BATH-KOL. Literally " daughter of a voice," a term occurring in Hebrew religion. It is a divine or heavenly voice, and, though the ordinary word for voice (kW) is sometimes used alone in the same sense, it was called " daughter of a voice" for the sake of distinction. It was not thought of as an echo, but as a real voice which could be distinctly heard, though the author could not be seen. Sometimes it would roar like a lion, at other times murmur •like a dove. A distinction is often made between the Bath-kol and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit entered into a close relationship with the prophets and possessed them. The Bath-kol was something external. They could not possess it. The Idea of the Bath-kol was no doubt suggested by certain psychological phenomena which are not uncommon even at the present day. Compare the experience of Saint Augustine (William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 1906, p. 171). See the Jewish Encyci., ii., 1902; and cp. W. O. E. Oesterley and G. H. Box.
BAU. The name of a goddess in the early religion of Babylonia (referred to before 2300 B.C.). A ruler of Lagash who added her name to his own and called him self Ur-Bau, built her a temple at Uru-azaga (" brilliant town "). She was the consort of Nin-girsu, the god of
Glrsu, another district of Lagash, and on New Year's Day, Zag-muk, called the Festival of Ban, bridegrooms were accustomed to offer presents to their chosen ones. There does -not seem to be any connection between Ban and the Hebrew Bohu. Old inscriptions speak of her as the chief daughter of Anu (q.v.), the god of heaven. In incantation texts she is the great mother, the begetter and also the healer of mankind, in other words, the goddess of abundance and fertility. In processions the deities were carried in ships, and Bau's ship bore the name " the ship of the brilliant offspring." See Morris Jastrow, Rel.
BAV. An ancient Irish deity, the goddess of war. The name signifies rage, fury, or violence, and " ultimately came to be applied to a witch, fairy, or goddess, repre sented by the scarescald- or royston-crow " (W. G. Wood Martin). Bay is represented in Irish tales of war and battle as a scald-crow screaming in anticipation of wide spread carnage. In the South of Ireland it is said that the term is applied now to a scolding woman or virago.