Mythology among the Hebrews and Its Historical Development

388. The Arabian historians transfer the entire Biblical story of Samson (Arabic Shamsûn), to the time of the Mulûk al-ṭawâʾif; and in their narrative the hero fights against Rûm [i.e. the Greek Empire at Constantinople]; for the jawbone of an ass is substituted that of a camel. See Ibn al-Athîr al-Taʾrîch al-kâmil, Bûlâḳ edition, I. 146.

389. Schwartz, Ursprung der Mythologie, p. 144, where Sif and Loki of the Scandinavian mythology are also mentioned. The hairiness of the solar heroes has been translated into an ethnographical peculiarity in modern Greek popular legends. Bernhard Schmidt (Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, I. 206) says, ‘In Zante I encountered the idea that the entire power of the ancient Greeks lay in three hairs on the breast, and vanished if these were cut off, but returned when the hairs grew again.’

390. See Ewald, History of Israel, I. 345, note 1.

391. In Gen. XXVII. 11, the received punctuation is îsh sâʿîr.—Tr.

392. Compare Tiele, Vergel. Geschied. p. 447.

393. Schwartz, Ursprung der Mythologie, p. 146; see above, p. 34.

394. Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit, pp. 45–60.—Ursprung und Entwickelung der menschlichen Sprache und Vernunft, Bd. II. book 3.—Compare Lazarus, Leben der Seele, II. 80; ibid. p. 185 note.

395. For Silver the three North-Semitic languages, Assyrian, Aramaic, and Hebrew, have the same word, and in so far ‘form a strict union,’ as Schrader says, in opposition to the South-Semitic languages, which employ other words for the designation of this metal.' Keilinschriften und das A. T., p. 46.

396. Chârûṣ = gold has in recent times been frequently met with on Phenician territory, e.g. in the Inscription of Idalion published by Euting, II. 1, in the Inscription of Gebal (De Vogüé in the Journal asiat. 1875, I. 327), and in an unpublished Carthaginian Inscription (Derenbourg in Journal asiat. 1875, I. 336).

397. The consideration of the Hebrew cheres ‘Sun’ might suggest that both it and the old word for gold (chârûṣ), composed of possibly related sounds, both originated in the notion of shining.

398. Al-Maḳḳarî, Analectes, etc., Leyden edition, I. 369. 3.

399. Al-Jauharî, s.r. kbr.

400. Yâḳût, Geogr. Dictionary, II. 609. 8.

401. Zur himjarischen Alterthumskunde, in Zeitsch. der D. M. G., 1865, XIX. 247. Compare Halévy, Etudes sabéennes, in Journal asiat., 1874, II. 523.

402. Pseudowâḳidî, ed. Nassau Lees, p. 181. 6.

403. Hist. de l’économie politique en Turquie, in Journal asiat., 1864, I. 421. Compare also Sprenger, Alte Geographie Arabiens, p. 56.

404. The use of black should also be noticed; dirhem saudâ and kara ġurush.

405. In al-Thaʿâlibî in the Zeitsch. der D. M. G., 1854, VII. 505.

406. Culturgeschichtliche Streifzüge, p. xi.

407. Compare Aġânî, III. 90. 10. Fadaʿa bichâzinihi wa-ḳâla kam fî beyt mâlî faḳâla lahu min al-waraḳ w-al-ʿayn baḳîyyatun.

408. Thorbecke, Antarah, ein vorislamischer Dichter, Leipzig 1867, p. 41.

409. al-Ḥarîrî, Paris edition, 2nd ed., p. 467.

410. Kitâb al-aġânî, XVII. p. 11.

411. M.A. Levy in Zeitschr. der D. M. G., 1870, XXIV. p. 191.

412. Halévy, ibid. p. 539.

413. Freytag points this word urayḳ.—Tr.

414. J. Levy, Chaldäisches Wörterbuch, I. 345.

415.

‘The Sun had long since in the lap

Of Thetis taken out his nap;

And, like a lobster boil’d, the Morn

From black to red began to turn’—

—says Hudibras, canto II.

416. In the Babyl. Talmûd, Yômâ 28. b, the falling of the shades of night is described as the time when meshacharê kôthâlê ‘the walls are black.’

417. Called by Freytag an eagle.—Tr.

418. In Harîrî (Paris edition, 2nd ed.), p. 644. 4, we read of the Dawn: ḥîna naṣal chiḍâb al-ẓalâm ‘when the dye of darkness was washed off.’ The Arabic word here used for ‘dye’ is generally employed of gay colours, e.g. al-ḥinnâ; but it is self-evident that here only al-kuḥl can be meant.

419. In Persian black hair is called mû i-Zengî ‘Gipsies’ hair,’ and zulf-i-Hindu, ‘Indian hair,’ i.e. black like an Indian’s (e.g. Rückert, Grammatik, Poetik und Rhetorik der Perser, p. 287). So in the well-known verse of Ḥafiẓ, in which the poet gives away all Bochara and Samarkand for the black mole (bechâl-i-Hinduwesh, ‘Indian mole’) of his Turkish boy (Dîwân Râ, no. 8. v. 1; ed. Rosenzweig, I. 24).

420. Saḳt-al-zand, I. 91. 7.

421. E.g. Romance of ʿAntar, VII. 115. line 4 from below: wa-kasa-l-leylu ḥullat al-sawâd.

422. Varro treats it as self-evident that ‘black’ is the most suitable epithet for Night, and is thereby tempted to a very curious etymology in his work De ratione vocabulorum. He explains the word fur ‘thief’ by saying that in the old Latin fur-vum was equivalent to ‘black,’ and thieves practise their dark deeds at night. ‘Sed in posteriore ejusdem libri parte docuit (scil. Varro) furem ex eo dictum quod veteres Romani furvum atrum appellaverint: at fures per noctem quae atra sit facilius furentur’ (Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, I. 18. 3–6).