292 THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY VIII 



whatever to doubt, firstly, that Saul made such 

 a visit ; and, secondly, that he and all who were 

 present, including the wise woman of Endor 

 herself, would have given, with entire sincerity, 

 very much the same account of the business 

 as that which we now read in the twenty-eighth 

 chapter of the first book of Samuel ; and I am 

 further of opinion that this story is one of the 

 most important of those fossils, to which I have 

 referred, in the material which it offers for the 

 reconstruction of the theology of the time. Let 

 us therefore study it attentively not merely 

 as a narrative which, in the dramatic force of its 

 gruesome simplicity, is not surpassed, if it is 

 equalled, by the witch scenes in Macbeth but as 

 a piece of evidence bearing on an important 

 anthropological problem. 



We are told (1 Sam. xxviii.) that Saul, en- 

 camped at Gilboa, became alarmed by the strength 

 of the Philistine army gathered at Shunem. He 

 therefore " inquired of Jahveh," but " Jahveh 

 answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by 

 Urim, nor by prophets." 1 Thus deserted by 

 Jahveh, Saul, in his extremity, bethought him of 

 " those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards," 

 whom he is said, at some previous time, to have 

 " put out of the land " ; but who seem, neverthe- 

 less, to have been very imperfectly banished, since 



1 My citations are taken from the Revised Version, hut for 

 LORD and GOD I have substituted Jahveh and Elohim. 



