ouin and the related usages in Europe. Such marks had
often a religious significance, and denoted that the bearer was a follower
of a particular deity. The suggestion has been made that the name Cain is
the eponym of the Kenites, and although this clan has a good name almost
everywhere in the Old Testament, yet in Num. xxiv. 22 its destruction is
foretold, and the Amalekites, of whom they formed a division, are
consistently represented as the inveterate enemies of Yahweh and of his
people Israel. The story of Cain and Abel, which appears to represent the
nomad life as a curse, may be an attempt to explain the origin of an
existence which in the eyes of the settled agriculturist was one of
continual restlessness, whilst at the same time it endeavours to find a
reason for the institution of blood-revenge on the theory that at some
remote age a man (or tribe) had killed his brother (or brother tribe).
Cain's subsequent founding of a city finds a parallel in the legend of the
origin of Rome through the swarms of outlaws and broken men of all kinds
whom Romulus attracted thither. The list of Cain's descendants reflects the
old view of the beginnings of civilization; it is thrown into the form of a
genealogy and is parallel to Gen. v. (see GENESIS). It finds its analogy in
the Phoenician account of the origin of different inventions which Eusebius
(_Praep. Evang._ i. 10) quotes from Philo of Byblus (Gebal), and probably
both go back to a common Babylonian origin.

On this question, see Driver, _Genesis_ (Westminster Comm., London, 1904),
p. 80 seq.; A. Jeremias, _Alte Test. im Lichte d. Alten Orients_ (Leipzig,
1906), pp. 220 seq.; also ENOCH, LAMECH. On the story of Cain, see
especially Stade, _Akademische Reden_, pp. 229-273; Ed. Meyer,
_Israeliten_, pp. 395 sqq.; A.R. Gordon, _Early Trad. Genesis_ (Index).
Literary criticism (see Cheyne, _Encycl. Bib._ col. 620-628, and 4411-4417)
has made it extremely probable that Cain the nomad and outlaw (Gen. iv.
1-16) was originally distinct from Cain the city-builder (vv. 17 sqq.). The
latter was perhaps regarded as a "smith," cp. v. 22 where Tubal-cain is the
"father" of those who work in bronze (or copper). That the Kenites, too,
were a race of metal-workers is quite uncertain, although even at the
present day the smiths in Arabia form a distinct nomadic class. Whatever be
the meaning of the name, the words put into Eve's mouth (v. 1) probably are
not an etymology, but an assonance