r that he so
called the stone itself; Bethel (in Hebrew, "house of God"[540]) seems
to have been an old sacred place, and terms compounded with 'beth' in
Hebrew are names of shrines. The relation between this name and the
Semitic word whence, probably, comes Greek _baitulos_[541] (Latin
_baetulus_) is not clear; this last is the designation of a sacred stone
held to have fallen from heaven (meteoric). Such an one is called by
Philo of Byblos "empsuchos," 'endowed with life or with soul.'[542]
Pliny describes the baetulus as a species of ceraunia
(thunderstone).[543] The Greek word is now commonly derived from _betel_
('bethel')--a derivation possible so far as the form of the word is
concerned.[544] According to this view the stone is the abode of a
deity--a conception common in early religion. Such an object would be
revered, and would ultimately be brought into connection with a local
god.[545] If Hebrew bethel was originally a stone considered as the
abode of a deity, then in the Old Testament the earlier form of the
conception has been effaced by the later thought--the word 'bethel' has
become the name of a place, a shrine, the dwelling place of God.[546]

+295+. The origin of the black stone of the Kaaba at Mecca is
unknown--it was doubtless either a meteorite or in some way connected
with a sacred place; it was, and is, regarded as in itself sacred, but
whether it represented originally a deity, and if so what deity, is not
known.[547]

+296+. The belief in the sacred character of stones may account, at
least in part, for the custom of casting stones on the grave of a
chieftain (as in Northern Arabia), though this may be merely intended to
preserve the grave. So also the stones thrown at the foot of a Hermes
pillar may have been meant as a waymark, yet with the feeling that the
stone heap had a sacred character of its own.[548] The stone circles at
Stonehenge and Avebury may have had a religious significance, but their
function is not clear. Boundary stones seem to have had at first simply
a political function, but were naturally dedicated to the deities who
were guardians of tribal boundaries (Roman Terminus, various Babylonian
gods, etc.).

+297+. It is by virtue of their divine character that stones came to be
used as altars.[549] As things divine in themselves or as representing a
deity they receive the blood of the sacred (that is, divine) sacrificial
animal, which is the food of the god. Originally a part