i88i] ANIMAL WORSHIP AND ANIMAL TRIBES 481 



while its religious importance is also indicated in i Sam. 

 vi. 4. The swine, too, occurs in the Old Testament as a 

 proper name, I Chron. xxiv. 15 ; Neh. x. 21. Whether 

 the heathen sacrifices of such animals were sacramental in 

 stocks of the same name or triumphant in hostile stocks, 

 I do not pretend to decide. But the former is more likely, 

 because then the Mosaic prohibition would fit into the old 

 custom (which forbids the ordinary use of the totem as 

 food), while at the same time expressing protest against 

 the occasional sacramental use. And in the case of the 

 Syrian sacred fish we know that habitual abstinence from 

 this kind of food did go with its use in religious ritual. 1 



Our analysis of the testimony of Ezekiel appears to 

 prove that superstition of the totem kind had still a hold 

 on the Israelites in the last years of the independence 

 of the kingdom of Judah. I shall now attempt to show 

 that in the time of David the kinship of animal stocks was 

 still acknowledged between Israel and the surrounding 

 nations. For this purpose I observe that David seems 

 to have belonged to the serpent stock. Among his 

 ancestors the most prominent is Nahshon, who bears the 

 serpent-name with the usual termination. Again Abigail, 

 who in I Chron. ii. 16 appears as David s sister, was the 

 daughter of Nahash (2 Sam. xvii. 25). Hence it follows 

 either that Jesse was himself called by the stock-name 

 of Serpent, or, what is of equal force for our argument, 

 that the members of his stock were called children of the 



1 Athenaeus, lib. viii. cap. 37; Lucian, De Syr. Dea, cap. 14; Xen. 

 Anab. i. 4. 9, and other references in Selden, De Diis Syris, ii. 3 ; Movers, 

 Phoenizier, i. 391. That the Syrians would not eat pigeons has been 

 noticed above. On the forbidden foods of the heathen of Harran, see 

 En-Nedim in Chwolsohn, ii. 9 seq. As I do not enlarge on Syrian animal 

 worship I may here cite also from the same author (Chwolsohn, p. 46) 

 the acknowledgment in the mysteries of the ^arranians that dogs, 

 ravens, and ants are &quot; our brothers.&quot; Of forbidden foods among the 

 heathen Arabs I can say almost nothing ; but some facts are certainly 

 to be found in the traditions of the prophet. There were apparently 

 discussions about the eating of locusts and birds (Hamaker s notes on 

 Ps. Wakidy, p. 15). 



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