Note 219 — Chapter II · TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS

On the relation of the Hebrew kipper, or atonement, to the Assyrian kuppuru and the connection of both with ideas of taboo, see R. C. Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1904, ii, pp. 1 sqq. It is unnecessary to accept his conclusion that the Hebrew ceremony was directly borrowed from Babylonia. The view advanced in the text as to the antiquity of the Atonement rite may now claim the support of Professor Grimme, who sees in this ceremony one of the oldest elements of the Law and finds the prototype of Azazel in the hairy demons which were believed to haunt the wilderness of northern Arabia. See H. Grimme, “Das Alter des israelitischen Versöhnungstages,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, 1911, xiv, 130-142.