Mythology among the Hebrews and Its Historical Development

537. See Excursus G.

538. Ibn al-Sikkît, p. 322.

539. The Poetical Works of Behâ-ed-Dîn Zoheir of Egypt. By E.H. Palmer, Cambridge 1876, I. 108. 7. It is impossible to quote this edition without an expression of admiration for the perfection to which Arabic typography has been brought in England in this magnificent Oriental work, the production of which redounds to the imperishable credit of the University of Cambridge. It may be pronounced one of the most beautiful Oriental books that have ever been printed in Europe; and the learning of the editor worthily rivals the technical get-up of the creations of the soul of one of the most tasteful poets of Islâm, the study of which will contribute not a little to save the honour of the poetry of the Arabs. Here first we make the acquaintance of a poet who gives us something better than monotonous descriptions of camels and deserts, and may even be regarded as superior in charm to al-Mutanabbî.

540. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachgelehrsamkeit bei den Arabern, no. 1, in the Sitzungsberichte der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1871, Jan. p. 222 et seq.; or in the reprint p. 18 et seq.

541. Wallin’s articles in the Zeitsch. d. D. M. G., 1851, V. 17; but see above p. 43.

542. See Vatke, Biblische Theologie, p. 327, and Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 711, where importance is attached to this.

543. The conception of Cherubim penetrated even into Mohammedan regions, e.g. Ḥâfiẓ, ed. Rosenzweig, III. 526 penult., chalweti kerrûbiân ʿâlem-i-ḳuds.

544. Ueber die südarabische Sage, Leipzig 1866 p. 27.

545. See Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 697.

546. See Dillmann, in Schenkel’s Bibellexikon, I. 511.

547. Ibid., V. 284.

548. An interesting Arabic parallel to this occurs in Yâḳût, III. 496. Thaḳîf and al-Nachaʿ, who with their herds were migrating together, determine to separate: ‘So one said to the other: Assuredly this land can never support both me and thee. If thou goest to the west, then I will go to the east; and if I go to the west, then do thou go to the east. Then said Thaḳîf, Well, I will choose the west. Then said al-Nachaʿ, Then I go to the east.’ Ibid., p. 498, occurs an equally curious arrangement between two nomad tribes.

549. De vita solit. I. 10. Inventores artium quarundam post mortem divinitatis honore cultos audivimus, grate quidem potius quam pie. Nulla enim est pietas hominis qua Deus offenditur, sed erga memoriam de humano genere bene meritorum inconsulta gratitudo mortalium, humanis honoribus non contenta, usque ad sacrilegas processit ineptias. Hinc Apollinem cithara, hinc eundem ipsum atque Aesculapium medicina, Saturnum, Liberumque et Cererem agricultura, Vulcanum fabrica deos fecit.

550. Ausland, 1875, p. 219 et seq.

551. Sir G. Wilkinson on Herodotus, II. 79, note 5.

552. Even Herder compared together these two sources of information on the story of Jemshîd, in the Appendix to vol. I. of his writings on Philosophy and History.

553. Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, Basle 1867, p. 423. This myth of civilisation is given also by Tylor, Primitive Culture, I. 318 et seq.

554. See Dr. Robert Hartmann, Die Nigritier: eine anthropologisch-ethnologische Monographie, Berlin 1876, Thl. I. p. 176.

555. Brinton, Myths of the New World, New York 1868, p. 130.

556. Otto Henne-Am-Rhyn, Die deutsche Volkssage, etc., p. 281 et seq.

557. Ibid., p. 285, the author says on the other hand: ‘The blind sister is of course always the invisible new moon, the half-black and half-white the half moon, the quite white the full moon.’

558. See Hellwald, Ueber Gynäkokratie im alten Amerika, third art. in Ausland for 1871, no. 44, p. 1158. In the language of the Algonkins the ideas Night, Death, Cold, Sleep, Water, and Moon are expressed by one and the same word.

559. A vogul föld és nép, Reguly Antal hagyományaiból, Pest 1864, p. 139.

560. In the Hottentot story it is the Hare (on his solar significance see supra p. 118) that is represented as the origin of death, in opposition to the Moon (Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, II. 342).

561. See the article ‘Une genèse vogule,’ in Ujfalvy’s Revue de Philologie, Paris 1874, livr. 1. The original text and a Hungarian translation are given by P. Hunfalvy in his lately quoted work, p. 119–134.

562. Ausland, 1875, p. 951 et seqq.

563. Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, London 1867, p. 346.

564. Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 305.

565. Waitz, l.c. I. 464 note. Among other examples Waitz quotes this: ‘In Mexico Huitzlipochtli, was born of a woman who took to her bosom a feather-ball is a solar designation, is not easily determined.’ In connexion with it I will only mention that Shakspeare in one passage calls the sun a ‘burning crest.’

But even this night,—whose black contagious breath

Already smokes about the burning crest

Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun,—

Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire.—King John, V. 4.

566. Manṭiḳ al-ṭeyr, ed. Garcin de Tassy, p. 58 (from a communication of my friend Dr. W. Bacher).

567. By the Red the Sun is surely unquestionably to be understood, and not, as Max Müller says (Introduction to the Science of Religion, p. 64), the Earth.

568. It should at the same time be noticed that in Arabic, in which, as in Hebrew, men are usually called banû Adam, the expression banû Ḥawwâʾa (sons of Eve) also occurs; e.g. in a verse of the Kumeyt (Aġânî, XV. 124; wa-cheynu banî Ḥawwâʾa), in a poem of Abû-l-ʿAlâ al-Maʿarrî, I. 96. 1, of al-Murtaḍî in the Keshkùl of al-ʿÂmilî, p. 169.

569. Ursprung der menschlichen Sprache und Vernunft, II. 42.

570. See Excursus M.

571. Die Kitâb al awâʾil der Araber, Halle 1867; congratulatory article on occasion of the meeting of the German Oriental Society at Halle.

572. I know this work (entitled Muḥâḍarat al-awâʾil wa-musâmarat al-awâchir) from a manuscript of it in the public Viceregal Library at Cairo. In the catalogue of the year 1289, p. 92 antepenult, it is erroneously entered with the title Muchtaṣar al-awâʾil wal-awâchir.