As far as can be gathered, religious dancing among the Israelites was, as a general rule, performed by the sexes separately; in the account of the worship of the Golden Calf, however, it must be allowed that the possibility of promiscuous dancing is not excluded, see especially Exod. xxxii. 2, 3. Among other peoples it is found that, mostly, the sacred dance was performed by men and women separately; but there are notable exceptions among the Egyptians as well as the Syrians, also among the Greeks; and the same applies to the uncultured races. II When all the _data_ in the Old Testament have been gathered it is possible to discern certain types of the sacred dance; by this we do not necessarily mean varieties of mode, not but that these also occur; the type is indicated rather by the connexion in which the dance occurs. Therefore, although it is not to be supposed that there was, generally speaking, any idea of having particular kinds of dance reserved for different occasions, it is possible to attempt some kind of classification. At any rate, it is a convenient method to adopt in reviewing the evidence. Emphasis must again be laid on the fact that when one is speaking of the “sacred dance” in past ages one has to allow to the term a wide connotation. We have come to use the word “dance” in a very restricted sense; in antiquity it was different; included in it are modes varying from a staid, march-like rhythmic step, to the wilder movements of the ecstatic dance. (1) We draw attention first to the sacred _processional dance_. A cursory reference to one or two examples will suffice here as a more detailed examination of each type of dance will be found in the chapters to follow. Judging from the few _data_ offered by the Old Testament, the sacred processional dance among the Israelites was always performed in honour of Jahwe. In the well-known instance of David and the Israelites dancing in procession before the Ark, it is really in the presence of Jahwe that it takes place since He is conceived as being present in the Ark. The dance assumes various forms according to the degree of religious excitement engendered. It is spoken of as being dancing of the ordinary kind, _i.e._ the common Hebrew word for dancing is used; but presently it takes on the character of a rotating dance, then there is jumping followed by something in the nature of skipping, and it is also spoken of as a whirling movement. It will be noticed that five different words are used here to express the different ways in which the dancing was performed. Although the occasion on which this took place was a very special one, it would be a mistake to suppose that the sacred dance was only reserved for such special occasions. It is rather to be gathered from the incidental way in which the dancing is mentioned that the rite was usual, and was only of a more elaborate character because of the special occasion. A single mention of this kind must, it may be safely