The Jews firmly believed in demoniacal agencies. “When the even was become, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick.” “And in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil; and he cried out with a loud voice.” “And devils also came out of many ..., and He rebuking them suffered them not to speak.” “And there was a herd of many swine feeding on the mountains.... Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place, and were choked.” “Casting out devils” was a sure proof of divine mission. Perhaps a quotation from the Talmud will make clear the fear of demons which obsesses the Jew: Abba Benjamin says, “if the eye were permitted to see the malignant spirits that beset us, we could not rest on account of them.” Abai, another sage, says: “They outnumber us, they surround us as the heaped up soil in our garden plots.” Rav Hunna says: “Every one has a thousand on his left side and ten thousand on his right.” Rava claims: “The crowding at the schools is caused by their (demons) pushing in; they cause the weariness which the rabbis experience in their knees, and even tear their clothes by hustling against them. If one would discover traces of their presence, let him sift some ashes upon the floor at his bedside, and next morning he will see their footmarks as of fowls on the surface. But if one would see the demons themselves, he must burn to ashes the after-birth of a first born black kitten, the offspring of a first-born black cat, and then put a little of the ashes into his eyes, and he will not fail to see the demons.” In the words of Lord Avebury, the archeologist, “the savage is a prey to constant fears.... Savages never know but what they may be placing themselves in the power of these terrible enemies (the demons); and it is not too much to say that the horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a thick cloud over savage life and embitters every pleasure.” In our modern times the preachers, the revivalists, the pulpit, appeal to fear and to hell in order to keep their flock in the fold. Fear of eternal damnation for infidels is the war cry of religion. Professor Dreslar elicited from 875 California normal school students four-fifths of whom were young women, 3225 confessions of belief in superstitions.... “How thin is the veneer of culture over that great mass of irrational predisposition which in the hour of fear and excitement resumes control of the popular mind, and leads on to folly and ruin!” (Ross).