Introduction to the History of Religions Part 66

[1600] For a tabulation of omens and other signs and of forms of divinatory procedure see article "Divination" in _La Grande Encyclopedie_.

[1601] Cicero, _De Divinatione_, i, 1-4; Diodorus Siculus, i, 70, 81; Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 216 ff.; Steindorff, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 113 ff.

(cf. Gen. xliv, 5, 15, which may point to an Egyptian custom of divination by cup); Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens und a.s.syriens_, and _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and a.s.syria_; Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp.

256, 328; De Groot, _Religious System of China_, i, 103 ff.; iii, chap. xii; Buckley, in Saussaye's _Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte_, 2d ed. (China); articles "Divination"

in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, Hastings's _Dictionary of the Bible_, and _Jewish Encyclopedia_; Bouche-Leclercq, _Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite_; articles "Divinatio" and "Haruspices" in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques et romaines_; Gardner and Jevons, _Greek Antiquities_, chap. vii; Stengel and Oehmichen, _Die griechischen Sakralaltertumer_; Wissowa, _Religion der Romer_, p. 450 ff.; Fowler, _Religious Experience of the Roman People_, lecture xiii; Wellhausen, _Reste arabischen Heidentumes_, pp. 126 ff., 148 ff.; article "Celts" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_; Hastings, op. cit., ii, 54 ff.; Saussaye, _Religion of the Teutons_, Index, s.v. _Divination_.

[1602] Turner, _Samoa_, Index, s.v. _Omens_.

[1603] These animals were originally themselves divine, and therefore, by their own knowledge, capable of indicating the course of events; cf. -- 905, note.

[1604] Hollis, _The Masai_, p. 323 f.; id., _The Nandi_, p.

79.

[1605] Ellis, _Ts.h.i.+_, p. 203.

[1606] Conolly, _Journey to the North of India_, 2d ed., 1838, ii, 137 ff.

[1607] Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i, 78, etc. For South Africa cf. Callaway, _The Amasulu_, Index, s.vv. _Omens_, _Divination_, _Diviners_; Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, Index, s.v. _Divining_; article "Bantu" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, p. 362.

[1608] 2 Sam. v, 24.

[1609] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria_ (Eng.

and Ger. edd.), in which references to the original doc.u.ments are given.

[1610] ?????, ??????. _Iliad_, ii, 859; xii, 237; xxiv, 219; Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 826; cf.

Bouche-Leclercq, _Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite_, i, 127 ff.

[1611] _Birds_, 715 ff.

[1612] _Iliad_, xii, 243.

[1613] In Borneo, which has an elaborate scheme of omens from birds, prayer is sometimes addressed to them. Furness, _Home life of the Borneo Head-hunters_, Index, s.v. _Omen_; Haddon, _Head-hunters_, p. 344.

[1614] The sacrificial animal was regarded as divine, and its movements had the significance of divine counsels.

[1615] Terence, _Phormio_, IV, iv, 25 ff.

[1616] Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii, 137; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i, 119 f.; Miss Fletcher, _Indian Ceremonies_, p. 278 ff.

[1617] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria_, p. 384 ff.

[1618] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 319; Rivers, _The Todas_, p. 593; Hollis, _The Nandi_, p. 100, and _The Masai_, p. 275 ff.

[1619] On the exaggerated range and importance ascribed by some modern writers to early conceptions of the divinatory function of heavenly bodies see above, ---- 826, 866 ff.

[1620] Erman, _Handbook of Egyptian Religion_, pp. 163, 180.

[1621] Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and a.s.syria_, p. 240 ff.; R. F. Harper, _a.s.syrian and Babylonian Literature_, p. 451 ff.

[1622] Persius, vi, 18.

[1623] Cicero, _De Divinatione_, ii, 42 ff.

[1624] The largest planet was brought into connection with the chief G.o.d of Babylon, Marduk; the bright star of morning and evening with Ishtar; the red planet with Nergal, G.o.d of war, and the others with Ninib and Nebo respectively. The Romans changed these names into those of their corresponding deities, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Mercury.

[1625] c.u.mont, _Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain_, chap. vii, and Eng. tr., _The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism_; id., _Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_; Bouche-Leclercq, _L'astrologie grecque_ and _Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite_.

[1626] Medieval belief in astral power is embodied in the English word 'influence,' properly the inflow from the stars (so in Milton's _L'Allegro_, 121 f., "ladies whose bright eyes rain influence"). An astrologer was often attached to a royal court or to the household of some great person, his duty being to keep his patron informed as to the future.

[1627] _Odyssey_, xvii, 541 ff. The fear of a sneeze (which must be followed by some form of 'G.o.d bless you!') belongs in a different category; the danger is that a hurtful spirit may enter the sneezer's body, or that his soul may depart.

[1628] Muir, _The Caliphate_, p. 112.

[1629] Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, ii, 362; Ellis, _Ts.h.i.+_, p. 202; id., _Yoruba_, p. 97; cf.

Hollis, _The Masai_, p. 324.

[1630] 1 Sam. xxiii, 2.

[1631] 1 Sam. xiv, 38-42 (see the Septuagint text).

[1632] Ezek. xxi, 21 [26].

[1633] _Moallakat of Imru'l-Kais_, ver. 22.

[1634] Bouche-Leclercq, _Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite_, i, 195 ff.; iv, 153, 159; Augustine, _Confessions_, iv, 5: de paginis poetae cujuspiam longe allud canentis atque intendentis; if, says Augustine's friend, an apposite verse so appears, it is not wonderful that something bearing on one's affairs should issue from the human soul by some higher instinct, though the soul does not know what goes on within it.

[1635] Cf. Comparetti, _Virgilio nel medio evo_, i, 64 f.

(Eng. tr., p. 47 f.).

[1636] As the Masai (Hollis, _The Masai_, p. 324).

[1637] Bouche-Leclercq, _Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite_; Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques et romaines_, s.v. _Haruspices_; Fowler, _The Religious Experience of the Roman People_, Index, s.v.

_Haruspices_.

[1638] M. Jastrow, "The Liver in Antiquity" (_University of Pennsylvania Medical Bulletin_, 1908) and _Religion Babyloniens und a.s.syriens_.

[1639] _Primitive Culture_, i, 124.

[1640] See above, -- 28. The skull is employed as a means of divination (Haddon, _Head-hunters_, p. 91 ff.).

[1641] See above, -- 24.

[1642] Cf. Roscher, _Lexikon_, article "Oneiros," col. 904.

[1643] J. H. King, _The Supernatural_, i, 168 ff.; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i, 121 ff., 440 f.; Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ p. 436; Mrs. K. Langloh Parker, _The Euahlayi Tribe_, pp. 28, 83 f.

[1644] Dorsey, _The Skidi p.a.w.nee_, Index, s.v. _Dreams_.

[1645] Ellis, _Ts.h.i.+_, p. 90