[3]LILITH

That Eve was Adam’s second wife was a common Rabbinic speculation. Certaincommentators on Genesis adopted this view, to account for the doubleaccount of the creation of woman, in the sacred text, first in Genesis i. 27, andsecond in Genesis xi. 18. And they say that Adam’s first wife was named Lilith,but she was expelled from Eden, and after her expulsion Eve was created. AbrahamEcchelensis gives the following account of Lilith and her doings: “Thereare some who do not regard spectres as simple devils, but suppose them to be ofa mixed nature—part demoniacal, part human, and to have had their origin fromLilith, Adam’s first wife, by Eblis, prince of the devils. This fable has beentransmitted to the Arabs, from Jewish sources, by some converts of Mohametfrom Cabbalism and Rabbinism, who have transferred all the Jewish fooleries tothe Arabs. They gave to Adam a wife formed of clay, along with Adam, andcalled her Lilith, resting on the Scripture: ‘Male and female created He them.’”—Legendsof the Patriarchs and Prophets.—Baring Gould.

Lilith or Lilis.—In the popular belief of the Hebrews, a female spectre in theshape of a finely dressed woman, who lies in wait for, and kills children. The oldRabbins turned Lilith into a wife of Adam, on whom he begat demons and whostill has power to lie with men and kill children who are not protected by amuletswith which the Jews of a yet later period supply themselves as a protection againsther. Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy tells us: “The Talmudists say thatAdam had a wife called Lilis, before he married Eve, and of her he begat nothingbut devils.” A commentator on Skinner, quoted in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana,says that the English word Lullaby is derived from Lilla, abi (begone,Lilith)! In the demonology of the Middle Ages, Lilis was a famous witch, andis introduced as such in the Walpurgis night scene in Goethe’s “Faust.”—Webster’sDictionary.

Our word Lullaby is derived from two Arabic words which mean “Beware ofLilith!”—Anon.

Lilith, the supposed wife of Adam, after she married Eblis, is said to have ruledover the city of Damascus.—Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets.—BaringGould.