ered." (Christmas's Mytho. p.
250, in Ibid.) "In the infancy of civilization, high places were chosen
by the people to offer sacrifices to the gods. The first altars, the
first temples, were erected on mountains." (Humboldt: American
Researches.) The Himalayas are the "_Heavenly mountains_." In Sanscrit
_Himala_, corresponding to the M. Gothic, _Himins_; Alem., _Himil_;
Ger., Swed., and Dan., _Himmel_; Old Norse, _Himin_; Dutch, _Hemel_;
Ang.-Sax., _Heofon_; Eng., _Heaven_. (See Mallet's Northern Antiquities,
p. 42.)

[60:3] Bunsen's Egypt, quoted in Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 367. Mrs.
Child says: "The _laws_ of Egypt were handed down from the earliest
times, and regarded with the utmost veneration as a portion of religion.
Their first legislator represented them as dictated by the gods
themselves and framed expressly for the benefit of mankind by their
secretary _Thoth_." (Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 173.)

[60:4] Quoted in Ibid.

[61:1] See Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 175.

[61:2] Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 301.

CHAPTER VIII.

SAMSON AND HIS EXPLOITS.

This Israelite hero is said to have been born at a time when the
children of Israel were in the hands of the Philistines. His mother, who
had been barren for a number of years, is entertained by an angel, who
informs her that she shall conceive, and bear a son,[62:1] and that the
child shall be a _Nazarite_ unto God, from the womb, and he shall begin
to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.

According to the prediction of the angel, "the woman bore a son, and
called his name _Samson_; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him."

"And Samson (after he had grown to man's estate), went down to
Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the
Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his
mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the
daughters of the Philistines; now therefore get her for me to
wife."

Samson's father and mother preferred that he should take a woman among
the daughters of their own tribe, but Samson wished for the maid of the
Philistines, "for," said he, "she pleaseth me well."

The parents, after coming to the conclusion that it was the will of the
Lord, that he should marry the maid of the Philistines, consented.

"Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to
Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath, and, behold, a