7UO ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS, 



were made over to the /^-priests. Again, just as 



we have seen that the gods of the Wayao, who were ghosts 

 of ancient great chiefs, dwelt on the cloudy summits of 

 certain adjacent mountains; and just as the residence of 

 &quot; cloud-compelling Jove &quot; was the top of Olympus, where 

 storms gathered; so the Hebrew god &quot;descended in the 

 cloud&quot; on the summit of Mount Sinai, sometimes with 

 thunder and lightning. Moreover, the statement that from 

 thence Moses brought down the tables of the commands, 

 alleged to be given by Jahveli, parallels the statement 

 that from Mount Ida in Crete, from the cave where Zeus 

 was said to have been brought up (or from the connected 

 Mount Itiktas reputed in ancient times to contain the burial 

 place of Zeus), Ehadamanthus first brought clown Zeus 5 

 decrees, and Minos repaired to obtain re-inforced authority 

 for his laws.* 



Various other likenesses may be briefly noted. With the 

 account of the council held by Jahveh when compassing 

 Ahab s destruction, may be compared the account of the 

 council of the Egyptian gods assembled to advise Ea, when 

 contemplating the destruction of the world, and also the 

 accounts of the councils of the Greek gods held by Zeus. 

 Images of the gods, supposed to be inhabited by them, have 

 been taken to battle by various peoples ; as by the Hebrews 

 was the ark of the covenant, which was a dwelling place of 

 Jahveh. As by many savages, who even when living dislike 



* It matters not to the argument whether this was or was not the Olym 

 pian Zeus. It suffices that he was a king, whose mountain- dwelling ghost 

 became a god giving commands. But that the two personages were origi 

 nally one is a tenable conclusion. Having a belief in a god inhabiting a 

 neighbouring mountain where the clouds gathered, a migrating people, 

 fettling elsewhere, near a mountain similarly distinguished as an originator 

 of storms, would naturally infer that their god had come with them. A 

 recently published work, Africana, has yielded me some evidence supporting 

 this conclusion ; in so far that the Wayaos regard as superior, certain gods 

 originally localized in the country they left, and who yet must, in a sense, be 

 present with them if they are regarded as their superior gods. The different 

 genealogy of the Olympian Zeus goes for little, considering what differences 

 there were among the genealogies of historical persons among the Greeks. 



