i88i] ANIMAL WORSHIP AND ANIMAL TRIBES 477 



The last case points to female kinship, the other two are 

 relics of Tibetan or British polyandry. Of such polyandry 

 we have express testimony in the eighth century B.C., 

 Amos ii. 7. 1 The practices condemned by the higher 

 moral sense of the prophets were, it appears, remnants of 

 old usage. Along with these facts we find other evidences 

 of an ancient system of kinship through women. The 

 presents by which Rebekah was purchased for Isaac went 

 to her mother and her brother (Gen. xxiv. 53). Laban 

 claims his daughters children as his own (Gen. xxxi. 43). 

 The duty of blood revenge appears to lie on the kin by the 

 mother s side (Judges viii. 19). 2 Even for exogamy and 

 marriage by capture there is a law in Deut. xxi. 10 seq., 

 and a notable case in Judges xxi. The narrative in 

 Judges seems to be tolerably recent (see Wellhausen, 

 Gesch. i. 246). This trait therefore is presumably the 

 specialisation of an old custom illustrated by a narrative, 

 as in the book of Ruth. The usage itself is faintly re 

 flected in the custom described in Mishna Tdanith, cap. 

 viii., where we learn that on a festal occasion the daughters 

 of Jerusalem used to go out and in a dance invite the 

 young men to choose a spouse. With such facts before us, 

 and with the certainty that the early Hebrews had no 

 scruple in intermarrying with the surrounding nations, 

 it appears only natural that the totem tribes of their 

 neighbours should reappear in Israel, as we have seen to 

 be the case at all events in Judah. 



In this connection a peculiar interest attaches to the 

 singular history of the tribe of Simeon. Already in the 

 blessing of Jacob Simeon is coupled with Levi as a tribe 

 scattered in Israel. There were Simeonites in the south 



1 Tac. Hist. v. 5, projectissima ad libidinem gens, alienarum concubitu 

 abstinent ; inter se nihil illicitum. Was there historical basis for this 

 accusation, or does Tacitus perhaps confound the Jews with their 

 Phoenician or Arabian neighbours ? 



2 As it is well known that the law of blood revenge is often extended 

 to the violation of women, Gen. xxxiv. and 2 Sam. xiii. are also cases in 

 point. 



