186 JAMES NEIL, M.A., 
Robertson Smith’s last book on the religion of the Semites, in which 
he deals with what he calls “fundamental principles,” first, as to 
tribes, in relation to the Tribal God, who is usually regarded as the 
owner of the land, and it was from him that the land was received, 
and the tribe was thought, or said, to consist of the God and his 
people, and the God had his share in the village community, who was 
represented by the tithe as much as any of the population. With 
regard to the purchase of the cave of Macpelah, it is one of the 
most remarkable passages in the Old Testament. Indeed, there 
are two such passages in the early portion of the book of Genesis, 
which stand out as interesting fragments. One is the purchase of 
the cave of Macpelah, which reads as if it were taken from 
Babylonian documents. The whole phraseology of it, even the 
epithet of “stranger” or ger, applied to Abraham, is a word found 
in Babylonian inscriptions. It means a man who asks to “make a 
friendship ”; the word is equivalent, almost, to the word “ client.” 
The other fragment which stands out so clear is that remark- 
able historical one in the 14th chapter, which is, undoubtedly, a 
fragment of the olden history of the Hebrew people. May I add 
a word with regard to that part of the paper referring to village 
communities. Another trace of these communities in Babylonia 
is certainly found in the punishment which was inflicted on a man 
who broke the laws of the family. The law of the family in 
India implies the recognition of the father as the head, but in 
Babylonia, amongst the Semites, at any rate, at an early period, 
the law of maternity was in use, and the mother was represented 
as the goddess of the house, and an offence against her was 
punished far more severely than an offence against the father. An 
offence against the father could be atoned by a money payment, 
but against the mother it was punished by cutting off of the hair 
and nails—which you know was a punishment inflicted on captives 
by the Hebrews—and by banishment from all social rights. These 
are facts which are gathered from Babylonian inscriptions, and 
which show that we may carry the system, which Mr. Neil has 
traced from so early to so late a period, even further back still. 
There is one more part of the paper to which I will refer before I 
sit down, and that is the one with regard to the expression “the 
daughters of the mother cities.” The old Babylonian capital, the 
city of Ekron, was called by the name of “the mother,” and this 
is a phrase frequently repeated in Babylonian inscriptions when 
