[485] See page [81] f., supra. It is, indeed, by no means improbable, that the Hebrew word tôtaphôth (טוֹטָפוֹת), translated “frontlets,” as applied to the phylacteries was an Egyptian word. Its etymology has been a puzzle to the critics.
[486] See Exod. 13 : 11-16.
[487] See references to Zohar, Pt. II., Fol. 2, by Farrar, in Smith-Hackett’s Bible Dictionary, Art. “Frontlets.”
[488] Smith-Hackett’s Bib. Dict., Art. “Frontlets.”
[489] On this point I have the emphatic testimony of intelligent native Syrians. “As I live, saith the Lord”—or more literally, “I, living, saith the Lord.” “For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself”—by his life. (Comp. Isa. 49 : 18; Jer. 22 : 24; Ezek. 5 : 11; Heb. 6 : 13.)
[490] This also I am assured of, by native Syrians. One who had resided in both Syria and Upper Egypt told me, that in Syria, in the rite of blood-friendship, the blood is taken from the arm as the symbol of strength; while in portions of Africa where the legs are counted stronger than the arms, through the training of the people as runners rather than as burden-bearers, the leg supplies the blood for this rite (See reference to Stanley and Mirambo’s celebration of this rite at pages [18]-[20], supra).
[492] See e. g. Gen. 14 : 22; Dan. 12 : 7. “It is an interesting fact, that many of the images of the gods of the heathen have the right hand lifted up.” (Roberts’s Orient. Ill. of Scrip., p. 20.)
[493] See Prov. 6 : 1; 11 : 15 (margin); 22 : 24-26.