I: Introduction: The Subject and the Method of Enquiry; II: The Nature of the Religious Community, and the Relation of the Gods to Their Worshippers; III: The Relations of the Gods to Natural Things-Holy Places-The Jinn; IV: Holy Places in Theib Relation to Man; V: Sanctuaries, Natural and Artificial. - Holy Waters, Trees, Caves, and Stones; VI: Sacrifice-Preliminary Survey; VII: First-Fruits, Tithes, and Sacrificial Meals; VIII: The Original Significance of Animal Sacrifice; IX: The Sacramental Efficacy of Animal Sacrifice, and Cognate Acts of Ritual - The Blood Covenant-Blood and Hair Offerings; X: The Development of Sacrificial Ritual-Fire-Sacrifices and Piacula; XI: Sacrificial Gifts and Piacular Sacrifices-The Special Ideas Involved in the Latter

Scottish Semiticist and Arabist William Robertson Smith was a celebrated biblical critic, theorist of religion, and theorist of myth