Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/379

Rh qaiti, &c.), and that the Soma Haoma sacrifice, equally unknown in Europe, at least in that form, was the prin- cipal sacrifice as well in India as in Iran. The close relation of the Teutonic and Norse religions, and of the mythology and rites of the Greeks and Romans, even if we carefully except all that the latter took from the former in historical times, is sufficiently proved. It is not so evident, but still highly probable, that the religions of the north-western and the south-eastern Celts, though differing from one another in historical times, are daughters of one ancient CELTIC religion. When we presuppose such a common parent, an ancient WINDIC religion, for the Letto-Slavic religions, we do so by way of an hypothesis, based on the analogy with the other branches of the family. What we know about these and about the Celtic forms of worship is so defective that we cannot speak more positively. As for the Phrygian religion, it seems to belong to the Iranian stock, and to form the transition from the Persian to the Greek or Pelasgic worship. There may have been some other intermediate stages, besides those which we have been compelled by the facts to assume, between the historical Aryan religions and the prehistoric OLD-ARYAN. Thus, e.g., the Vedic religion as well as the Zarathustric cannot be considered as having sprung directly from the EAST-ARYAN. The Rig- Veda appears to be far less primitive than has been generally thought until now. It contains ancient elements, but it is itself the product of relatively modern speculations, and belongs to a period in which a complicated and mystical sacrificial theory was upheld by priests of various func- tions and ranks. On the other hand it cannot be denied that the Zarathustric dogmas are pure old Aryan myths in a new shape this is what M. Jas. Darmesteter has proved but it was doubtless a reformer, or, if Zarathustra was no historical person, a body of reformers, who called the Zarathustric religion into existence. Therefore, between the Vedic and Zarathustric religions and their common ancestor the EAST-ARYAN, there must have existed an OLD INDIAN and an OLD-IRANIAN religion. This may suffice to justify the genealogical table of the Aryan religions given on last page. Semitic Religions. Though there is so much wanting in our knowledge of the Semitic religions, especially as regards those of the pre-Christian Aramaeans, of the pre- Islamic Arabs, and of the old Hebrews, all we know about them tends to prove that they too must have descended 361 from a common source. When wo find that the same divinities were worshipped by several North-Semitic nations it might be contended that they were borrowed from one of them, as trade and conquest had brought them from ancient times into close contact with one another. But no such relation existed till the very last centuries of the Assyrian empire between the Northern Semites and the various tribes of the Arabian desert: Therefore gods and religious ideas and customs prevailing alike among the northern and the southern or Arabic branch of the race may be safely regarded as the primeval property of the whole family. Such are the general name for the godhead, Ilu, El, Ilah (in Allah), and the gods Serakh or Sherag (Sepa^os, Assyr., Arab., Cypr.), Keivan (Kaivanu, Babyl., Assyr., Arab., cf. Amos v. 26), Al-Lat, the moon-goddess (Babyl., Assyr., Arab.), as one of three different forms, of which another, the Al-'Uzza of the Arabs, is met with as e Uza or 'Aza in Phoenician inscriptions, while the corresponding male god Aziz is found among the Aramaeans, and the third, Mamat, corresponds to Meni, the " minor Fortune," the planet Venus of the Hebrews, perhaps also with the Babylonian Manu. The myth of the dying and reviving Thammuz, Dumuzi, common to all Northern Semites, seems not to have been current among the ancient Arabs, though some scholars (Krehl, Lenor- mant) think there are traces of it left in their traditions and rites. Tree worship and stone worship have been pretty general in prehistoric times, and not a few remains of both have survived in all ancient faiths and modern superstitions; but the latter was particularly developed among both Northern and Southern Semites, which is proved by the use of Betyles (?X'n i| 3) > by the black stone in the Ka'ba, the stone at Bethel, that in the temple of the great goddess of Cyprus at Paphos, at Edessa, and elsewhere, by the seven black stones representing the planet-gods at Erech (Uruk) in Chalda^a, &c. Holy mountains too are very frequent among the Semites, alike in Arabia (Ka9i, Dhu-1-shera, Horeb, Sinai the two last-named still worshipped by the Saracens in the 6th century of our era) and in Canaan (Hermon, Tabor, comp. the Tabyrios and Zeus Atabyrios in Cyprus, Karmel, Peniel, Sion, Moriah, i.e., Gerizim), in Syria (Lebanon, Anti-Libanus, Amanus ; comp. the istirdt, the heights of modern Syria), and in Mesopotamia, where the zigurrats or terrace towers represent the holy mountains as the abodes of the gods. Finally, all Semitic religions without a single Genealogical Table of the Semitic Religions? Southern Branch. Northern Branch. Religions of the Sabsean or Him- North of yaritic rel., per- Arabia. haps not free from Mesopota- mian e lements. Western Branch. Hebrew religion. Old-Israelitic rel. Mosaic reform. Eastern Branch. Babylonian rel., probably mixed with foreign elements. Assyrian rel. Rel. of Israel. Rel. of Judah. Hanfis T Mohammed Islam. Reform of the Prophets. ( Judaism. I Preaching of the gospel. Primitive Christianity. C3 ' -.as ? s 1 Prehistoric religions are marked with an asterisk (*). XX. 46
 * OLD SEMITIC RELIGION.
 * OLD ARABIC RELIGION.