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                                LILITH


                     THE LEGEND OF THE FIRST WOMAN


                                  BY
                        ADA LANGWORTHY COLLIER


                                BOSTON
                        D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY
                      FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS




                           COPYRIGHT, 1885.
                         D. LOTHROP & COMPANY.




                               PREFACE.


    That Eve was Adam's second wife was a common Rabbinic
    speculation. Certain commentators on Genesis adopted this view,
    to account for the double account of the creation of woman, in
    the sacred text, first in Genesis i. 27, and second 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. Abraham Ecchelensis gives the following account of
    Lilith and her doings: "There are some who do not regard
    spectres as simple devils, but suppose them to be of a mixed
    nature--part demoniacal, part human, and to have had their
    origin from Lilith, Adam's first wife, by Eblis, prince of the
    devils. This fable has been transmitted to the Arabs, from
    Jewish sources, by some converts of Mohamet from Cabbalism and
    Rabbinism, who have transferred all the Jewish fooleries to the
    Arabs. They gave to Adam a wife formed of clay, along with Adam,
    and called her Lilith, resting on the Scripture: 'Male and
    female created He them.'"--_Legends of the Patriarchs and
    Pro