In a question like this, however, the philosophical method also, when carried on critically, may yield a satisfactory result. Accordingly, observations should be made in the sphere of religious consciousness. Now one of the characteristics of the human mind is the tendency to defy man. This is shown in the titles which men gave to their superiors. In the Tell-al-Amarna tablets, we find various kinglets of Syria, in writing to the king of Egypt, address him as “my gods” (ilani-ia). Thus Abimilki of Tyre writes: “To my lord, the king, my son, my god.” What is more, a superhuman character is attributed to the dead. This appears from the attitude which the primitive mind entertained towards the deceased. At first, the relation to the dead was hostile, hence their spirits were feared. Gradually, the relation became familiar, so that their association was sought and sacrifices and gifts were offered to them. They came to be looked upon as elohim, who knew the future events. Thus we find that in the Old Testament, worship was offered to the dead, and that the tombs of ancestors and heroes frequently appear as places of worship, as, _e. g._, the grave of Miriam at Kadish (Num. 26: 1). Even to-day tombs of saints are common in Arabia, and thousands of people visit them annually to ask the intercession of the saints. Likewise, the Nuṣairiyeh of Syria have deified ‘Ali, the Drus their chief Hakim, the Babis their Beha, and the Christians their saints.[154] We cannot, therefore, be surprised that the Yezidis have deified their šeiḫs and heroes. They have only shown that common trait of the mind—the tendency to deify man. It is to be noticed, further, that in the historical development of religions we find that when the stage of the mere belief in spirits is past, individual deities stand out from the great mass of the spirits, and these are plainly imagined to be personal gods, such as Astarte and Ba‘al by the side of Hadad and Aschirat.[155] Now this is practically what we find in the evolution of modern Yezidism. Out of many šeiḫs and murids, seven, next to šeiḫ ‘Adi, stand out as individual divinities. Yearly festivals in honor of these šeiḫs are commemorated in April at different villages with the same rites as those observed at Šeiḫ ‘Adi’s tomb. Lamps are nightly lighted and left to burn in the shacks called after the names of their respective šeiḫs; and in those to which a room is attached, ḳawwals assemble at sunset every Tuesday and Thursday, when they burn incense over each tomb; and after watching a short time, and smoking their pipes, they return home.