396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



There are many conclusive reasons for believing that all 

 ancient races, during their early development, lived under this 

 crude system, and, like the savage stocks of our own time, based 

 their laws, both social and religious, upon the well-marked lines 

 of totemism. 



The figures of the gods in ancient Egypt were represented on 

 the monuments for ages in animal form. The organization of the 

 local population ran on totem lines. Each city had different 

 beast gods. In the royal genealogies, beasts are named as an- 

 cestors; showing that the early Egyptians actually considered 

 themselves descendants of animals. The primitive element in 

 the early Greek religion has been preserved in the " sacred chap- 

 ters," fragments of which have been given us by Herodotus, 

 Pausanias, and others — proving that the oldest images of the 

 Grecian gods were represented in animal forms, and that the 

 different royal houses claimed descent from animals, as do the 

 savages of America and Australia. Mr. J. McLennan, in his papers 

 on The Worship of Plants and Animals, calls our attention to 

 many evidences that the early Romans as well as the Greeks wor- 

 shiped totems. The Old Testament records show — notwithstand- 

 ing the various revisions through which these venerated books 

 have passed — many indications of animal-worship among the 

 Israelites, which must have lasted for ages before the prohibition 

 inculcated in the second line of the Decalogue was formulated. 

 At a comparatively late date "Jehovah was worshiped under 

 the popular symbol of a bull, while the twelve oxen upholding 

 the laver in Solomon's temple, as well as the horns adorning the 

 altar, were drawn from the prevalent bull-worship." * Modern 

 research has also proved that the cherubim were represented in 

 the form of winged bulls. M. Lenormant, in his famous book 

 on the Beginnings of History, says that, during the time of the 

 kings and prophets, " most assuredly the cherubim, as there de- 

 scribed, are animals." 



The process by which the anthropomorphic god superseded 

 the worship of the totem deity has been suggested by Mr. Andrew 

 Lang. "The encyclopaedia of myths," as he has been rightly 

 called, has gained the lasting gratitude of all earnest students of 

 primitive culture for his lucid explanations of the puzzling prob- 

 lem of animal-worship. He says : " Among certain peoples, as in 

 Samoa, we see the process of advance toward the Greek and 

 Syrian view of sacred animals. They allege that, in these vari- 

 ous beast-totems of their various stocks, the one god common to 

 all these stocks is incarnate. . . . Savage ideas like these would 

 account for the holy animals of different deities, especially in 



* Wrong and Right Uses of the Bible. By Rev. H. R. Newton. 



