d
of the Almighty, angels walked around it in adoration. Furthermore, they
said that Adam built the first Kaaba on earth on its present site,
directly under the one in heaven.... Long before the time of Mahomet, the
Kaaba was a place of worship for the idolatrous Arabs and in it they had
no less than 360 idols, one for each day of the Arabian year. These were
destroyed by Mahomet...." Beside the pilgrimages to the Kaaba pious
Mussulmans also visit the sacred granite mountains the "Arafat where Adam
is supposed to have met Eve after a long separation."

Summarized, the preceding facts clearly show that, from a remote
antiquity, the Arabians have preserved the conception of (1) a divine,
celestial, stable sanctuary around which "angels" walked in a circle. (2)
A terrestrial sanctuary built by man directly beneath the heavenly one and
associated with the period of a year, _i. e._ 360 days. (3) In the sacred
terrestrial kaaba the mystic union of rain and earth is made to take
place, while (4) Mount Arafat is connected with the traditional reunion of
Adam and Eve.

It is unnecessary to point out the significant association of an annual
count of days with the stable centre and its importance as an indication
that the ancient Arabian star-gazers originally associated the year period
with circumpolar rotation. The analogy between the Arabian ideas
concerning the dual principles of nature and those of other nations is
also too marked to be easily overlooked.

Nor need I emphasize how strikingly the imagery of the celestial kaaba
suits Polaris and the circumpolar constellations. But I shall now proceed
to point out that the word kaaba itself curiously resembles star-names
which are given by Mr. Robert Brown in his recent valuable publication to
which I shall revert, namely, the Akkadian name for constellation in
general=kakkab and the Babylonian and Assyrian name for the
pole-star=Kakkabu. In this connection and upon Professor Sayce's authority
I cite the significant fact that the word for north and for the empire and
capital of northern Babylonia was Akkad, and that we thus find in North
Babylonia a great centre of government the name of which contains the
syllables ak-ka which recur in the appellations for north and for Polaris.

The following star-names, given by Mr. Robert Brown, are of utmost
interest considering that a star in Draconis was the pole-star of 2170
B.C. and that in general the serpent was indissolubly connec