans- 
 lator. 
 
 A very important fact to be noticed, in connection with 
 the Greek of this 'Gospel of the Infancy,' is the extent to 
 which it exhibits the language of Luke ^^ himself. His 
 vocabulary and style have been studied very carefully by 
 many scholars, and the main results are familiar. Whoever 
 
 1" Granting the fact of translation (and it must be granted), the evidence here in 
 favor of eiSoKla, as against eiSoxLas, will probably be convincing to scholars in 
 proportion as they have studied the details of Hebrew prosody. 
 
 ^' I use the name merely for convenience, without intending to express an opinion 
 as to the authorship of the Third Gospel. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 295 
 
 examines such classified lists as those in Plummer's com- 
 mentary, pp. li-lxiii, for example, will see that the evidence 
 of Luke's authorship of the Greek of chapters i and ii is 
 quite decisive. Both number an.d nature of the character- 
 istic words and usages are such as to leave no room for doubt. 
 As Plummer says (p. Ixix) : "The peculiarities and character- 
 istics of Luke's style and diction . . . run through our Gos- 
 pel from end to end. ... In the first two chapters they are 
 perhaps somewhat more frequent than elsewhere." ^^ Observe 
 also the two passages from these chapters which he has 
 printed on page Ixx, with indication of the words and phrases 
 which are more or less characteristic of the author of the 
 Gospel. Yet this narrative has not been worked over or 
 rewritten by Luke; on the contrary, it bears with especial 
 plainness the marks of a very close rendering ; as Plummer 
 observes (pp. xlix f.), no part of the Gospel is more uncom- 
 promisingly Hebraistic than the narrative of these two 
 opening chapters. The only natural conclusion that can 
 be drawn, and the one to which every indication seems to 
 point, while there is really nothing of importance that can 
 be said against it, is this, that the author of the Third Gospel 
 himself translated the Narrative of the Infancy from Hebrew 
 into Greek. The manner of the beginning of this Gospel, 
 then, affords an interesting parallel to that of the beginning 
 of 2 Maccabees, already referred to, inasmuch as the author 
 of the latter book begins with a fairly close translation, 
 made by himself,^^ of certain Aramaic documents, at the con- 
 clusion of which he proceeds at once with his own fluent 
 and elegant Greek, the contrast being quite as striking as 
 that in Luke's Gospel. 
 
 Having thus established the fact that Luke was really 
 successful in his search for original Semitic material, and 
 
 ^ The italics are mine. 
 
 '' See my demonstration of this fact in the article " Die Brief e 2 Makk. 1:1- 
 2: 18" in the Zeitschr. fiir die altt. Wissensch., vol. 20 (1900), pp. 239 f., supple- 
 mented by my Notes on the Aramaic Part of Daniel, p. 254. In my article in the 
 ZA'i'W, 1 argued from the phrase iv xoiXii/iari (fipiaros rd^iv exorros ivvdpov, in 
 1 : 19. I could have made out a still stronger case if I had known then, what I 
 have observed since, that the very same circumlocution occurs in 9: 18, where 
 " he wrote a supplicating letter, " is expressed by typa^ev iiri.(ST(M]v ^xouo-ok Ikctti- 
 plas rd^iv. 
 
296 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 that he himself translated at least a part of it into Greek, 
 we have gained important standing ground. First of all, 
 the question of the source used by him in the earlier part 
 of the book of Acts takes on a new interest. The evidence 
 of his handiwork is practically the same as in the first two 
 chapters of the Gospel ; the Greek is distinctly translation- 
 Greek, and it contains a convincing proportion of Lukan 
 words and turns of speech. Here, again, the appearance 
 is not that of a Greek text 'worked over' by the evangelist; 
 there is only one plausible explanation, namely, that he 
 himself was the author of the translation. The document 
 which he translated appears to have belonged to that earliest 
 stratum of Palestinian Christian literature which was written 
 and circulated in the Aramaic tongue, and had for its subject 
 the life and teachings of Jesus and the beginnings of the 
 Christian church. It is just such a document as we should 
 have expected Luke to find and use. 
 
 The problems of translation connected with Luke's use 
 of his two main sources, Q and Mark, are much more com- 
 plex; this is not the place to attempt to examine them 
 closely. The two minor sources just considered, namely, the 
 Gospel of the Infancy and the story of the first work of the 
 Apostles, presumably lay before Luke each in a single 
 recension ; at all events, we have no evidence that either of 
 them was current in more than one form. But the case of 
 the two major sources was altogether different. Wherever 
 there was a Christian community, they were read, and recited 
 from memory, and copied for further distribution. In the 
 Oriental church, both Semitic and Greek recensions were in 
 circulation. It was in the nature of the case that the latter 
 should be more numerous than the former, even in Palestine. 
 The true centre of gravity of the Christian church was at 
 first in the towns and villages of Judea and Galilee, but it 
 remained there only a very short time. The great cities 
 of the neighboring lands took over the tradition, and Greek 
 became the language of the Eastern church not only where 
 it was the vernacular, but also all through Syria and Pales- 
 tine, from Antioch to Egypt. Jew and Christian went each 
 his own way, and their separateness from each other was 
 emphasized. The Christian Aramaic literature which grew 
 
CHARLES C. TORRET 297 
 
 up in the first century soon dwindled. It is a question of 
 very great interest, in what form or forms Luke found Q and 
 Mark. After these two all-important documents had been 
 translated, and were widely current in various Greek recen- 
 sions, as well as in more than one variety of combination, 
 it was a matter of course that copies in Aramaic, as the orig- 
 inal language, should have been especially treasured, in the 
 places where they were stiU in existence. It can hardly 
 be doubted that both the Aramaic Mark ^* and the Aramaic 
 Q were still to be had in the first decades of the second cen- 
 tury, though it may well be doubted whether they were to 
 be found in many places. An evangelist who really took 
 his task seriously, who knew that there were many accounts 
 of Jesus and wished to compile the best possible one, who 
 thought it worth his while to look for the most authentic 
 material, could not fail at least to become aware of the exist- 
 ence of these original documents. Luke was such an evan- 
 gelist, and was also one who (as we now know) did actually 
 collect and translate Semitic sources. We should certainly 
 suppose, a priori, that he would obtain and make use of 
 both Mark and Q in Aramaic. 
 
 Another complicating factor in the problem is the Gospel 
 of Matthew. The Teachings of Jesus (Q) had already been 
 combined, by Matthew, with the story of his career given 
 by Mark. The combination was a most important one, and 
 could not fail to be extremely popular; the evangelist who 
 could hope to surpass it would need to be able to convict 
 its author of misuse of his material, or to bring forward new 
 and important matter of his own collecting. Luke appears 
 to have felt able to do both of these things. 
 
 The Third Gospel was composed in Greek. In incorpo- 
 rating the material contained in Mark, Luke of course used 
 the current Greek version, though giving it some editorial 
 revision, as was natural. As a basis for such revision he had 
 first of all (we may presume) a copy of the Gospel in Aramaic, 
 and in addition to this, material derived from some of the 
 
 ^* Not the Aramaic sources of Mark ; we have no evidence of any such sources. 
 The entire Gospel was originally composed and pubUshed in Aramaic. It was very 
 soon rendered into Greek, and our text is a somewhat "augmented and improved" 
 revision of the translation. 
 
298 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 "many" gospels whose existence he mentions in his preface.*^ 
 In making use of the Gospel of Matthew, it is not to be 
 doubted that he had before him a Greek text very similar 
 to our own ; on the other hand, it is a debatable question 
 whether he may not also have had access to this Gospel in a 
 Semitic form. It is all but universally agreed, at the present 
 day, that the old tradition asserting that the First Gospel 
 was composed in 'Hebrew' (presumably meaning Aramaic) 
 was mistaken. I confess that the evidence seems to me to 
 support the tradition rather than to disparage it, and I 
 cannot see the force of the arguments to the contrary which 
 are commonly advanced. From the first words of the opening 
 chapter, Bt/SXo? jevea-eo)'; 'Itjctov 'K.piarov, on to the end of 
 the book it is all translation-Greek. Plummer's Com- 
 mentary on Matthew (1910), p. viii, has the following : "The 
 First Gospel is evidently not a translation. . . . Who- 
 ever wrote it took not only the substance of the Second Gos- 
 pel, but the Greek phraseology of it, showing clearly that he 
 worked in Greek. It is incredible that he translated the 
 Greek of Mark into Hebrew, and that then some one trans- 
 lated Matthew's Hebrew back into Greek that is almost the 
 same as Mark's." This is further 'illustrated' by the case 
 of certain passages which were rendered from English into 
 French, and then (by another translator) back into very 
 different English. But such argument as this hardly needs 
 answer. The fact that Mark's phraseology is adopted 
 means, of course, that the author (whether translator or 
 not) of the Greek Matthew either knew the Greek Mark 
 by heart or else had it open before him when he wrote. 
 The ancient translators always worked in that way, using 
 older versions whenever they could. We have abundant 
 illustration, both in the versions of the Old Testament and 
 elsewhere. In modern times, moreover, the same thing 
 is likely to be true. In 1894, for example, Mrs. A. S. 
 Lewis published A Translation of the Four Gospels from 
 the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. The first glance 
 sufliced to show to the reader that this translation used 
 everywhere the words of the English version of 1611, and 
 
 '* We have no reason to suppose, however, that these minor sources contributed 
 anything of importance to his criticism of Mark. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 299 
 
 closer examination showed that the language of this 'Au- 
 thorized Version' was retained even in a multitude of 
 cases where it did not quite agree with the Syriac which 
 it professed to render.^^ The 'translator was attached to 
 the wording of the standard version, and so also were the 
 most of those who were likely to use her translation. It is 
 for a precisely similar reason that the citations from the 
 Old Testament in our Synoptic Gospels are given quite 
 frequently in the wording of the Septuagint, a fact which has 
 been generally regarded as evidence that Greek was the 
 original language of the Gospels. The translator of the Gospel 
 wished to confirm its readers in the faith, not to stagger 
 them. Their Bible was the Greek Old Testament, not the 
 Hebrew, and for them all and for all purposes the Greek form 
 of words was the right one. All these passages had been 
 translated, centuries before, by inspired men, who had faith- 
 fully followed the original. In Semitic gospels, written for 
 those who used the Hebrew Old Testament, the words of the 
 citations ought to correspond to the current Hebrew text; 
 but not so in gospels intended for the great Hellenistic world. 
 Schmiedel, in his article " Gospels " in the Encyclopaedia 
 Biblica, § 130, argues against a Semitic original for Matthew 
 on the ground of certain passages "which would not have 
 been available had the Hebrew original been followed." 
 Only the mistranslation 'virgin,' he asserts, made it possible 
 to adduce Is. vii. 14 in Matt. i. 22 f. But this is an amazing 
 assertion. Taking the passage in Isaiah just as it is rendered 
 in any modern critical commentary, it would still be pre- 
 cisely the sort of passage that Matthew desired, much more 
 striking and more convincing than the most of the other 
 quotations which he uses for the same purpose. What is 
 more, the birth of Jesus as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew 
 in its original form was not a virgin birth at all (on this point 
 see further below). Schmiedel then argues from the quo- 
 tation of Is. xl. 3 in Matt. iii. 3, saying that it could have been 
 made only by one who connected the words 'in the wilder- 
 ness' with the preceding rather than with the following 
 words, whereas "in Isaiah the crier is of course not in the 
 
 ^^ As is well known, Mrs. Lewis's translation has since then been very carefully 
 revised by her. 
 
300 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 wilderness." But this argument shatters on the fact that 
 Matthew and his contemporaries could not foresee the dis- 
 coveries of our modern commentators ; the Jewish tradition 
 has always connected 1^1Ji3 only with the preceding words, 
 and for all the native interpreters the voice was one crying 
 in the wilderness}'^ The two remaining passages mentioned 
 by Schmiedel, Matt. xxi. 9 and xxi. 16, make no difficulty 
 whatever. In Ps. viii. 3, aho'; was a very natural Jewish 
 interpretation of V2 ; cf . the Targum, Greek, and Syriac ren- 
 derings of the same word in Ps. Ixviii. 35. On the 'Hosanna' 
 passage see Wellhausen's Marcus, p. 93. Neither the dative 
 Tw via AauetS nor the iv rot? vyfria-TOK is difficult of explana- 
 tion. Schmiedel himself remarks {ihid.) that the Gospel of 
 Matthew is the one in which the citations from the Old 
 Testament most often follow the Hebrew rather than the 
 Greek, and that its author "could not have given such 
 quotations as, for example, ii. 15, 23, viii. 17, xxvii. 9 f. 
 after the LXX at all." Highly significant admissions ! 
 More than all this, the framework, connecting fabric, and 
 merely embellishing matter of the book as we have it (and 
 not merely the underlying sources) give plain evidence of 
 translation. A typical case of the sort is found in xxviii. 1, 
 parallel to Mark xvi. 1 f. and Luke xxiv. 1. Several 
 scholars have pointed out the fact that the monstrous 
 ' Greek ' in Matthew, o->^e Be aa^^dT(oi>, ry eTn^axjKovari eh fiiav 
 aaj3^drcov, is merely one of the painfully close translations 
 with which we are familiar. The original was J^DD^ "'pISKl 
 S<3^D in %"I33, that is, ' after the Sabbath, in the night intro- 
 ducing the first day of the week.' ^^ The evidence of trans- 
 lation is perfect, for the Aramaic phrases are the ones 
 regularly used, the Greek rendering fits them exactly, and 
 no Greek author could ever have devised such a form of 
 words. Now these phrases in the Aramaic of the First 
 Gospel are a part of the evangelist's own expansion of the 
 
 ^' In my own opinion, this traditional reading is the correct one. 
 
 '^ The evidence has been set forth most fully and convincingly by Professor 
 Moore, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 26. 323-329 (1905). 
 Moore also refers to Geiger, and points out the fact that Jerome was the first to 
 suspect imperfect translation in this passage. See also the reference to Professor 
 Keunett in Wright's Synopsis of the Gospels in Greek, 3d ed., p. 171. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 301 
 
 Mark narrative — as he constantly expands it and em- 
 broiders upon it. This would be by far the most plausible 
 theory on general grounds ; compare also the XevKov o)? x'''^" 
 of xxviii. 3 with \evKa m to <^w? and <»? 6 ^Xio? in xvii. 2 (also 
 embellishments by Matthew). It is very probable that 
 another mistranslation is to be found in close proximity to 
 the one just considered. In xxvii. 62 the narrator tells how 
 on the day — or, perhaps better, on the evening — preceding 
 the resurrection, the priests and Pharisees came to Pilate 
 to urge him to secure the tomb and set a watch. The 
 Greek has : t^ Be eiravpiov, fjTK iarlv fiera tt/v irapaaKeurjV, 
 and commentators exclaim over this "singular expression." 
 Some have queried whether it may not have been a circum- 
 locution adopted in order to avoid using the word ' Sabbath ' ; 
 but as Plummer (Comm., p. 408) observes, t^ Se eiravpiov, 
 'on the morrow,' would be quite sufficient in itself. It may 
 be conjectured that the original had : "lOD "lilXi"! StiV71 
 xmns, which should have been rendered : ' Now on the 
 morrow, after sunset, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered 
 together,' etc. The narrator represented this as occurring not 
 on the Sabbath day, but just after its close. The rendering 
 in our Greek Matthew is the only natural one, however, 
 for (judging from what little we know of the history of the 
 word) the use of xriDlliJ in its original signification, 'sunset,' 
 must have been very nearly obsolete at this time. This 
 passage, also, belongs to one of Matthew's own additions. 
 A very frequently occurring indication of translation, found 
 in all parts of the Gospel, is the word roVe used to continue 
 a narrative. It could only be the rendering of the similarly 
 used Aramaic pIS. Because of the evidence of this nature, 
 the amount of which could be multiplied, it seems to me that 
 the old tradition, that the whole Gospel of Matthew was 
 originally composed in Aramaic, still easily holds the field. 
 
 Nevertheless, I do not believe that we need to take into 
 account the possibility that Luke made use of the Aramaic 
 Matthew. It seems plain that the Greek Matthew influ- 
 enced him ; but it is hardly less evident that he regarded 
 that Gospel as of secondary importance, not by any means 
 to be used as a source in making his own compilation. I 
 think we may see plainly some reasons why Luke would 
 
302 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 have felt justified in leaving Matthew at one side — as he 
 certainly seems to have done. 
 
 First of all, he had in his own hands Matthew's two main 
 sources, Mark and Q, and could see that his predecessor had 
 dealt with both of them arbitrarily and not always wisely. 
 Matthew's aim had been only that of an evangelist ; Luke's 
 was also that of a historian, as he says in his prologue. 
 Mark's Life of Jesus had provided the chronological order 
 of all the main events; Matthew had greatly changed this 
 order, while using Mark's own material and simply trans- 
 posing it — an unwarranted proceeding, from Luke's point 
 of view. In his use of the Teachings, also, Matthew had 
 dismembered and redistributed according to his own pref- 
 erence. In assigning the discourses to certain definite occa- 
 sions he had not always achieved good results, and his new 
 combinations of Sayings were sometimes not convincing. 
 Moreover, in using both Mark and Q, Matthew had ex- 
 panded and embellished very extensively, not merely chang- 
 ing the wording of the narrative, but also adding details and 
 incidents in abundance. On the other hand, many incidents 
 and details, and even whole scenes, recorded by Mark, were 
 entirely omitted by Matthew. This embellishment was a 
 purely literary proceeding, which was not only allowable 
 according to the ideas of the time, but could have been taken 
 for granted. Luke himself of course felt free to deal with 
 his sources in this way ; ^^ but here, obviously, was another 
 reason why he could give little weight to Matthew's Gospel 
 as a source for his own. 
 
 " The fact that Luke conceived his task as that of a 'historian' does not at all 
 imply that his aims and methods were Uke those of a modem writer of history. For 
 a brief discussion of this subject with some illustration from Jewish literature I may 
 refer to my Ezra Studies, pp. 145-150. So far as we are able to judge, the most 
 serious biographers and chroniclers generally felt free to select what material they 
 preferred, omitting whatever they did not care to use, and saw no objection to 
 increasing the interest, or the parenetic value, of the work by adding any amount of 
 lively or instructive detail. Their aim was like that of the modern painter: to 
 give a true picture in its impression as a whole, faithfulness in minutiae being a 
 matter of comparatively small importance. All this is true of every one of our four 
 Gospeb. Wellhausen, Einleitung, 2d ed., p. 77, writes: "Markus woUte ohne 
 Zweifel die ganze Tradition aufzeichnen, mit den Erzahlungen iiber Jesus zugleich 
 auch seine Worte. Dass er was ihm davon zuganghch war nicht voUstandig auf- 
 nahm, dass er was schon frUher gebucht war ausliess, kann immoglich angenommen 
 werden." I confess that I am unable to feel so sure of this. 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 303 
 
 Again, the fact is patent that the author of the Third 
 Gospel, so far as the material — or the fashion of it — is his 
 own, occupies a theological point of view which is more 
 advanced than that of the author of the First Gospel. 
 There had been development in both doctrine and usage of 
 the church; new conceptions made their way to the front, 
 and what had been tentative hypothesis now became recog- 
 nized dogma. ^^ This fact is illustrated in numerous places 
 where Luke has revised the material already used by Mark 
 or Matthew, as many commentators have remarked. One 
 very important illustration, however, has not received the 
 attention which it deserves ; namely, the doctrine of the vir- 
 gin birth. According to the original text of Matthew, both 
 in Aramaic and in Greek, the birth of Jesus was not birth 
 from a virgin. The Lewis (also called the Sinaitic) Syriac 
 version has preserved the original readings in Matt. i. 16-25, 
 as any careful study of the evidence shows with certainty. ^^ 
 ("Jacob begat Joseph; Joseph . . . begat Jesus," vs. 16. 
 "She shall bear to thee a son, and thou shalt call his name 
 Jesus," vs. 21. Joseph, awaking from the vision (on the 
 night of his marriage), "took his wife, and she bore to him 
 a son, and he called his name Jesus," vs. 2-1, 25.) The con- 
 ception of the child is clearly and consistently represented 
 as supernatural, the Holy Spirit having anticipated Joseph, 
 yet the latter is quite as truly the father, the two elements 
 cooperating. The child had thus three parents. At the 
 time when Matthew wrote, the doctrine of the supernatural 
 birth of Jesus had already taken a firm hold among his fol- 
 lowers. The theory of the mystery embodied in the First 
 Gospel (in its original form) is a very natural one, not a 
 whit more difficult to faith than the later theory of the virgin 
 birth, and incomparably better suited to the Jewish doctrine 
 of the Messiah. The genealogical table given in Matt. i. 2-16 
 really had great significance, before the text of the chapter 
 had been tampered with. But at the time when the Third 
 
 ^ This does not by any means imply a considerable lapse of time. Develop- 
 ment of doctrine must have been extremely rapid in just that period. A score of 
 years would more than suffice for all the difference in this regard between Matthew 
 and Luke. 
 
 21 And this version is a faithful translation of a Greek text. 
 
304 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 Gospel was written, the doctrine of the virgin birth was 
 taking possession of the church, and had already been given 
 hterary embodiment in the magnificent composition which 
 Luke adopted and translated. It was irreconcilable with 
 the account given by Matthew, and this fact of itself would 
 be a sufficient reason why Luke would wish to leave the First 
 Gospel at one side, not making his own to rest upon it.^^ 
 This intention also appears in the remarkable genealogical 
 table of Joseph which he himself gives (certainly his own 
 composition) in iii. 23-38. I do not believe that this table 
 would ever have been made, but for the corresponding one in 
 Matthew. All those who had used Matthew's Gospel must 
 have been impressed with the table, for it was a conspicuous 
 thing. Luke makes it more complete, carrying it all the 
 way from Joseph to Adam, and at the same time makes it 
 completely harmless, removing it to some distance from the 
 story of the Nativity and introducing it with the significant 
 QJ9 ivofit^ero. We may regard it as quite probable, then, 
 that Luke did not make use of the Aramaic Matthew. 
 His use of the Gospel even in its Greek form appears to have 
 been hardly more than occasional and incidental. He had 
 Matthew's sources, which suited his purpose much better. 
 
 In a considerable number of passages found in the sec- 
 tions derived by Luke from Mark or Q, there is evidence of 
 variant translation from the Aramaic original. This gen- 
 erally does not mean mistranslation, but it frequently means 
 a rendering so awkward as to arouse a suspicion which can 
 be confirmed by comparing the parallel passage or passages 
 and reconstructing the wording of the original text. It would 
 be a rare thing for one of these translators to misunderstand 
 the Aramaic which lay before him ; but on the other hand, 
 his 'school-boy rendering' might easily be such as to twist 
 the Greek tongue out of all shape, or even to obscure the 
 sense eflPectually. It might in very rare cases be possible 
 even to find satisfactory evidence of variation in the Aramaic 
 
 ^^ For a like reason, those who handed down the Greek text of the Gospels found 
 themselves compelled to make harmonistic changes in Matt. i. 16-25. The his- 
 tory of these changes can be traced with perfect clearness in the Old Latin version, 
 certain Greek cursives of the Ferrar group, the Curetonian Syriac, the Peshitto, 
 and our 'standard' Greek text. 
 
CHAJRLES C. TORREY 305 
 
 texts which were rendered by successive translators, but the 
 evidence justifying such a conclusion would have to be very 
 strong and unequivocal indeed. In the New Testament 
 as in the Old, the Greek phrase wliich seems clearly to be 
 derived from a new Semitic original is in nine cases out of 
 ten really a rendering of the text already known. 
 
 The principal fact which must all the time be kept in sight, 
 in attempting to go behind the traditional reading to its 
 Semitic source, is the varied process of change to which these 
 Greek texts have been subject, ever since they were first 
 written down. The translator himself generally ^' stuck 
 very close to his original. Yet the same man incorporating 
 a similar translation might feel free to alter it arbitrarily 
 to some extent. Luke rendered the Hebrew Gospel of the 
 Nativity with the most minute faithfulness, as a close 
 study of it shows,^* and he doubtless would always have 
 translated faithfully ; but Luke the compiler, taking over 
 such a translation from another, would have been quite 
 likely to give it some editorial revision, especially if there 
 were other translations or parallel texts which he could 
 compare. In general, translation-Greek loses some of its 
 roughness and barbarity in passing through editorial hands, 
 and some illustration of this fact can be seen in our Gospel 
 texts. Wellhausen's Einleitung, 2d ed., p. 49, says in re- 
 gard to the sections taken over from Mark by Matthew and 
 Luke : "Namentlich bei Matthaus unterscheiden sich diese 
 durch ihre glattere Sprache einigermassen von den nicht aus 
 Markus stammenden Lehrstiicken." That is, the translator 
 of Matthew's Gospel not only employed the Greek transla- 
 tion of Mark, in all the sections derived from that Gospel, 
 but also slightly improved the diction and style of the Greek. 
 It was altogether natural that he should do both of these 
 
 '' But not always. You must know your translator before you can draw any 
 safe conclusion where the variation from the original is not very great. And it 
 often happens, in the Old Testament versions, that the interpreter who has been 
 reproducing his original word by word in the most slavish fashion, suddenly, and 
 for no apparent reason, gives us a paraphrase, or inserts interpretative words, or 
 condenses slightly. 
 
 ^ Of course the reason for the appearance of an especially close translation in the 
 first two chapters of Luke, and for the unusually uncouth Greek, is to be found 
 in the large amount of poetry which the docimieut contains. 
 
306 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 things. In pp. 49-57 Wellhausen describes the material 
 changes made by Matthew and Luke in the tradition derived 
 from Mark. His characterization will be recognized as a 
 true one, although in single instances the observed change 
 may be due to other editorial hands or to the influence of 
 other documents, Semitic or Greek, of which we now have 
 no knowledge. In Luke's Gospel, it is certainly the case 
 that at least considerable portions of the new material are 
 translations from Semitic originals. Through how many 
 hands they may have passed, we do not know. Where 
 the form of words is plainly Luke's own, it may be the case 
 either that he himself is translating, or that he is revising a 
 rendering made by some one else. If in any instance it 
 happens that the marks of his own hand are abundant while 
 at the same time the rendering is so close as to be noticeably 
 awkward, the presumption strongly favors the conclusion 
 that he himself was the translator. Where the material 
 is not peculiar to Luke among the synoptists, a good many 
 different possibilities have to be taken into account. Such 
 a document as Q, containing mainly the Sayings of Jesus, 
 must have been a great favorite, and we should take for 
 granted a number of recensions, both in Aramaic and in 
 Greek. From the popular character of the compilation, 
 and the freedom with which it would therefore be handled 
 in transmission, we could be certain that the texts in circu- 
 lation would differ from one another very considerably. 
 How would such a writer as Luke proceed, in making his 
 selection and compilation ? Of course judgments as to 
 authenticity and relative attestation were ordinarily far 
 beyond his power. He and his contemporaries had no longer 
 the means of deciding such questions. The Greek Mark, 
 both separate and as incorporated by the Greek translator 
 of Matthew, had already the authority of a standard docu- 
 ment among those for whom Luke wrote, so his extensive 
 use of it was a matter of course. In the case of the source 
 Q, on the other hand, it is plain that there was no standard 
 recension. In editing the greater part of the material for 
 his Gospel, then, Luke was left to his own criteria, the nature 
 of which we can imagine in part. Semitic documents would 
 be valued higher than Greek. In the case of various Greek 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 307 
 
 recensions, translation-Greek would be given the preference, 
 other things being equal. Such forms of the narrative or 
 discourse as agreed best with the picture of Jesus and his 
 disciples which the evangelist had -formed would of course 
 be chosen. The story of the nativity and childhood of 
 Jesus given by Matthew, for example, could not be given 
 any consideration in the face of the Hebrew narrative of 
 the virgin birth, which must have seemed to Luke to be 
 the only true account. We should suppose, also, that the 
 wish to preserve noteworthy variations in the tradition 
 would have had its influence with the evangelist. On such 
 and such an occasion Jesus had used a certain form of words 
 which as handed down in the Semitic original might be under- 
 stood, and in fact had been understood, in more than one 
 way. Matthew or Mark, or both, had already incorporated 
 one interpretation ; would it not be well to preserve the 
 other, if only for the sake of caution .? It is possible that 
 this consideration was the source of some readings — or 
 translations — in the Third Gospel. It seems plain that 
 Luke took it for granted that Mark and Matthew would 
 continue in circulation side by side with his own Gospel. If 
 he had not believed this, he would certainly not have omitted 
 so much of Mark's material. He criticised what lay before 
 him, to the best of his ability, aiming to cancel variant ac- 
 counts of the same occurrence, to omit disturbing elements, 
 to improve the arrangement of the matter, and to revise and 
 expand where such revision seemed to be needed. Then, 
 with the addition of all the new material which he had col- 
 lected, he built up a Gospel which must have seemed to him 
 far superior to the others. But it is beyond all question 
 that he would have proceeded very differently if he had 
 wished or expected to supplant Mark and Matthew. ^^ 
 
 ^^ Luke probably had reason to believe, for instance, that the parables in Matt, 
 xxiv. 43-xxv. 46 were secondary, namely a purely literary expansion, not a genuine 
 record of Jesus' own words. He had no need to be anxious about the matter, 
 however, since the discourses in question had already been given a permanent place 
 in the Gospel of his predecessor. But we may be pretty sure that if he had found 
 similar matter of equally doubtful authenticity, clothed in a Semitic dress and other- 
 wise harmonious with his own idea of the character of the Messiah, which had not 
 been given a place in one of the standard collections, he would have felt it to be his 
 duty to incorporate it in his own work. 
 
308 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 In the sections where Mark is used, or where portions of 
 Q already adopted by Matthew are incorporated, and it is 
 therefore possible to mark off clearly the portions of the text 
 which belong only to the Third Gospel, it is not always easy 
 to decide what part, if any, of the new matter is the property 
 of the evangelist himself. The question of translation must 
 also frequently be taken into account, for not a few of the 
 passages which have only the significance of introductory 
 formulae or slight expansions, and might therefore most 
 naturally be regarded as additions freely made by Luke 
 himself, are such glaring specimens of translation-Greek as 
 to give us pause. To take at random the first instance 
 which presents itself : In Luke v. 17 ff. the story of the 
 paralytic is introduced in these words : Kal iyevero iv ixia 
 tS)V rjjxepSiv Kal auTO? ^v SiSdcrKWV, Kal fjo-av KaOijfievoi ^apiaaloi 
 Kal vo/jLoSiSdcrKaXoi o'i fjcrav iXrjXvdoTev e/c Trdcrrj^ Kto/xi]^ Trj'i FaXi- 
 \(Xta9 Kal 'lovSaia? Kal 'lepovcraX-^fi' Kal Svvafii<; KvpLOV rjV ew to 
 lacrOai ainov. Kal ISoii avSpei cf}e'povTe<; eTrt K\ivr}<; dvdpcoTrov o? rjV 
 'Tvapa\eXvfievo<s, Kal i^TjTOvv avTov el<TeveyKelv Kal Belvai avTov ivd>- 
 TTtov avTov. Kal firj evpomei Trota? eta-eveyKcoa-tv avrov, k.t.\. 
 Nearly every word of this is peculiar to the Third Gospel ; 
 moreover, there are here a few phrases and constructions 
 which at once remind us of Luke. The Semitic idioms are 
 evident enough, still, it is conceivable that idioms of this 
 nature, such as Kal iSov and ivmiriov avrov, should have been 
 adopted by a Greek author in his own editorial additions 
 to narrative already rendered into the translator's jargon. 
 But to this must be added at once that the Semitisms are 
 too numerous, and in many passages too awkward, to make 
 the explanation a plausible one. They are merely obtru- 
 sive, not at all necessary. Employed as they are, there is 
 no point of view from which they can be called a credit to 
 the author of the Third Gospel, if he originated them, and 
 they might easily arouse the suspicion that he wished to 
 make his own additions appear to come from Semitic docu- 
 ments. It is not simply in the padding and patching of 
 the Gospel that they appear in Luke's handwriting, as it 
 were; they are equally noticeable in the large blocks of 
 narrative which he has taken over from sources unknown 
 to us. Thus at the beginning of chapter 19 : Kat elaeXOwv 
 
CHARLES C. TORREY 309 
 
 Bci]px^To Tfjv 'lepeiy^co. koL ISoii avf)p ovo/xaTi icaXovfievo'i 'LaKyalo'^, 
 KoX avTOi fjV ap^iTeX<ovr]<; Kal avTO<i TrXovcrto?. Kal i^-ijreL IBelv rov 
 'lr]CTOvv Ti? icTTiv, Kal oiiK r/SvvaTO avo tov oxXov oti rrj rjXiKLa fiiK- 
 po9 ^v. Kal TrpoSpafioav et? to efiTrpocrOev ave^r) eirl avKOfiopeav 
 'iva thiQ avTov, on e/cetV?;? Tj/xeWev Siep'^ecrOai. Here is the same 
 writer again ; compare, e.g., the eKeCvr^'i (^ohov') with the 
 TTota? of V. 19. There is also the same heaping of Semitic 
 idioms, and this time, at least, it ought to be evident that 
 Luke is not responsible for them. Such gratuitous mon- 
 strosities as the repetition of koI avr6<; and the use of anro before 
 TOV 6j(\ov, for instance, would be either intolerable mockery 
 or something worse, coming from a writer of known skill 
 and taste. Luke is translating; there is no other theory 
 equally plausible. He has done throughout his whole Gospel 
 what we found him doing in the first two chapters. It was 
 his purpose to base all his work on "authentic" original 
 documents. He searched out the native {i.e. Semitic) ma- 
 terial,^® and translated the greater part of it himself. In 
 his renderings of the new material he seems usually to have 
 followed the original quite closely, though he may have used 
 to some extent translations made by others who are unknown 
 to us. 
 
 His mode of procedure in dealing with the material al- 
 ready incorporated by Matthew is well illustrated in the 
 Lord's Prayer, xi. 2-4 (Matt. vi. 9-13). Matthew had given 
 this in what was plainly an expanded form. Luke's Aramaic 
 text had the older form, something like the following : 
 
 nth an «n''in ^'arh 
 
 xrDin «3b pntt>i 
 
 vt.T'rrh ^]'p'y^ sjnjK" ■'3 
 
 T V T " - T 
 
 In rendering this, Luke retained almost everywhere the words 
 of the Greek Matthew : 
 
 ^ Especially after the work of Mark and Matthew, only Semitic documents could 
 claim to embody the old tradition. Of course all the educated knew perfectly 
 well that the Greek of those two Gospels was translation-Greek. 
 
310 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 Tldrep, dyiaaO'^Teo to ovofid aov • 
 
 iXOdTco r/ ^aaiXeia crov 
 
 Tov dprov Tj^wv [jov eVtoutnoi/] Si'Sou rifiiv to Ka6' •^fiepav • 
 
 Koi d<pe<; rjixlv Ta<; dfiaprlaii ■^p.&v, 
 
 Kal yap avTol a(f)iofiev TravTi o<j>ei\ovTi fjiuv 
 
 Kol fjLTj ela-evejKTj'i ■fjfia'i e« nreipaapiov. 
 
 A part of the wording is Luke's own, however, and that, too, 
 in places where alteration was not necessary. (Thfts, of 
 itself, would be fairly good evidence of translation, for the 
 evangelist would hardly have substituted his own words for 
 traditional ones, needlessly, in such an important formula 
 as this.) Plummer remarks, in his Commentary, that the 
 Kol avTol and the TravrC are both characteristic of Luke. 
 'A.ixapTCa<i (for 6(f>eL\i]iJi,aTa) may well be his own improve- 
 ment, though it is possible that his Aramaic text had S3''t5!sn, 
 or some other synonym. The to Kad' rnxepav also belongs 
 to Luke ; see Plummer. This time, however, the variation 
 is a much more important one, for the phrase is obviously 
 a rendering of the same Aramaic word which in Matthew 
 is translated by tov e-movaiov. I cannot believe for a 
 moment that tov eTnoixyiov originally stood in the Greek 
 text of Luke; on the contrary, it was inserted there from 
 Matthew's Gospel. What Luke had before him, and ren- 
 dered, was simply : 'Give us our bread day by day.' I have 
 conjectured the original as XI^ID, 'continual.' This seems 
 all the more plausible because of the passage 2 Kings xxv. 
 29 f . as rendered in the Targum : ^'^^a^p XT'IM KanS bsxi 
 
 ^'^rn •'OV bS naV2 nr DJnS, 'And he (Jehoiachin) ate bread 
 before him continually all the days of his life. And as for 
 his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by 
 the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.' 'E7rt- 
 ouo-to? (as an adjective derived from eTrievai) would be a 
 not unskilful way of rendering this XT'in, the proper 
 meaning of which is 'recurring,' 'returning in constant suc- 
 cession,' and the like. Such words as ivSeXexv's and SiairavTO'; 
 would not do as well, for the translator did not wish to 
 make the petition call for 'perpetual' bread, but only for 
 bread given at constant intervals, i.e. day after day. If the 
 
CHARLES C. TORRE Y 311 
 
 Aramaic adjective had been WttS, as in the Old Syriac, the 
 translator would have rendered by some other and more 
 familiar Greek word, for he would have been allowed a 
 rather wide choice ; the word i^T'in kept him within 
 narrow limits. The meaning is, then, 'Give us the bread 
 for our constantly (i.e. daily) recurring need.' The transla- 
 tion in Matthew, 'Give us oiu* ever-returning bread,' is a very 
 close one ; Luke's ' Give us our daily bread ' is a little more 
 free, but a better rendering nevertheless. His text originally 
 had simply this : tov aprov rjix&v SiSov rj^ilv to Kaff '^/j,epav, but 
 no harmonizer of the Greek Gospels could permit the un- 
 usual and interesting tov eiriovaiov to be left out in this way ! 
 If the word IMJi stood here in the Gospel of the Hebrews, 
 we then have excellent evidence that that Gospel was trans- 
 lated from the Greek. "IHSS could not possibly have stood 
 in the original, but would have been a most natural transla- 
 tion of eTTtovo-iof, making immediate connection with the 
 phrase 17 iiriova-a (rjfiepa). As for Matthew's (Tij/j,epov, it was 
 doubtless present in the Aramaic text of the First Gospel, 
 but was a part of the expansion which the whole prayer 
 has received there. 
 
 Added to all the uncertainty of translation, redaction, 
 occasional correction and conflation, and the like, is that 
 which is due to careless transmission of the text by copyists. 
 Our tradition has not been infallible, and even readings 
 which are fully attested may be wrong. I have no more 
 doubt, for instance, that in Mark xii. 4 iKe(f)a\ia)crav should 
 be eKoXa^io-av "^ than I have that in 1 Mace. v. 25 cnrrivTrjaav 
 should be •^a-jrda-avTo (cf . vii. 29, 33 ; Exod. xviii. 7 ; Judg. 
 xviii. 15), or that in 1 Mace. xi. 23 eKeXevaev should be /care- 
 Xvaev, or that Kadapav in Judith x. 5 should be Kpidiveov (cf. 
 Judg. vii. 13; 2 Kings iv. 42, etc.), though in all of these 
 cases the manuscript attestation is complete, and we no 
 longer have the original to compare. In John viii. 25, 
 instead of the impossible Tfjv ap')(r]v 6tc kuI \aXa> ijp.lv; the 
 original reading must have been t7}v apxv^ eTi Kal XaXS) vplv, 
 "I am still only in the very beginning of what I have to 
 
 ^^ The first step in the corruption was probably the careless writing emipaXuraf, 
 whence the rest followed naturally. 
 
312 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 say to you," a reading which both suits the sense of the 
 whole passage and also resembles the language used in 
 other parts of the Fourth Gospel. In Hebrews xi. 37 we 
 have a conflate text — though here, again, the manuscript 
 support is unimpeachable. The word iireipdcrdriaav, which 
 is quite out of place here (miserably weak, coming between 
 "sawn asunder" and "slain with the sword" !), is merely 
 an old variant reading of iirpurOrjaav (written eTrpeia-Orja-av) . 
 It is not likely, indeed, that there are many instances of this 
 sort in our Gospels ; still, whoever wishes to argue from 
 variant Greek readings to diverse translations must always 
 bear in mind the possibility of a faulty traditional text.^^ 
 Generally speaking, there is no kind of textual criticism so 
 precarious as argument from translation, even where the 
 text cannot be doubted. The varying forms of the same 
 tradition are usually due to free reproduction in which the 
 important thing was felt to be the substance of the nar- 
 rative or discourse, not the form of words. The character 
 of these variants has been admirably summarized by Well- 
 hausen in his Einleitung, 2d ed., p. 3. 
 
 I give in the following a few more specimens of passages, 
 taken chiefly from the Third Gospel, in which the hypothesis 
 of awkward or faulty translation seems to be the best way of 
 explaining our Greek text. 
 
 Luke xi. 39-41 (Matt, xxiii. 25 f.). — The passage in which 
 the Pharisees are said to "cleanse the outside of the cup 
 and platter." As is well known, Wellhausen has proposed 
 to explain the difference here between Matthew and Luke 
 by supposing that the former rendered ""SI, 'cleanse,' 
 while the latter rendered "'?|, 'give alms' (Das Evangelium 
 Lucae, p. 61). Aside from the improbability of such a use 
 of ■'3J in the time of the evangelists, it seems to me that there 
 is an easier way of accounting for the variation. As for the 
 Aramaic usage supposed by Wellhausen : In Jewish litera- 
 ture the noun ttf, Km3J means 'righteousness, purity,' 
 and the like; no example of its use to mean 'almsgiving' 
 
 ^ Resch, in his Logia Jesu, 21, 26, made Mark's iKi<pa\la(raf a variant rendering 
 
 of uin. 
 
CHARLES C. TORRET 313 
 
 or 'alms' has ever been found, so far as I am aware. The 
 verb ''3J means 'make pure, regard as righteous,' and the 
 like; never 'give alms.' The word for 'righteousness' 
 which also means 'alms' is Split; the only evidence that 
 IDf was ever used in a similar way is the fact that in the 
 Koran and subsequent Mohammedan literature and usage 
 the word zakdt (pretty certainly borrowed from the Jews) 
 is the technical term for the alms prescribed by law, whence 
 it is reasonable to conclude that there was some such Jewish 
 usage in Arabia in the time of Mohammed. As Siegmund 
 Fraenkel expresses it, in his De Vocabulis in antiquis Arabum 
 Carminibus et in Corano peregrinis, p. 23 : " m3| quidem 
 in scriptis ludaicis 'meriti' tantum sensu invenitur, . . . 
 sed fortasse ludsei Arabici T\^'2] sensu eleemosynarum adhi- 
 buerunt." A student of Mohammedan literature would at 
 once think of 'almsgiving' when he saw the verb ''3J, but 
 it is unlikely, to say the least, that it could have suggested 
 such an idea to Luke. 
 
 The verbal form of the tradition in the one Gospel differs 
 so much from its form in the other that it is better not to 
 try to make them fit each other closely. It is not necessary 
 to suppose that the verb in the first clause of Luke xi. 41 
 meant 'cleanse.' On the contrary, verse 41 is the counter- 
 part of verse 39 ; there, the first clause referred to cleansing 
 and the second to unrighteousness ; here, the two ideas are 
 repeated in reverse order. There, he had said: "Your 
 inner part is full of unrighteousness" ; here, "That which is 
 within make righteous," Sj5'^^ VS^ uSt X^^. Nothing could 
 be more natural than to render this by to, ivovTa Sore iXerj/xo- 
 avvrjv, since >?j512i HDS is the regular idiom for "give alms," 
 the very one which is used in Matt. vi. 1-4 {hi,Kaioavvr]v 
 ■n-ocelv), for instance, and of which a host of examples could 
 be given.^* 
 
 xi. 47 S. (Matt, xxiii. 29-33). — The Greek text has: 
 ^'^ oval vfilv, on olKoSofielre ra fivqiieia twv irpoipTjTMV, ol Se Trarepe? 
 viicbv cnreKTewav avTov<;. ^ apa fidpTvpe<; icrre Kal crvvevSoKelre rot? 
 epiyoii; tmv irarepcov vfi&v • on aiirol p,ev aireKTetvav avrov';, vfiei<; Se 
 
 ^' I may add, aa an example of coincident conjecture, that I came upon this 
 explanation of the passage quite independently of Wellhausen. 
 
314 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 oiKoSo/ieiTe . This last clause contains the proof of the fact 
 that these Jews were not guiltless of the blood of the proph- 
 ets : "Because they slew them, and 2/e 6mxM." But this is no 
 "proof" at all ; so far as it could have any significance in this 
 connection, it might rather be an indication of a repentant 
 generation. In Matthew, it is all clear: "Ye say: If we 
 had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been 
 partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Where- 
 fore ye witness in regard to yourselves that ye are the sons of 
 them that slew the prophets ; and ye will fill up the measure 
 of your fathers. Serpents, offspring of serpents," etc. The 
 verses immediately following, in Luke as well as in Matthew, 
 proceed in the same strain, saying that the children had been 
 like the fathers all the way from Cain down to the present 
 generation. The original in Luke at the end of verse 48 
 was certainly P'"'^ P?? P'^'*\ 'and ye are children of theirs.' 
 The translator (Luke himself.'') of course thought of p53 
 the participle, since he had just had the very same form 
 in the preceding verse, and 48b seemed to be repeating 
 the two clauses of 47 in reverse order. The ]^Th, which 
 thus became the direct object, was of course omitted in 
 translating, as it was not needed and could not have been 
 rendered without awkwardness. 
 
 xii. 46 (Matt. xxiv. 51). — "But if that servant shall say 
 in his heart. My lord delayeth his coming ; and shall begin 
 to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat 
 and drink, and to be drunken ; the lord of that servant will 
 come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when 
 he knoweth not, and will cut him in two, and appoint his por- 
 tion Math the unfaithful (xal Si')^orofi'ijcrei avrbv xal ro ixepo<; 
 avTov fieTo, r5>v airuTTmv Orjo-ei)." Two things strike the reader 
 at once : First, this is a singularly disproportionate punish- 
 ment for a kind of mismanagement to which servants left 
 to themselves have always and everywhere been especially 
 prone, and for which dismissal in disgrace is generally re- 
 garded as an adequate penalty ; second, after the man had 
 been "split in two" it could make no difference to him 
 with whom his portion was appointed. I believe that we 
 may see here a very ancient error in the underlying Ara- 
 maic text, which is rendered in the same way by both Luke 
 
CHARLES C. TORRBY 315 
 
 and Matthew. Aixorofi-^aei of course translates the verb 
 3'?a. The original text was: X'l^ UV nnt2 nih^\ 'and 
 will divide him his portion with the unfaithful.' ^° By a 
 very natural bit of carelessness (supposing the first suffix 
 to be direct object rather than indirect) the conjunction 1 
 was put before nriDtt. This once done could never be un- 
 done, and the addition of the verb W^^ at the end of the 
 clause was immediately necessary : ^^ S''")pU> DS nWJil n3J7B''1 
 S^l!}'', 'and will divide him, and his portion with the unfaith- 
 ful {toill appoint).' 
 
 xii. 49 f. — Uvp rjXdov ^aXelv ek ttjv yrjv, Kal tC OeXto el rjBr] 
 avq^Orj ; ^dTTTia/ia Se e')(to ^a'lrTLaOrjvai, koI ttw? avve'^^ofiai &)? 
 Stov TeXeaOy. 'I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what 
 will I if it is already kindled? I have a baptism to be bap- 
 tised with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! ' 
 I have given the second clause of verse 49 in the words of 
 the English Revised Version. The rendering is nonsense, 
 to be sure, but it at least has the merit of following the 
 text. Many interpreters, including some of the foremost of 
 the Germans, have rendered according to the sense: 'How 
 I wish that it were already kindled ! ' but this, as Plummer 
 fairly objects, "does rather serious violence to the Greek." 
 Turning the Greek back, word by word, into Aramaic, we 
 have: Tsphl Tl2 p 1?« K3K «Dit HIOI. But whoever has 
 before him this Aramaic, not feeling obliged to render 
 word for word, but rather to give the sense, can only trans- 
 late it: 'And how I wish that it were already kindled!' 
 The idiom is the regular one in Aramaic. We are given 
 in Luke a too literal rendering — though any ancient trans- 
 lator would have been likely to render in just this way. 
 
 xxiii. 54. — Kal fjnepa tjV 7rapacrKevrj<;, xat ad^^arov eire^axricev. 
 
 'Now it was the Day of Preparation, and the next day was 
 the Sabbath.' The same idiom which has already been 
 mentioned, above, in interpreting Matt, xxviii. 1. Moore, in 
 the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 26. 328 f.. 
 
 ™ The idiom is perfectly regular ; of., for example, the Syr. renderings in Is. liii. 
 12; Jer. xxxvii. 12, etc. 
 
 '' This word is regulariy used to mean both 'faithless' (Luke, iirlimiiv) and 
 'hypocrite' (Matt., iTTOKpirdiv). 
 
316 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS 
 
 showed that the original of Luke's phrase was something 
 Hke : xnDtT ^^a3 Xnan^n SaV mm. I have noticed the very 
 same phrase in the Syriac Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, 
 p. 22, line 9 : SnatT ^^J13 SraTHSin Sar ^'^^n"'X, where Wright 
 translates : 'It was the night between Friday and Saturday.' 
 In the evangelist's narrative, the hour is not stated ; we only 
 know that it was the time when the sixth day was passing 
 over into the Sabbath. Any Aramaic text would have used 
 here the word rU3, "dawn," but no Greek writer would ever 
 in this place have written iTre<f)<o<TKev unless he were trans- 
 lating the Semitic word which actually lay before him in a 
 document. Luke is using either the Aramaic Mark or a nar- 
 rative based upon it ; the o eanv irpoad^^arov of Mark xv. 
 42 is another very natural, but less accurate, rendering of 
 
 xxiv. 32. — Ov'xl rj Kaphia ■^/itov Kaiofj,evr) rjv ; "Did not 
 our heart burn?" The hypothesis of an original Aramaic 
 "Ip'', instead of 1p% has long seemed to me the most satis- 
 factory interpretation : "Was not our mind [37 is the under- 
 standing] slow to comprehend?" Wellhausen's 13''0H1 1"lJD53, 
 Das Evangelium Lucae, 139, seems to me much too remote 
 to be compared here. Neither the Hebrew verb nor any 
 likely Aramaic equivalent of it could possibly have been 
 rendered by Kuiofiai, and j''ton"l (the same word in Aramaic 
 as in Hebrew) would probably have been translated by 
 airXdyxva, certainly not by KapSia. I do not think, how- 
 ever, that we have a particle of external evidence of the 
 original Aramaic reading "IpV Every one of the readings 
 of our versions is probably derived, directly or indirectly, 
 from KMOfievrj, the variations being due partly to corruption 
 of the Greek and partly to guessing what ought to have been 
 the reading. The corruption and the guesswork are impor- 
 tant, as showing that the idiom was as unsatisfactory in 
 Greek as it was in Semitic (witness the Syriac, where not 
 only the Lewis text, but also the Curetonian and Peshitto, 
 both of which have been extensively conformed to the stand- 
 ard Greek, have the reading 'heavy'). It is obvious 
 enough, in any case, that this whole chapter is translated. 
 
 Numerous other indications of translation iji the Third 
 Gospel which I had noted in my own reading, and which 
 
CHARLES C. TORRBY 317 
 
 were included in this essay as originally presented,^^ have 
 now been pointed out by Wellhausen in his Introduction and 
 Commentaries, so that I need not include them. One of 
 these to which attention may especially be called is the 
 aiTo nia<;, 'at once,' of xiv. 18. It is a too literal rendering 
 of X'ln |to, and occurs in a section of the parable (verses 18- 
 24) which is found only in Luke, and can hardly have been 
 known to Matthew. In general, the evidence is striking that 
 where Luke goes his own way he is usually closely follow- 
 ing written documents, mostly Aramaic. 
 
 In Mark xiv. 3, Matt. xxvi. 6, may it not be that 'Simon 
 the leper ' (''?13) ^^ was originally intended to be ' Simon 
 the jar-maker' C*?"!?) ? I do not know that the latter 
 word has been found anywhere ; still, no object was more 
 familiar in Palestine than the water jar, or wine jar, 2"^^, 
 and the term used to designate the man who made or sold 
 such jars can only have been 2*13 
 
 '^ It was read before the Semitic Club of Yale University, January 13, 1904 ; 
 and before the Society of Biblical Literature, in New York City, in December, 1906. 
 As originally written and presented, it contained all the essential features of its 
 present form, including all of the suggested emendations excepting the one con- 
 cerning ' Simon the leper.' 
 
 ^ The word used, for example, in the Palestinian Syriac version in these passages. 
 
'9.\- 
 
ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 Clifford Herschel Moore 
 
 Harvard University 
 
 As Livy remarks, the provinces of Spain were the first to 
 be acquired by the Romans on the continent of Europe and 
 the last to be thoroughly subdued.^ Yet under the republic 
 the Romanization of these provinces had advanced far. 
 Carteia in the south was the first Latin colony outside of 
 Italy ; ^ Gades, the oldest Phcsnician settlement in the penin- 
 sula, was the first foreign city to adopt the law and language 
 of the conquerors, and was so fully Romanized by Augustus's 
 day that the census showed five hundred knights resident 
 there, a larger number than was to be found in any provincial 
 town of Italy except Patavium, according to Strabo.' Under 
 Julius Caesar and Augustus many Spanish communities 
 received full Roman citizenship. These towns, moreover, 
 were not wholly confined to the coast, but many were sit- 
 uated in the interior parts of the peninsula, especially in 
 Bsetica, where Corduba, Hispalis, and Urso were undoubtedly 
 important centres of Roman culture long before they were 
 made Roman colonies ra the years 46-44 b.c. ; the interior 
 of Tarraconensis, however, especially that area now repre- 
 sented by New Castile and a considerable part of Old Castile, 
 together with the modern provinces of Salamanca and Ca- 
 ceres, was not occupied by any town with full Roman rights. 
 In the valley of the Iberus, Csesaraugusta, the modern Sar- 
 agossa in the province of the same name, occupied a some- 
 what advanced position ; * while in Lusitania, Augusta 
 Emerita, now Merida in the province of Badajos, founded 
 in 25 B.C., exerted a strong influence.* But the northwestern 
 quarter of the peninsula long resisted the Roman arms, so 
 that the conquest was only completed by Agrippa's successes 
 
 1 xxviii. 12. 12. ^ Livy, xliii. 3. 1-4. ' iii. p. 169. 
 
 * Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iii. 24; Strabo, iii. p. 151. 
 
 * Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iv. 117; Strabo, iii. pp. 151, 166. 
 
 319 
 
320 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 over the Asturi and Cantabri in 19 b.c.^ Troops, however, 
 were continually stationed in Spain throughout the Roman 
 domination, the forces varying from the three legions under 
 Tiberius ' to a single legion under Marcus Aurelius * and the 
 five recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum at the beginning of 
 the fifth century.^ 
 
 The process of Romanization had advanced in Strabo's 
 day to such an extent that a considerable part of the inhab- 
 itants of Baetica had adopted Roman customs and had for- 
 gotten their own language so, that they hardly differed from 
 the Romans themselves.'" The Latin poets of Corduba 
 might offend the ears of Cicero,'^ but two generations after 
 his day, Spain had begun to contribute that long list of 
 writers who made the first century of the empire the Spanish 
 age in Latin literature. The building of roads, the further 
 establishment of Roman towns, service in the army, the cult 
 of Rome and the emperors, all continued the spread of Roman 
 civilization. The elder Pliny in his Natural History '^ re- 
 cords a total of fifty towns possessing full Roman rights and 
 forty-eight having the ius Latii, which was extended by Ves- 
 pasian in 75 A.D. to all free inhabitants who had not pre- 
 viously obtained it.^' 
 
 This early and extensive Romanization of the Spanish 
 provinces had its effect on the religious history of their 
 inhabitants. Throughout Bsetica and much of Tarraconensis 
 no evidence of the worship of the native Iberian or Celtic 
 divinities appears, although in the remoter districts to the 
 west and north dedications to these gods are numerous. 
 Nowhere in the empire was the cult of the capital city and 
 the imperial house better organized and more assiduously car- 
 ried on than in Spain, being indeed one of the chief agencies 
 of Roman influence, as the inscriptions abundantly attest.^* 
 
 ° Horace, Odes, ii. 6. 2, 11. 1; iii. 8. 21 f.; iv. 14. 41; Dio Cass., liv. 11. 
 
 ' Tacitus, Annals, iv. 5, referring to 23 a.d. ; cf . Strabo, iii. p. 166. 
 
 ' Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarmn, 6. 3492 a, b. 
 
 » Not. Dig. Occ, vii. p. 138 S. " Strabo, iii. p. 151. 
 
 " Pro Archia, 26. ^ iii. 7-30 ; iv. 117-118. 
 
 " Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iii. 30; Corpus, 2. 1049, 1050. 
 
 " Cf. Ciccotti, I Sacerdoti Municipali e Provincial! della Spagna, etc., Annali 
 dell' Instituto, 38. (1890) pp. 28-77 ; G. C. Fiske, Notes on the Worship of the Ro- 
 man Emperors in Spain, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 11. (1900) pp. 
 101-139. 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 321 
 
 When we examine the evidences for the worship of the 
 oriental gods in Spain, as I propose to do in this paper, we 
 again see the condition of the country reflected in the dedi- 
 cations extant. In spite of the miUtary occupation, the 
 special gods of the soldiers, like lupiter Optimus Maximus 
 Dolichenus, for example, do not appear, and out of the entire 
 list of those who set up dedications to the several divinities, 
 only four are soldiers, and of these three were high officials, all 
 devotees of the Mithraic religion.'^ Nor can we detect the 
 course by which these religions entered Spain and were there 
 spread, as we can, for example, in the case of the taurobolium 
 at Lyons, where L. ^milius Carpus declares that he brought 
 the rite from the shrine near the mons Vaticanus in Rome — 
 vires excepit et a Vaticano transtulit.^* Again, at Nemau- 
 sus in Gaul a devotee of I. O. M. Heliopolitanus writes 
 himself down domo Beryto, having doubtless remained faith- 
 ful to the divinity of his native land throughout his military 
 service. In Spain we have nothing of this sort ; but never- 
 theless we can be sure that the army, traders, and slaves 
 did their work here as in other parts of the empire. 
 
 The question arises at the outset of our investigation 
 whether the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation of the 
 coast left any traces in matters of religion ; for although the 
 power of Carthage was broken before 206 B.C., her influence 
 must have continued long, even if its evidences are not so 
 clearly detected as those left by later invaders. In only 
 three cases at the most can we say with any degree of cer- 
 tainty that we are dealing with gods of Carthaginian origin : 
 these are Hercules (Gaditanus), Dea Cselestis, and lupiter 
 Ammon. Gades was the most ancient and prosperous colony 
 of the Tyrians; here they established the worship of their 
 great god Melcarth, who was denominated by the Greeks and 
 Romans Hercules Tyrius (Corpus Inscript. Lat. 7. p. 97 b).^' 
 His temple at Gades was famous,^* and the Phoenician coins 
 of this city bear the head of Melcarth, as that of Hercules is 
 figured on the coins of the Roman period.^' No dedication to 
 
 " Cf. pp. 333 ff. " Corpus, 13. 1751. 
 
 " On a statue at Rome ante aditum porticus ad nationes, see Pliny, Naturalis 
 Historia, xxxvi. 39. 
 
 •' Silius Italicus, Pun. iii. 14-20; Philostratus, Vita ApoUonii, v. 5. 
 " Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum, 1. pp. 19-22 ; 6. p. 504. 
 
322 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 the god has been found among the few inscriptions of Gades 
 itself, but he appears as Hercules Gaditanus at Carthago 
 Nova in one inscription.^" 2. 3409 : [H]ercul[i] ] Gadita[no] | 
 L. Avi(us) L. l(ibertus) Anti[pho] | et A. Avius Ecl[ectus] | 
 V. s. 1. m. His cult is also attested by 2. 1929 from Carteia : 
 Q. Cornelio . . . i | [f(ilio)] Gal(eria) Senecioni | Anniano, 
 co(n)s(uIi), proco(n)s(uli) Ponti et Bit[h]yniae, | curatori viae 
 Appiae, | legato legionis VII | geminae feli[c]is, curatori | 
 viae Latinae, pr[a]etori, tribun[o] | plebis, quaestori urbano, 
 I sacerdoti Herculis. This inscription must belong to the 
 first half of the second century, since Cornelius Senecio 
 was proconsul of Pontus and Bithynia before 136 a.d., the 
 year in which these districts became an imperial province. 
 His office as sacerdos Herculis ^^ was in all probability con- 
 ferred on him by the inhabitants of Carteia while he was serv- 
 ing as legatus legionis VII, but the exact date of this service 
 cannot be determined. It is further probable that the same 
 god appears in the fragmentary inscription from Epora, 2. 
 2162 . . . sacerdoti Her(culis) ] Modia Rusticula | mater 
 d(edicavit). Two inscriptions to Hercules Invictus should 
 also in all probability be reckoned here. Ipsca, 2. 1568: 
 Herculi Invicto | A. Licinius Glaucus | d(e) p(ecunia) s(ua) 
 m(erito) ?^ Tucci, 2. 1660: Herculi Invicto 'ri(berius) Augusti 
 f(ilius) divi nep(os) Caesar Aug[ustus] imp(erator) pontifex 
 maxumus ded[icavit] .^ 
 
 Of the sixteen remaining inscriptions referring to the wor- 
 ship of Hercules it is impossible to say how many belong to 
 the Phoenician divinity. But in all probability a consider- 
 able number do so.^* 
 
 ^^ References are to the Corpus Inscriptionmn Latinarum unless otherwise indi- 
 cated. 
 
 2' That this Hercules is the god of Gades may be safely assumed in view of the 
 origin and history of Carteia. Furthermore, it will be noted that the office of priest 
 is named at the end of the cursus, showing that it was something extraordinary. 
 Cf. Hiibner ad loc. No. 1927, an inscribed tile, also bears witness to this cult at 
 Carteia. 
 
 '^ The name of the dedicant is reported as Alcinus Glaucus ; I have adopted 
 HUbner's emendation. 
 
 ^ On this extraordinary dedication by Tiberius, which must fall in the year 
 14 A.D., see the comments of Hubner and Mommsen ad. loc. 
 
 " The complete list is as follows : 726, 727 near ancient Norba in Lusitania ; 
 in the province of Bsetica were found 1303, 1304 to Hercules Augustus at the 
 modem Jerez de la Fontera, 1436 at Ostippo, 2058 in the valley of the river Singulis ; 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHBL MOORE 323 
 
 The cult of the second Phoenician divinity, Astarte, the 
 Carthaginian Tanith, Dea Cselestis, is attested at Lucus 
 Augustus, the modern Lugo in the extreme northwestern 
 part of Gallsecia, of which it was the 'chief ancient town, and 
 at Tarraco, the principal city of Tarraconensis. It is hardly 
 credible that her worship was not more widely spread than 
 the extant evidence would seem to indicate. That the cult 
 of the goddess had a permanent establishment at Tarraco 
 seems to be indicated by the sepulchral inscription 2. 4310 : 
 D. M. I G. Avidio Primulo | sacerdoti Caelestis | incompa- 
 rabili | religionis eius | G. Avidius Vitalis | patri b. m. 
 At Lucus Augustus the dedicants were apparently two 
 brothers, natives of the district or traders who had not at- 
 tained Roman citizenship, 2. 2570 : Caelesti | Aug(ustae) | 
 Paterni | qui et | Constantii | v(ota) s(olverunt). 
 
 A third Carthaginian divinity may be seen in lupiter 
 Ammon, to whom also two dedications have been found. 
 The first comes from the modern Santa Eulalia de Logrosa, 
 situated near the coast to the west of Lugo, 2. 5640 : 
 
 I- O- M- 
 APSF- 
 
 V. S- M- 
 
 Although it is impossible to state with certainty that this 
 is a dedication to lupiter Ammon, it is in all probability such. 
 There is no question, however, as to the dedication set up 
 by a brother and sister at Valentia in Tarraco, 2. 3729 : 
 [I(ovi)] O(ptimo) M(aximo) Am(moni) | L. Antonius | L(uci) 
 f(ilius) Gal(eria) Sabinus et | Antonia L(uci) f(ilia) | Pro- 
 cula. It is perhaps idle to inquire whether this divinity is the 
 Baal Hamman of the Carthaginians or the Greco-Roman 
 identification of the Egyptian Ammon ; as a matter of fact, 
 the two divinities were in all probability completely identified 
 before the beginning of our era. In the cult of these three 
 gods, therefore, we find traces of the influence of the Phoeni- 
 cian settlers in the peninsula ; the perpetuation of this evi- 
 
 from the province of Tarraconensis come 2814, 2816, 2816, foimd at San Esteban 
 near the ancient Uxama, 3009 at Ilerda, 3096 at Cabeza del Griego, 3728 at Valenti, 
 4004 (set up by the sodales Herculani) at Dertosa, 5855 at Alcali de Henares near 
 the ancient Complutum, 5950 at Ilici, and 6309 at Toledo. 
 
324 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 dence was easy, since the Phcenician divinities had been 
 identified with Greek and Roman gods long before the strug- 
 gle began between the Romans and the Carthaginians for 
 the possession of Spain. 
 
 We now turn to cults which were brought in by other 
 agencies than those of the Tyrian merchants. The first 
 of these was that of Bellona. Here again a difficulty con- 
 fronts us, for we cannot determine whether we are dealing 
 with the Roman divinity or with the Cappadocian goddess 
 whose worship was made known to the west by Sulla's soldiers 
 at the time of the First Mithridatic War.^^ I have, there- 
 fore, given both inscriptions which come from the Conventus 
 Emeritensis. The first is from Turgalium; its reading is 
 uncertain, but the following is approximately correct, 2. 5277 : 
 Bel[l]onae C. lulius Vit[u]lus ar(am) [posuit].^ The second 
 is from the modern Montanchez, Ephemeris Epig. 9. 44, 
 no. 98: D(is) d(eabus) s(acrum).| Bellonae L. P. S. . 
 I posu|it l(ibens) a(nimo). 
 
 The popularity of these gods whom we have thus far been 
 considering was slight in Spain, as elsewhere in the west, 
 compared with that enjoyed by those greater gods Isis, 
 Serapis, Magna Mater, Mithras, and the solar divinities. 
 Let us first consider the Egyptian goddess and her associates. 
 
 The centres of Isiac religion were the following : 
 
 Lusitania. 
 
 Salacia, 2. 33. Isidi dominae | M. Octavius Octaviae | 
 M. f. Marcellae Mode | Ratillae lib. Theophilus | v.s.I.m. 
 
 Pax lulia, 2. 46. Serapi Pantheo | sacrum. | In honorem 
 G. Ma|ri Prisciani | Stelina Prisca | mater filii | indulgen- 
 tissimi ] d. d. 
 
 Bsetica. 
 
 La Torre del conde de Feria, 2. 981. Isidi dominae | 
 ex testamento | Scandillae C. f. Campanae. 
 
 Igabrum, 2. 1611. Pietati Aug. | Flaminia Pale | Isiaca 
 Igabren(sis). | Huic ordo m(unicipum) m(unicipi) | Iga- 
 brensium ] ob merita | statuam decr(evit) | quae honore | 
 accepto impens(um) remisit. 
 
 25 Plutarch, Sulla, 9. " Ephemeris Epig. 8. 377. 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 325 
 
 Tarraconensis. 
 
 Acci, 2. 3386. Isidi puel(lari) | iussu dei Ne(tonis?). | 
 Fabia L. f. Fabiana avia | in honorem Avitae neptis | piis- 
 sumae ex arg. p. CXHES" = £Z) V, | item ornamenta : in 
 basilio unio et margarita | n. VI, zmaragdi duo, cylindri 
 n. VII, gemma car|bunclus, gemma hyacinthus, gemmae 
 cerauniae | duae ; in auribus zmaragdi duo, margarita duo ; | 
 in collo quadribacium margaritis n. XXXVI, | zmaragdis 
 n. XVIII, in clusuris duo ; in tibiis | zmaragdi duo, cylindri 
 n. XI; in spataliis zmaragjdi n. VTII, margarita n. VIII; 
 in digito minimo anuli | duo gemmis adamant., digito 
 sequenti anulus po|lypsephus zmaragdis et margarito, 
 in digito summo | anulus com zmaragdo ; in soleis cylindri 
 n. VIII. 
 
 Acci, 2. 3387. Livia Chlcedonica ] Isidi deae d. | h.s.e. | 
 ornata ut potuit : | in collo H monile | gemmeum ; in digitis | 
 zmaragd. XX. dextr. | . . . 
 
 Valentia, 2. 3730 (= 6004). Sodalicium | vernarum 
 I colentes Isid(em). 
 
 2. 3731. Serapi | pro salute P. | Herenni 
 Se|veri Callini|[c]us ser(vus). 
 
 Tarraco, 2. 4080. Isidi Aug. | sacrum. In honor(em) | 
 et memoriam | C . . . . liae Sabinae | Clod. 0[rbi]ana | 
 mater, | Sempronia Lychnis | avia. 
 
 Aquae Calidae, 2. 4491. P. Licinius Phijletus et Lici-j 
 nia Crassi lib. | Peregrina Isidi | v.s.l.m. loc(o) ac(ce)p(to) 
 a repub(lica). 
 
 Emporia, 2. 6185. 
 
 . . serapid\i aedem 
 . . . sedili\a, 
 
 . . . |meni f. 
 . . . |ius 
 
 Asturica Augusta, 2. 5665. . . . Zeiii lepawif 'lam. 
 
 Bracara Augusta, 2. 2416. Isidi Aug. sacrum. | Lucretia 
 Fida sacerd(os) perp(etua) | Rom(ae) et Aug(usti) | con- 
 ventuus Bracaraug(ustani) d(edicavit). 
 
 Panoias, 2. 2395, c. 'Ti^to-Tw 2[o/>ci]7rt8t avv . . . koX 
 /iU(r[TJj]/3to[t]?. C. Calpurnius Rufinus voti compos.^' 
 
 "As corrected in the Archeologo PortuguSs, 1897, p. 59. 
 
326 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 That in the dedication at Pax lulia (46) the epithet Pan- 
 theus is given Serapis is not surprising, for the god bore this 
 universal character at the time of his introduction into 
 Egypt in the third century before our era,^ and the expres- 
 sion fits the syncretistic religious thought of the empire. 
 Thus we find a close parallel in an African inscription, Corpus, 
 8. 12493 : Ail 'HXitp fieyaXa ( iravOeo) 'EapdinSi. 
 
 Igabrum in Bsetica was apparently an important centre 
 of the worship of Isis according to 1611, in which the title 
 Isiaca Igabrensis is equivalent to sacerdos publica Igabrensis. 
 An exact parallel to this is found at Ostia, where the titles Isia- 
 cus huius loci (Corpus, 14. 352) and sacerdos Isidis Ostiensis 
 (14. 429, 437) both appear. 
 
 It will be observed that the eight places in Tarraconensis 
 which now offer us evidence of the cult of the Egyptian divin- 
 ities extend from the southernmost part of the province along 
 the eastern coast into the northwestern dioceses of Asturia 
 and Gallaecia. The most interesting of these are the two 
 dedications from Acci, the colonia lulia Gemella (3386 and 
 3387), which testify to the wealth and importance of the god- 
 dess's shrine there. The extraordinary inventory of gifts 
 recorded in the first sounds like a list of the votive treasure 
 of some favorite shrine of the Virgin Mary to-day.^' In fact, 
 of all the similar records preserved to us from Roman an- 
 tiquity the only inventory comparable to this is that of the 
 sacred treasury of Isis and Bubastis near the ancient shrine 
 of Diana Nemorensis in the Alban Hills,'" the value of which 
 
 '* On the introduction of the god into Egypt see Lehmann-Haupt in Roscher's 
 Lexikon, 4. 341 ff. 
 
 2' The money value of the gifts was very considerable. Only that of the 112 lbs., 
 8ii oz. can now be reckoned with any degree of accuracy, which at the current price 
 of silver is equivalent to a little less than $700. Naturally the value of the gems and 
 settings cannot be determined even approximately. 
 
 ^ Corpus, 14. 2215. Res traditae fanis utrisque : signa n(umero) xvii, caput 
 solis i, imagines argenteas iiii, clupeum i, aras aeneas duas, delphicam aeneam, 
 spondeum i argenteum et patera, basileimi omatum ex gemmis n. i, sistrum argen- 
 teum inauratum, spondeum inauratum, patera cum frugibus, coUarem ex gemmis 
 beryllis, spatalia cum gemmis ii, collarem alterum cum gemmis n. vii, inaures ex 
 gemmis n. x, nauplia ii pura, corona analempsiaca i cum gemmis topazos n. xxi 
 et carbunculos n. Ixxxiiii, cancelli aenei cum hermulis n. vii intro et foras, vestem 
 liniam tunicam i, pallium i, zonam cum segmentis argenteis, stola i, vestem altera 
 lintea pura, tunicam, pallium, stola, zona. Bubasto : vestem siricam purpuream 
 et callainam, labellum marmoreum cum columella, hydria hypsiana et lentea 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHBL MOORE 327 
 
 could hardly have surpassed that of the gifts made by this 
 single Spanish devotee, Fabia Fabiana, to whose wealth, 
 affection for her granddaughter, and devotion to the goddess 
 the inscription bears eloquent witness. The shrine must 
 have been well established and held in high esteem to be the 
 recipient of such gifts ; this is also shown by the fact that the 
 Egyptian cult had been brought into friendly relations with 
 the local divinity Neto,^^ whom Macrobius describes (Sat. i. 
 19, 5) : Accitani etiam, Hispana gens, simulacrum Martis 
 radiis ornatum maxima religione celebrant, Neton vocantes. 
 This Spanish god, who to Macrobius and the men of his day 
 was naturally a solar divinity, — radiis ornatum, — may 
 well have been regarded as such in the second century of 
 our era ; ^^ with a god of this character Isis could easily be 
 associated. It is worth noting here that at Ostia a decuri- 
 alis scriba librarius dedicated to Isis regina a signum Martis,^' 
 the god with whom Neto was identified by the interpretatio 
 Romana. 
 
 The two inscriptions from Valentia (3730, 3731) show dev- 
 otees of the lowest class. Nos. 4080, 4491, and 6185 call 
 for no comment. The identification of Zeis Se/jaTrt? in 
 no. 5665 is also a commonplace.'* The name 'law requires 
 some further consideration, for this is, so far as I know, the 
 only inscription in which this name is attached to Sarapis. 
 That 'lad) was identical with the Jewish Jahwe and was also 
 the Phoenician name of the Chaldean Dionysus is well 
 known ; '^ likewise familiar is the passage in Macrobius' 
 Saturnalia, i. 18, 19-21, where the learned Vettius Agorius 
 
 purpurea cum clavis aureis et zona aurea, tunicas ii praecincta et discincta et 
 palliolum, vestem altera alba, tunica, stola, zona et pallium. 
 
 For a rich collection of Latin texts relating to votive offerings and a discus- 
 sion thereof, see De Marchi, II Culto Privato, 1. pp. 292-307. 
 
 " Probably the same as the god Netus of Corpus, 2. 365, 5278. 
 
 '^ Cf. Apuleius, Metamorphoses, xi. 24, where it is said that the initiate was 
 dressed ad instar solis. Furthermore, the identification of Sarapis with Sol was not 
 uncommon. Cf . Corpus, 8. 12493 ; Inscriptiones Graecse, 12. 2, 114 ; etc. Our 
 inscription can hardly be earlier than the second century. 
 
 ^ Ephemeris Epigraphica, 7. 1194. 
 
 ^ See Head, Historia Nummorum, p. 720, for this inscription on coins of Alex- 
 andria, p. 570 on coins of Tripolis in Phrygia. Cf. also the many dedications to 
 lupiter Sarapis. 
 
 " Lydus, de Mensibus, iv. 38 ; Diodorus Siculus, i. 94, 2. Cf . Baudissin, Studien 
 zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, 1. 179-254. 
 
328 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 Prsetextatus continues his discourse after quoting the Orphic 
 
 verse : 
 
 el? Zeii? eh 'AiSr]<s eh "HXto? eh Aiowao'!, 
 
 huius versus auctoritas fundatur oraculo ApoUinis Clarii, 
 in quo aliud quoque nomen soli adicitur, qui in isdem sacris 
 versibus inter cetera vocatur 'lad. Nam consultus Apollo 
 Clarius, quis deorum habendus sit, qui vocatur 'lam, ita 
 eff atus est : 
 
 opyia fiev SeSa&JTa? exprjv vrjTrevdea KevOeiv, 
 el 8' dpa Tot iravpr) (rvvecrif Kal vov'i aXairaSvoi, 
 <})pd^eo Tov iraVToav virarov 6eov e/ifiev 'law, 
 'K.eip.an fie'v t 'AiSrjv, Aia S" etapo<; ap')(pfievoio, 
 'YleXiov he Oepev;, fieroTrotpov S a^pov 'law. 
 
 huius oraculi vim, numinis nominisque interpretationem, qua 
 Liber patet et sol 'law significatur, exsecutus est Cornelius 
 Labeo in libro, cui titulus est de oraculo ApoUinis Clarii. 
 There is no occasion here to discuss the use of 'law in 
 magic and in gnosticism ; ^* for us it is suflBcient to observe that 
 in the fourth century, or rather in the second half of the third, 
 if Cornelius Labeo is correctly placed there, this oracle was 
 current in which 'law is presented as tov irdvTwv vrraTov 6e6v, 
 and that in the pantheistic thought of the day he was 
 the solar divinity ; as such he might naturally be identified 
 with Sarapis, who frequently appears as Sol Sarapis, lupiter 
 Sol, etc." The date of our inscription from Asturica Au- 
 gusta cannot be determined,'^ but its appearance in this re- 
 mote district shows how widely oriental syncretism had pen- 
 etrated throughout the empire. It is true that Asturica was 
 an important city,'^ capital of the conventus which bore its 
 name, and as such was doubtless visited by traders from the 
 Orient. Whether soldiers of eastern origin were quartered 
 
 '° Vid. Baudissin, op. cit. 
 
 " Corpus, 13. 8246 Soli Serapi ; 3. 3 lovi Soli optimo maximo Sarapidi ; 14. 47 
 Ad 'HX((^ ne'rd\(fi 2apiiridt; etc. On the passage in Macrobius, vid. Buresch, 
 Klaros, pp. 48 £F. 
 
 38 ^\riiy Lehmann-Haupt, Roscher's Lexikon, 4. 360, says : die Inschrift stanunt 
 nach dem Schriftencharakter und nach des Herausgebers Urteil aus dem dritten 
 Jahrhundert vor Christus, is beyond my comprehension. Probably this is a misprint 
 for nach Christus, for in the third century B.C. this part of Spain was a howling 
 Iberian wilderness and certainly had not heard of Serapis or the mystic 'Iai6. 
 
 " Phny, Naturalis Historia, iii. i8. 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 329 
 
 here cannot be determined from the paucity of our data, 
 although such were undoubtedly stationed at the neighbor- 
 ing town of Legio Septima.^" 
 
 The inscription from Bracara Augusta (2416) is interesting, 
 for it records a dedication to Isis by a woman who had been 
 honored with appointment as sacerdos perpetua of the cult 
 of Rome and the imperial house by the conventus of which 
 Bracara Augusta was the centre. If Hiibner was right in 
 dating the inscription on palseographical grounds as belong- 
 ing to the end of the first or the beginning of the second cen- 
 tury of our era, we have an indication of the comparatively 
 early date at which Isis had established herself in the north- 
 western part of the peninsula. 
 
 Finally, it may be noted that the dedication from Panoias 
 (2395, c) is one of five cut in the rocks beside a sacred lake. 
 All are in parts illegible or badly copied, but the same dedi- 
 cant, C. Calpurnius Rufinus, appears in three, one of which 
 (2395, b) records the establishment of the sacred place : Diis 
 deabusque aeternum lacum omnibusque numinibus et amphi- 
 theatrum *^ cum hoc templo sacravit C. Calp(urnius) Rufinus 
 v(oti) c(ompos), in quo hostiae voto cremantur. 
 
 It is well known that women and slaves were especially 
 devoted to Isis and her associates ; indeed, these gods may 
 have been brought to the west in connection with the slave 
 trade.^ Now it appears that seven of the fourteen Isiac 
 inscriptions are due to free-bom women, among whom we 
 find at Igabrum (1611) a priestess established by the com- 
 munity with the title Isiaca Igabrensis and another at Bra- 
 cara (2416) in the northwest of the peninsula, who was sacer- 
 dos perpetuae Romae et Augusti. The two dedications from 
 Valentia (3730, 3731) were set up by a sodalicium vernarum 
 
 *" In any case we have the record of an African legatus there in the dedication to 
 Diana of a temenos and temple by Q. Tullius Maximus leg(atus) Aug(usti) le- 
 g(ionis) septimae geni(inae) feUcis (2. 2660), who describes himself as Tullius e 
 Libya. The inscription dates from the time of Trajan or of Hadrian. 
 
 " So Mommsen ; the stone has lapitearum, according to report. 
 
 * At first the women seem to have belonged to the lower class or the demimonde. 
 Catullus, 10, 26 f. volo ad Sarapim deferri. Tibullus, i. 3, 23 f. quid tua nunc Isis 
 mihi, Delia, quid mihi prosunt|illa tua totiens aera repulsa manu ? Cf. id. vii. 27. 
 Propertius, iii. 33, 1 £F. Ovid, Amores, i. 8, 74 ; ii. 13, 7 ff. ; Ars am. i. 77 ff ., 
 etc. Juvenal, vi. 522 ff. Later the devotees were not limited by such social dis- 
 tinctions. 
 
330 OEIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 and a certain Callinicus servus. Although to draw definite 
 conclusions from these data alone would perhaps be as mis- 
 leading as counting bonnets in a church to-day, it is inter- 
 esting that the facts in Spain accord with the evidence 
 elsewhere. 
 
 It will not have escaped notice that none of the dedications 
 to the Egyptian divinities has been found in the interior, but 
 that all are distributed through what we may call the ex- 
 terior zone of the peninsula ; and that only two come from 
 Lusitania. In contrast to this, four of the seven inscriptions 
 testifying to the worship of the Great Mother belong in that 
 province. They are as follows : 
 
 Lusitania. 
 
 Olisipo, 2. 178. Deum matri | T. Licinius | Amaranthus | 
 v.s.l.m. 
 
 2. 179. Matri de|um Mag(nae) Ide|aePhryg(iae) 
 Fl(avia) | Tyche cerno|phor(a) per M. lul(ium) | Cas- 
 s(ianum) et Cass(iam) Sev(eram). | M. At(ilio) et Ann(io) 
 Gal(lo) coss. (108 a.d.) 
 
 Capera, 2. 805. Matri | deum | Britta (sic). 
 
 Emerita, 2. 5260. M(atri) d(eum) s(acrum). | Val(eria) 
 Avita I aram tauroboli | sui natalici red|diti d. d. sacerdo|te 
 Docyrico Vale|riano, arcigallo | Publicio Mystico. 
 
 Baetica. 
 
 Corduba, 2. 5521. Ex iussu Matris deum | pro salute 
 imperii | taurobolium fecit Publicius | Valerius Fortunatus 
 Thalamus ; | suscepit crionis Porcia Bassenia ; | sacerdote 
 Aurelio Stephano ; | dedicata viii Kal. April. | Pio et Proculo 
 COS. (238 A.D.) 
 
 Tarraconensis. 
 
 Monte Cildad, Eph. Epig. 8. p. 424, 160. Matri deum| 
 C. Licinius Cis[s]|us templum | [e]x voto . . . m. 
 
 Insula Balearis Minor. 
 
 Mago, 2. 3706. M. Badius Honor[atus] | et Cornelius 
 Silv[anus] | templum Matri Ma[gnae et] Atthin(i) de s. p. [f]. 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 331 
 
 Of the two inscriptions from Olisipo (178, 179) happily 
 the second is dated by the consuls as belonging to the year 
 108 A.D. It shows the cult with a well-developed personnel, 
 although it need not therefore provfi that the Great Mother 
 had long been established at Olisipo. The title cernophora 
 reappears in inscriptions only, Corpus, 10. 1803, from Puteoli : 
 D(is) M(anibus) Heriae Victorianae caernophoro M. Herius 
 Valerianus filiae dulcissimae, but the nature of the office is 
 suggested by the mention of the cernus in Corpus, 8. 23401 
 from Mactar in Africa, dating from the reign of Probus 
 (285-293) : perfectis rite sacris cernorum crioboli et tauro- 
 boli, and in Corpus, 6. 508, from the city of Rome of the date 
 April 19, 319 : taurobolium criobol(ium) cerno perceptum 
 per Fl(avium) Antonium Eustochium sac(erdotem) Phry- 
 g(ium) max(imum). That the cernus («e/)vo?) played an im- 
 portant part in the mysteries of Cybele in Asia Minor and 
 Greece is known to us. Alexander the ^Etolian sings in 
 Alcman's name, Anthologia Palatina, vii. 709 : 
 
 SapSte? ap')(alai, irarepcov vo/xo';, el fiev iv vfuv 
 
 eTpe^ofiav, Kepva'i rjV tk av fj ^axeXa'i 
 ')^pva-o<j)6po<; ptjacrcov KoXa TVfJ.wava • vvv Se fioi 'AXKfiav 
 
 oiivofia, Koi 27ra/3Ta? eipX iroXvTphroho'i . 
 
 Likewise Nicander in his Alexipharmaca, 217 fl. : 
 
 fj are Kepvo(f)6po<; ^dKopo<! ^cofMurrpia 'Peirj^ 
 eivdhi Xaot^opoicTiv evi')(^pifi'irTova-a KeXeiOoii 
 fia/cpov eirefi^oda jXcoacrr) 9p6ov, ktX. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticos, i. 2, 13, tells us dis- 
 tinctly that the carrying of the /cepvo^ was a regular part 
 of the initiation into the rites of Attis, Cybele, and the Cory- 
 bantes : ravra reXia/covaiv ol ^pvye'; "AttcBi kol Kv^eXrj koi 
 K.opv0aai, — TO. av/i/SoXa Tfj<; nvTjcreco'; TavT-q<; eic rvfiirdvov e(f)ayov, 
 eK KVfi^dXov sTTiov, eKepvo<^6p7)<Ta, inrb tov Tracrrbv vrreSvov. The 
 scholiast on Plato's Gorgias, p. 497, assures us that the same 
 formula was used in the lesser mysteries : ev ok {sc. tok /xi- 
 Kpolt fiva-TTjpioK') TToXXa fiev eirpaTTero ala')(pd, iXe'yero 8e Trpo? 
 Ta>v fj,vovfjLev(ov ravra • 'eK TVfnrdvov ecf)a'yov, eK KVfi^aXov eTrcov, 
 eKepvo(f)6pr)CTa (xepvo'; Se to Xlkvov rj'yovv to tttvov icrTiv), viro tov 
 iraaTov vTreSvov kuI to, ef»)?.' In fact we may be sure that the 
 
332 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 Kepvoi;, or its counterpart the XUvov, filled with sacred sym- 
 bols, was carried in many forms of mystic initiation. The 
 vessel itself doubtless varied in shape from a simple vase 
 to those elaborate affairs described by Athenseus which 
 were obviously intended for offering the -TrayKapTrLa^^ In 
 the case of the taurobolium or criobolium the cernus was 
 probably used to hold the vires of the victim as it may have 
 been for the alholov of the newly consecrated Gallus.^ 
 
 Now it will be observed that the two inscriptions in which 
 the cernus is mentioned are taurobolic, which fact at once 
 raises the question whether the inscription from Olisipo is 
 also of that character. Although the taurobolium is not 
 expressly mentioned, it is noteworthy that aside from the 
 title cernophora, we have the formula of agency per M. 
 lulium Cassianum et Cassiam Severam, which is exactly the 
 expression used in the taurobolic inscription of 319 a.d. 
 quoted above.*^ It is, therefore, not impossible that our 
 inscription is of like nature ; if it be, it antedates by twenty- 
 six years the puzzling inscription from Puteoli (Corpus, 10. 
 1596), which is usually regarded as the earliest record of a 
 taurobolium. To follow the traditional view may be the 
 safer course in view of the paucity of our data, but I have 
 grave doubts if it is the correct one. 
 
 The dedication of the altar at Emerita (5260) on palseo- 
 graphical evidence is placed toward the end of the second 
 century. The meaning of the expression aram tauroboli sui 
 natalici redditi is discussed by Hiibner ad loc, who holds 
 that the altar recorded a taurobolium paid the god on Avita's 
 birthday, while Mommsen, whom Htibner quotes, prefers 
 to think that the altar records the payment of a birthday 
 vow for the taurobolium which Avita had performed one or 
 twenty years before. The language of our inscription is 
 obscure, but I am inclined to agree with Zippel, I.e., p. 499, 
 in holding that since the one who received the taurobolium 
 was renatus, the day on which he entered his new life might 
 
 « Athen. xi. pp. 4'i'6, 478. 
 
 " This is the view of Hepding, Attis, pp. 190-192, in which I heartily concur. 
 Cf. Zippel, das Taurobolium, Festschrift L. Friedlander dargebracht, 1895, p. 508. 
 
 *' Ct. Corpus, 8. 8203, criobolium fecerunt et ipsi susceperunt per C. Aemilium 
 Satuminum saeerdotem. 
 
CLIFFORD HBRSCHEL MOORE 333 
 
 well be called his dies natalis, even as Paulinus of Nola (xxi. 
 171) used this term for the day on which the martyrs in 
 superna regna nascuntur dei. If this view be correct, the 
 word natalici is an adjective, and the whole expression means 
 nothing more than aram tauroboliatam.** 
 
 The taurobolic inscription from Corduba (5521) requires 
 no especial comment, but we may note that it is one of the 
 latest cases in which it is recorded that a taurobolium was 
 offered for the welfare of the imperial house or empire. So 
 far as the extant data show, such dedications begin with 
 Corpus, 14. 40 from Ostia (169-175 a.d.) and close with 14. 42, 
 likewise from Ostia (251-253 a.d.). Finally it should be 
 observed that the inscription from Mago (3706) is the only 
 evidence we have for oriental cults in the Balearic Islands ; 
 it is also the only one of the Spanish inscriptions in which 
 Attis is mentioned. 
 
 We now come to Mithras and the solar divinities, which 
 have been fully treated by Cumont in his monumental work, 
 Textes et Monuments figures relatifs aux Mysteres de Mithra, 
 2 vols., Bruxelles, 1894, 1896. Discoveries subsequent to 
 the publication of this work have added a few inscriptions. 
 It should be said that it is impossible to state with certainty 
 in all cases that the solar divinity is to be identified with 
 Mithras ; in fact, we must doubt if that is the case. Still 
 the syncretistic practice of the empire after the middle of 
 the second century at least makes any distinction between 
 these divinities impossible, so that it is wise as well as con- 
 venient to consider them all together. The geographical 
 distribution of the inscriptions is as follows : 
 
 Lusitaoia 
 
 Olisipo, 2. 258 (C. 516). Soli et Lunae | Cestius Acidius | 
 Perennis | leg(atus) Aug(usti) pr(o) pr(aetore) | provinciae 
 Lusitaniae. 
 
 2. 259 (C. 517). Soli aeterno, | Lunae, | pro aeter- 
 nitate im|peri et salute imp(eratoris) Ca[es(aris)] [L.] | Septimi 
 Severi Aug(usti) Pii et | [im(peratoris)] Caes(aris) M. Aureli 
 Antonini | Aug(usti) Pii [et P. Septimi Getae nob(ilissimi)]| 
 
 " Corpus, 14. 39. Cf. 6. 503, 509, 510, and often. 
 
334 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 Caes(aris) et [lujliae Aug(ustae) matris c[a]s[tr(orum)] | 
 Drusus Valer(ius) Coelianus | v. [c] [leg(atus)] Augustorum | 
 cu[ram] [ag(ente)] Vale[r]i[o] [Q]ua[drato] | Q. lulius Satur- 
 [ninus] [et] | Q. Val(erius) Antoni[anus].*' 
 
 Emerita, 2. 464 (C. 512). Caute | Tib(erius) Cl(audius)| 
 Artemidoru[s] | p.'** 
 
 Rev. Arch. 5. (1905), p. 327, 24. Invicto deo Quintio 
 Flavi Ba[e]tici Con[im]brig(ensis)ser(vo). 
 
 ibid. 25. Anno col(oniae) CLXXX; aram genesis 
 Invicti Mithrae M. Val(erius) Secundus pr(inceps) le- 
 g(ionis) vii Gem(inae) dono ponendam merito curavit. C. 
 Accio Hedychro pa[t]re. (155 a.d.) 
 
 ibid. 26. C. Accius Hedychrus p(ater) patrum. 
 
 Capera, 2. 807 (C. 518). Soli | invict(o) | Aug(usto)| 
 sacrum. 
 
 Caesarobriga, 2. 5319 (C. 521). S(acrum ?) « ] deo | 
 niax|imo. 
 
 Baetica. 
 
 Medina de las Torres, 2. 1025. M. C. p.^° | A. Asellius | 
 Threptus | Romulensis ] d. d. 
 
 Malaca, 2. 1966 (C. 519). L. Servilius Supera|tus 
 domino Invicto | donum libens ani|mo posuit | ara|(m) 
 merenti. 
 
 Italica, 2. 5366. Deo Invi[c]to | Mith[r(ae)] | Secundinus 
 dat. 
 
 Tarraconensis. 
 
 Tarraco, 2. 4086 (C. 515). [Invi]cto Mithra[e] | . . . (duo) 
 vir I . . . cime . . . nn. XV. 
 
 Trillo, 2. 6308 (C. 523). Soli Aug(usto) v(otum) | 
 Dio G(ai) lib(ertus) | s(olvit) l(ibens). 
 
 Bsetulo, 2. 4604 (C. 524). Soli d(eo) sacrum | A. P(om- 
 peius) Abascantus. 
 
 Asturica, 2. 2634 (C. 522). I(ovi) o(ptimo) m(aximo), | 
 
 " I have adopted Hubner's restoration of the last four lines. 
 
 *' Either p(ater) or p(osuit). 
 
 *" Cumont prefers to read S(oli), which may be right. In either case we are not 
 far wrong in placing this dedication in the same class with those to the solar divini- 
 ties and to Mithras. 
 
 '" Htlbner expands to read: M(ithrae) C(auto) p(ati). 
 
CLIFFORD HBRSCHEL MOORE 335 
 
 Soli invicto, Libero | patri, Genio praetor(ii)| Q. Mami- 
 l(ius) Capitolinus | iuridicus per Flaminiam | et Umbriam 
 et Picenum, | leg(atus) Aug(usti) per Asturiam et | Gallae- 
 ciam, dux leg(ionis) vii [g(eminae)] p(iae) [f(elicis)], | prae- 
 f (ectus) aer(arii) Sat(urni) pr[o] salute sua | et suorum. 
 
 Caldas de Vizella, 2. 2407 (C. 520). [lunoni] reginae, | 
 Minerjvae, Soli, | Lunae, di|is onini[p]o[t(entibus)], | For- 
 tuna[e], | Mercur|i[o], genio Io|vis, genio | Martis, [A]es- 
 culajpio, Luci, | [S]omno, | [V]eneri, | [CJupidini, | [C]aelo, 
 [Ca]s|[t]o[r]ibus, | [Cer]er[i], | [G]en(io) Vict|oriae, Ge|nio 
 meo, 1 diissed|ispervi(ae ?) | aetmoc|iaii ccc|r cos | cinna | gl. 
 
 San Juan de Isla, 2. 2705 = 5728 (C. 514). Ponit In|victo 
 deo I austo po|nit lebien|s Pronto; | aram Invi|cto deo 
 au|sto F. (?) leven|s ponit pre|sedente pa|trem patra|tum 
 leone|m. 
 
 Caldas de Reyes, 2. 5635 (C. 573). Cau|ti|nto. . . 
 
 Of these inscriptions three can be dated. The second dedi- 
 cation from Emerita (Rev. Arch. 5 (1905), p. 327, 25) is 
 fixed at 155 a.d. by the words anno coloniae CLXXX ; and 
 the third inscription (ibid. 26) evidently must be of about the 
 same time. The dedication from Asturica (2634) cannot 
 have been set up earlier than the time of Marcus Aurelius, 
 who was the first to employ iuridici ; '^ probably the inscrip- 
 tion dates from the early third century when under Sep- 
 timius Severus and his associates the oriental cults received 
 a new impulse. Finally the imperial titles in 2. 259 from 
 Olisipo fix its date as between June, 198, when Caracalla was 
 associated with Septimius Severus as Augustus and Geta was 
 made Csesar, and 209, when Geta was given the tribunitian 
 power and raised to the position of Augustus. 
 
 The dedications from Emerita show that in the middle of 
 the second century the cult had a developed personnel at that 
 place, the head of which was C. Accius Hedychrus, pater 
 patrum. It will be observed that his Greek cognomen sug- 
 gests that he may have been of humble birth if not of the 
 freedman class. Indeed, the members of the higher social 
 classes seem not to have held the sacred Mithraic offices to 
 any considerable extent, and are not represented at all among 
 
 ^^ Cf. Marquardt, Staatsverw., 1. 224-227 (2d ed.) ; Mommsen, Staatsrecht, 
 2. 1084 f. (3d ed.). 
 
336 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 the dedicants named in the inscriptions which can be placed 
 within the first two centuries of our era. The only official of 
 high rank who appears in this period is M. Valerius Maxi- 
 mianus/^ legate of Numidia under Commodus, who showed 
 a crazy devotion to Eastern cults.^' With the third century, 
 however, the situation changes, and in increasing numbers 
 members of the equestrian and senatorial nobility appear in 
 the list of dedicants, until in the last great stand made by pa- 
 ganism against Christianity in Rome during the fourth cen- 
 tury the highest nobility almost preempts the worship. 
 Of the dedicants in Spain all apparently belong to the lower 
 classes except the two legati Augusti at Olisipo (258, 259) 
 and the dux legionis at Asturica (2634). 
 
 The association in 2634 of Liber with lupiter optimus 
 maximus and Sol invictus is paralleled by 6. 707, Sol(i) 
 Serapi lovi Libero patri et Mercuric et Silvano sacrum, as 
 well as by the cases in the fourth century in which devotees 
 of Mithras were also sacrati or officials of Liber pater. ^^ 
 
 There is, however, no close parallel for the medley of gods 
 shown in 2407. Of the divinities there named the following 
 are nowhere else associated with either Sol or Mithras : 
 iEsculapius, Lux, Somnus, Venus, Cupido, Castores, Ceres, 
 and dii sedis per(viae). Of the other divinities, aside from 
 Sol and Luna, luno, Minerva, and lupiter are of course the 
 Capitoline triad, although some interpretatio barbara may 
 have been put upon them by the dedicant ; Fortuna and Vic- 
 toria are personifications to which the soldiery frequently 
 paid their devotion ; *^ in the dii omnipotentes we are doubt- 
 less to see Magna Mater and Attis, as in 6. 502, 503, and 8. 
 8457 ; ^ and Mercurius and Mars frequently appear in dedi- 
 
 62 Corpus, 8. 2621. 
 
 '' Historia Augusta, Vita Com., 9. 4-6. Under Septimius Severus the cult of 
 Mithras was established in the imperial household. Corpus, 6. 2271 : D. M. L. 
 Septimius Aug(ustorum trium) Ub(ertus) Archelaus, pater et sacerdos invicti 
 Mithrae domus augustanae fecit sibi et Cosiae Primitivae coniugi benemerenti 
 Ubertis Ubertabusque posterisq(ue) eorum. 
 
 " Corpus, 6. 500. 504, 507, 510, 1675 (and Eph. Epig., 8. 648), 1779. 
 
 " In Mithraic (or Solar) dedications Fortuna and Victoria are found in Corpus, 
 6. 31139 and Corpus, 13. 8812 (C. 129, 470). 
 
 '* Also 6. 508, where the denomination is potentissimi dii. Cf . H. Graillot, Les 
 Dieux Tout-Puissants Cybele et Attis et leur Culte dans I'Afrique du Nord. Rev. 
 Arch., 3 (1904), pp. 322-353. 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 337 
 
 cations made by men of Celtic or Germanic stock. In 
 the following inscriptions erected by equites singulares 
 we have rough parallels to om- inscriptions, 6. 31139: 
 {in adversa) Voto suscepto sacr(um), lovi optimo ma- 
 x(uno). Soli divino, Marti, Mercur(io), Herculi, Apollin(i), 
 Silvan (o), et dis omnibus et genio imp(eratoris) Hadriani 
 Aug(usti) et genio singularium M. Ulpius Tertius cives Tri- 
 bocus Cl(audia) ara missus honest(a) missione ex numer(o) 
 eq(uitimi) siag(ularium) Aug(usti) viii id(us) lanuar(ias) 
 Asprenate ii et Libone co(n)s(ulibus) votum solvit libens 
 merito. {in aversa) Voto suscepto sacr(um), lun(oni), 
 Victoriae, Fortun(ae), Felicitati, Minervae, Campestrib(us), 
 Fatis, Salut(i) et omnibus deabus et genio imp(eratoris) 
 Hadriani Aug(usti) et genio singular(ium) M. Ulpius Tertius 
 cives Tribocus Cl(audia) ara missus honest(a) missione ex 
 numero eq(uitum) sing(ularium) Aug(usti) viii id(us) 
 lan(uarias) Aspemate II et Libone co(n)s(ulibus) votum sol- 
 vit libens mer(ito) (128 a.d.). Ibid., 31171 : lovi, lunoni, 
 Soli, Lunae, Herculi, Minervae, Marti, Mercurio, Campes- 
 tribus, Terrae, Caelo, Mari, Neptimo, Matribus Suleis, genio 
 imp(eratoris) M. Ulpius Nonius veteranus Aug(usti) cives 
 Nemens(is) v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito). 
 
 The gods in these inscriptions, however, faU readily into 
 certain groups : the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno, and 
 ^linerva, the celestial fires — Sol and Lima, and in the third 
 inscription the earth, heaven, and ocean — Terra, Caelus, 
 Mare( = Neptunus) ; the Germanic Donar, Wodan, and 
 Tiu with the Roman names of Mars, Mercurius, and Her- 
 cules ; other Germanic or lUyrian gods called Apollo and Sil- 
 vanus ; and local native divinities — Campestres, Fata, and 
 Matres." These offer therefore no exact parallels to our in- 
 scription from Caldas de VizeUa. Probably the multipli- 
 cation of gods in it proves nothing more than the desire of 
 the unknown dedicant to give fuU expression to his pantheis- 
 tic devotion to that divinity which showed itself everywhere 
 under manifold forms and names.^ 
 
 There remains one inscription from Valentia : 2. 5127. 
 Deo aetemo | sacrum | L. Pomponius | Fundanus | cum suis 
 
 " Wijsowa, Religion u. Kultus, p. 77, n. 4, and the literature there quoted. 
 '' Cf. the familiar passages in Apuleius, Metamorphoses, xi. 2, 5. 
 
338 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 onini|bus votum 1. a. | solvit. Cumont has made it very 
 probable ^* that we are to see in the deus aeternus, to whom 
 numerous dedications have been found especially in Dacia, 
 some one of the Syrian Baalim. Since these Baalim were 
 regarded as sun-gods, it is likely that this dedication belongs 
 with the Mithraic inscriptions as much as many of the dedi- 
 cations to Sol, but I have hesitated to place it among them. 
 
 The foregoing detailed examination shows the way in 
 which oriental cults penetrated to the remoter parts of the 
 Roman Empire, as can be abundantly illustrated also by 
 every Roman frontier in western Europe.^" But there is this 
 difference between the British and Germanic frontiers, for 
 example, and Spain, that in case of the former the soldiers 
 were the most important agents in spreading and continuing 
 these oriental cults, while in Spain, as has been already 
 pointed out, nearly all the dedicants were civilians of ap- 
 parently humble station. This fact accords with the history 
 and condition of the Spanish provinces under Roman rule, 
 for the greater part of the peninsula was so early subjugated 
 that its life was civil rather than military .^^ 
 
 If we except the dedication apparently made to Hercules 
 Invictus by Tiberius Caesar in 14 a.d. at Tucci (2. 1660), 
 the other datable inscriptions fall within the second and 
 third centuries of our era, the extremes being 108 a.d. 
 (2. 179) and 238 a.d. (2. 5521). This agrees with the condi- 
 tions in the other European provinces,*^ in all of which the 
 dedications to the oriental gods seem to cease with the third 
 century.^* 
 
 Although the sum total of the evidence is sufficient to 
 show that the eastern gods had considerable vogue in Spain, 
 it will have been observed that the data are widely scattered 
 and prove the cult of more than a single divinity in only a few 
 of the larger towns. The following table exhibits these: 
 
 " Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie, 1. 696 f. 
 
 '» For the British frontier see Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 11. 48-58 ; 
 for the German, Trans, of the Am. Phil. Assn., 38. 109-150. 
 
 8' Cf. Trans, of the Am. Phil. Assn., 38. Ill ff. 
 
 "^ For Gaul and the Germanies, see Trans. Am. Phil. Assn., I.e. 
 
 " The chronology of oriental cults in the west has been fully treated by Dr. 
 D. N. Robinson in a dissertation which I hope will soon be published. Vide Har- 
 vard Studies in Classical Philology, 22. 182 f. (1911). 
 
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 339 
 
 Lusitania. 
 
 Olisipo. Magna Mater, 2. 178, 179. Sol et Luna, 2. 258, 
 259. 
 
 Emerita. Magna Mater, 2. 5260. Mithras, Rev. Arch., 5. 
 (1905) p. 327. 24, 25, 26. 
 
 Capera. Magna Mater, 2. 805. Sol Invictus, 2. 807. 
 
 Tarraconensis. 
 
 Tarraco. Caelestis, 2. 4310. Isis, 2. 4080. Mithras, 2. 
 4086. 
 
 Valentia. I. O. M. Ammon, 2. 3729. Isis, 2. 3730, 3731. 
 Deus Aeternus, 2. 5127. 
 
 Asturica. Isis, 2. 5665. Sol Invictus, 2. 2634. 
 
 Of course we have only a mere fragment of the evidence 
 which once existed, so that such tables as these have little 
 quantitative value, but on the whole, after all allowances 
 have been made, they have a certain significance as illustrat- 
 ing the variety of religious life in these cities. 
 
 No city of Bsetica appears in this table. This is probably 
 the result mainly of chance, but the question certainly arises 
 whether chance may not have been aided by Christian influ- 
 ence. The oldest Christian communities in Spain known to 
 us were found at Csesar Augusta (Saragossa), Astorica, 
 Leon, and Emerita,*^ but Christianity must have had a much 
 wider foothold than this, for about the year 300 no less than 
 thirty-seven bishops and presbyters attended the council at 
 Elvira (Granada) ; ®^ of these twenty-three represented Chris- 
 tian communities in Bsetica. 
 
 In the other Spanish provinces Christianity was relatively 
 weak, and it is interesting to note that of the places in Lusi- 
 tania which, as shown in the table given above, oflFer proof 
 of the existence of more than one oriental cult, only Emerita 
 was certainly a bishopric in the period under discussion, and 
 only Asturica among the three cities of Tarraconensis; it 
 
 « Cyprian, Ep. 67. 
 
 «5 Cf . Duchesne, Le concUe d'EIvire et les flamines chretiens, 1886 ; Hamack, 
 Mission u. Ausbreitung des Christentums, 2. 255-262 (2d ed.), on the history of 
 Spanish Christianity in the first three centuries. 
 
340 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN 
 
 seems strange that Tarraco did not possess a bishop, but there 
 is no evidence that such was the case. Of the conflict 
 between oriental cults and Christianity we hear nothing 
 directly during these centuries, but the paucity of our data 
 from Bsetica may be an indirect evidence of the struggle. 
 
 Cambridge, 
 February, 1911. 
 
THE CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE 
 HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 David Gordon Lyon 
 Harvard University 
 
 The Hammurabi Code is devoted strictly to civil, secu- 
 lar affairs. Several of its laws make mention of the god, 
 the temple, and the religious devotee, never, however, as 
 prime objects of legislation. When religious characters and 
 institutions are mentioned at all, it is on account of their 
 relation to the civil, social topics considered by the legisla- 
 tor.i Though Hammurabi was deeply devoted to religion, 
 as appears in the prologue and the epilogue to the Code, no 
 feature of the Code itself is clearer than that its material 
 and aims are entirely secular. 
 
 The religious characters named in the Code are certain 
 classes of devotees, all of whom are women. The laws re- 
 lating to this subject are not grouped together, as naturally 
 would be the case, if the devotees had been thought of as 
 one of the topics of legislation, but are scattered, singly or 
 in small groups, through the Code.^ The list, with the 
 
 ' See an article on The Structure of the Hammurabi Code, in the Journal of 
 the American Oriental Society, 25. 248 fE. (1904). 
 
 ^ Various other subjects are similarly broken up and scattered. This has led 
 some students to the conclusion that there is no sustained coherency or system 
 in the Code. Others find system, indeed, but only of an artificial kind, arrived 
 at by laying on the Code a framework of their own devising. I refer here in par- 
 ticular to Professor J. Kohler of Berlin, who has given much attention to the inter- 
 pretation of the Code. In the article referred to imder note ^ I criticised the analysis 
 of the Code given by him and Peiser. In a brief rejoinder, Hammurabi's Gesetz, 3. 
 221 f. (1909), the criticism is rejected. I can hardly think that the grounds of it 
 were clearly understood. My analysis shows that the laws are very carefully 
 arranged under the two heads Property and Person, that each of these has three 
 subheads, and each subhead still smaller divisions, down to the individual laws. 
 The proof of the correctness of this scheme is to read the Code with this analysis in 
 hand. The analysis ascribed to me in the work just cited is something quite 
 different. 
 
 341 
 
342 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 subject of the respective laws, is here appended. It shows 
 that the devotees are introduced in sixteen laws, which appear 
 in seven different connections in the Code. 
 
 Number and Subject of the Laws 
 
 40. 
 
 Sale of Real Estate. 
 
 110. 
 
 Wine Shops. 
 
 127. 
 
 Slander. 
 
 137. 
 
 Divorce.' 
 
 144-147. 
 
 Rights of Women. 
 
 178-182. 
 
 Inheritance. 
 
 , 192, 193. 
 
 Adoption of Children. 
 
 The object of this paper is to inquire into the character 
 and standing of these devotees, whom from other sources 
 we know to have been numerous and in certain cases wealthy 
 and influential. Regarding their religious functions, the 
 Code, concerning itself entirely with matters of a secular 
 nature, gives us no information. 
 
 Several classes of these women appear in the Code, but 
 the distinctions between them are not clearly understood. 
 The class occurring most frequently * is represented by a 
 sign which seems to be composed of two others, sal and me 
 or SAL and dingir. The first, sal, is the regular sign for 
 woman, sinnistu. If the second be dingir, the compound 
 would naturally mean the woman of a god, a consecrated 
 woman. That the combination indicates such a woman is 
 beyond question. It is often followed in the contemporary 
 records by the name of the god to whom the sal-me is 
 devoted. In the Code itself we find the sal-me of Marduk 
 (182), and also the sal-me of the convent (180). Several 
 students have translated the two signs by 'priestess,' but 
 this seems to me too definite. The rendering, 'votary,' is 
 
 ' In 137 and 144-147 several scholars translate the sign which represents one of 
 these classes of devotees as if it were the ordinary sign for woman, and seem, there- 
 fore, to consider that the laws in question are concerned with ordinary wives. But 
 while the stonecutter has made an occasional mistake, it is in the highest degree 
 improbable that he should have done this in regard to the same word in several 
 successive laws. ■■ §§ 40, 110, 137, 144, 145, 146, 178, 179, 181. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 343 
 
 here chosen as the vaguer term, but is meant to be only 
 provisional. 
 
 Another class ^ is represented by the signs nin dingir, 
 the second of which means a god, and the first, 'lady' or 
 'sister.' In the syllabaries this combination is explained as 
 entum. A third is written zi IK RU UM.® 
 
 Whether this is to be pronounced zikrum, as written, or 
 is to be taken as an ideogram, is, as Kohler and Ungnad 
 have pointed out,' uncertain. Most students have taken the 
 writing as syllabic, and have connected the word with a 
 common Assyrian word meaning 'male.' It is in all the 
 occurrences preceded by the sign sal, i.e. sinnistu, 'woman.' 
 The combination may be read sinnistu zikrum, which would 
 mean 'woman who is a zikrum,' or the first word might be 
 taken as construct, as has been almost universally done, 
 and translated 'woman of the male.' Construing thus, 
 it has been the rule to see in the zikrum a woman of low 
 morals. Whether there is any ground for this view beyond 
 an uncertain etymology and an uncertain translation of the 
 laws in which the name zikrum occurs, will appear, I hope, 
 as this inquiry proceeds. 
 
 A fourth class, the nu gig or kadistu, occurs but once 
 (181), as does also a fifth, the nu bar or zermasitum (181). 
 As understood by most interpreters, the kadistu has shared 
 the evil renown of the zikrum. 
 
 This enumeration shows that there are five classes of 
 these consecrated women mentioned in the Code, or seven 
 if we reckon three varieties of votary, the votary in general 
 (sal me), the votary of Marduk, and the votary of the 
 convent. 
 
 In the first half of the Code our subject is mentioned but 
 twice, 40, 110. Paragraph 40 is in the section dealing with 
 the alienation of one's ownership in State lands. In the 
 paragraphs preceding we learn that certain classes of men 
 (the redu and the hairu) could not sell field, orchard, or 
 house, 36. These classes, together with the nasi bilti, 
 could not give real estate to wife or child, nor in payment 
 
 ' §§ 110, 127, 178, 179. « §§ 178, 179, 180, 187, 192, 193. 
 
 ' Hammurabi's Gesetz, 2. 134. 
 
344 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 for debt, 38, though they might so dispose of the property 
 which they had bought with their own means, 39. Then 
 40 states that the votary, the tamkar,^ or any other ilku 
 (except, of course, the classes named in 36-38) might sell 
 his or her field, orchard, or house. This group of laws shows 
 that certain classes of feudal tenants, as the redu and the 
 ba'iru, were held to a stricter usage than other classes in 
 regard to their tenure of State lands. The reason probably 
 is that their relations to the State were more intimate and 
 important. They rendered military service, and may have 
 been required to live on inalienable State lands, that they 
 might be always ready for such service. Greater freedom 
 was enjoyed by the votary and other classes whose relation 
 to the State was less intimate, and their functions less 
 important. 
 
 The second reference (110) is in a section of four laws 
 regulating the sale of liquor. The liquor traflic seems to 
 have been in the hands of women. In 108 it is decreed 
 that the wineseller who deviates from the relative values of 
 drink (sikari) and grain shall be thrown into the water 
 (drowned). In 109 if criminals congregate at her house, 
 and she does not seize them and lead them to the ekallim, 
 'palace, police station' ( ?), she shall be put to death. Ac- 
 cording to 110 the votary or sister of a god, "not living in 
 the convent, who shall open a wine shop or shall enter one 
 to drink, shall be burned." The last law in the series pre- 
 scribes how much grain shall be paid at harvest time for 
 wine sold on credit (ill). 
 
 This group of laws shows that the drinking places of the 
 time stood in bad repute. The women engaged in the 
 business seem to have been unscrupulous, and their shops 
 were the resort of evil doers. No votary might engage in 
 this business or even enter one of the resorts for the pur- 
 chase of drink. 
 
 The phrase of 110, "not living in the convent," shows 
 
 ' The tamkar is a class of business men or merchants. Elsewhere in the Code 
 they appear as making advances of money or goods to the small dealer (100-107), 
 and as visiting foreign lands for purposes of trade (281). Ilku is the term for the 
 feudal relation, or, as in the present instance, for the feudal tenant. This feudal 
 relation included the redu, ba'iru, nasi bilti, votary, tamkar, and other classes. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 345 
 
 that the votaries lived part of the time in the convent and 
 part of the time out of it, or that some of them lived in the 
 convent, while others did not. It is probable that all of 
 them passed through a period of such residence. Those 
 residing in the convent would naturally be so guarded and 
 occupied that there would be no opportunity to keep or 
 to frequent wine shops. On the other hand, their sisters 
 not thus protected, but living in their own homes and lead- 
 ing active lives of business, might be tempted to engage in 
 the liquor traffic, or to endanger their reputation by visit- 
 ing the wine shops. 
 
 The first topic in the second half of the Code is the Family ; 
 the first division concerns Man and Wife, and the first law 
 (127) provides for the protection of the reputation of woman. 
 "If a man point the finger (of suspicion) at the sister of a 
 god or at the wife of a man, and do not establish (the charge), 
 that man shall be haled before the judges, and his hair ( ?) 
 shall be cut off," that is, he shall be sold into slavery. The 
 sister of a god is here mentioned before the wife of a man, 
 in accordance with the principle that when the same law 
 mentions sacred and secular things, the Code always names 
 the sacred things first. This law demands that the fair 
 name of the religious devotee shall have the same protec- 
 tion as that of a man's wife. 
 
 The sacred women appear next in a law regulating divorce, 
 137. "If a man set his face to divorce a secondary wife 
 who has borne him children or a votary who has caused 
 him to have (u^arM) children, unto that woman shall be 
 returned her dowry (seriktu), and there shall be given to 
 her a portion(?) of field, orchard, and possessions, and she 
 shall rear the children. After she has reared the children 
 there shall be given to her from the property which was 
 given for her children a share equal to the share of one 
 child, and the man of her choice may marry her." 
 
 In this law the secondary wife ' bears ' children to her hus- 
 band, while the votary 'provides' him with children. This 
 provision might be made not necessarily by bearing, but 
 equally well by giving to her husband a slave wife (see 146, 
 147), and probably also by adoption. It is noteworthy that 
 
346 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 the Code does not use the verb ' to bear ' at all in connection 
 with the votary wife, a topic to which I shall return later. 
 The law which we are now considering gives the children to 
 the divorced mother, with enough of the paternal property 
 to provide for their rearing. On their reaching maturity 
 what remained of this property was divided among them, 
 the mother receiving the same as one child. She was then 
 free to remarry, or rather "the man of her heart" might 
 marry her, for in the Code the man always takes the wife, 
 never vice versa. A widow was, under certain restrictions, 
 allowed to remarry while there were still minor children, as 
 we learn from 177. The divorced wife was required first to 
 rear the children. 
 
 The rights of wives is the subject of 144-150, and the 
 votary wife figures in four of the laws, 144-147. Her rights 
 are defined, especially in her relations to secondary wives 
 and slave wives. The legislation is as follows : 
 
 1. "If a man marry a votary, and that votary give a 
 maid to her husband, and cause him to have (ustabsi) chil- 
 dren, and that man set his face to take a secondary wife, 
 they shall not favor it, he shall not take a secondary wife," 
 144. 
 
 2. "If a man marry a votary, and she have not caused 
 him to have children, and he set his face to take a secondary 
 wife, that man may take a secondary wife (and) may bring 
 her into his house, but this secondary wife shall not make 
 herself the equal of the votary," 145. 
 
 3. "If a man marry a votary, and she give a maid to 
 her husband, and that maid bear children, and afterwards 
 make herself the equal of her mistress because she has 
 borne children, her mistress shall not sell her for money ; 
 she may reduce her to servitude, and reckon her with the 
 maidservants," 146. That is, the votary wife institutes the 
 relation between her husband and her maid, and she has 
 the power to break that relation. Every married man has 
 a right to children, and the votary wife provides the pos- 
 sibility of children by giving a slave wife to her husband. 
 
 4. "If she have not borne children, her mistress may sell 
 her for money," 147. That is, of course, in case of insub- 
 ordination or self-exaltation. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 347 
 
 This group of laws insures the votary wife against the 
 presence of a secondary wife in the family, if the votary has 
 provided the means of family increase by giving a slave 
 wife to her husband. If no such provision has been made, 
 the man may take a secondary wife, but the latter shall not 
 be equal in rank to the votary wife. If the slave wife, on 
 bearing children, make herself the equal of the votary 
 wife, she may be put to service again. If she has not borne 
 children, she may be sold for her presumption. The posi- 
 tion of the votary wife in the family is at all times to be 
 superior to that of the secondary wife or the slave wife. 
 
 It may seem surprising that similar provisions are not 
 made in behalf of the hirtu, the regular, normal wife, who 
 was married at an early age. But inasmuch as barrenness 
 of such wives was probably rare, there would be little need 
 of such legislation ; whereas, if, as seems to be the case, the 
 votary wife did not ordinarily bear children, there would 
 be special need of legislation to protect her position in the 
 family. As votary, too, she doubtless enjoyed an additional 
 natural right to a position of honor. 
 
 The next appearance of these devotees is in the midst 
 of a long section dealing with the inheritance rights of 
 children. Among these children the maidens consecrated 
 to religion form a special group, 178-182, and all the classes 
 mentioned in the Code occur in this group, the sister of a 
 god, the votary, votary of the convent, votary of Marduk, 
 the zikrum, the kadistu, and the zermaHtum. 
 
 From 178, 179 we learn the rights of consecrated daugh- 
 ters in regard to the disposition of gift or dowry made to 
 them by their fathers. In 178 the daughter enjoys the 
 income of her dowry, but on her death this dowry reverts 
 to her brothers. In 179 she is at liberty to dispose of it as 
 she will on her death. 
 
 178. "If a sister of a god, a votary, or a zikrum, whose 
 father has given her a dowry, has written for her a tablet 
 (and) in the tablet which he has written for her has not 
 written that she may dispose as she pleases of the property 
 which she leaves behind, and (thus) has not given to her 
 liberty of action, — after the death of her father her brothers 
 shall take her field and her orchard, and according to the 
 
348 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 yield of her share shall give to her grain, oil, and wool, and 
 shall satisfy her. 
 
 " If her brothers do not give to her grain, oil, and wool, 
 according to the yield of her share, and do not satisfy her, 
 she may give her field and her orchard to a cultivator of 
 her choice, and her cultivator shall support her. 
 
 " The use of field, orchard, and whatsoever her father gave 
 her she shall enjoy so long as she lives, (but) she may not 
 dispose of it for money, and to another she may not trans- 
 fer it. Her inheritance {i.e. at her death) belongs to her 
 brothers." 
 
 This law shows that the consecrated daughter, while en- 
 joying the income, does not normally have the care of her 
 property. The father sets aside for her certain properties, 
 and, as it seems, cares for it himself during his lifetime, 
 and sends her the proceeds. Then the brothers take the 
 father's place in the care of the property, but she may set 
 them aside for another if she choose. 
 
 The next law differs in but one essential point. The gift 
 is unconditional, and the daughter has complete freedom as 
 testatrix. 
 
 179. "If a sister of a god, a votary, or a zihrum, whose 
 father has given her a dowry, has written for her a sealed 
 tablet, (and) in the tablet which he has written for her has 
 written that she may dispose as she pleases of the property 
 which she leaves behind, and (thus) has given her liberty 
 of action, — after the death of her father she may give the 
 property which she leaves as she may choose. Her brothers 
 have no claim upon her." 
 
 In this case it seems probable that the gift was outright, 
 and that the daughter made her own arrangements regard- 
 ing the care of the property and the payment of the in- 
 come. Whether she could part with it during her lifetime 
 depends on the translation of the word warkaza. I have 
 rendered this word by 'the property which she leaves,' 
 but it might equally well be rendered 'the property which 
 is left to her.' In view of the frequency of the transfer of 
 property by consecrated women, as seen in the contem- 
 porary business records, the second rendering might seem 
 preferable. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 349 
 
 The next three laws of this group make provision for 
 those consecrated daughters to whom the father has not 
 given a dowry. In 180 the classes named are the votary 
 of the convent and the zikrum. 
 
 180. "If a father has not given a dowry to his daughter, 
 a votary of the convent or a zikrum, after the death of the 
 father she shall inherit from the paternal estate a portion 
 equal to that of a son, and shall enjoy the use of it so long 
 as she lives. After her death it belongs to her brothers." 
 
 181. "If a father has dedicated to a god (his daughter) 
 as votary, kadistu, or zermaUtum, and has not given her a 
 dowry, after the death of the father she shall inherit from 
 the paternal estate one third of the portion of a son, and 
 shall enjoy the use of it so long as she lives. After her 
 death it belongs to her brothers." 
 
 Why the daughters of 181 receive less than those of 180 
 is not apparent, as it perhaps would be if we understood 
 the difference between the classes themselves. Those of 
 181 may have been of lower rank, or may have enjoyed 
 other sources of income. The contrast in these two laws 
 seems not to be between the votary of the convent and the 
 zikrum (180) on the one side, and the votary, kadistu and 
 zermasitum (181), on the other, but in 181 'votary' seems 
 to be a more general term, embracing the kadistu and the 
 zermasitum. If this be so, the translation of 181 should read, 
 "If a father has dedicated to a god his daughter as votary, 
 be it as kadistu or as zermasitum," and so forth. 
 
 The last law in this series (182) relates to the votary of 
 Marduk of Babylon who has not been provided for by her 
 father. On his death she receives the same share of the 
 estate as the daughters provided for in the law just con- 
 sidered. But there are two differences. It is expressly 
 stated that she does not have the care of the property, and 
 on her death her share does not revert to her brothers. 
 Her station as votary of the chief god of Babylon must 
 have been one of great honor. Why, then, does she receive 
 less than some of the other consecrated women .-* There 
 may have been for her also, as just suggested for the classes 
 named in 181, sources of income connected with her office 
 which made a larger portion of the paternal estate unneces- 
 
350 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 sary. Such a source would be the large endowments of the 
 temple of Marduk at Babylon. 
 
 The law reads as follows: "If a father has not given a 
 dowry to his daughter, a votary of Marduk of Babylon, 
 and has not written for her a sealed tablet, after the death 
 of the father she shall inherit with her brothers from the 
 paternal estate one third of a son's portion, but she shall 
 not have the management thereof. The votary of Marduk 
 on her death may give (her property) to whomsoever she 
 please." 
 
 The votaries of Marduk seem to have led a more secluded 
 life than the votaries of the sun god. The latter, at all 
 events, are more prominent in the business transactions of 
 the time, but this may result from their being more numer- 
 ous, and thus appearing more frequently in the records. 
 
 The word for dowry in this group of laws (178-182) is 
 seriktu, and is the same word that is used for a paternal 
 gift to a daughter entering real marriage. Consecration is 
 viewed as a marriage of the maiden to a god. 
 
 It has already been remarked that the term sal me, 
 'votary,' may be a general and not a special title. The 
 same may be the case with the term nin dingir, 'sister 
 of a god.' The word zikrum has been variously rendered 
 by students of the Code; as 'femme publique' by Scheil,® 
 'hure (.'*)' by Kohler and Peiser,^" 'buhl dime' by Winck- 
 ler," 'courtesan' by Cook,'^ 'hure(?)' by Kohler and 
 Ungnad,^^ and 'femme-male' by Dhorme." These render- 
 ings probably take the word zikrum as meaning 'male, 
 man,' and the sign sal, 'woman,' which precedes it as 
 in the construct relation, and thus get ' woman of the man,' 
 in the sense of ' prostitute.' But sal may be determina- 
 tive, in which case zikrum cannot mean 'man,' but is the 
 name of this class of women. If we were sure that the first 
 two consonants in the word were z and k, we might connect 
 
 ' V. Scheil, La Loi de Hammourabi, 2d ed., Paris, 1904, p. 38. 
 
 1° Hammurabi's Gesetz, 1. 53. 
 
 *^ Hugo Winckler, Die Gesetze Hammurabis, Leipzig, 1904, pp. 52 f. 
 
 " S. A. Cook, The Laws of Moses and the, Code of Hammurabi, London, 1903, 
 
 148. " Hammurabi's Gesetz, 2. 134. 
 
 " Paul Dhorme, La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne, Paris, 1910, p. 300. 
 
DAVID GOEDON LYON 351 
 
 it with the very common Assyrian stem zhr meaning 'to 
 say, speak, mention.' 
 
 If a particular convent is meant in the name, 'votary of 
 the convent,' it may have beet one connected with the 
 worship of the sun, Samas. The convent, gagum, is occa- 
 sionally mentioned in the records of business transactions, 
 and in such a way as to indicate that it was a Samas estab- 
 lishment. It seems to have been a place of considerable 
 extent, and at its great gate payments were sometimes 
 made.^^ 
 
 So far as appears from this particular group of laws 
 (179—182), these consecrated women were expected to live 
 the celibate life, and we have already seen that the reputa- 
 tion for chastity of a 'sister of a god' was no less sacred 
 than that of a married woman, 127. But from another 
 group of laws we have seen that there is provision for the 
 marriage of votaries, 137, 144-147. How can the two 
 groups be reconciled ? The difference hardly lies in the 
 difference of class between the sister of a god and the votary. 
 It may well be that the office of the consecrated women 
 was not in all cases lifelong, though the title may have been. 
 And it may be that these women, when they married at all, 
 married as a rule late in life after the age of childbearing 
 had passed. 
 
 It is, at least, worthy of note that there is not in the 
 Code any mention of children by a 'votary,' nor indeed 
 by a member of any class of these consecrated women with 
 the possible exception of the zikrum, which will be discussed 
 below. In the marriage laws in which the votary figures 
 it seems to be assumed that she does not bear. The specific 
 word for bearing, alddu, is never applied to her, though it is 
 used about twenty times of other classes of wife {assatu, fiirtu, 
 the secondary wife, and the widow who has married again). 
 The votary wife 'causes her husband to have' children 
 {usarsi, ustahsi). Thus, in paragraph 137 (p. 345, above) 
 the secondary wife has borne children to her husband (uldu), 
 while the votary has caused him to have children {usarSu; 
 cf. also 145, uSarsi). Similarly, in 144 a votary wife gives 
 
 I'ln Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, 8. 44 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 
 rent is to be paid to a votary of Samas in the gate of the convent. 
 
352 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 to her husband a slave wife, and thus causes him to have 
 children (ustabsi). This consistent difference in the use of 
 terms can hardly be accidental, and the conclusion seems 
 natural that, as a rule at least, the votary wife was barren. 
 If, as already suggested, her marriage was late in life, the 
 reason for this barrenness will be understood.'^ That 
 barrenness always followed the marriage of a votary was, 
 however, probably not the case. There is at least one 
 marriage of a Marduk votary recorded with the mention of 
 children. See p. 357 f., below. 
 
 After the passages thus far examined relating to conse- 
 crated women, only the zikrum is mentioned again in the 
 Code. In the section treating of the adoption of children 
 (185-193) she appears three times. In this section the 
 general law of adoption is first stated. " If a man has 
 adopted a child in his own name, and has reared it, that 
 child (tarbitum) " may not be reclaimed," i.e. of course, 
 by his real parents, 185. This is followed by a law con- 
 templating the return of an adopted child. "If a man has 
 adopted a child, (and) at the time of adopting him has 
 coerced (?) his father and his mother, that child (tarbitum) 
 shall return to his father's house," 186. 
 
 Then follows the law, 187, "The child of a manzaz panim, 
 
 '* C. H. W. Johns has also noted the absence of children from the marriage of 
 votaries, and finds its explanation in the theory of perpetual virginity, Hastings's 
 Dictionary of the Bible, 5. 591, No. 2. This extraordinary view could not be ac- 
 cepted without the strongest support. The proof passage seems to be Cuneiform 
 Texts, 2. 34, referred to by Johns in his Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts 
 and Letters, p. 137, thus : "Very singular are the cases in which a votary marries. 
 We know from the code that this sometimes took place ; but the votary seems to have 
 been expected, though married, to keep her vow of virginity. In one case we read 
 that a woman first devotes her daughter ullUsi, then marries her, and declares at 
 the same time that she is vowed, ellit, and that no one has any claim on her." 
 
 It is on the last expression that Johns seems to found his argument for perpetual 
 virginity. The expression does not mean, however, that the woman is not to be in the 
 full sense of the word a wife, but that no outsider has any claim on the bride for 
 service, there is no debt resting on her, or something of that kind. The expression 
 is of frequent occurrence, and in passages which leave no doubt as to its general 
 meaning, as Cuneiform Texts, 2. 36 ; 4. 42 ; 8. 7. 
 
 The suggestion of perpetual virginity was made by Johns in an earlier article in 
 the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, 19. 96-107, especially 
 p. 104. This excellent article expresses the same favorable opinion of the conse- 
 crated women as that which is defended in the present paper. 
 
 " Tarbitum in 185 and 186 designates the child as reared, or as adopted for 
 rearing. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 353 
 
 a muzaz ekallim, and the child of a zikrum may not be re- 
 claimed." The manzaz panim is a high dignitary or oflBcial, 
 and the zikrum is the consecrated woman whom we have 
 already met three times in the Code. Much depends on 
 the proper understanding of this passage. Is the meaning 
 this, that a child born to a manzaz panim or to a zikrum, 
 and adopted by some other person, may not be reclaimed 
 by its real parent ? Or this, that if a manzaz panim or a 
 zikrum has adopted a child, its real parent may not reclaim 
 it.? 
 
 Either view is possible, and some of the translations 
 preserve the ambiguity of the original. Thus Harper : 
 "One may not bring claim for the son of a ner.se.ga, 
 who is a palace guard, or the son of a devotee." ^^ Kohler 
 and Peiser are quite as ambiguous,^* and also Scheil,^ who 
 renders: "L' enfant d'un favori, familier du palais, ou celui 
 d'une femme publique ne peut etre reclame." In another 
 point Kohler and Peiser agree with Scheil, namely, in 
 giving a bad name to the zikrum. To the latter she is a 
 'femme publique,' and to the former a 'hure.' Winckler 
 renders : "Der Sohn eines Buhlen im Palastdienste, und der 
 Sohn einer Buhldirne kann nicht abverlangt werden." ^^ In 
 a note he asks : "1st hiernach anzunehmen, dass Kinder von 
 Buhle und Buhldirne als liktl (s. zu 15a, 62) in den Palast 
 kommen, um dort zu dienen, also dem Konig gehoren?" 
 This language seems to imply that the children are the real 
 ofiEspring of the classes named. Miiller goes yet further, 
 with the statement that the largest share of adopted 
 children came from such parents as might according to the 
 law beget and bear children, but not own them ("die nach 
 dem Gesetze wohl Kinder zeugen und gebaren, aber keine 
 haben durften ")}'^ Johns understands that "if a man 
 wished to adopt the child of a votary, he could do so, and 
 there was no legal representative to claim the child from 
 him. In other words, the votary had no legal power over 
 
 " Robert F. Harper, The Code of Hammurabi, Chicago, 1904, p. 71. 
 " Hammvirabi's Gesetz, 1. 56. That the zikrum is in their view engaged in official 
 prostitution, however, appears from p. 109. ™ La Loi de Hammourabi, p. 39. 
 
 2' Die Gesetze Hammurabis, pp. 56 f. 
 ^ D. H. Miiller, Die Gesetze Hammurabis, p. 145. 
 
354 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 her child." ^ But if a consecrated woman might adopt 
 children, as we shall soon see was the case, why might she 
 not also hold her own children ? See below, p. 358. 
 
 The next four laws do not mention the zikrum. They 
 are in substance as follows : 
 
 188. If an artisan adopt a child and teach him a handi- 
 craft, that child may not be reclaimed. 
 
 189. If he do not so teach him, the child may return to 
 his real father's house. 
 
 190. If a man adopt a child and rear him, and do not 
 make him the equal of his own sons, that child may return 
 to his father's house. 
 
 191. This law gives the conditions under which an adopted 
 son may be sent away. He shall not go empty handed, but 
 shall receive one third of a son's share, and may then be 
 dismissed. 
 
 Then come two laws in which the zikrum appears 
 again. 
 
 192. "If the son of a manzaz panim or the son of a zik- 
 rum say to the father who has reared him or to the mother 
 who has reared him. Thou art not my father, Thou art 
 not my mother, his tongue shall be cut out." 
 
 193. "If the son of a manzaz panim or the son of a zik- 
 rum learn of his father's house, and despise ( ?) the father 
 who reared him or the mother who reared him, and go to 
 his father's house, his eye shall be put out." 
 
 The offence in 192 is denial of sonship to the adopting 
 parent, and that in 193 is running away and returning to 
 one's real father. 
 
 It is a matter of consequence to determine whether the 
 zikrum is the woman who bears or the woman who adopts 
 the child, because on the answer will depend one's view of her 
 character. Nearly or quite all translators have assumed 
 that she is the real mother, and that she is unmarried, and 
 hence that she is a low character. Dhorme, for instance, 
 calls her the "femme-mS-le qui se prostitue a tout venant." ^ 
 Now, in opposition to this view several considerations may 
 be urged. 
 
 ^' C. H. W. Johns, in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, 
 19. 103. 24 La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne, p. 300 f. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 355 
 
 1. In the contemporary records we occasionally meet with 
 accounts of the adoption of children by consecrated women. ^^ 
 
 2. In the three laws now under examination (187, 192, 
 193) the zikrum is mentioned with the vianzaz panim, who 
 was a high official. It seems not likely that the children of 
 such official would be given to another person. But if he 
 be the adopting parent in these laws, the same must hold of 
 the zikrum. 
 
 3. The law in 193 says, "If the son of a manzaz panim or 
 the son of a zikrum learn of his father's house, and despise ( .'') 
 the father who reared him, or the mother who reared him, 
 and go to his father s house, his eye shall be put out." If 
 the zikrum be the real and not the adopting mother, why does 
 not the law say 'learn of his father's house or his mother's 
 house,' and, 'go to his father's house or his mother's house ' .'' 
 "Learn of his father's house," "go to his father's house," 
 might be said of the manzaz panim, but not of the zikrum, 
 unless the latter be married, in which case she is not the de- 
 graded creature which the translations make her. 
 
 4. In 178 and 179 the zikrum is named with the sister of 
 the god and the votary, and in 180 with the votary of the 
 convent. She seems to stand on an equal footing with 
 these before the law. Her dowry rights are as carefully 
 defined as theirs. 
 
 5. The zikrum of 180 receives three times as large a share 
 of her father's estate as does the votary of Marduk in 182. 
 This would hardly be so if she were greatly inferior in charac- 
 ter to a Marduk votary. 
 
 It seems to me probable that the zikrum spoken of in these 
 laws was not married, and certain that she was the adopting 
 and not the real mother. What the ancient Babylonians 
 understood by these laws would therefore be as follows. 
 
 192. If a child adopted by a manzaz panim or by a zikrum 
 say to the father or to the mother who has reared him. Thou 
 art not my father. Thou art not my mother, his tongue shall 
 be cut out. 
 
 193. If a child adopted by a manzaz panim or by a zikrum 
 learn of the house of his real father, and despise ( ?) the father 
 
 25 See below, p. 358. 
 
356 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 who has reared him or the mother who has reared him, and 
 go thither, his eye shall be put out. 
 
 In the light of this exposition No. 187 may be paraphrased 
 thus : A child adopted by a manzaz panim, a muzaz of the 
 palace, or a child adopted by a zikrum, may not be reclaimed 
 by its real parent. 
 
 One is tempted to speculate as to the reason of this, but 
 such speculation would have as little value as the reasons 
 advanced to account for the law by those who understand 
 that the zikrum is the real mother. 
 
 We have now passed in review the seven passages of 
 the Code, covering sixteen laws, touching on the subject of 
 consecrated women. Under whatever designation these 
 women appear, as votary, votary of the convent, votary 
 of Marduk of Babylon, sister of a god, zikrum, kadistu, 
 zermasitum, they are always spoken of with respect. The 
 lawgiver meant to protect their good name and to define 
 their rights in respect to the great topics with which the 
 Code connects them, namely, sale of land, wine shops, 
 slander, divorce, marital rights, inheritance, and adoption 
 of children. 
 
 If this argument is correct, the Code of Hammurabi 
 furnishes no basis for an indictment of any class of these 
 consecrated women. 
 
 Except in one or two details,^^ Johns has given a correct 
 and comprehensive, though brief, report of the subject. 
 "Nowhere in the Code," he writes,^' "or elsewhere is there 
 any trace of the evil reputation which Greek writers assign 
 to these ladies, and the translations which make them 
 prostitutes, or unchaste, are not to be accepted." But even 
 Johns understands that the zikrum of 193 is the real and 
 not the adopting mother. "If she broke her vow and had 
 children, they were not recognized as in her power ; they could 
 be adopted by any one without her having power to claim 
 them back." Most improbable ! Slander of a sister of a 
 god was severely punished, 127. We should expect that a 
 lapse from chastity by one of these consecrated women, if 
 
 ^' The chief of these exceptions is the statement, abeady noted, p. 352, above, 
 that votaries who married remained virgins. 
 " Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible, 6. 591. 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 357 
 
 known, would be punished as severely as the lapse of a 
 married woman ; in other words, by death, 129. 
 
 One wishes that the lawgiver had told us something of the 
 religious functions of these womgn." But of this he gives 
 not a trace. His eye was firmly fixed, as we have seen, on 
 civil not religious ends, and dedicated women are mentioned 
 not for their own sake, nor for the sake of religion, but be- 
 cause they are a special class in the community, and have 
 important relations to the great themes of the Code. 
 
 The best commentary on the Code is the mass of contem- 
 porary records of private and social transactions. Many 
 hundreds of these from the collections in the museums of 
 London, Paris, Berlin, Constantinople, and Philadelphia 
 have now been published. These records give us a rich 
 picture of the social conditions during the times of the 
 Hammurabi dynasty.^ 
 
 In this picture nothing is more noticeable than the 
 prominence of the consecrated women with whom the Code 
 has made us familiar. Here we meet not only the votary of 
 Marduk,^^ but also the votary of Ninib,^" and with extraor- 
 dinary frequency the votary of samas. We meet also the 
 sister of the god Suzianna,'^ the votary of Zamama,'^ the 
 kadistu of Adad,'^ and the zermasitum.^ This list makes it 
 probable that each of the great gods had a class of women 
 consecrated to him. 
 
 Occasional evidence of the marriage of one of these women 
 occurs. Thus, Lamazatum, who is both votary of Marduk 
 
 ''^ Kohler and Ungnad, in volumes 3-5 of their Hammurabi's Gesetz, Leipzig, 
 1909-1911, have done a great service in making some fourteen hundred of the most 
 interesting among them accessible to a larger circle of readers in German trans- 
 lation. 
 
 23 Cuneiform Texts, 8. 8 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 2484); 8. 26 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 42); 
 Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et Contrats, Paris, 1910, Nos. 147, 157. 
 
 *' Amo Poebel, Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the Time of the 
 First Dynasty of Babylon, Philadelphia, 1909, Nos. 6, 31, and 45. 
 
 " Poebel, No. 8. '^ Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et Contrats, No. 157. 
 
 ^ Thureau-Dangin, No. 146. See also Cuneiform Texts, 6. 42 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 
 2470), where a Kadistu, named Eristum, and her sister, a votary of Samas, divide 
 an inheritance. 
 
 3^ Cuneiform Texts, 8. 34 ( = Bu. 88-5-12, 10). Cf. Cuneiform Texts, 8. 8 ( = Bu. 
 91-5-9, 2484), where we read that Haliatum, another Marduk votary, had a daughter 
 named Iltani. 
 
358 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 and zermasitum, marries, and it is agreed that her children 
 are to be her heirs. '^ Another Marduk votary and her 
 husband adopt a son, and the record makes the provision 
 that if they should get children, the adopted son should 
 always be recognized as eldest brother.'^ There is mention 
 of the marriage of a zermasitum named Labazi.^* The 
 children of votaries are also adopted by others. Thus, a 
 man and his wife adopt the son of Huzalatum, votary of 
 &amas." In another record Amat-Samas, a Samas votary, 
 gives her daughter in marriage, and receives from the groom 
 five shekels of silver.'* In neither of the cases just cited is 
 any father named. But we may be sure either that the vo- 
 taries were or had been married, or that the daughters were 
 such by adoption. Zamidum, a kadistu of the god Adad, 
 adopts the daughter of labliatum, with the privilege of 
 selling the child in case it should renounce the adopting 
 mother.^' A Samas votary, named Amat-samas, gives in 
 marriage to her brother her daughter, apparently an adopted 
 daughter, with the provision that so long as the giver lives 
 the brother shall support her.'' Such a provision is common 
 in records of adoption, and shows that one of the objects in the 
 adoption of children was to make sure of a support in one's 
 old age. 
 
 But the greatest activity of these women appears in busi- 
 ness transactions, including all forms of trading in real estate, 
 produce, money, and slaves. They divide the paternal prop- 
 erty with their brothers, and are parties to lawsuits both as 
 plaintiff and as defendant. Some of them are wealthy and 
 of high station. Babilitum, a votary of Samas, who brings 
 successful suit against her three brothers to recover her share 
 in the estate of their father, receives as her portion ten 
 slaves, besides other property.*" But the lady of highest 
 
 '5 Bruno Meissner, Beitrage zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht, Leipzig, 1893, 
 No. 94. 36 Cuneiform Texts, 8. 16 ( = Bu. 88-5-12, 33). 
 
 " H. Ranke, Babylonian Legal and Business Documents, Philadelphia, 1906, 
 No. 17. 38 Cuneiform Texts, 4. 39 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 617). 
 
 39 Thureau-Dangin, No. 90. In Cuneiform Texts, 8. 7 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 2183), a 
 mother consecrates two of her daughters to Samas with the stipulation that they 
 shall support her so long as she lives. Another Samas votary gives her property to 
 her granddaughter, by whom she is to be supported so long as she lives, Cuneiform 
 Texts, 8. 17 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 39). « Cuneiform Texts, 6. 7 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 272). 
 
DAVID GORDON LYON 359 
 
 birth is a certain Iltani, a Samas votary, daughter of the 
 king. Such a person is mentioned on three tablets as a 
 lender of grain.^ These women were as a rule evidently 
 living in their own houses. That large numbers of them were 
 unmarried we may conclude from the circumstance that the 
 mention of husbands is so rare. But many others doubtless 
 were married. As married women they are less likely to be 
 mentioned in the records, or when they are mentioned there 
 is less probability that their position as consecrated women 
 would also be noted. 
 
 The record cited in note ^^ is of special interest, because it 
 is a lawsuit involving several orders of consecrated women. 
 One of these is married, and a second has a son. The story 
 is, in brief, as follows : A certain man, named Addi-liblut, 
 is married to a Marduk votary, named Belisunu. The latter 
 had bought some real estate from a kadistu, named Ilusa- 
 hegal, who in turn had previously bought it from a votary 
 of Zamama. The kadistu claims that she had never been 
 paid by the Marduk votary. In the course of the story 
 mention is made of a son of the kadistu, who had witnessed 
 the sale and had affixed his seal to the tablet. The judges, 
 after weighing the evidence on both sides, refuse the claim 
 of Ilusa-hegal, and decree that neither she, nor her children, 
 nor her relations, shall ever again demand payment for the 
 property involved in the suit. Of what god Ilusa-hegal was 
 a kadistu we are not informed, but we do know from the 
 impression of her seal on the tablet that she was devoted to 
 the worship of Adad and his spouse, Sala. The seal im- 
 pression, which is in four lines, reads : " Ilusa-hegal, daughter 
 of Ea-ellatsu, worshipper of Adad and Sala." 
 
 But all this varied activity, the account of which might 
 easily be extended to large proportions, is secular in character. 
 What the religious functions of these women were we learn 
 as little from the commercial and social records as from the 
 Hammurabi Code. 
 
 It does not fall within the scope of this paper to inquire 
 what we may learn about consecrated women from other 
 
 "Meissner, Beitrage, No. 24; Cuneiform Texts, 8. 33 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 487); 
 Thureau-Dangin, No. 162. 
 
360 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE 
 
 native sources. But I may at least mention that we occa- 
 sionally meet with these characters in the other classes of the 
 literature. 
 
 In the Gilgamesh Epic, for instance, Ishtar of Erech, the 
 goddess of love, appears as wooing the hero, and as repulsed 
 by him for her former adventures and her fickleness.^^ She is 
 attended by her maidens, the harimdti and the iamhati, who 
 are represented as lax in morals. In the same Epic the story 
 how one of them, called both harimtu and samhat, brought 
 Eabani into Erech by her wiles, is related with much realistic 
 detail.*' And when Gilgamesh and Eabani slew the bull 
 of Anu, Ishtar gathered about her the Samhdti and the hari- 
 mdti and set up a lamentation over the buU.^ Erech is called 
 "the city of the kizreti, the samhdti, and the harimdti." *^ 
 These passages certainly indicate that there were excesses 
 committed in connection with the worship of Ishtar of Erech. 
 We have seen mention of a kadistu of Adad. Doubtless 
 devotees of various gods have the same title. Those of 
 Ishtar might easUy have brought the title into disrepute, 
 since some of them at least were unchaste. But we may not 
 therefore conclude that there was anything improper about 
 the kadistu of the Code. It would be an unwarranted as- 
 sumption to identify her with Ishtar devotees, or to conclude 
 that because some persons who bore the name were unchaste 
 all such persons were. 
 
 In the magical literature likewise we encounter the kadistu 
 and the zermasitum, as in Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western 
 Asia, 4. 50, col. 1, lines 44^5. In the reference given the names 
 are used as titles of the witch, who was an object of hatred and 
 of dread. But such passages do not seem to require any 
 modification of the impression which the Code makes as to 
 the character of the consecrated women in whose behalf it 
 legislates. 
 
 ^ Tablet 6, columns 1-2. « Tablet 1, column i. « Tablet 6, column 6. 
 ^ Edward J. Harper, in Beitrage zur Assyriologie, 2. 479, line 6. 
 
FIGUKINES OF SYRO-HITTITE ART 
 
 RicsHAKD James Hoeatio Gottheil 
 Columbia University 
 
 During the last twenty-five years or so, various figurines 
 have been unearthed in northern Syria and in eastern Asia 
 Minor which are of interest from various points of view, 
 and around which many questions cluster regarding their 
 provenance and their significance. In Asia Minor the finds 
 have been made as far west as Angora, as far north as Ama- 
 sia, and as far south as Konia (Iconium) ; in Syria, at Marash, 
 Horns, and in the Lebanon mountains. But that the extent 
 of country covered is still greater may be seen from the fact 
 that a mould for making such figurines which has been in 
 the Louvre for many years is said to have come (somewhat 
 vaguely, it is true) from Phoenicia. This is of especial 
 interest because two of the four figurines which I propose 
 to discuss here are said very circumstantially to have been 
 unearthed in ancient Tyre. 
 
 I have given the name ' Syro-Hittite ' to this species 
 of art, quite conscious that this is woefully a misnomer. 
 The term is used simply for the want of one that is better 
 and equally comprehensive. It has been pointed out very 
 properly that the figurines belong to various strata of civil- 
 ization and to various forms of early Mediterranean art. 
 But a number of them have been found in regions where 
 Hittites are known to have dwelt, and the designation has, 
 therefore, a certain ambiguous warrant. Four of them are 
 to be found on the accompanying illustrations. 
 
 (a) The first of the four figurines is one of those said to have 
 been dug up at Tyre. It is made of a greenish bronze, and, 
 though the workmanship is unfinished, Greek influence is quite 
 apparent. I think that there can be no doubt that it is in- 
 
 361 
 
362 FIGURINES OF SYRO-HITTITE ART 
 
 tended to represent the god Pan — the alyoTrpoa-coTro'; koI rpayo- 
 o-«;eX7j?, as Herodotus (ii. 46) calls him. The goat-like legs of 
 the figure area suflBcient indication. The face, also, shows char- 
 acteristics that confirm this supposition : snub nose, pro- 
 truding lips, and the long beard. Similar peculiarities are 
 to be seen, e.g., on two marble statues in the National Mu- 
 seum at Athens, or on the marble statue of Pan taking a thorn 
 out of a person's foot in the Vatican collection.^ In addi- 
 tion, the head is capped by a helmet, instead of the more 
 usual truncated horns. This leads to the further supposi- 
 tion that the peculiar form of the god represented here is 
 that of the Ilai^ o-T/oaTtwTj;?, 'Pan the shepherd-god of 
 war. ' ^ He seems to be pictured in the figurine either as 
 dancing or as marching, the right leg stepping forward and 
 the arms outstretched. What he originally held in his hands 
 it is difficult to say — perhaps spear and buckler. But it 
 is also possible that the figurine was used as an ornament or 
 as a handle, and was fixed by the outstretched arms to some 
 larger object. At the end of the spinal column there is a 
 slight protuberance, of the meaning of which I am not quite 
 certain, unless it be meant to represent the tail of the lower 
 animal part of the body. 
 
 Many statuettes of the animal representation of Pan from 
 the Roman period of classic art have come down to us; 
 but among the many I have been unable to find any model 
 that coincides exactly with this. From the somewhat primi- 
 tive character of the workmanship I should hardly imagine 
 that it was either purely Greek or purely Roman ; but rather 
 that it belongs to that mixed form of art which Syria at times 
 produced under classical infiuence. There seems to be no 
 mention of any worship of Pan at Tyre. But in Northern 
 Palestine, at Banias (Panias), there did exist a grotto dedi- 
 cated to Pan ; and Pan is pictured on the imperial coinage 
 of Kaicrdpeia Xlawd?.^ It is possible that the figurine is an- 
 other evidence of the worship of Pan in Syrian regions. 
 
 ' The literature on these will be found cited in Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon 
 dar griechischen und rijmischen Mythologie, cols. 1417, 1418. 
 
 2 Ibid., col. 1389. 
 
 ' Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, 2. 155 ; Schtirer, Ge- 
 schichte des jUdischen Volkes, 2. 116 (2d ed.); Roscher, loc. cit., col. 1371. 
 
RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 363 
 
 (b) The second figurine, made of a more bluish bronze, 
 seems to lead us in quite a different direction. It is still 
 attached to the lower mould on which it was made. The 
 peculiar high head-covering makes mp at once suspect Egyp- 
 tian influence ; for it resembles in a remarkable manner the 
 so-called 'white crown' worn by Egyptian kings.* The only 
 covering on the body is a girdle around the waist and what 
 appears to be a short tunic depending from it. The real 
 position of the hands it is impossible to determine. The left 
 one is raised; the right has been broken away; but the 
 stump seems to show at least that it was extended. Down 
 the back of the head-covering and the neck there is a rill 
 which is probably nothing more than a foundry-mark. 
 
 The figurine is remarkably similar to one formerly in the 
 collection of the Musee Napoleon and now in the Louvre. This 
 last was found by M. Peretie at Tortosa on the Syrian coast 
 between Tripoli and Ladikiyah. It has been reproduced by 
 Longperier ^ and by Perrot and Chipiez.^ Because of its rude 
 workmanship, and because it was not detached from the sup- 
 port upon which it was cast, Perrot believes it to be very 
 ancient : to go back, as he expresses it, "aux debuts m^mes 
 de ITndustrie metallurgique." But, though the general char- 
 acter of the figure is similar to the copy in the Louvre, there 
 are some differences. The head-gear is not as straight as it 
 is in the Louvre figurine. It seems to bend in a little and to 
 bulge out again towards the top into a sort of bulb or knot. 
 The orbits of the eyes are not hollow ; the tunic is in one 
 straight piece and not in three folds ; and it is the left arm 
 that is raised, not the right. Halfway down the legs of the 
 figurine there seems to have been a break or a fault in the 
 casting. 
 
 The question of the provenance of these two figurines 
 has, however, been singularly complicated by the discovery 
 in ancient Mykenian remains of statuettes in bronze that 
 bear the closest resemblance to them. The first was found 
 by Schliemann in 1876 at Tiryns, and is described by him as 
 that of an "upright, beardless warrior in the act of fighting." ' 
 
 *See, e.g., Ennan, Aegypten, pp. 95, 364, 367, 383. 
 
 6 Musee Napoleon, 3. 214 and plate xxi. « Histoire de I'Art, 3. 405. 
 
 ' Schliemann, Tiryns, N. Y. 1885, p. 116 ; Mycenae, p. 14, figure 12. 
 
364 FIGURINES OF SYRO-HITTITE ART 
 
 The head is covered with a helmet having a very high cone- 
 shaped top. The rest of the body is naked. The lance held 
 in the uplifted right hand, as well as the shield fastened to 
 the left is missing. Beneath the feet are two vertical 
 supports, which give us exactly the depth of the double 
 funnel through which the molten metal was run into the 
 mould. According to Schliemann the artificers did not yet 
 know the use of the file, and this, he says, "points to a high 
 antiquity." Other statuettes, alike in kind, have come to 
 light at Mykene itself;* and a glance at their reproduction 
 is enough to assure us of their similarity to the one in my 
 possession, despite minor differences such as in the pattern 
 of the apron or breech cloth. 
 
 (c and d). The first two of the figurines, it will be seen, 
 bring us into connection with early classical civilization ; the 
 last two, however, seem to be the product of local artists, 
 and might with more propriety be called Syro-Hittite. I 
 have been unable to find out where they came from, as they 
 were acquired at a public sale. But c reminds me very 
 forcibly of a similar figurine found at Killiz, between Aleppo 
 and Aintab, a few years ago, and published by Garstang 
 in the Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology issued by 
 the Institute of Archaeology at Liverpool (Vol. 1),' and re- 
 published in his "Monuments of the Hittites." ^'' During 
 his travels in Cappadocia, Chantre was able to acquire a 
 number of such figurines, reproductions of which can be 
 found in his work. Mission en Cappadoce.'^ 
 
 (d) The fourth statuette reminds me at once of number 
 2; but its make is still more primitive. It has, however, 
 the same distinctive head-dress and the large ears which 
 are characteristic of most of these representations. That 
 the head-dress is also characteristic may be seen by compar- 
 
 ' Cf . Chrestos Tsountas, The Mycenaean Age, Boston, 1897, p. 161 ; von Lich- 
 tenberg, Einfluss der agaischen Kultur auf Agypten und Palastina, in Mittheilungen 
 der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, Leipzig, 1911, p. 39. ' Plate xiv. 
 
 '" P. 106. Cf. J. Menant, Quelques Figurines Heteennes en Bronze, in Revue 
 Archeologique, 26. 31 (1895). I have not been able to consult Peiserand Bezzen- 
 berger's article. Die bronze Figur von Schemen, in the Sitzungsberichte der Alter- 
 thumsgesellschaft Prussia, Heft 22, referred to by Garstang. In the same category 
 the little bronze group must be placed which was found in 1892 at Nerab near 
 Aleppo ; see Clermont-Ganneau, Etudes d'archeologie Orientale, 2. 186. 
 
 " 1898, p. 145. 
 
RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 365 
 
 ing it with the head-dress of some of the warriors and gods 
 to be found in known Hittite remains. 
 
 In at least three of the figurines we seem to have represen- 
 tation of an art about which as yet we know very little. 
 This art is, it is true, extremely primitive. The conception 
 is raw and the execution most inferior. The artist is evi- 
 dently struggling both with his material and with his art, 
 and he must have lived entirely out of touch with the three 
 superior civilizations around him — or at a time prior to 
 the introduction of their influence into these parts of Asia. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 This Bibliography has been prepared by Mr. Harry Wolfson of New 
 York. It makes no claim to completeness. And, indeed, completeness 
 is impossible, because Professor Toy has published numerous unsigned 
 articles, as in the Nation and in the Independent of New York, in the 
 Christian Register of Boston, in the International Journal of Ethics of 
 Philadelphia, and elsewhere. He was literary editor of the Independent 
 for about six months before beginning his work as professor at Harvard 
 University in 1880. Most of the unsigned articles just mentioned are 
 book reviews. It has not been the intention to include in this Bibliog- 
 raphy reviews, signed or unsigned, though a few have been admitted. Of 
 signed reviews, the New World (1892-1900), of which Professor Toy was 
 one of the founders and editors, contains about seventy-five from his 
 pen. As a member of the editorial board of The Jewish Encyclopedia 
 (1901-1906), he had charge of the departments of Hebrew Philology and 
 Hellenistic Literature. He contributed to all of the twelve volumes, but 
 most of his work was of editorial character, and is, therefore, not signed 
 or otherwise indicated as his. 
 
 1876 
 
 On Hebrew Verb -Etymology. Transactions of the Ameri- 
 can Philological Association, 7. 50-72 (Proceedings, 7. 
 41-42). 
 
 1877 
 
 On the Nominal Basis of the Hebrew Verb. Trans. Amer. 
 
 Phil. Assoc'n, 8. 18-38 (Proceedings, 8. 29-30). 
 Erdmann, C. F. D. The Books of Samuel. Translated, 
 
 Enlarged, and Edited by C. H. Toy and J. A. Broadus. 
 
 Pp. 616. New York, 1877. 
 
 1878 
 
 The Yoruban Language. Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc'n, 9. 
 19-38 (Proceedings, 9. 3-5). 
 
 1879 
 
 Modal Development of the Shemitic Verb. Trans. Amer. 
 Phil. Assoc'n, 10. 5-25 (Proceedings, 10. 27-28). 
 
 367 
 
368 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 On the Shemitic Derived Stems. Proc. Amer. Phil. 
 Assoc'n, 10. 22. 
 
 1880 
 
 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of the Psalms, by Thomas 
 
 Chalmers Murray, with Notes by C. H. Toy. New 
 
 York, 1880. 
 The Study of the Semitic Languages. Proc. Amer. Phil. 
 
 Assoc'n, 11. 10-13. 
 The Hebrew Verb-termination un. Trans. Amer. Phil. 
 
 Assoc'n, 11. 18-34 (Proceedings, 11. 28-30). 
 Remarks on J. G. Miiller's Semitic Theory. Journal of 
 
 the American Oriental Society, 10. Ixxii-lxxiii, 1880 
 
 (Proceedings for October, 1873). 
 The Study of Arabic. Harvard Register, 1. 212-213. 
 
 1881 
 
 On the Home of the Primitive Semitic Race. Trans. 
 
 Amer. Phil. Assoc'n, 12. 26-51 (Proceedings, 12. 6). 
 On the Babylonian Element in Ezekiel. Journal of the 
 
 Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, 1. 59-66. 
 
 1882 
 
 The History of the Religion of Israel : an Old Testament 
 Primer. Pp. xvii + 150. Boston, 1882 ; 2d ed., 
 1883 ; 3d ed., 1884 ; and several later editions. 
 
 The Semitic Personal Pronouns. Proc. Amer. Phil. 
 Assoc'n, 13. x-xii. 
 
 1883 
 
 Recent Progress among the Baptists. Christian Register, 
 
 62. 292. 
 
 1884 
 
 Quotations in the Old Testament. Pp. xliv-|-321. New 
 
 York. 
 The Date of the Korah Psalms. Journal Soc. Bib. Lit. 
 
 and Ex., 4. 80-92. 
 
 1885 
 
 On Noun-Inflections in the Sabean. Journal Amer. Or. 
 Soc, 11. xxix-xxxi, 1885 (Proceedings for May, 1880). 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 369 
 
 Remarks on Guyard's Theory of Semitic Internal Plurals. 
 
 Journal Amer. Or. Soc., 11. lix-lx, 1885 (Proceedings 
 
 for May, 1881). 
 Notice of F. Delitzsch's Views as to the Alleged Site of Eden. 
 
 Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 11. Ixxii-lxxiii, 1885 (Proceedings 
 
 for October, 1881). 
 On the Kushites. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 11. cviii-cix, 
 
 1885 (Proceedings for May, 1882). 
 The Masoretic Vowel System. Hebraica, 1. 137-144. 
 The Revised Old Testament. Christian Register, 64. 
 
 468, 500, 516-517, 549-550 (1885). 
 The Date of Deuteronomy. Unitarian Review, 23. 97- 
 
 118. 
 The New Philology. Science, 6. 366-368. 
 
 1886 
 
 On the Asaph Psalms. Journal Soc. Bib. Lit. and Ex., 
 
 6. 73-85. 
 The Present Position of Pentateuch Criticism. Unitarian 
 
 Review, 25. 47-68. 
 On Maccabean Psalms. Ibid., 26. 1-21. 
 A New English Dictionary. (Review of the Dictionary of 
 
 the Philological Society.) Science, 7. 557-558. 
 The Older Arabic Poetry. Harvard Monthly, 1. 135-148. 
 
 1887 
 
 Kuenen's Critical Work. Christian Register, 66. 117. 
 Rise of Hebrew Psalm-Writing. Journal Soc. Bib. Lit. 
 
 and Ex., 7. 47-60. j 
 
 Modern Biblical Criticism. Unitarian Review, 28. 354- 
 
 359 (also printed as a separate tract). 
 
 1888 
 
 The New Testament as Interpreter of the Old Testament. 
 Old Testament Student, 8. 124-133. 
 
 1889 
 
 The Thousand and One Nights. Atlantic Monthly, 63. 
 756-763. 
 
370 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Lokman Legend. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 13. 
 clxxii-clxxvii (Proceedings for May, 1887). 
 
 1890 
 
 Evil Spirits in the Bible. Journal of Biblical Literature, 
 
 9. 17-30. 
 On Some Phonetic Peculiarities of Cairo Arabic. Journal 
 
 Amer. Or. Soc, 14. cxii-cxiv (Proceedings for October, 
 
 1888). 
 Judaism and Christianity ; a Sketch of the Progress of 
 
 Thought from Old Testament to New Testament. 
 
 Pp. xvii + 456. Boston, 1890. 
 Ethics and Religion. Popular Science Monthly, 36. 
 
 727-744. 
 "That it might be Fulfilled." The Unitarian, June, 1890 
 
 (5. 284-285). 
 
 1891 
 
 Analysis of Genesis ii., iii. Journal Bib. Lit., 10. 1-19. 
 Relation of Jesus to Christianity. Christian Register, 70. 
 
 168-169. 
 The Study of the Bible. Ibid., 70. 748-749. 
 The Religious Element in Ethical Codes. International 
 
 Journal of Ethics, 1. 289-311. 
 
 1892 
 
 Kuenen's Life and Work. Christian Register, 71. 40. 
 Dr. C. A. Briggs. Ibid., 71. 728-729. 
 Abraham Kuenen. The New World, 1. 64-88. 
 
 1893 
 
 Myths and Legends as Vehicles of Religious Teaching. 
 
 Christian Register, 72. 404-405. 
 Israel in Egypt. The New World, 2. 121-141. 
 The Parliament of Religions. Ibid., 2. 728-741. 
 
 1894 
 W. Robertson Smith. Christian Register, 73. 266. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 371 
 
 1896 
 
 The Pre-Prophetic Religion of Israel. The New World, 
 
 6. 123-142. 
 Text-Critical Notes on Ezekiel. Journal Bib. Lit., 15. 54-58. 
 Biblical Criticism. Christian Register, 75. 264-265. 
 
 1897 
 
 The Meaning of HDS. Journal Bib. Lit., 16. 178-179. 
 Accadian-Babylonian and Assyrian Literature. Library 
 
 of the World's Best Literature, 1. 51-83. 
 The Old Testament and the Jewish Apocrypha. Ibid., 27. 
 
 10775-10818. 
 
 1898 
 
 Esther as Babylonian Goddess. The New World, 7. 
 130-144. 
 
 1899 
 
 Messianic Predictions. Christian Register, 78. 723. 
 
 Messianic Passages. Ibid., 78. 750. 
 
 The King in Jewish Post-ExUian Writings. Journal Bib. 
 Lit., 18. 156-166. 
 
 The Earliest Form of the Sabbath. Ibid., 18. 190-194. 
 
 The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. Critical Edition of the 
 Hebrew Text, with Notes (Polychrome Edition) . Leip- 
 zig, 1899. Pp. iv + 116. (Part 12 of The Sacred Books 
 of the Old Testament.) 
 
 The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. A New English Trans- 
 lation, with Explanatory Notes (Polychrome Edition). 
 New York, 1899. Pp. viii + 208. (The Sacred Books 
 of the Old and New Testaments.) 
 
 A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Prov- 
 erbs. New York and Edinburgh, 1899. Pp. xxxvi + 
 554. (The International Critical Commentary.) 
 
 Taboo and Morality. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 20. 151-156 . 
 
 The Relation between Magic and Religion. Ibid., 20. 327- 
 331. 
 
 1900 
 
 Pope Leo XIII. (The Dudleian Lecture for 1899.) Chris- 
 tian Register, 79. 65-69. 
 Charles Carroll Everett. The New World, 9. 714-724. 
 
372 BIBLIOGRA.PHY 
 
 1901 
 
 Ecclesiasticus. Encyclopaedia Biblica, 2. columns 1164- 
 
 1179. 
 Ezekiel. Ibid., 2. columns 1456-1472. 
 
 1902 
 
 Creator Gods. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 23. 29-37. 
 Remarks on the Hebrew Text of Ben-Sira. Ibid., 23. 38- 
 
 43. 
 Proverbs. Encyc. Bib., 3. columns 3906-3919. 
 
 1903 
 
 Sirach. Encyc. Bib., 4. columns 4645-4651. 
 Wisdom Literature. Ibid., 4. columns 5322-5336. 
 Book of Wisdom. Ibid., i. columns 5336-5349. 
 
 1904 
 Recent Discussions of Totemism. Journal Amer. Or. 
 
 Soc, 25. 146-161. 
 
 1905 
 
 An Early Form of Animal Sacrifice. Journal Amer. Or. 
 
 Soc, 26. 137-144. 
 Mexican Human Sacrifice. Jom-nal of American Folk- 
 
 Lore, 18. 173-181. 
 The Triumph of Yahwism. Journal Bib. Lit., 24. 91-106. 
 
 1906 
 
 The Semitic Conception of Absolute Law. Orientalische 
 Studien .... Theodor Noeldeke gewidmet, pp. 797- 
 804. 
 
 Ethical Influence in University Life. International Jour- 
 nal of Ethics, 16. 145-157. 
 
 1907 
 
 The Queen of Sheba. Journal Amer. Folk-Lore, 20. 207- 
 212. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 373 
 
 1908 
 
 On Some Conceptions of the Old Testament Psalter. Old 
 Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of William 
 Rainey Harper, 1. 1-34. 
 
 Survey of Recent Literature of the Old Testament. Har- 
 vard Theological Review, 1. 377-381. 
 
 1909 
 
 Dusares. Anthropological Essays presented to Frederic 
 Ward Putnam. Pp. 584-600. 
 
 1910 
 
 The Higher Criticism. Christian Register, 89. 455-457. 
 Pan-Babylonianism. Harvard Theological Review, 3. 
 
 47-84. 
 Ecclesiastes. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8. 849-853. 
 Ezekiel. Ibid., 10. 102-104. 
 Job (in part). Ibid., 15. 422-427. 
 Book of Proverbs. Ibid., 22. 506-510. 
 Book of Wisdom. Ibid., 28. 749-750. 
 Wisdom Literature. Ibid., 28. 750-751. 
 
 1912 
 
 The Islam of the Koran. Harvard Theological Review, 
 6. 474-514.