(8) And lastly, we have the sacred dance as a Burial rite. As in other cases we have to rely, firstly, on the evidence of later Jewish literature, and, secondly, upon the analogous practice among other peoples. As we shall show, the emotions of fear, honour, and love, which according to the cultural stages of uncivilized men are felt for the spirits of the departed, are such as are common to mankind; and these emotions are expressed, among other ways, by means of the sacred dance. What cultural stage, or stages, are represented in the Old Testament as that, or those, through which the Israelites passed may well be a matter of difference of opinion; but that in both thought and practice they were, as a whole, in many respects no more advanced than other contemporary peoples does not admit of doubt. So that when we find this rite in existence at burials or during the mourning period among other Semites, and among the Egyptians, not to mention the Greeks, the presumption is justified that the Israelites practised it too.

In regard to much that has been said we are prepared for the objection that the evidence of the Old Testament does not offer sufficient justification for the assumptions made. We agree that this is so if we are to rely upon the Old Testament alone. But the object of the whole of our investigation will be to show that the beliefs and practices of any one race of people must, to do them full justice, be studied in the light of analogous beliefs and practices of other peoples. Only so can one fill up the lacunae which inevitably exist in the records of the races of antiquity. We have chosen as our illustration a rite which may, likely enough, be regarded as of very secondary importance; yet it is one which the evidence shows was at one time regarded as essential to man. It is therefore a study worth undertaking; for apart from its interest as a mere antiquarian investigation, we hope that it may be found to throw some modest side-lights on various other subjects.

CHAPTER IV
THE OLD TESTAMENT TERMS FOR “DANCING”

I

How large a rôle dancing in its various forms must have played among the Israelites is shown by the fact that, either in the restricted or in the more extended sense, no less than eleven Hebrew roots are used to describe its different characteristics. This in what is a relatively poor language is not without significance.

Before saying something about the meaning of these roots it will be well to give a list of them: