worship of the same rude objects, whose veneration no doubt dated from remote barbaric antiquity. As Mr. Grote says, speaking of Greek worship, 'The primitive memorial erected to a god did not even pretend to be an image, but was often nothing more than a pillar, a board, a shapeless stone or a post, receiving care and decoration from the neighbourhood, as well as worship.' Such were the log that stood for Artemis in Eubœa, the stake that represented Pallas Athene, 'sine effigie rudis palus, et informe lignum,' the unwrought stone (^{(Greek characters)}) at Hyettos which 'after the ancient manner' represented Herakles, the thirty such stones which the Pharæans in like archaic fashion worshipped for the gods, and that one which received such honour in Bœotian festivals as representing the Thespian Eros. Theophrastus, in the 4th century B.C., depicts the superstitious Greek passing the anointed stones in the streets, taking out his phial and pouring oil on them, falling on his knees to adore, and going his way. Six centuries later, Arnobius could describe from his own heathen life the state of mind of the stock-and-stone worshipper, telling how when he saw one of the stones anointed with oil, he accosted it in flattering words, and asked benefits from the senseless thing as though it contained a present power.^[1] The ancient and graphic passage in the book of Isaiah well marks stone-worship within the range of the Semitic race:

'Among the smooth stones of the valley is thy portion: They, they are thy lot: Even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering, Hast thou offered a meat-offering.'^[2]

Long afterwards, among the local deities which Mohammed

1. ↑ Grote, 'Hist. of Greece,' vol. iv. p. 132; Welcker, 'Griechische Götterlehre,' vol. i. p. 220. Meiners, vol. i. p. 150, &c. Details esp. in Pausanias; Theophrast. Charact. xvi.; Tacit. Hist. ii. 3; Arnobius, Adv. Gent.; Tertullianus; Clemens Alexandr.
2. ↑ Is. lvii. 6. The first line, 'behhalkey-nahhal hhêlkech,' turns on the pun on hhlk=smooth (stone), and also lot or portion; a double sense probably connected with the use of smooth pebbles for casting lots.