SEMITIC RELIGION.
(1) The Semitic Peoples. The name "Sem itic" is applied to a body of peoples who in an cient times occupied districts in western Asia and spoke dialects which show many and striking sim ilarities. Because the great majority of these peoples are described in Genesis as descendants of Shem, the son of Noah, they are called Shemites, more commonly written Semites.
Philology organizes them into two groups, northern and southern. The latter embraces the various Arabian communities and the Ethiopians. The northern Semites comprise the Babylonians and Assyrians, the Aramreans (Syrians), the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, Moab itcs, Ammonites, and Edomites. Linguistic and historical science is still uncertain as to the race character of the Egyptians, with an inclination in recent years in favor of a strong Semitic element in their constitution. Similarities of language and customs, together with contiguity of habitat, suggest that these peoples are offshoots from one common stock which in the earliest time occupied a single definite region. Scholars differ as to the common home of the original Semitic race, according as they are traced back to (a) Armenia, the region between the Caspian and the Black seas; (b) Africa, the district opposite the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb; (c) southern Mesopotamia, the alluvial region of the lower Euphrates; (d) central and northern Arabia. The last view is most in favor. It is geographically more central, and this desert region seems to be most suited to produce what are generally recognized as the primitive Semitic traits.
The various branches of the Semitic race have played a large and significant part in the world's history. Politics, art, science, and religion owe much to their activities The earliest civilization was probably Semitic. The Semites built up the first great empires, were the pioneers in trade, industry, and commerce in the ancient world. Those nations of human history which show most clearly the evidence of progress and which are most closely bound together to.day in the inter
ests of civilization trace back the beginnings of their advancement to the Semitic communities of western Asia. Three of the world's great re ligions come from this race. One of the branches of it—the Hebrews or Jews—still lives and pros pers in Western civilization, vigorous, aggres sive and resourceful.
Not distributed so widely as the other great races, they seem to have turned in upon them selves and built up a racial character of a re markably enduring type and of striking unity of feature. The very facial peculiarities have been preserved, as a glance at the accompanying As syrian head reveals. Many of these fundamental traits still linger in the nomad Bedouin of to day. Indeed, an essential element in the progress of the Semites is found in the contiguity of des ert and cultivated land. The wide, sandy and rocky wastes of Arabia blend imperceptibly into the more fertile and attractive Syrian and Meso potamian plains and valleys. Thus nomad and agriculturist reacted upon one another, and prog ress was a slow blending of customs and activities from both spheres. The influence of this ele ment in the social and political life of the Semitic communities was important. Equally significant was the part it played in their religion.
The Semite has always been a marked and peculiar man. Such characteristics as tenacity of purpose, somberness of disposition, which passes, however, on occasion, into bursts of ex travagant joy, great hospitality and courtesy, yet cruelty and relentless enmity, intense religiosity, yet abundant sensuality, little constructive and synthetic power, have with good reason been ascribed to him.
(2) The Nomadic Religion. The simplest form of Semitic social organization and the most primitive cult are found among the nomadic tribes of northern Arabia. Hence these may be regarded as affording a type of early Semitic religion. Two elements condition this religion.