The fact that in the Mosaic legislation no provision is made for ritual dancing when so many other minute details of ritual are given might seem to suggest that such a thing was discountenanced. Without question it is true to say that “the priestly historians and legislators resolutely excluded, as far as possible, everything that could infer any similarity between the worship of Jahwe and that of heathen deities[31].” But it is doubtful whether the subject of the sacred dance would have come into consideration in such a connexion; it was a practice too deeply ingrained in human nature as a means of expressing religious emotion to suggest that it implied assimilation to heathen worship. The bringing of oblations, the offering of sacrifices, were also common to Israelite and heathen worship, but that similarity would never have struck the Israelite legislators as derogatory, because these, too, were means of expressing religious emotion which, in one form or another, were common to all races. The Mosaic legislation makes no provision for the posture to be assumed in the presence of the deity, nor does it say anything about singing in worship; but it is difficult to believe that there were not fixed modes in regard to these which had been in vogue from time immemorial; and therefore they needed no mention. The same may be postulated in the case of the sacred dance. A thing which all the evidence shows to have been a world-wide means of expressing religious emotion and of honouring the deity during a long period in the history of religious development, was not likely to have been wanting among the Israelites. In those passages in the Old Testament in which religious dancing is recorded there is no hint of disapproval, let alone prohibition. It is, therefore, evident that it must have been looked upon as a usual and integral part of worship. It must also be remembered that the sacred dance continued to be an important element in worship on special occasions among the Jews in post-biblical times; the evidence will be considered later. That this could have been an innovation is out of the question; it was merely the continuation, in some cases quite possibly an elaboration, of a rite familiar to the people from time immemorial. The comparatively rare mention, therefore, of the sacred dance in the Old Testament must not mislead us; the reasons for that are very natural. And when it is realized what a number of words there are in Hebrew for dancing (see pp. 44 ff.), and that only once is there a possible reference to secular, as distinct from religious, dancing, the conclusion will be forced upon us that it played a much larger _rôle_ in the religious life of the people than first appearances would seem to indicate.