THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
dead. For whatever elements of religious observance the Israelites derived from the non-Hebraic nations they at once incorporated in their worship of Yahweh, at least up to the times of Amos, Hosea, and Jeroboam II. This is apparent from Jer. xli. 5. Later legislation did not forbid such mourning observances except so far as they were heathenish and ignored Yahweh. That the cutting of the hair was not a substitute for a human sacrifice but was merely intended to be a disfigurement of the mourner is proved by the fact that the Egyptians usually had their heads shaven, but in time of sorrow allowed their hair to grow. Frey looks upon all these mourning customs as so many signs of self-humiliation before the sender of so great a calamity, and of a desire to form some sort of connection or relation with the soul who has vanished into the land of shadows.
Griineisen rightly takes the position that Frey's interpretation is one-sided. In the time of affliction
men are suddenly made conscious, he
3. Griinei- says, of the nearness of God, who has
sen's Views, in his hand the power of death. They
seem to be brought in peril of death. They disguise themselves in sackcloth and disfigure themselves in various ways so as to conceal their identity from God and escape this peril. They would also conceal themselves from the spirit of the dead, for the dread of ghosts is universal. The spirit of the dead is looked upon by them as no superhuman being, worthy of worship, but as a gloomy specter less than human. The disfigurement is intended to make the living unrecognizable by the spirits of the dead, and the dirge or elegy is merely a means of driving them away. Lagrange, on the contrary, thinks that there is nothing mysterious or animistic to be found in most of these mourning customs. To weep, to cry aloud, to sigh, to kiss the dead are merely signs of natural sorrow. Lagrange also gives a plausible explanation of the custom of sitting in ashes. Ashes are a sign of desolation. When a city has been sacked, ruined, and burnt, the hillocks and mounds that remain are the sole refuge of the inhabitants. They sit in the dust (Isa. xlvii. 1) or in the ashes (Jonah iii. 6), wallow in ashes (Jer. vi. 26; Mic. i. 10), and cast up dust on their heads (Ezek. xxvii. 30). In all these usages are symbolized the ashes of the tomb or of the corpse consumed on a funeral pyre.
All these expositions seem to fail in breadth and comprehensiveness. Baentsch, however, seems to have pointed out the only way to a profitable handling of such questions. From a wide acquaintance
with ancient oriental thought he has
4. Views come to the conclusion that the He-
of Baentsch.brew Scriptures are to be accepted as
authentic, but with due regard to the results of modern criticism. They are to be interpreted on a broader basis. Accordingly all the mourning customs of the Hebrews are to be taken as part and parcel of the universal tradition of the ancient oriental peoples. It is evident that all Semitic peoples, whether Babylonian, Arabian, Syrian, or Canaanite, had similar conceptions of the soul of the dead wandering about as a shade. Death was a misfortune which men sought to avoid. These
two ideas took various forms. Some peoples thought that the soul could be conjured back to earth; others that it wandered without rest in the under world until it obtained relief. It was in man's power to protect himself from the spirit and to procure rest for it. But such beliefs by no means imply worship of the dead. It is now known from many sources that these ancient oriental ideas were deeply rooted in the mind of Israel, though opposed to the religion of Yahweh. This religion was forced to apply in a new sense the words expressive of the old terms of ancient astral religion which alone were intelligible to the people. Thus there flowed an upper and an under current of religious life in Israel. The greater number of the mourning customs originated in the under stream, therefore the people tenaciously adhered to them. There are scholars who maintain that the under stream is the direct outcome of the religion of Yahweh, except in cases where they find a Semitic parallel usage of higher antiquity. But the main object of this religion was to teach the people monotheism, though it made itself felt in every department of human life. But there did not cease to be some subjects on which the religion of Israel never mounted much above the level of the ancient oriental speculations, and these subjects were death, the grave, the soul, mourning, and Sheol. But to declare that every detail in the beliefs held on such subjects continued to conform to ancient oriental systems would not express the truth, for such ideas in many instances had become completely transformed by the influence of the religion of Yahweh. See Burial; Cemeteries. (R. Zehnfftjnd.)
Bibliography: Early investigations which have still very considerable value are collected in TJgolini, Thesaurus, vol. xxxiii. Recent discussions, besides the book of Schwally mentioned in the text, are: J. Frey, Die altisraelitische Totentrauer, Dorpat, 1894; idem, Tod, Seelenglaube und Seelenkult im, alten Israel, Leipsic, 1898; Jastrow, in JAOS, xx (1899), 130-150; idem, in ZATW, xxii (1902), 117-120; C. Griineisen, Der Ahnenkultus und die Urreligion Israels, Halle, 1900; Btichler, in ZATW, xxi(1901), 81-92; M. Klotz, Krankenbesuch und Trauerbrauch nac\ Bibel und Talmud, Frankfort, 1901; M. J. Lagrange, Etudes sur les religions semitiques, Paris, 1903; B. Baentsch, Altorientalischer und israelitischer Monotheismus, Tubingen, 1906; Wellhausen, Heidentum, pp. 177 sqq.; Benzinger, Archaologie, pp. 163 sqq.; Nowack, Archaologie, i. 193 sqq.; DB, iii. 453-455; EB, iii. 3220- 3222; DCG, ii. 208-209, 496; JE, ix. 101-102.
Illustrative matter is found in: I. Goldziher, Le Sacrifice de la chevelure, Paris, 1881; J. Lippert, Der Seelenkult in seinen Beziehungen zur althebraischen Religion, Berlin, 1881; A. Jeremias, Hblle und Parodies bei den Babyloniern, Leipsic, 1903; idem, Das alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orient, ib. 1907; A. Bertholet, Die israelitische Vorstellungen vom Zustand nach dem Tode, Tubingen, 1899; S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion Today, New York, 1902; P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte, i. 328 sqq., Tubingen, 1905.
MOUSE, THE: An animal mentioned in Scripture only in Lev. xi. 29; I Sam. vi. 4, 5, 11, 18; and Isa. Ixvi. 17. The Hebrew is 'akhbar, a word which probably covers not only the several species of mice found in Palestine, but also rats and the jerboa or leaping mouse, a marsupial. H. B. Tristram (Fauna and Flora of Palestine, pp. 122 sqq., London, 1884) suspects that the word does duty for twenty-three kinds of small rodents. Though this extended use can not be absolutely proved for