Viii THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 295 



is in harmony with the fact that the exact sense 

 of the Hebrew words which are translated as " a 

 woman that hath a familiar spirit " is " a woman 

 mistress of Ob" Ob means primitively a leather 

 bottle, such as a wine skin, and is applied alike to 

 the necromancer and to the spirit evoked. Its 

 use, in these senses, appears to have been sug- 

 gested by the likeness of the hollow sound 

 emitted by a half-empty skin when struck, to 

 the sepulchral tones in which the oracles of the 

 evoked spirits were uttered by the medium. It 

 is most probable that, in accordance with the 

 general theory of spiritual influences which ob- 

 tained among the old Israelites, the spirit of 

 Samuel was conceived to pass into the body of 

 the wise woman, and to use her vocal organs to 

 speak in his own name for I cannot discover 

 that they drew any clear distinction between 

 possession and inspiration. 1 



If the story of Saul's consultation of the occult 

 powers is to be regarded as an authentic narrative, 

 or, at any rate, as a statement which is perfectly 

 veracious so far as the intention of the narrator 

 goes and, as I have said, I see no reason for re- 

 fusing it this character it will be found, on 

 further consideration, to throw a flood of light, 

 both directly and indirectly, on the theology of 

 Saul's countrymen that is to say, upon their 



1 See "Divination," by Hazoral, Journal of Anthropology ', 

 Bombay, vol. i. No. 1. 



