Idols were frequent among the old pagan nations, the Aranneans, the Assyrians (pl. to6, fig. 1, the man-lions and the winged hawk-beaded beings at their side); among the Gallas and the Arabians holy stones and trees take their place.
What the Arabs and the Jews have accomplished both as nations and as individuals by their religions enthusiasm, or rather passion, is well known, and its undiminished vigor is evident from the fact that thousands of Arabian pilgrims (/5/. 105, fig. 3) annually visit Mecca. True religions sense cannot be denied the Asiatic Semites, although sometimes, when their prayers are unanswered, they punish and curse their idols, and although some horrible abuses, such as the Moloch cult, have existed; and the African Semites have been proved to possess the same sense. We have found it also among the Negroes, and the fundamental traits of all African religions bear a striking similarity to the Semitic belief.
Animism and SVcrstition.—Veneration of animals is also found among the Semites. To this belong the various prohibitions of food among the Gallas, Egyptians, Tnarick, Arabians, and Hebrews. When they kill large animals, such as hippopotami, elephants, etc., they under go various religious consecrations; dancing around a buffalo head (p1. 96, fig. 1, performed by the Gallas) is such a ceremony of appeasement, the slain buffalo being honored by the dance, and, as it were, implored to forgive his slayers.
Birds are often deemed to be the incarnation of gods, of guardian spirits (pl. to6, fig. 2, to the left above), and of souls. Snakes are sacred either as good or evil spirits. Among the Gallas a snake is believed to be the ancestor of the human race, while the Wakuafi, and the Arabians in some of their legends, represent man as created by gods from the soil of the earth on a sacred mountain. Everywhere there are werewolf ghosts; in East Africa the ability to change themselves into animals is ascribed to the smiths.
faith is stifled by magic, evil eye, amulets, good and bad days, and other superstitions which the priests expounded. Victims are slain, and in ancient times even human beings were sacrificed—a practice still retained among the Gallas. The priests of the latter entwine in their hair the entrails of the sacrificed animals, and wear them until they fall ofE They make rain, heal the sick—for sickness is possession by evil spirits—foretell from the offerings the omens, lots, etc. however, they are nowhere really respected,
not even the marabouts of the Islamites.
Sorcery and Magic.—Sometitnes sorcerers and sorceresses are distinct from the priests; sometimes the priests are magicians. These nations have religious societies, such as those of the Mumbo Jumbo among the Negroes, and the \\Tato among the Gallas. Something similar is found among the north-western Berbers and most of the Mohammedans, but it is difficult to decide what is an old institution and what a transitory sect.
Eschatology.—The Semites believe in a life after death, either as a shadowy existence or similar to the earthly' life. From this originates their care in preserving the bodies of the dead, the "embalming" among the Egyptians, Berbers, Guanches, etc. The belief in future reward and punishment is also widespread. The Tuarick, although Mohammedans, leave the place where some one has died, and avoid pronouncing the name of a deceased person for fear of recalling him; the Abyssinians, although Christians, shave their hair (the entire nation does so at the death of the king), scar their faces, and inflict wounds on their temples by burning.
Ceremonies at Deal/I.—In the house of the dead and on the way to the burial-place loud lamentations are uttered, and they are repeated every eight days during the course of one year, on which occasions they renew the burning and scratching. The mourners are impure for a certain time; for three days after a funeral they are allowed to eat only in the house of mourning. The Galla nations have similar mourning ceremonies: to touch the dead, to have anything to do with them, renders one unclean, even in Arabia and other parts of Asia, because the deceased already belong to the gods. Among the Semites we also find taboo laws, as we have called them according to the Polynesian expression (p. zoo); that is, the laws of religious interdiction. Everything belonging to the gods or bearing any relation to them is withdrawn from ordinary use; ablutions and fixed ceremonies secularize—Ile. annul the religious interdict; and, as in ancient times trespasses against this interdict were the only offences that could be committed by mail, ablutions arc numerous in the cult of these nations.