nature always produce with races of a low type, where a higher feeling would only be touched by the analogies of life and death, of time and eternity. No wonder that, so struck, the primitive race imagined the evils of the unseen world to be the recurrence of those against which they struggled while on earth. That there is some ground for our theory, besides the generalization which led us to it, is shown by a usual Egyptian name of Hades, " the West ;" and that the wild regions west of Egypt might directly give birth to such fancies as form the common ground of the machinery, not the general belief, of the Kitual, as well as of the machinery of me- diaeval fiction, is shown by the fables that the rude Arabs of our own day teU of the wonders they have seen.
Like all nations who have practiced magic generally, the Egj'ptians separated it into a lawful kind and an unlawfid. M. Chabas has proved this from a papyrus which he finds to contain an account of the prosecution, in the reign of Kameses IH (B.C. cir. 1220), of an official for unlawfully acquiring and using magical books, the king's property. The culprit was convicted and pun- ished with death (p. 1G9 sq.).
A beUef in unlucky and lucky daj's, in actions to be avoided or done on certain days, and in the fortune at- tending birth on certain days, was extremely strong, as ■we learn from a remarkable ancient calendar (Select Papyri, part i) and the evidence of writers of antiquity. A religious prejudice, or the occurrence of some great calamity, probably lay at the root of this observance of days. Of the former the birthday of Typhon, the fifth of the Eijagotnena?, is an instance. Astrology was also held in liigh honor, as the calendars of certain of the tombs of the kings, stating the positions of the stars and their influence on different parts of the bodj', show us; but it seems doubtfid whether this branch of magical arts is older than the xviiith dynasty, although certain stars were held in reverence in the time of the ivth dy- nasty. The belief in omens probably did not hold an important place in Egyptian magic, if we may judge from the absence of direct mention of them. The su- perstition as to " the evil eve" appears to have been known, but there is nothing else that we can class Mith phenomena of the nature of animal magnetism, 'two classes of learned men had the charge of the magical books: one of these, the name of which has not been read phoneticalh', would seem to. correspond to the '• scribes," as we render the ^Yord, spoken of in the his- tory of Joseph ; whereas the other has the general sense of " wise men," like the other class tl'ere mentioned.
There are no representations on the monuments that can be held to relate directly to the practice of this art, but the secret passages in the thickness of the wall, lately opened in the great temple of Denderah, seem to have been intended for some puq^ose of imposture.
4. The Mosaic law contains very distinct prohibitions of all magical arts. Besides several passages condemn- ing them, in one place there is a specification which is so full that it seems evident that its object is to include every kind of magical art. The reference is to the prac- tic2s of Canaan, not to those of Egypt, which indeed do not seem to have been brought away by the Israelites, who, it may be remarked, apparently did not adopt Egyptian idolatry, but only that of foreigners settled in Egypt. Sec Kempiian.
The Israelites are commanded in the place referred to not to learn the abominations of the peoples of the Promised Land. Then follows this prohiljition : '• Tliere shall not be found with thee one who offereth liis son or his daughter by fire, a practicer of divinations (-Cp CiTiDp), a worker of hidden arts ("31"^), an augurer ('Ctt;^), an enchanter (C^'i"D73), or a fabricator of charms {'•'ZTl "^^Ti), or an inquirer by a familiar spirit (:::is bxb), or a wizard (ijir'ni), or a consnlter of the dead (C^r^ri'bx "C'ln)." It is added that^these are abominations, and that on account ol' their practice the
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nations of Canaan were to be driven out (Dcut. xviii, ;)-14, esp. 10, 11). It is remarkable that the ottering of cliildren should be mentioned in connection with magi- cal arts. The passage in Micah, which has been sup- ).o?ed to preserve a question of Balak and an answer of IJalaam, when the soothsayer was sent for to curse Is- rael, should be here noticed, for the questioner asks, after speaking of sacrifices of usual kinds, "Shall I give my first-born [for] my transgression, the fruit of my b()dy [for] the sin of my soul?" (vi, 5-8). Perhaps, however, child -sacrifice is specified on account of its atrocity, ^yhich would connect it with secret arts, such as ^^•o know were frequently, in later times, the causes of cruelty. The terms which follow appear to refer prop- erly to eight different kinds of magic, but some of them are elsewhere used in a general sense. 1. f^^Dp -5P is literally " a diviner of divinations." The verb tD]^ is used of false prophets, but also in a general sense for divining, as in the narrative of Saul's consultation of the witch of Endor, where the king says "divine unto me (nisa "il? X3— il2iDp), I pray thee, by the familiar spirit" (1 Sam. xxviii, 8). 2. "Sl"^ conveys the idea of " one who acts covertly," and so " a worker of hidden .arts." The meaning of the root )^^ is covering, and the supposed connection with fascination by the eyes, like the notion of " the evil eye," as though the original root were "the eye" ("i'^^'), seems untenable. The an- cient EgjiDtians seem to have held the superstition of the evil eye, for an ej^e is the determinative of a word which appears to signify some kind of magic (Chabas, Paiyyrus Magique Harris, p. 170 and note 4). 3. UJnip, which we render "an augurer," is from Un3, which is literally " he or it hissed or whimpered," and in Piel is applied to the practice of enchantments, but also to di- vining generally, as in the case of Joseph's cup, and where, evidently referring to it, he tells his brethren that he could divine, although in both places it has been read more vaguely with the sense to foresee or make trial (Gen. xliv, 5, 15). We therefore render it by a term which seems appropriate, but not too definite. The supposed connection of iTTO with TTHJ, "a ser- pent," as though meaning serpent-divination, must be rejected, the latter word rather coming from the former, with the signification "a hisser." The name Nahshon ("idn:), of a prince of Judah in the second year after the exodus (Numb.i, 7 ; Exod. vi, 23 ; Ruth iv, 20, etc.), means " enchanter :" it was probably used as a proper name in a vague sense. 4. C'fi;?^ signifies " an en- chanter :" the original meaning of the verb was probably " he prayed," and the strict sense of this word " one who uses incantations." 5. '^IIH 13" seems to mean " a