But the religious emotion which thus finds expression is engendered by an aspiration which is believed to be attained by means of the dance; and this aspiration is nothing less than union with the deity. The loss of consciousness which eventually takes place is replaced, so it is believed, by the indwelling of the divine spirit; the body thus becomes the temporary abode of the deity, and is utilized for divine purposes. The first passage in the Old Testament with which we are specially concerned is 1 Sam. x. 5 ff.: ... and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a band (_ḥebel_) of prophets coming down from the high place (_bāmāh_), and in front of them harp and drum and pipe and lyre, and they shall be prophesying..., cp. xix. 20-24. It is true, no direct mention of the sacred dance is made here, but in view of the enumeration of musical instruments which, as we have seen, usually accompanied dancing, it is reasonable to assume that a ritual dance was taking place. That it was a religious exercise of some kind is made clear by the fact that they had come down from the high place (_bāmāh_), _i.e._ a sanctuary. The technical name for such a band of prophets, _ḥebel_, “rope” or “string” (cp. Josh. ii. 15), shows that the procession was in single file[175]; with which we may compare the sacred dance in single file depicted on the Hittite inscription at Boghazkeui (see p. 59). The account given in the Old Testament of the “prophesying” of these early prophets, and of the means employed whereby they reached the pitch of excitement required for the purpose, is so sober and restrained that it would be difficult to form a picture of the whole proceeding without the help of analogous performances among other peoples. And we are justified in believing that the practice of this type of dance among other peoples does throw light on its mode of performance among these Israelite prophets, because it is a question here of a phenomenon, a curious phenomenon, which appears at a certain stage of religious development, with few exceptions, all over the world. Its details may, and do, differ; but the essence of the rite is the same. There are innate tendencies in human nature which produce similar results; and this is one of them. So that when the means used for producing such results are given in greater detail in many cases, we are justified in believing them to have been similar in a case in which, for some reason or other, the details are only partially described. But if the details of the means used to produce the result are somewhat lacking in the Old Testament account, the result itself is stated clearly enough. The object of all that took place was to be “possessed,”—in this case by the spirit of Jahwe; for it was this “possession,” this indwelling of the deity, which enforced the “prophesying.” In the passage before us the centre of interest, in the eyes of the writer, is Saul. Of him