466 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



the Oqab, or more exactly to the race of Nasr, kings of 

 Hira. The dove in the Kaba (Pococke, p. 100) answers 

 to the Beni Hamama ; l the golden gazelles in the same 

 temple to the Zabyan. But that animal worship had an 

 extension far beyond these narrow limits is not ambigu 

 ously hinted in the Qor an (vi. 38), where it is taught with 

 an obvious polemical intention that there is no manner 

 of beast or fowl but is a people subject to God s decree 

 and returning to Him. Conversely the doctrine of Genii 

 in animal form is clearly the relic of an old mythology, in 

 which, as we are told in Qor. vi. 100, the Genii were made 

 partners with God. 2 



There is still one important point to be noticed in 

 comparing the ancient Arabs with the races who possess 

 the totem system. A main characteristic of that system 

 in its earliest forms is that totem kinship is reckoned 

 through the mother. The connection between such a 

 system of kinship and the practice of polyandry and 

 exogamy has been worked out by Mr. M Lennan. It is 

 now to be asked whether these practices and the conse 

 quent system of kinship originally prevailed among the 

 Arabs. We have seen that the animal names given in the 

 tribal genealogies generally belong to sub-tribes, and that 

 the same animal name often belongs to sub-tribes of 

 different groups. This is just what would come about on 

 a system of exogamy where the totem name was trans 

 mitted through the mother. In fact exactly the same 



1 The totem character of the dove among the Semites is confirmed 

 by the fact that the Syrians would not eat it. Xen. Anab. i. 4, 9 ; 

 Lucian, Dea Syria, cap. 14; En-Nedim in Chwolsohn s Ssabier, ii. 10. 

 Compare the Hebrew name ruv. 



2 Nothing perhaps can be gathered for our argument from the 

 sacred character acquired in certain circumstances by camels and other 



animals ; Qor. v. 102 ; Lane, s.w. * .j^l, ^, *xjL, ; yet from the 



\* 



first of these words a stock name is formed. Of sacred animals another 

 trace is preserved (if the record can be trusted) in Arrian, vii. 20. But 

 Strabo, xvi. 3, has a somewhat different account and omits the sacred 

 animals. 



