military title-he seems to have been a eunuch-rabsaris-I am inclined to regard lamutanu ("not men" or "not husbands") as including "eunuchs." The hairless priests of the cylinderseals were seemingly shaven as a mark of their office, but this was probably not a universal custom either in Assyria or Babylonia. Beardless eunuchs, if admitted to the priestly offices, possibly occupied a different position from that of their uncastrated colleagues. E-babbara is the usual transcription of M, "house of light," the temple of the sun at Sippara, and E-ulmaš was a kindred shrine. Judging from Cuneiform Texts from Bab. Tablets, xxiv, 11 and 24 (lines 64 f.), the god Ulmaš was one of the, Gubba, of E-kura, probably the temple of that name at Nippur or Niffer, the city identified with the Coluch of Gen. x, 10, by the Jews of Rabbinical times. Whether there is an analogy in the ceremony here referred to with the "smoking furnace" and the "lamp of fire" in Gen. xv, 17, is uncertain. DISCUSSION. The CHAIRMAN, in moving a vote of thanks to Professor Pinches, suggested that, under the impressions conveyed by the lecture, it should now be profitable for instructed Christian people to go through the Old Testament afresh, and note the many places in which the jealousy of the God of Israel is expressed in regard to the worship of idols. It will be seen that, in the midst of the chosen people such worship was denounced as an abomination, while among the surrounding nations it was a thing of vanity-from Merodach downward the divinities were "gods that were no gods," "gods of earth," the creation of human perversity and folly. The Rev. J. J. B. COLES thanked the learned lecturer for his scholarly and interesting paper. As to the origins of idolatry, there were four principal sources :1. The worship of the sun, moon and stars, or Sabeanism; 2. The reverence paid to the perverted symbols of the Cherubim, the winged man-headed bulls and lions of Assyria; 3. Ancestor worship-Nimrod and others; 4. The deification of human passions, as in the worship of Greece and Rome. A good history of caricature had not yet been written-the images of the gods of Egypt were often caricatures of Divine attributes. Men had changed the glory of the incorruptible God into images of corruptible man, of four-footed beasts and creeping things (scarabs, etc.); and Israel, too, alas! changed their glory into the similitude of a calf. The gods of Egypt had caricatured and debased the teaching of the Patriarchs. Professor J. G. Fraser's books ignored this sad perversion of Divine Revelation. Myths and legends were often corruptions of primitive truth-and not the original source of true religious ideas. Mr. THEODORE ROBERTS thanked Professor Pinches for informing us of many things which we should not otherwise have known, and likened him to the engineer who made the road across the Alps whereby Napoleon took his hungry and ragged soldiers down to the rich plains of Italy. Mr. Roberts thought we could learn most from the paper by contrast, and instanced the absurdity of the god who was said to have created himself in comparison with our God who covered Himself with light as with a garment (Ps. civ, 2). He pointed out that Joshua, speaking in the name of Jehovah, three times over told the Israelites that their fathers, even Terah, the father of Abraham, had served "other gods" (that is, idols) beyond the river (Euphrates) (Joshua xxiv, 2, 14, 15); so that the knowledge of the true God which Abraham brought from Ur to Canaan appeared to have been the result of a revelation made to him. This was the first mention of idols in the Bible, save the prohibitions of the Law; and the last, according to the historical order of the books, was found in the last verse of the first Epistle of John— "Little children, keep yourselves from idols "-where our Lord Jesus Christ was presented as the alternative. It was in contrast to idols that God was thrice described in the New Testament as the true (or real) God, namely, the Father, in the earliest Christian writing (1 Thess. i, 9) and our Lord's highpriestly prayer (John xvii, 3), and the Son in 1 John v, 20. The Son is there described as the real or very " God, because all that can be known of God is set forth in Him, He being God. He is there also described as the Eternal Life—that is, the ideal Man, namely, all that man can be for God. It is only by undivided 66 loyalty to His Person that we can be kept from idolatry in its present subtle, and, therefore, more dangerous, forms. 66 Lieut.-Colonel G. MACKINLAY writes: This is a very valuable paper. Bearing in mind that Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees, it is reasonable to expect that some relationship exists between the religion of the Jews and that of the Babylonians. It is of interest to know that modern Jews (p. 13) still use a word which is derived from the Old Babylonian language, and also that the Babylonians, and even more the Assyrians, recognized a supreme God who occupied a leading pre-eminence among all their gods or idols (pp. 11, 17, 18, 26). "The Japanese have a tradition that Jews came to this country many centuries ago, and the Afghans to the North of India possess many resemblances in features and in habits to the Hebrews. On the first page of this paper our author speaks of nations of the Near East; one is led to ask him if any resemblances to the worship of Jehovah can be found in any other of the religions of Asia. 66 Perhaps the Professor will tell us in the future paper at which he hints on p. 27, which we much hope he will give us ere long." AUTHOR'S REply. I am glad to have the clear statement of the Rev. J. J. B. Coles with regard to the four forms of idolatry. There is no doubt that the Babylonians and Assyrians were great sinners (they ought to be pardoned, for they knew no better) in worshipping the heavenly bodies. The identification of Merodach with Jupiter, Istar with Venus, etc., shows how they desired to honour their gods, and it is very probable that these identifications go back to a period earlier than the foundation of the Sabean states. Whether ancestorworship, and the deification of kings and heroes, goes back to an earlier date than the worship of the heavenly bodies is uncertain, but the glories of the Eastern skies, seen by the Babylonians from the earliest ages, must have suggested to the men of those days that the changeless starry host, if not the gods themselves, were at least their symbols. Yes, from our point of view, the Egyptian mystic and often abhorrent images of the gods whom they worshipped were certainly caricatures. In this respect the Babylonians were very moderate, 66 and it is mainly on the boundary-stones that animal-symbols of the gods whom they worshipped are seen. How far these were adopted by the Israelites we do not know, but they were probably well acquainted with them. The name of Merodach means the steer of day," but I do not remember having ever seen that god represented as a steer. The cuneiform character for Šamaš originally represented the sun's disc, and this we find on the cylinder-seals, often accompanied by the crescent of the moon. In connection with this it is to be noted that, as Professor Garstang has pointed out, the Ottoman crescent and star, which serve as their national symbols, and are found on their flag, are a modification of the Babylonian sun's disc within the moon's crescent, as found on these same Babylonian cylinder-seals. Egyptian overcharged symbolism is repellent to us, but there is much to be said about symbolism in general, and we ought not to despise it even the symbolism of the heathen Assyro-Babylonians. But that is a subject for future treatment. It is needless to say that I thank Mr. Theodore Roberts for his kindly and appreciative remarks. I feel that I am not worthy to be compared with the great imperial general whose masterly leadership he instances, but this I can say, that there are pastures richer far than those to which I have led you-or, rather, than those of which I have given you a glimpse. All members of this Institute will, I am sure, be gratified with Mr. Roberts's comments and quotations-quotations which recall to our minds so many interesting and acceptable passages of the Testaments, both the Old and the New. One of the most attractive subjects with which I should have liked to deal is that of the signs of the Zodiac and the Sumerian names of the months, but this would have entailed too long a study. Many a legend, however, is probably connected with their origin. Of special interest, also, is the legend (may I use the word ?) of the dragon Rahab. I am much obliged to our Chairman, Dr. Thirtle, for his kind remarks, as well as for the appreciative words of those who have joined in the discussion. I also thank Lieut.-Colonel G. Mackinlay for his interesting letter. If I can make the tablet of divine names referred to on p. 27 really interesting-as interesting as it is important -that, too, might be dealt with along with other lists of heathen divinities. HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, LIEUT.-COLONEL F. A. MOLONY, O.B.E., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed and signed, and the Honorary Secretary announced the election of the following :As a Life Member, Major Lewis Merson Davies, R.A., F.G.S.; as a Member, Gerald W. J. Cole, Esq.; and as an Associate, Mrs. H. Norton Johnson. The CHAIRMAN then introduced Brigadier-General Sir Wyndham Deedes, C.M.G., D.S.O., to give bis lecture on “Great Britain and the Palestine Mandate." IT GREAT BRITAIN AND THE PALESTINE MANDATE. By BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIR WYNDHAM DEEDES, C.M.G., D.S.O. T has ever been to me a matter of surprise and significance that the occupation in 1917 and the administration since that time of Palestine and Jerusalem, better known to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world as the Holy Land and the Holy City, evoked so little interest amongst the public in this country and in other parts of the world. It would have been reasonable to expect that the occupation of a country, about the history of which we read week in week out, year in year out, and out of which such great events have issued, would have attracted more than ordinary attention. It is true that, at the time when what I may call the spirit of exaltation evoked by the war reigned in this and in other countries, some attention was aroused by allied victories in Palestine; but this spirit of exaltation was very soon dissipated by the fog of materialism which obscured men's vision before the war, and which seems to have rolled up again since the peace. It is not as though the manner of the occupation was unworthy of the occasion. It will be remembered that the commanders of the two opposing forces mutually agreed that no conflict should take place within the precincts of the Holy City, and that no shells should fall therein. This agreement was strictly adhered to by both parties. The Commander of the Allied Forces refrained from emulating the example of a certain European D |