According to ch. 16, Samson's strength resides in the unshorn hair of his head, a belief which in the case of the Nazirate is explained by the consecration in virtue of which Jahweh Him- self dwells in the hair consecrated to^im. Amos, too, appears to attribute special powers to the Nazirites (2ilf ), but what is the nature of these we are not told. But the notion that some mysterious power resides in the hair, apart even from such Bjiecial consecration, is extraordinarily widespread. A large collection of facts directly connected with supposed active and passive bodily powers may be found in J. G. yrazer, The Golden Bmtgh ', iii. 390 f. The Sunda Isles of the present day con- tribute much material to this collection, but so also does Europe of the Middle Ages, especially in the matter of pro- cesses against witches. The reader may note also what is said in the same work (i. 370 ff., cf. also p. 31) about letting the hair grow, and about the dangers connected with the cuttmg of it. The fear of these rises to such a pitch that, for instance, the chief of the Namosi upon the Fiji Islands, every time he had hia hair cut, had to devour a man, in order to ward off the dangers which threatened him. We have therefore to do here with convictions diffused over the whole world, and which certainly go back to very early times. Even in Israel they must have been much older than the religion of Jahweh, but they were brought within its scope in the fonu of the Nazirate. From the storj" of Samson and from Am S'^f- we may infer with some probability that Israel was conscious that the blessing of the Nazirate gave them an advantage over the Philistines and the Canaanites ; and if that is so, we must hold that the Nazirate was established in Israel prior to the conquest of Canaan.
vii. Significance for the History of Civili- zation,— The story of Samson is specially import- ant from this point of view. Above all, we see from it that the iaeal of the country hero was exactly the same iu Israel tlien as it is at the present day. The lion of a village must be first in success with the female sex, first in bodily strength, courage, and fondness for brawling, and first in mother wit. Samson displays the last-named quality in his riddle (cli. 14), in his ever -varied devices against the Philistines, and in the witty fashion in which he ever anew deceives Delilah. Veracity by no means belongs to the list of virtues of the country hero, and aa little does faithfulness in love. Excess, or at least enormous capacity in eating and in drinking strong liquors, is amongst the things that may almost be taken for granted. It is strange enough that this trait is not strikingly displayed in Samson. Who knows whether from
• How large a part was played by the hair-offering in the life of ancient peoples, e8]ieciallv of the Semites, may be leanied from W. E- Smith, RS^ 326-334, cf. also p. 462 fl.
the store of legends that circulated regarding him there may not have been dropped this or that portion dealing with the subject in question? Aa to the matter of his enormous bodilv strength, every village, or at least every shire, nas still its Samson, whose displays of strength, as recorded in popular stories, speedily go, witliout the calling in of any superhuuian causes, beyond what is possible for man. Many of our readers, especiall}^ tli<Kse who have been brought up in the countr}', will be able to substantiate what we have said. Sucli conditions of life, which we can still detect everywhere, are the earliest soil oi the Samson stories ; everything else is only secondary.
We have, further, in ch. 14 a graphic description of the wedding festivities in ancient Israel, the only one which has come down to us. We see from it that on such occasions the proceedings Avere essentially the same as in the modern East, and, in some important points, even the same as at our own Jewish weddings. There is a seven days' feast (v.''), above all with plenty of eating and drinking of wine (nrifP), in which the whole community takes part. The thirty companions (v."), with their head, who is probabl}- meant in 14^ and 15% are the conductors of the bride (cf. the
* sixty valiant men' of Solomon in Ca 3', and the
* friend of the bridegroom ' in Jn 3^). They would have to defray the expenses of the wedding, as ia still the custom in Syrian villages. Samson and the young wife would, as is also the custom there, be called *king' and * queen' during the seven days (cf. Budde, Kurzer Hd'-om. xvii. p. xviif.), Samson's ritldle is only a small part of the amuse- ments of all kinds — songs, dances, games, stories — with which the seven days were filled up.
Although, however, the practices at Samson's wedding are the same as are usual elsewhere, the same caimot be said of the character of the marriage itself. From 15if- it is plain that the young wife did not go aher the marriage to Zor'ah to Samson's house, but remained in the house of her parents at Timnah. And even if this might appear to be explained on the ground that Samson, acconiing to H^^^, parted from her in anger instead of personally accompanj-ing her in stately procession to Zor'ah (cf. l^-*), there is not the slightest hint in 15if- that he purposed subsequently to take her home to Zoi'ah, but only that he meant to visit her in her pareiUf^ house. Nor doe§ the kid which he takes with him appear to be an extraordinary present for a special purpose, such aa to make up for his anger of 1411*, but seems rather to belong to the visit as such. If all this be so, then we have to do with that peculiar ancient form of marriage to whith W. R. Smith {Kinnhip and Mnrriane in early Arabia, pp. 70-76) gave the name mdika marriage, it answers to the ancient social institution of the matriarchate, under which the wife remains with her relations, the husband visits her there, the children belong to the tribe and the family of the mother. One-sided dissolution of such a marriage and the con- tracting of another (cf. Jg 152) by the woman is also witnessed to amongst the Arabs {I.e. p. 65).' If Samson's marriage is to be understood in this way, this does not of course imply that at the time when these stories took their rise all marriages in Israel were of the mdVca tj'pe. But we learn again from the ancient Arabic materials collected by W. R. Smith, that, even when the later fomi of marriage had come to prevail, such mdXka marriages were still contracted when the ordinary inarfiage was not possible, as, for instance, between member* of hostile tribes {I.e. p. 71 f.). This may be the explanation in the case before us, where a man belonging to the territorj' ol Israel, which was subject to the Philistines, seeks in marriage a girl of the ruling people. We should perhaps adopt a similar fnterp relation when it is said that Gideon hod a concubine in Shechem (Jg 83i), which still belonged to the Canaanites; and when Abimelech, her son, speaks of himself as a Shecheniite and not as an Israelite (9^). If any one thinks it worth while, he may, upon the ground of this ancient social custom, view more mildly even Samson's relation to DeUlah in 16*^- It is sur-