[593]. K. Andree, Forschungsreisen etc., II. 362.
[594]. The Academy, 1874, p. 548, col. 2.
[595]. See [Excursus D].
[596]. Accordingly this appellation belongs to the same category as those which are noticed above, p. 175. In genealogical notes elsewhere also the Serpent occurs as ancestor; I need only mention the case which stands nearest to our subject in prehistoric Arabia—that of al-Afʿa b. al-Afʿa, ‘the Viper,’ head of a branch of the people of Jurhum, Ibn ʿAbdûn, p. 71 et seq.
[597]. On the solar significance of the Bull-worship see Kuenen, Religion of Israel, I. 236 et seq.
[598]. I believe the historical narrative in Ex. XXXII. 26–29 is to be taken in this sense. It is solar worship that is forcing its way into the strictly nomadic religion of the Hebrews, and the Levites are guardians of the nomadic religion.
[599]. See Bastian in the Zeitschr. für Völkerpsychologie, 1868, V. 153.
[600]. Ebers, Aegypten und die Bücher Moses, I. 245 et seq.
[601]. On the adoration of the night-sky a passage of the Midrâsh should be consulted (Mechiltâ, ed. Friedmann, fol. 68 a), in which the possibility of a demûth chôshekh ‘an idol of Darkness,’ is assumed.
[602]. Most recently by Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, I. 234 et seq. On the purpose and importance of the interpretation of winds and clouds among the Babylonians, see Lenormant, La divination et la science des présages chez les Chaldéens, Paris 1875, pp. 64–68.