Of a popular and unscientific character is H. E. de Jong’s _Das antike Mysterienwesen in religionsgeschichtlicher, ethnologischer und psychologischer Beleuchtung_ (“The Ancient Mystery-religions in the Light of Comparative Religion, Ethnology, and Psychology”), 1909. 362 pp. The author is disposed to cite the modern occult “manifestations” in relation to the astral body in order to explain certain “appearances” in the ceremonies of initiation to the mysteries. 148 On what follows see Hugo Hepding, _Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult,_ 1903, 224 pp. First volume of the series of “Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten,” edited by Dieterich and Wünsch. Cf. also Ernst Schmidt, _Kultübertragungen_ (Cultus-Transferences: “Magna Mater,” “Asklepios,” “Sarapis”). In the same series vol. viii., 1909. 149 On the original significance of the Taurobolium see Cumont, _Les Religions orientales,_ pp. 101-103. 150 Note the admission of Hugo Hepding at the close of his chapter on the Mysteries (p. 199):—“I am well aware that this account of the Phrygian Mysteries is in its details mainly hypothetical. In view of the paucity of the information which has come down to us, nothing else is possible. In particular the association of the blood baptism with the March festival cannot be shown from our documentary material.....” He wants to distinguish between an earlier and a later form of the taurobolium. The earlier form is not a ceremony of initiation but a sacrifice. It was only the later which had in view the initiation of the individual. “The first person whom we know by literary evidence to have undergone the ceremony of the taurobolium is Heliogabalus.” 151 On the Eleusinian Mysteries see Rohde, _Psyche_ (3rd ed., 1909) pp. 278-300. From his account it clearly appears how little we know about these ceremonies of initiation. In any case they were quite different from those of the later Mystery-religions. They belong to early Greek religion. 152 Franz Cumont, _Les Mystères de Mithra_ (1st ed., 1899; 2nd ed., 1902). 153 Albrecht Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie,_ 1st ed., 1903; 2nd ed., 1910 (edited after the author’s death by Richard Wünsch), 248 pp. The excursuses, pp. 92-212, really give a sketch of the fundamental ideas of the Mystery-religions in general. Cumont refuses to regard the document as a fragment belonging to a Mithras-liturgy because he cannot find in it the specific characteristics of the Persian eschatology and conception of heaven. On this controversy see the 2nd edition of the Mithras-liturgy, pp. 225-228. It would certainly have been better if Dieterich had not given the book the unnecessary and contentious title. 154 From Dieterich, p. 15.