58 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON THE 
SEcTIONS D and C united.— Semitic religions and the 
religions of Equypt. 
As it was the Semitic Section in which I had inscribed 
myself, it was here that I found my home during the time 
the Congress lasted, and as I heard most of the papers read, 
Tam fhe to describe what happened more from my own 
notes aud observations. Of this united section of the 
religions of Egypt and the Semitic races, M. Ed. Naville, one 
of the Hon, Corresponding Members of this Institute, was 
elected president, and Professors Goldzieher, of Budapesth, 
Montet, of Geneva, vice-presidents. In consequence of the 
very comprehensive nature of the subject from such diverse 
elements being united, the papers read were of very varying 
nature, and some of them were of considerable importance. 
The variations of certain dogmas of Islamism were first 
commented upen by M. Clément Huart, atter which M. 
Maurice Vernes read a paper upon the sanctuaries of the 
Canaanitish region which were frequented concurrently by 
the Israelites and the imhabitants of the neighbouring 
regions. The paper gave rise to a considerable amount of 
discussion, in which MM. Huar t, Derenbourg, Capart, Mayer- 
Lambert, Montet, and Offord took part. 
Countess Martinengu Cesaresco then read a paper entitled 
“The Hebrew Conception of Animals,” im English, in which, 
among other points, the belief that. they could speak (as 
instanced by Balaam’s ass) was referred to. 
At the second meeting of the section, M. Capart, of the 
Egyptian Museum at Brussels, read a paper entitled, “The 
Festival of Striking the Anu.” This he explained as the 
festival commemorating the defeat of the people so called, 
and there was a long disquisition as to the identity of this 
ancient nationality. 
A short paper of some interest was then read by Professor 
Naville for Mr. Offord, upon Apollo-Alasiotas and Apollo- 
Reseph, in which the suggestion was made that the place- 
name Alasia is the Alasia of the Tel-cl-Amarna tablets, and 
therefore in Syria, and if that be the case, the place in 
question cannot be identified with the island of Cyprus (the 
received identification). Another point of the paper was 
the possible connection of the word Apollo in this case with 
the Aplu of the Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions, aplu kénu 
bemg the translation of the name Dumuzi[da], “everlasting 
