214 
WAKAPAKOKO IMAGES. 
seems to throw light on this singular custom. In his ac- 
count of the seraphim, “ The charge of stealing Laban’s 
images (Gren. xxxi. 29) is the earliest distinct notice of their 
existence and worship. They must have been so small 
as to be easily concealed under the saddle of Rachel • 
and, by the way, it is still very common for Arabs to hide 
stolen property under the padding of their saddles. They 
probably resembled the small images of saints which are now 
carried about by Oriental Christians, and may have been 
honored and consulted in much the same way ; some of 
these saints are celebrated for assistance given to women 
afflicted with Rachel’s sorrow, and perhaps she herself had 
been driven to this sort of idolatry in her anxiety to become 
a mother. It would be orientally feminine in an eminent 
degree, if this were the cause of her stealing her father’s 
gods, nor does the act of stealing a god to worship strike 
these people about us as monstrous or absurd. I have 
known many such thefts of modern seraphim, and by women 
too.” — (Page 370 .) 
The ancient Hindus, according to the Rig Yeda, had only 
similar idols when it was written. 
BASKET WITH GODS. 
