I
The ritual encircling dance, whether in procession with measured tread or in the form of a dance-step—and both are varieties of what is essentially the same thing—is perhaps the commonest kind of sacred dance. Its occurrence is world-wide. The object around which it takes place was in most cases, at any rate originally, a sacred one: an idol, an altar, a sacrificial victim, a holy tree, or a well. The encirclement was also performed round other things; but in these cases the dance is of another type to which attention will be drawn later.
Of sacred trees[133] and wells[134] among the Israelites we have abundant witness in the Old Testament; there is also plenty of evidence of their existence among other Semitic peoples, see, for example, Baudissin, Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte, II. 154 ff. (1876); Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, Lecture V. (1894); Lagrange, Études sur les religions sémitiques, pp. 158 ff., 162 ff. (1903), to mention but three of the foremost authorities. The Old Testament nowhere mentions any details of the cult in connexion with these sacred objects, for reasons which have been pointed out[135], and therefore there is no allusion to the dance around them; but as we know from so many sources that wherever sacred trees and springs existed (which has been all the world over) part of the ritual in connexion with them consisted of the sacred dance, we need not gather from the silence of the Old Testament that it did not take place.
An interesting instance may be given of the way in which we are able to supplement an Old Testament record from other sources. In Num. xxi. 17, 18, occurs this song to the well:
Spring up, O well. Sing ye unto it;
To the well which the princes digged,
Which the nobles of the people delved,
With the wand, and with their staves.
Here we have a song to the well, though no mention is made of the sacred dance; but in a striking parallel, recorded by Nilus, we are told that when the nomadic Arabs found a well they danced by it and sang songs to it[136]. Both song and dance were sacred, for, as Robertson Smith says:
Of all inanimate things that which has the best marked supernatural associations among the Semites is flowing (or, as the Hebrews say, “living”) water ... and sacred wells are among the oldest and most ineradicable objects of reverence among all the Semites, and are credited with oracular powers and a sort of volition by which they receive or reject offerings. Of course these superstitions often take the form of a belief that the sacred spring is the dwelling-place of beings which from time to time emerge from it in human or animal form, but the fundamental idea is that the water itself is the living organism of a demoniac life, not a mere dead organ[137].
Kazwini[138] relates that “when the water [of the wells of Ilabistan] failed, a feast was held at the source, with music and dancing, to induce it to flow again.”
One thinks of the “Well of Fair Dances” at Eleusis; though not offering a parallel to what has just been said, it is in so far an analogy in that it was a spring at which sacred dancing took place, in this case by women in honour of Demeter[139].
We have mention of sacred dancing, again, in another connexion, viz. around the Golden Calf. The passage is Exod. xxxii. 5, 6, 19:
And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast (ḥag) to Jahwe. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to dance[140].... And it came to pass, as soon as he [i.e. Moses] came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing....
This definite mention of the sacred dance here justifies the assumption that it was also performed in honour of a similar idol set up in other sanctuaries, such as those in Dan and Bethel (1 Kings xii. 28, 29, 2 Kings x. 29; cp. Hos. x. 5), in Samaria (Hos. viii. 5, 6), and possibly in Gilgal (Hos. xii. 11 [12], Am. v. 4, 5)[141].
Again, there are several passages in which the encirclement of the altar is mentioned; these merit a little attention. In 1 Sam. xvi. 11, where there is, however, a little uncertainty about the reading, there is some justification in translating the Hebrew thus: “And Samuel said ... we will not go round, i.e. the altar, till he come.” The Revised Version follows the Septuagint and the Vulgate in rendering: “We will not sit down, i.e. to the feast, till he come”; but this use of the word is otherwise unknown in the Old Testament[142]. Taking it in its natural sense the word would here refer to the ceremonial encircling of the altar which is mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, and was a recognized part of the ritual in offering sacrifices among other peoples. In Ps. xxvi. 6 it is said: “I will wash mine hands in innocency and will go round thy altar, Jahwe”; this points clearly to the ritual encircling of the altar, and the incidental mention of it without further comment seems to imply that it formed part of the ordinary ritual[143]. A procession on a larger scale may well be in the mind of the writer of Ps. xlviii. 13 [12 in R.V.]: “Encompass ye Zion, and go round about her”; the context points to the reference being to some act of ritual worship; and that it is a literal, and not a figurative, encirclement that is meant is clear both from the use of sābab, as well as of nāqaph, which refers often to the surrounding of cities.
An interesting passage is Ps. cxviii. 27, though there is some uncertainty again about the text. The R.V. reads: “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” The word ḥag is here translated “sacrifice”; but this is not justified (in spite of Mal. ii. 3), for, as Briggs rightly points out, the procedure “would not be in accord with sacrificial laws and usage[144].” On the other hand, to translate it by “sacred dance” would be to give the word, as we have seen, its essential meaning[145]. Then, further, the word rendered “bind” (ʾasar) can equally well mean “join”; cp. this meaning of the word in 1 Kings xx. 14, “Who will join battle?” The same use is found in 2 Chron. xiii. 3, “And Abijah joined battle”; in each case this root (ʾasar) is used. So that our passage could be rendered quite correctly: “Join the sacred dance.” As to the word translated “cords,” or “ropes,” this would be used quite appropriately in connexion with dancing; it is the same idea as that connected with ḥebel (“chain,” or “band”), used of prophets going about in single file (see further below, [p. 108]). In Hos. xi. 4 the two words are used as parallels. So that the reference in the psalm may well be to strings of worshippers being called upon to join in the sacred dance. Briggs’ objection to an explanation of this kind on the ground that this usage of ḥag is rare and early, “not to be thought of in so late a psalm,” is not valid when one remembers the tenacity with which religious customs and expressions are clung to. It is well to remember that this psalm belongs to the “Hallel” (Pss. cxiii.-cxviii.), the most important of the festival psalms; the “Hallel” was sung at all the great feasts. We shall see presently that very clear evidence exists for the performance of the encircling of the altar during the singing of this psalm in later days, as well as other dancing during the great festivals. It may be taken for granted that both kinds of dance were not innovations belonging to subsequent ages, but the continuance of what had been handed down for ages.
Further, one must take into consideration the idea that underlies the ritual of the encirclement of a city, such as we read of in Josh. vi., where the same root as that for the ritual encompassing of the altar is used (sābab). Through the whole account the religious element in the undertaking comes strongly to the fore; the encircling procession is a sacred act: the sounding of the rams’ horns by the priests, seven in number, the presence of the ark, the sevenfold encirclement on the seventh day, all emphasize its religious character which receives its highest stamp in the words which proclaim the presence of Jahwe Himself in the procession: “And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken unto the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Jahwe passed on, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of Jahwe followed them.” The God of the nation is conceived as being either identified with, or present in, the ark. The meaning and object of the encirclement is clear from the words in vi. 17: “And the city shall be devoted, even it and all that is therein, to Jahwe.” It is, as it were, a magic circle, described around the thing “devoted” in order that nothing shall escape; by the encirclement it becomes “consecrated”; though, of course, in a different sense from that in which the encirclement of the altar consecrates the sacrifice on it.
Before drawing attention to some instances of this type of dance among other peoples, mention may be made of one among the Jews of post-biblical times. At the Feast of Tabernacles, after the sacrifices had been offered, the priests went in procession round the altar singing Ps. cxviii. 25 on each of the seven days during which the feast lasted. On the seventh day a sevenfold circuit was made round the altar[146]. A ceremony of this kind, as will be readily understood, would not have been an innovation introduced in post-biblical times; we may confidently take for granted that the usage, in one form or another, had been handed down from time immemorial.