Virgil

(47. i, 108) describes altars as earth-fast rocks. Hebrews who worshiped the sar or “rock” (a 2 title of their deity) made altars of earth, or of stones which no tool had touched (Exod, xx, 26). Delaure (Hist. des Cultes, i, p. 394) says that Ara meant originally a rough rock. Only on the altar consecrated by a holy stone do Roman Catholics permit the sacrifice of the Ma , believing the bread and wine to become the actual flesh and blood of their god. The Rev. Dr Rock (Hierurgia) says: “ Our Church ordained that the Holy Sacrifice of the Ma be offered upon an altar which contains a stone consecrated by a bishop, enclosing the relics of some saint or martyr; and that it be covered with three linen cloths, ble ed for the purpose with an appropriate benediction.” No ceremony is po ible without the stone, and the relic; and the consecration of the altar is more important than that of any other part of the church. If Ma has to be said in a private house, the priest must take with him a consecrated stone and a relic, and this was done in the case of portable altars down to our 16th century. The altar—as representing the god—was only to be reverently approached, and lightly touched by the fingers, during prayer. To sleep, or lie, before it cured many disorders, and granted fertility— as in the case of all Bethels (god-houses) and lingas. In Greek churches it was a common custom to pa under the altar—a rite connected with “pa ing through” kromlechs, or between pillars, and holy stones, or sleeping a night in a dolmen—customs still obtaining (see Stones; and Prof. Jones, Anthrop. Instit. Journal, February 1891). Al-’Uzzah. An Arab gode (see Al; Arabia; and Makka). Am. Ama. Umm. A common term in many distinct cla es of speech (Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic) for a “nurse” and a “mother.” Ama in Egypt was consort of the solar Amen. Among Dravidians Ama (or Amba) is Mother Earth. In Aryan speech we find the root Ma for “mother,” and Ma was the name of the Phrygian earth gode , From this ‘root came also Ammah A compare also Am) for “tribe” in Semitic speech; and the Turanian Am or Aim for the same, *Amalek. An early tribe in the Sinaitic peninsula. (See Arabia.) Aman-as. The Hamyarite god of agriculture, perhaps conwected with Amen, the Egyptian god who introduced civilisation. 101