This hymn is applied to Dan, to whom it is quite unsuitable, as Dan has a solar character. We are tempted to conjecture that it originally referred to a non-solar figure, perhaps actually to Levi, whose name is synonymous with nâchâsh ‘serpent.’ This is the more probable, because no separate section of Jacob’s Blessing is devoted to this son, and in the only words relating to him he is coupled with Simeon. Footnote 516: See _Zeitsch. für Völkerpsychologie &c._, 1871, VII. 307. Footnote 517: The first chapter of the _Vendidâd_ translated and explained, in Bunsen’s _Egypt’s Place_ &c. III. 494 _et seq._ Footnote 518: As raoidhitem may also signify ‘running’ (root rudh = to flow and to run), a ‘running snake,’ literally the same as nâchâsh bârîach, might be meant. Footnote 519: Möller, _Kosmogonie_, p. 193. Footnote 520: Max Müller, _Chips_ &c., II. 164; Fiske, _Myths_ &c., p. 113. On the blinding, see p. 109 _et seq._ Footnote 521: See al-Damîrî, _Ḥayât al-heyvân_, I. 70. Footnote 522: See Excursus L. Footnote 523: Connected with ġashiya ‘to veil.’ Footnote 524: See Gesenius, _Thesaurus_, p. 749. Footnote 525: Max Müller, _Chips_ &c., II. 68. Footnote 526: Arsala achâhu Sheybûb taḥt al-leyl, _ʿAntar_, VI. 102. 9. Footnote 527: _Ḥamâsâ_, p. 566. v. 2. Footnote 528: Libâsan, compare Sûr. VII. v. 52; XIII. v. 3; yuġshî-l-leyla-n-nahâra. Footnote 529: In _Yâḳût_, I. 24. 2. Footnote 530: Ḥarîrî, p. 162, 2nd ed.; compare the Commentary, in which particular stress is laid on the act of covering up: liʾannahu yuġaṭṭî mâ fîhî. Compare al-Meydânî, II. 112. 23: al-leyl yuwârî ḥaḍanan. Footnote 531: Eur. _Ion_, v. 1150; it is also called ποικίλον ἔνδυμα ἔχουσα, and in Aeschylus, _Prom._ v. 24 ποικίλειμων νύξ, from the gay robe of stars. Footnote 532: Compare _King Richard II._, III. 2. ‘The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs.’ Footnote 533: _Kitâb al-aġânî_, III. 28. 24. Footnote 534: I quote also a passage from the Uigur language: ‘The creation tore its black shirt,’ _i.e._ the day has dawned: Vámbéry, _Kudatku Bilik_, p. 218; compare p. 70, ‘I have put off the cloak of darkness;’ p. 219, ‘The daughter of the west spreads out her carpet.’ Footnote 535: Max Müller, _Chips_, &c., II. 83. Schwartz, _Ursprung d. Mythologie_, p. 245. Footnote 536: al-Beyḍâwî’s Commentary on the _Ḳorân_, I. 19. 21 _et seq._ Abû-l-Baḳâ, _Kulliât_, p. 305. Footnote 537: See Excursus G. Footnote 538: Ibn al-Sikkît, p. 322. Footnote 539: