nificant that, in addition to the widespread belief in the
"evil eye"--which in itself embodies the same confusion, the expression
of admiration that works evil--in a multitude of legends it is the eye
that produces petrifaction. The "stony stare" causes death and the dead
become transformed into statues, which, however, usually lack their
original attribute of animation. These stories have been collected by
Mr. E. S. Hartland in his "Legend of Perseus".

There is another possible link in the chain of associations between the
eye and the idea of fertility. I have already referred to the
development of the belief that incense, which plays so prominent a part
in the ritual for conferring vitality upon the dead, is itself replete
with animating properties. "Glaser has already shown the _anti_ incense
of the Egyptian Punt Reliefs to be an Arabian word, _a-a-netc_,
'tree-eyes' (_Punt und die Suedarabischen Reiche_, p. 7), and to refer to
the large lumps ... as distinguished from the small round drops, which
are supposed to be tree-tears or the tree-blood."[94]

[91: "A New Masterpiece of Egyptian Sculpture," _The Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology_, Vol. IV, Part I, Jan., 1917.]

[92: In all probability the main factor that was responsible for
conferring such definite life-giving powers upon the eye was the
identification of the moon with the Great Mother. The moon was the Eye
of Re, the sky-god.]

[93: Breasted, "Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," p. 59. The
meaning of the phrase rendered "a soul" here would be more accurately
given by the word "reanimated".]

[94: Wilfred H. Schoff, "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea," 1912, p.
164.]

The Moon and the Sky-World.

There are reasons for believing that the chief episodes in Aphrodite's
past point to the Red Sea for their inspiration, though many other
factors, due partly to local circumstances and partly to contact with
other civilizations, contributed to the determination of the traits of
the Mediterranean goddess of love. In Babylonia and India there are very
definite signs of borrowing from the same source. It is important,
therefore, to look for further evidence to Arabia as the obvious bond of
union both with Phoenicia and Babylonia.

The claim made in Roscher's _Lexicon der Mythologie_ that the Assyrian
Ishtar, the Phoenician Ashtoreth (Astarte), the Syrian Atargatis
(Derketo), the Babylonian Belit (Mylitta) and the Arabian Ilat (Al-ilat)
were all moon-