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52
MYTHOLOGY AMONG THE HEBREWS.

sidered in the course of the expositions to which this chapter is devoted, the Nomadic and the Agricultural. In the former commences the chain of development, which is closed by the formation of perfect, true Society. First are formed communities which, though still standing only on the base of the Family, yet represent a broadening of this base insofar as the notion of the family is first enlarged into the institution of a Tribe, and then this institution cannot always refuse to take in foreign elements (prisoners of war, or clients claiming protection). The nomadic stage is in its element in constant wandering from pasture to pasture, in unceasing change of residence; and is accordingly completed, whether with regard to its intrinsic character or to the experience of history, by passing over to the stage of the stationary agriculturist. The gathering of wild fruits, by which huntsmen and primitive nomads find some vegetable nourishment, forms the first impulse to pass over to an agricultural life, as Waitz observes.[1] It must be noticed that a pastoral life is frequently combined with tillage. The Nomad's relation to nature is a very different one from the Agriculturist's. But the consciousness of union among men—of their belonging to one another—was first excited at the nomadic stage; and it is therefore not surprising if a large proportion of the names of nations point back to that age.

A nation calls itself by a common name when the consciousness of the union of its members first arises. Names in which the nation confesses itself to be a wandering, restless society, point back to the nomadic stage of civilisation. That the contemplation of their own wandering mode of life, is with the nomadic peoples one motive for the national appellation, is shown in many in stances which Bergmann has correctly explained in this sense.[2] The Kurdic nomadic tribes still call themselves

  1. Anthropologie der Naturvölker, I. 407. Compare Hehn, Culturpflanzen und Hausthiere, 2nd edit., p. 103.
  2. Bergmann, Les peuples primitifs de la race de Jafète, Colmar 1853,