e
outset of their acquaintance, Samuel says to Saul, "Go up before me into
the high place," where, as the young maidens of the city had just before
told Saul, the Seer was going, "for the people will not eat till he
come, because he doth bless the sacrifice" (1 Sam. x. 12). The use of
the word "bless" here--as if Samuel were not going to sacrifice, but
only to offer a blessing or thanksgiving--is curious. But that Samuel
really acted as priest seems plain from what follows. For he not only
asks Saul to share in the customary sacrificial feast, but he disposes
in Saul's favour of that portion of the victim which the Levitical
legislation, doubtless embodying old customs, recognises as the priest's
special property. [10]

Although particular persons adopted the profession of media between men
and Elohim, there was no limitation of the power, in the view of ancient
Israel, to any special class of the population. Saul inquires of Jahveh
and builds him altars on his own account; and in the very remarkable
story told in the fourteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel
(v. 37-46), Saul appears to conduct the whole process of divination,
although he has a priest at his elbow. David seems to do the same.

Moreover, Elohim constantly appear in dreams--which in old Israel did
not mean that, as we should say, the subject of the appearance "dreamed
he saw the spirit"; but that he veritably saw the Elohim which, as a
soul, visited his soul while his body was asleep. And, in the course
of the history of Israel Jahveh himself thus appears to all sorts
of persons, non-Israelites as well as Israelites. Again, the Elohim
possess, or inspire, people against their will, as in the case of Saul
and Saul's messengers, and then these people prophesy--that is to say,
"rave"--and exhibit the ungoverned gestures attributed by a later age to
possession by malignant spirits. Apart from other evidence to be adduced
by and by, the history of ancient demonology and of modern revivalism
does not permit me to doubt that the accounts of these phenomena given
in the history of Saul may be perfectly historical.

In the ritual practices, of which evidence is to be found in the books
of Judges and Samuel, the chief part is played by sacrifices, usually
burnt offerings. Whenever the aid of the Elohim of Israel is sought, or
thanks are considered due to him, an altar is built, and oxen, sheep,
and goats are slaughtered and offered up. Sometimes the entire v