THE RELIGIOUS IDEA. 605 



their forms and degrees of elaboration, which have this com 

 mon origin, there exists one which has a different origin ? 

 Must we say that while all the rest are natural, the religion 

 possessed by the Hebrews which has come down to us with 

 modifications, is supernatural ? 



If, in seeking an answer, we compare this supposed 

 exceptional religion with the others, we do not find it so 

 unlike them as to imply an unlike genesis. Contrariwise, 

 we find it presenting throughout remarkable likenesses to 

 them. We will consider these in groups. 



In the first place, the plasma of superstitions amid 

 which the religion of the Hebrews evolved, was of the same 

 nature with that found everywhere. Though, during the 

 early nomadic stage, the belief in a permanently-existing 

 BOU! was undeveloped, yet there was shown belief in the 

 reality of dreams and of the beings seen in dreams. At a 

 later stage we find that the dead were supposed to hear 

 and sometimes to answer; there was propitiation of the 

 dead by gashing the body and cutting the hair ; there 

 was giving of food for the dead; spirits of the dead were 

 believed to haunt burial-places ; and demons entering into 

 men caused their maladies and their sins. Much given, like 

 existing savages, to amulets, charms, exorcisms, etc., the 

 Hebrews also had functionaries who corresponded to 

 medicine men men having &quot;familiar spirits,&quot; &quot;wizards&quot; 

 (Isaiah viii, 19), and others, originally called seers but after 

 wards prophets (1 Sam, ix, 9) ; to whom they made presents 

 in return for information, even when seeking lost asses. 

 And Samuel, in calling for thunder and rain, played the part 

 of a weather-doctor a personage still found in various parts 

 of the world. 



Sundry traditions they held in common with other 

 peoples. Their legend of the deluge, besides being allied 

 to that of the Accadians, was allied to that of the Hindus ; 

 among .whom the Sathapatha-brahmana tells how Manu 

 was instructed by Yislmu to make an ark to escape the 



