458 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



essay to speak of the sacred fish so common in Syrian 

 sanctuaries, and of the horses of the sun among the Jews 

 (2 Kings xxiii. n, comp. Micah i. 13). 



Now if the astral character of Semitic animal gods is in 

 many cases no more than a theory, and a theory which at 

 best is not conclusive as to the original character of these 

 deities, it becomes a matter of great importance to ask if 

 we can find any traces of a belief that the animal gods 

 were progenitors of tribes which bore their name. In that 

 case the theory that the animal forms are mere pictures of 

 divine attributes must fall to the ground ; for a tribe 

 would not claim to be the offspring of an attribute, but of 

 the god himself under his proper name. 



The probability that among the Semites as in other 

 parts of the ancient world, and notably in Egypt, animal 

 worship and animal tribes were associated in the way 

 which Mr. M Lennan s theory would lead us to expect, 

 was suggested to me a considerable time ago by the exam 

 ination of data in the Old Testament, which contains our 

 earliest literary record of the forms of Semitic Polytheism. 

 The Old Testament facts seemed to point to Arabia as the 

 part of the Semitic field most likely to throw further light 

 on the matter. In Aberdeen unfortunately I have no 

 access to the Arabic texts most indispensable for complete 

 inquiry into the subject. But even the scanty helps 

 which I have at hand have yielded so many relevant facts, 

 and throw so much light on the data contained in the 

 Bible, that I venture to put forth a provisional argument, 

 which I hope will be found to possess sufficient consistency 

 to justify publication, and to invite the co-operation of 

 scholars in further research. My results are remarkably 

 confirmatory of Mr. M Lennan s theory a theory framed 

 almost absolutely without reference to the Semitic races, 

 but which nevertheless will be found to explain the true 

 connection of a great number of facts which have hitherto 

 remained unexplained and almost unobserved. It is not 

 often that an historical speculation receives such notable 



