Mythology among the Hebrews and Its Historical Development

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459. This connexion is also clear in the Hottentot mythology. Heizi Eibib, which means moon, is there the name of the man to whom grave-tumuli are consecrated, and who is addressed in prayer for good sport and numerous herds (Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, II. 324).

460. Max Müller’s view (Introduction to the Science of Religion, p. 184), ‘When Jeremiah speaks of the Queen of Heaven, this can only be meant for Astarte or Baaltis,’ is correct only if Baaltis be identified with the Moon. The correctness of this identification, which was first asserted by Philo Byblius, and has been conceded by the older interpreters Grotius and Lyra, and by many modern ones, is very probable; for the name Baaltis stands in the same relation to Baʿal (Sun) as Milkâ to Melekh, Lebhânâ to Lâbhân, and Ashêrâ to Âshêr. Tiele also (Vergelijkende Geschiedenis, p. 512) says the same as Müller.

461. Midrâsh Shôchêr Ṭôbh on Ps. XIX. 7.

462. The contrast of Leah’s weak eyes to Rachel’s beauty belongs not to the mythic stage, but to the epic description.

463. There is no reason to separate the word shilhê from the Shaphʿêl shalhî, as Levy does in his Chald. Wôrterbuch, II. 481; compare Reggio in the Hebrew journal Ozar Nechmad, I. 122.

464. See Zeitschr. für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, 1869, VI. 237, 252.

465. Rohlfs, Quer durch Afrika, I. 204.

466. Opuscula Arabica, pp. 16–39.

467. E.g. Ḥamâsâ, p. 609, v. 6: Nâbiġâ, VI. v. 9.

468. Ḥamâsâ, p. 391, v. 2.

469. Commentary on Ḥamâsâ, ibid.

470. The Arabian poet Ibn Mayyâdâ, in a description of the lightning (Aġânî, II. 120. 9), says 'it lights up the piled-up cloud, which is like a herd of camels, at the head of which those that long for their home cry out with pain: yuḍîʾu ṣabîran min saḥâbin kaʾannahu * hijânun arannat lil-ḥanîni nawâziʿuh.

471. The ancient Arabs understood that the thunder and lightning were caused by the clouds whence they issued. Many passages might be quoted in support of this, but Lebîd Muʿallaḳâ v. 4, 5, is sufficient. Ḥanna (to sigh, to groan with desire) is therefore equivalent to ‘to thunder,’ e.g. Aġânî, XIII. 32. 8. ḳad raʿadat samâʾuhu wa-baraḳat wa-ḥannat warjaḥannat.

472. See W. Wright, Opuscula Arabica, p. 20. 10; 21. 7.

473. Ibid., p. 29. 2.

474. Kitâb al-Aġânî, XIX. 157. 1.

475. Jeremiah XXXI. 15, Matth. II. 18.

476. Compare al-Sherbînî Hezz al-ḳuḥûf, etc., lithographed Alexandria, p. 253. The Arabs also said of the red evening-sky that ‘it wept bloody tears’ (al-Maḳrîzî, al-Chiṭaṭ, Bûlâk edition, I. 430).

477. Clemens Alex. Strom. V. 571.

478. See Nöldeke’s Beiträge zur altarab. Poesie, p. 34.

479. In mythology the clouds are also called udders. See Mannhardt, German Mythenf., pp. 176–188; so in Arabic, Ibn Muṭeyr apud Nöldeke l. c.

480. Ibn Dureyd, Kitâb al-ishtiḳaḳ, ed. Wüstenfeld, pp. 13, 14.

481. Ibnat al-ʿinab, in the celebrated wine-song of Wâlid b. Yazîd (Aġânî, VI. 110. 5). Wine is well known to be called in Hebrew ‘Blood of the grape,’ dam ʿênâbh (Deut. XXXII. 14); compare the Persian chôni rûz in Waṣṣâf ed. Hammer, p. 138. 6: shahzâdegân bâ yekdiger chôni rûz chordend.

482. In Siamese luk mei is ‘son of the tree, fruit’ (Steinthal, Charakteristik, p. 150); compare Midrâsh rabbâ Leviticus, sect 7, where ‘children of the tree’ are spoken of, châlaḳtâ khâbhôd laʿêṣîm bishebhîl benêhem. The pearl is called by Waṣṣâf, p. 180. 15, zâdei yem ‘son of the sea.’ A curious mythological relationship is found in the Polynesian system; the year, a daughter of the first pair, combined with her own father to produce the months, and the children of the latter are the days (Gerland, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, VI. 233).

483. Fleischer in the Zeitschr. d. D. M. G., 1853, VII. 502 note.

484. Aġânî, XX. 54. 16.

485. Arabic tradition knows another name besides Zalîchâ for this person. In al-Ṭabarî her name is given as Râʿîl; see Ouseley, Travels in various Countries of the East, London 1819, I. 74; also in al-Beyḍâwî’s Anwâr al-tanzîl, ed. Fleischer, I. 456–8.

486. Zeitschr. d. D. M. G. 1849, III. 200. See above p. 73. et seq.

487. Sonne, Mond und Sterne, pp. 1. et seq.

488. Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, p. 39. Zeitschrift d. D. M. G., 1861, XV. 86.

489. Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, Leipzig 1871, I. 36.

490. Chips, &c. vol. II., the latter part of ‘Comparative Mythology,’ and Lectures on the Science of Language, Second Series, Lecture IX. ‘The Mythology of the Greeks.’—Tr.

491. Plutarchi Fragmenta et Spuria, ed. Fr. Dübner, in F. Didot’s Collection, Paris 1855, p. 83.

492. Lettres assyriologiques et épigraphiques, Paris 1872, II. fifth letter.

493. Müller, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 530; Chips, &c., II. 163 et seq.; Fiske, Myths, p. 113.

494. Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, 1851, II. 136.

495. See Geiger, Jüd. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben, vol. VIII. p. 285. Breslau 1869.

496. Kuenen (in his Religion of Israel, I. 111 in the translation) expresses the opinion that only the degree of mutual relationship between the fathers of tribes was a later idea: that, e.g. the less noble tribes were called sons of Jacob’s slave-girls, and those that were bound together by closer fraternal feelings were regarded as sons of the same mother. Compare now also Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin 1875, I. 268.