Dunash (Adonim) ben-Tanlm, the Babylomany bom arirlkk about A.D. 900, was educated at Keira- w4n by the celebrated Isaac IsraSli (q. v.), and died about 960. At the age of twenty he had become so proficient in Hebrew learning that he was able to write an elaborate critique of the works of Saadia, be- sides writing also a special Hebrew grammar contain- ing a comparison of the lingubtic characteristic of the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and a commentary on the Booh of Creation, His writings (mostly yet in manuscript) are often referred to by Aben-Ezra and other expositors. Dunash was the first who maintain- ed that the Hebrew language has diminutives, which are effected by the endings ')i and y< ; e. g. 'p3'^^&t, 2 Sam. xiii, 20. Aben-Ezra opposes this opinion, and asserts that the Hebrew language has no diminutives ; but Ewald, in his Grammar (c. 167), has espoused Du- nash's opinion.— Kitto, Cyclojxedia, i, 710 ; Ftirst, Ho' brew and Chaldee Lexicon, Preface, p. xxv.
Done; (prop. $*^&2C, tsaphi^a, Ezek. iv, 15, spoken exclusively of animals, such as the cow or camel ; also "l^^, dolmen, ordure, as spread on land, 2 Kings ix, 87 ; Psa. Ixxxiii, 10 ; Jer. viii, 2 ; ix, 22 ; xvi, 4 ; xxv, 88 ; while l&IID, pe'reeh, ngni^esftecee as contahied in the entrails of victims, Exod. xxix, 14 ; Lev. iv, 11 ; viU, 17; xvi, 27; Num. ix, 5; Mai. ii, 8. On the other hand, human excrement is specially denoted by nx^ ttedh% Dent xxiii, 18; Ezek. iv, 12; a sense also applied to b^ft, ffe'lel, Job x^, 7 ; Ezek. iv, 12, 15 ; Zeph. i, 17 ; but not necessarily to Vbt, gaiat, 1 Kings xiv, 10. The Greek word is ic6irpoc, whether of men or brutes ; used in the Sept. for all the above, but found in the N. T. only in the form Kofrpia, manure, Luke xiii, 8 ; while oKvpaXov, Phil, iii, 8, property signifies re/)iue). The use of such substances among the Jews was twofold.
1. As manure. This consisted either of straw steep- ed in liquid manure (hS^Tp *^^a, lit. in dung-water, Isa. xxv, 10), or the sweepings (nn^lD, Isa. v, 25) of the streets and roads, which were carefully removed from about the houses and collected in heaps (rbCK) outside the walls of the towns at fixed spots (hence the dung-gate at Jerusalem, Neh. ii, 18), and thence removed in due course to the fields (Mbhna, Shahb, 8, § 1-8). See below. The mode of applying manure to trees was by digging holes about their roots and in- serting it (Luke xiii, 8), as still practised in Southern Italy (Trench, PartMes, p. 856). In the case 9 sacri- fices the dung was burned outside the camp (Exod. xxix, 14 ; Lev. iv, 11 ; viii, 17 ; Num. xix, 5) : hence the extreme opprobrium of the threat in Mai. ii, 8. Particular directions were laid down in the law to en- force cleanliness with regard to human ordure (Dent, xxiii, 12 sq.): it was the grossest insult to turn a man*s house into a receptacle for it (HK^m, 2 Kings X, 27; A;p, Ezra vi, 11; Dan. ii, 5;*fii;"29, A. V., *' dunghiir*) ; public establbhments of that nature are still found in the large towns of the East (Russeirs A leppOy i, 84). The expression to " cast out as dung'* implied not only the offensiveness of the object, but also the ideas of removal (1 Kings xiv, 10), and still more exposure (2 Kings ix, 87 ; Jer. viii, 2). The rev- erence of the later Hebrews would not permit the pro- nunciation of some of the terms used in Scripture, and accordingly more delicate words were substituted in the margin (HKlX l^oah% for D'^K'nn, charcum% or D'^'in, charim'^2 Kings vi, 25; x, 27;^xviii, 27 ; Isa. xxxvi, 12). The occurrence of such names as Gilalai, Dimnah, Madmenah, and Bfadmannah, shows that these ideas of delicacy did not extend to ordinary mat- ters. The term mcv/SaXa (A. V., "dung," Phil, iii, 8) is applied by Josephus ( War, v, 18, 7) to ordure (comp. Ecclus. xxvii, 4). See Manube.
DUNGHILL
912
DUNGEON
2. As fuel In a district where wood is scarce, dang is so valuable for this purpose that little t>f it is spared for the former. The difficulty of procuring fire-wood in Syria, Arabia, and Egypt has therefore made dung in all ages highly prized as a substitute : it was used for heating lime-ldlns (Theophr. Ia^, 69), ovens, and for balung cakes (Ezek. iv, 12, 15), the even heat which it produced adapting it peculiarly for the latter operation. Cows' and cameb' dung is still usad for a similar purpose by the Bedouins (Burckhardt's Notes, i, 67) : they even form a species of pan for fry- ing eggs out of it (Russell, Al^po^ i, 39) ; in Egypt the dung is mixed with straw and formed into flat, round cakes, which are dried in the sun (Lane, Mod. Eg. i, 262 ; ii, 141). This use of dung for fuel by the ancient Israelites, however, is collected incidentally from the passage in which the prophet Ezeklel, being commanded, as a symbolical action, to bake his bread with human dung, excuses himself from the nse of an unclean thing, and is permitted to employ cows' dung instead (Ezek. iv, 12-15). This shows Uiat the dung of animals, at least of dean animals, was usual, and that no ideas of ceremonial uncleanness were attached to its employment for this purpose. The nse of cow- dung for fuel is known to European villagers, who, at least in the west of England, prefer it in baking their bread *' under the crock," on account of the long-con- tinued and equable heat which it maintains. It is there also not unusual in a summer evening to see aged people travelling the green lanes with baskets to collect the cakes of cow-dung which have dried upon the road. This helps out the ordinary fire of wood, and makes it bum longer. In many tiiinly- wooded parts of south-western Asia, the dung of cows, camels, horses, asses, whichever may happen to be the most common, is collected with great zeal and diligence from the streets and highways, chiefly by young girb. They also hover on the skirts of travellers, and there are often amusing scrambles among them for the drop- pings of the cattle. The dung is mixed up with chopped straw and made into cakes, which are stuck up by their own adhesiveness against the walls of the cottages, or are laid upon the declivity of a hill, until sufficiently dried. It is not unusual to see a whole village with its walls thus garnished, which has a sin- gular and not very agreeable appearance to a Europe- an traveller. Towards the end of autumn, the result of the summer collection of fuel for winter is shown in large conical heaps or stacks of dried dung upon the top of every cottage. The usages of the Jews in this matter ^ere probably similar in Idndy although the ex- tent to which they prevailed cannot now be estimated. (See Kitto, Pictorial Hist, of the Jews, ii, p. cccxlix. — Smith, s. V. ; Kitto, s. v. See Fueu