Page:Heavenly Bridegrooms.djvu/58

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that the Arabians really called the moon 'Sarrat ha Lilat,' the queen of night. ******

"Mr. Talbot also says 'Alilat' may also mean the star Venus.

"The Greeks considered Lilith evidently to be the moon, as with them she is Ilithyia, the sister of Apollo, one of the birth goddesses. Night in Helrewis layelah.

"That the moon should be selected to represent the feminine principle is readily accounted for by her waxing and waning propensities, to say nothing of her controlling or coinciding with the feminine periods."

[The Serpent in Paradise, etc.]

Summing up these varying traditions we find the following incidents prominent:

1. A woman who is not of the earth but evidently from an unknown world enters upon relations with Adam or with the men of later generations.

2. The relation is in most cases that of husband and wife and not a mere liaison.

3. [In those cases where the relation is illicit, the earthly partner comes to an unfortunate end.]

4. This woman from the unseen world is credited with being a seducer and a devil.

5. She bears no children save demons and is reputed to destroy children.

6. She causes men to dream evil dreams at night. Lilith is evidently the complement of the tradition

about angelic bridegrooms. That the typical spirit bride should have so much more unsavory a reputation than has the typical spirit bridegroom of nowaday. The masculine nature is proverbial for its lack of self-control where women are concerned: and in this it has usually contrasted unfavorably with the self-control of women in similar cases. On the other hand, the men of our Western civilization are mostly superior to our women (of the virtuous classes) in the ardent, dramatic and artistic expression of love for the opposite sex a desirable qualification in the romance and uncertainties and trying ordeals of Borderland wedlock.