[507]. Angelo de Gubernatis, in his Zoological Mythology, is peculiarly indefinite on the mythological significance of this animal; compare Pleyte, La Religion des Pré-Israelites, Leyden 1865, p. 151, where much useful information will be found on the worship of the Ass.
[508]. See Gesenius, Thesaurus, pp. 494 and 1163.
[509]. On the Arabic proper name Ḥimâr, Yâḳût, II. 362, may be consulted; cf. Ibn Dureyd, Kitâb al-ishtiḳâḳ, p. 4. The Arabic proper name Misḥal is also connected with the Ass; it alludes to the screeching of the wild-ass; see Tebrîzî’s Scholia to the Ḥamâsâ, p. 200 penult. Compare al-Meydânî, II. 98: akfar min Ḥimâr.
[510]. Ḳazwînî, ed. Wüstenfeld, I. 77, II. 166. I must also just refer to the story of Muṭʿim, as told in Yâḳût, IV. 565, and mention that Muṭʿim ‘he who gives food’ is likewise the name of an ancient Arabian idol. Even Krehl, in his work on the Preislamite Religion of the Arabs, p. 61, attempted to explain mythologically the story of Isâf and Nâʾilâ, interpreting the latter name as ‘she who kisses.’
[511]. Pharez and Zarah in the English Bible, derived through the LXX. from the pausal forms Pâreṣ and Zârach.—Tr.
[512]. And English Daybreak.—Tr.
[513]. From Hajnal ‘dawn,’ and hasadás, abstract substantive from root hasad ‘to split, tear open.’—Tr.
[514]. Abû Nuwâs says of the dawn, maftûḳ-ul-adîmi, Yâḳut, III. 697. 22.
[515]. This hymn is applied to Dan, to whom it is quite unsuitable, as Dan has a solar character. We are tempted to conjecture that it originally referred to a non-solar figure, perhaps actually to Levi, whose name is synonymous with nâchâsh ‘serpent.’ This is the more probable, because no separate section of Jacob’s Blessing is devoted to this son, and in the only words relating to him he is coupled with Simeon.
[516]. See Zeitsch. für Völkerpsychologie &c., 1871, VII. 307.