re masks (W. R. Smith, 438), and one is tempted
to compare the use of masks elsewhere in animal worship. Next, one may
observe upon old Babylonian seals, eagle-headed deities with short
feathered skirts attended by human beings similarly arrayed (Ball,
151) or figures draped in a fish skin (Menant, _Rev. de l'hist. des
relig._ xi. 295-301) or a worshipper arrayed somewhat like a cock
(Meyer, 63; cf. Lucian's _De Dea Syria_, S 48; for "bees," &c., as
titles of sacred attendants, see J. G. Frazer, _Pausanias_, iv. 223,
v. 621). Although there is much that is obscure in this line of
research, it is a natural assumption that, in those ritual functions
where the gods were supposed to participate, the role was taken by
men, and the general idea of assimilating oneself to the god (and the
reverse process) manifests itself in too many ways to be ignored (cf.
W. R. Smith, 293, 437 sq., 474; C. J. Ball, _Ency. Bib._, art.
"Cuttings"). But the deities were not originally anthropomorphic, and
it is with the earlier stages in their development that some of the
more remarkable costumes are apparently concerned.

Of all priestly costumes[16] the most interesting is undoubtedly that of
the Jewish Levitical high-priest. In addition to a tunic (kutt[=o]neth)
and a seamless mantle or robe (_m[)e]'[=i]l_), he wore the breastplate
(_h[=o]shen_), the ephod, and a rich outer girdle. Breeches were
assumed on the Day of Atonement. His head-dress was as distinctive as
that of the high priest at Hierapolis, who wore a golden tiara and a
purple dress, while the ordinary priests had a _pilos_ (conical cap,
also worn in Israel, Ex. xxviii. 40) and white garments. But the various
descriptions cannot be easily reconciled.[17] The robe had pomegranates
and golden bells that the sound might give warning as he went in and out
of the sanctuary, and "that he died not" (Ex. xxviii. 35). According to
Josephus they symbolized the lightning and thunder respectively. The
"ephod of prophecy" (so _Test. of Levi_, viii. 2) was essentially once
an object of divination (see EPHOD). The "breastplate of judgment" was
set with twelve jewels engraved with the names of the tribes; the
foreordained covering of the semi-divine being in the garden of the gods
bore the same number of stones (Ezek. xxviii. 13, Septuagint). This
breast ornament finds analogies in the royal and high priestly dress of
Egypt, and in the six jewels of the Babylonian