Note 79 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

There is, again, something to be said for the theory which finds in these animals tribal totems and fetishes.79 We have a parallel case among the Jews, where the bull was probably the ancient symbol of the Hyksos, which the Israelites having succeeded them could adopt, especially as it may have been retained in use by their confederates the Midianites; and it appears in the earliest annals of Israel as a token of the former supremacy of Joseph and his tribe, and was subsequently adopted as an image of Iahveh himself.