140
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 17, 1900.
the volume is up to the high level of its prede-
cessors.
Jacob at Bethel : an Essay on Comparative Religion.
By A. Smythe Palmer, D. D. (Nutt. )
THE second volume of the series of " Studies in
Biblical Subjects" is by the same author as the
first, to which it is in some respects complementary.
Dr. Smythe Palmer is one of our most accomplished
Assyriologists, and an authority on folk-etymology.
His studies on Babylonic influence upon the Hebrew
Scriptures are of extreme value, throwing light
as they do on the manner in which, out of the
superstitions of pagan creeds, the Hebrews shaped
and formulated a creed by which the world has
subsequently been influenced. In his present work
Dr. Smythe Palmer gives the interpretation of the
vision of Jacob at Bethel, where upon the golden
ladder, at the top of which was Jahveh, or God, he
saw the " bright - harnessed angels" ascend and
descend. Each feature in this vision is illustrative
of some form of Babylonian creed, and so is linked
with the origin of primitive culture. A ladder,
the base of which is on earth while the summit is
in the skies, is scarcely more easily realized than
the beanstalk which connected with fairyland the
domain of nursery fiction. The word translated
" ladder " is in the Hebrew sulldm, which,
as Dr. Smythe Palmer shows, probably meant
a terraced mound answering to the Babylonian
Ziggurat, a symbol of the worship and local presence
of the heavenly power. These Ziggurats, a famous
historical instance of which is the Tower of Babel,
consisted of seven diminishing stages, and were
surmounted by the shrine of a deity to which the
edifice was erected. The origin of the construction
is to be found in the primitive worship of the
Akkadians. Once the explanation is received, the
rest is simple. The Deity was seen by Jacob on
the spot where he was to be expected, in the shrine
or sanctuary he was intended to inhabit. Other
features in the vision fit no less easily into primitive
belief, and the whole is thus linked with the latest
discoveries of Biblical science. Quite impossible
is it for us to point out the means by which Dr.
Smythe Palmer arrives at his results or justifies
his conclusions. Adequately to do this requires a
knowledge on Oriental subjects to which we put in
no claim. It would, moreover, be to interfere with
the delight of the student, to whom the volume
must necessarily commend itself. Dr. Smythe
Palmer's authority will not be questioned, and. the
work, like his previous book, is a model of sound
theory and well-applied erudition. It is a little
confusing to us to learn that Jacob at the time was
not a youth, but a man of over seventy, or, as some
will have it, ninety years.
Useful Arts and Handicrafts. By Charles Godfrey
Leland. Parts l.-IX. (Dawbarn & Ward.) WE have received various numbers of a series, edited by Mr. Leland, intended to teach students .and amateurs the minor arts, and instruct them how to make homes artistic and tasteful. One hundred numbers, intended to be bound into volumes, are to be issued. Among the subjects already treated are 4 Designing and Drawing, ' Wood-Carving,' ' Picture Frames,' 4 Dyes,' ' Stains, ' Inks,' &c., * Decorated Wood- Work,' ' Pyrography, . &c. The illustrations are numerous and excellent and a capital idea seems in the way of being satis .factorily carried out.
THE leading contributions in the latest number of
Folk-Lore are Mr. Jevons's article on the place of
otemism in the evolution of religion, and Lieut. -
}ol. R. C. Temple's account of the folk-lore in the
egends of the Punjab. Another interesting paper,
which is placed under the heading 'Miscellanea,'
onsists of a collection of popular superstitions
made in Dorset in 1897. The English counties are
ividently still mines of wealth for those who devote
hemselves to anthropology and the allied sciences,
hough it is to be feared that in a few short years
he information which might yet be stored, were
here only sufficient collectors to preserve it, will
>e almost entirely lost. It is only the elderly people
vho still cling to ancient conceptions and time-
lallowed traditions. The young are often too
deeply tinctured with modernism to pay serious
attention to the out-of-date theories of their pre-
decessors. The unquestioning faith which gives
vitality to a belief is already waning, and all the
'oik-lore which is riot actually doomed to extinction
s at least becoming rapidly modified to suit the
requirements of the present time.
THE recent numbers of the Intermediate keep up ) the standard of the past, and offer to their readers a varied supply of notes and observations, feudal castles, the titles of French feudal princes, chimneys in churches, the origin of the phrase ' Datum inter leones," and the ornamental plaques on the harness of mules, are among the subjects dealt with. The pedigree of the head of the Trans- vaal army is also discussed, for French genealogists are naturally far from ill pleased to think that Ureneral Joubert and his subordinates owe a share of their fighting blood to Gallic ancestry.
We must call special attention to the following
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