Six species of poisonous snakes occur in Pales- tine, Vipera Euphratica, V. Ammodyte.t, Dabnia xanfhina, Echis arenicoln, Nn.ja Hnje, the hooileil cobra common in the southern border countries, but not often found in tlie cultivated tracts ; and Crrristes I/nssc/qui.'.tii, the horned viper, very comirion, and often found lurking in hollows of the ground. Tristram has seen it in the im[irints made on soft ground by camels. The Israelites were therefore well acciuainted with the ell'ects of poisonous wounds intlicted by these, as well as by the scarcely less dreadeil centipedes and scorpions. In Kgy|it poi.son was likewise cbielly associated with serpent bites. In the Book of the 1 >ead (c. 149, 1. 2711'.) the poison of the serpent litwk is called shinnl, whicli comes from a root which also means to be hot, or to produce fever.
The natives of the neighbouring countries had, like most races of savage or semi-civilized man, learned to utilize this poison to render their darts and arrows more destructive. This was an ancient jiraetice (cf. Udij.s.scy, i. 2t)l ; Soph. Trarhiiiite, .")74), and it is referred to in Job (i^ This u.sage has shown itself in the change of meaning in tlie word Tofiit6s, possibly al.so in that of Ws, although it is now generally held that in its Homeric sens"'
u
POLE
POMEGRANATE
fts an arrow it is connected vdth the Sanskrit ishtis, while in its Sophoclean sense as a poison, ' etra ((lOLvias ix9pa.t ix^Svi/s Us,' it is related to the Sanskrit vishas.
The poison of insect bites is mentioned directly in Wis IG' and implicitly in other passages. The •word ro'sh occurs 11 times, but is usually trans- lated 'gall' ('venom' in Dt 32^, 'poison in Job 20", 'hemlock' in Hos 10^). It was most probably a poisonous plant, and one which communicates its bitterness and poisonous properties to water (Jer 8" 9") ; but in the absence of more definite information it is not easily identified. Perhaps the poppy is the plant indicated (see GALL in vol. ii. 10-4), but the grapes of gall of Dt 32*' are most probably the fruit of Calotropis procera.
Metaphorically, the influence of evil speech is said to be the deadly poison of that unruly evil, the tongue, Ja 3*. The forked tongue of the snake was believed to be the darter of its venom before the structure of the poison fangs was known ; cf. Job 20'* ' he shall suck the poison of asps, the viper's tongue shall slay him.'
The administration of poison internally for suicidal or homicidal purposes is not mentioned in NT or OT. In 2 Mac 10" there is, however, one instance given — that of the suicide of Ptolemy Macron. Poisoning and sorcery were, as they still aie in savage and semi-savage countries, closely connected in ancient times and in the NT. Sor- cerers are called (papfiaKol, as in LXX Ex 7" 9'' 22'* and eight other passages, as well as in Rev 21* 22" ; and sorcery is ipapijjxKia in Gal S"'. Sorcery in the OT is, however, more directly connected ^vith incantation, as implied by its root ips. See Magic, vol. iii. p. 210. Josephus (Ant. XVII. iv. 1), in describing the death of Pheroras, says that the Arabian women were skilful in compounding poisons ; but the art of poisoning was in ancient times much more commonly employed among Indo- European than among Semitic peoples.
In the appendix to St. Mark's Gospel (16'*) one of the promises made to 'those that believe,' is that if they drink any deadly thing (6av6Lciii6v ti), it shall not hurt them — a promise which, accord- ing to Papias (ap. Eus. HE iii. 39), was fulfilled in the case of Joseph Barsabbas.
The word ' poison ' in English is borrowed from the French poison, which originally meant a potion or remedy. In the Roman de la Eose, L 2043, it is thus used —
* Car ^ Bais par quel polaoa Tu seras tret & gariBOQ ' ;
but from the 13th cent, it has been nsed in English in the sense of a deadly drug. See the passage in Langtoft's Chronicle, where he describes the administration of ' puson ' to Ambrosius. This, though written in a sort of French, is the work of an Englishman ; see also Britton, ed. Nichols, i. 34, where the word is spelled ' poysoun.'
For notes on the history of poisons in ancient times see Schulze, Diss, sistens toxicoloqiam veierum plantas venenatas describentem veteribus cognitas, Halse, 1788. A. Macalister.
POLE. — The brazen serpent was displayed upon a pole (Nu 21*- • AV, the only occurrence of the word 'pole' in the Bible). The Heb. is Dj (LXX <niij.€toy), which appears to mean primarily ' a flag- staff,' and is used in a transferred sense for the banner itself. KV tr. 'standard.' See, further, art. Banner.
POLL.— The poll (of Tent, origin, Scotch pmv) is the head, especially its rounded back part. Thus Shaks. Hamlet, IV. v. 196— 'All flaxen was his poll ' ; and Bacon, Essays, p. 122, ' Not the hundred
poll will be fit for an helmet.' The woid is thenc* used in very early English for the person, as Piers Plowman, B. xi. 57, 'Pol hi i)or = individua!ly. A poll-tax is a tax on each person, and a poll oi polling is a census or record of persons. The subst. is used in AV only in the phrase ' by the poll' (Nu 3") or 'by their polls' (Nu p-ie-so-a 1 Cli 23S- »). Cf. Shaks. Coriul. III. iii. 9—