animation of statues, that it was not essential for the idol to be
shaped into human form, the way was opened for less cultured peoples,
who had not acquired the technical skill to carve statues, simply to
erect stone pillars or unshaped masses of stone or wood for their gods
to enter, when the appropriate ritual of animation was performed.[101]

This conception of the possibility of gods, men, or animals dwelling in
stones spread in course of time throughout the world, but in every place
where it is found certain arbitrary details of the methods of animating
the stone reveal the fact that all these legends must have been derived
from the same source.

The complementary belief in the possibility of the petrifaction of men
and animals has a similarly extensive geographical distribution. The
history of this remarkable incident I shall explain in the lecture on
"Dragons and Rain Gods" (Chapter II.).[102]

[95: I am not concerned here with the explanation of the means by which
their home became transferred to the planet Venus.]

[96: In his discussion of the functions of the Fravashis in the Iranian
Yasht, the late Professor Moulton suggested the derivation of the word
from the Avestan root _var_, "to impregnate," so that _fravasi_ might
mean "birth-promotion". But he was puzzled by a reference to water.
"Less easy to understand is their intimate connexion with the Waters"
("Early Religious Poetry of Persia," pp. 142 and 143). But the Waters
were regarded as fertilizing agents. This is seen in the Avestan
Anahita, who was "the presiding genie of Fertility and more especially
of the Waters" (W. J. Phythian-Adams, "Mithraism," 1915, p. 13).]

[97: "Rest Days," New York, 1916, pp. 124 _et seq._]

[98: Wherever these deities of fertility are found, whether in Egypt,
Babylonia, the Mediterranean Area, Eastern Asia, and America,
illustrations of this confusion of sex are found. The explanation which
Dr. Rendel Harris offers of this confusion in the case of Aphrodite
seems to me not to give due recognition to its great antiquity and
almost world-wide distribution.]

[99: L. Borchardt, "Das Re-heiligtum des Koenigs Ne-woser-re". For a good
exposition of this matter see A. Moret, "Sanctuaires de l'ancien Empire
Egyptien,"; _Annales du Musee Guimet_, 1912, p. 265.]

[100: It is possible that the ceremony of erecting the _dad_ columns may
have played some part in the development of these beliefs. (On this see
A. Moret, "Mys