Mayi] SOCIETYOK BIBLICAL ARCH/EOLOOY. [1894.froma drawing of the same treesin perspective. It will be noticed
thatthe conical end of the palm spadixis still suggestedas in the
sculptures. (SeeProf. Tylor.s paper in the Proceedings, June,
1890.)
In the sense of palm tree,thischaracter seems to have been
read'-yy^{J— -^"fftfT*"gishimmar; and in perfect harmony
withProf.Tylor'stheory,we actually findit with the determinatives
of sex in 2 R. 46,29, 30 a :—HfT*-tfc! [•JDH
<« « Ltaa
thatis to say :—
gishimmarnita zikaru(male)
gishimmar rag zinnishtu(female)In my first paperon the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar (Pro
ceedings,Dec,1887),I noticed that the Babylonians distinguished
maleand female cedars. When we consider the other use of the
ideogram,we see that the process of fertilising trees was regarded
as a rite of purification. TheAccadianJ^ityy??SHANgA.shagga,
sha,to be bright, to make bright,to purify, pure,purity,etc (both
literally,as of metals, andfiguratively,as of man; cp. ?p2, Ps. xii,7,
and pp\ ; both associatedwith ^HtO in Mai. iii, 3), is rendered
accordingto context by the Assyrian damaqu,damqu,dumqu,terms
whichare very commonin the sense of ceremonial purity;e.g., shu
shangadingirana,qat damqati Sa iliSu, " the pure handsof his
god."
Forthe notion of impurity in connexion withthe produce of
trees,we may referto Lev. xix, 23, where the Israelites are bidden
to abstain from eatingthe fruit of trees for the first threeyearsof
bearing"as uncircumcised." As the Torah (Lev.xii, 2 sqq.) rules
thata woman afterchild-birthis " unclean " until she has presented
herselfto the priest for purification, so it would seemthatthe female
palmwas considered by the Babylonians to be impure whenit had
producedits flowers untilthe bloom had been ceremoniallysprinkled
withthe male pollen.
Thesupernaturalagentsrepresented in the sculptures as doing
whatwas done in fact by human beings,affordanotherillustrationof
the old belief referred to in my former paper,thatwhatis done on
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