Hid'dekel (Heb. Chidde'kel, ^p-in, in pause Chid- da'kel, b i^'lH ; Sept. 'TiypiQ, to which in Dan. x, 4 it adds 'Evct/csX v. r. ''ES^tKfX ; Vidg. Tigris), the name of the third of the four rivers of Paradise, being that which runs on the border (np'lp) of Assyiia (Gen. ii, 14), and " the great river" on the banks of which Dan- iel received his remarkably minute vision, or, rather, angelic prediction of the mutual history of Egypt and Syria (Dan. ii, 4). There has never been much dispute of the traditional interpretation which identifies the Tigris with the Hiddekel. According to Gesenius {Tlie- sctur. p. 448), this river in Aramaean is called Diglu, in Arabic Diglat, in Zend Teger, in Pehlvi Tegera, " stream ;" whence have arisen both the Aramjean and Arabic forms, to which also we trace the Hebrew Dekel divested of the prefix Hid. This prefix denotes activity, rapidity, ve- hemence, so that Hid-dekel signifies " the rapid Tigris." From the introduction of the prefix, it would appear that the Hebrews were not entirely aware that Teger, represented by their ^p1, Dekel, by itself signified ve- locity ; so in the language of IVIedia, Tigris meant an arrow (Strabo, ii, 527 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi, 27 ; comp. Persic teer, " arrow ;" Sanscrit tigra, " sharp," " swift") ; hence arose such pleonasms as "king Pharaoh" and " the Al-coran." Fiirst, however {Heb. Lex. s. v.), re- gards the last syllable as a mere termination to an orig- inal form p'^n, Hiddek, from p j^, to be sha7p,heiice to flow swiftly. "The form Diglath occurs in the Tar- gums of Onkelos and Jonathan, in Josephus (A nt. i, 1), in the Armenian Eusebins (Chron. Can. pt. i, c. 2), in Zonaras (Ann. i, 2), and in the Armenian version of the Scriptures. It is hardened to DiyHt (Diglito) by Pliny (^Hist. Nat. vi, 27). The name now in use among the inhabitants of IMesopotamia is Dijlch. It has generally been supposed that Higla is a mere Shemitic corruption of Tigra, and that this latter is the true name of the stream ; but it must be observed that the two forms are found side by side in the Babylonian transcript of the Behistun inscription, and that the ordinary name of the stream in the inscriptions of AssjTia is Tiggar. More- over, if we allow the Dekel o{ Hid-dekel to mean the Ti- gris, it would seem probable that this was the more an- cient of the two appellations. Perhaps, therefore, it is best to suppose that there was in early Babylonian a root dik, equivalent in meaning, and no doubt connected in origin, with the Arian tig or tij, and that from these two roots were formed independently the two names, Dekel, Dikla, or Digla, and Tiggar, Tigra, or Tigris. The stream was known by either name indifferently; but, on the whole, the Arian appellation predominated in ancient times, and was that most commonly used even by Shemitic races. The Arabians, however, when they conquered IMesopotamia, revived the true Shemitic title, and this (Dijleh) continues to be the name by which the river is known to the natives down to the present day" (Smith).
The Tigris rises in the mountains of Armenia, about fifteen miles south of the sources of the Euphrates, and pursues nearly a regular course south-east tiU its junc«
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tion with that river at Koriia, fifty miles above Basrah (Bassorah). The Tigris is navigable for boats of twenty or thirty tons' burden as far as the mouth of the Odor- neh, but no further; and the commerce of Mosul is con- sequently carried on by rafts supported on inflated sheep or goats' skins. See Float. These rafts are floated down the river, and when they arrive at Bagdad the wood of which they are composed is sold without loss, and the skins are conveyed back to Mosid by camels. The Tigris, between Bagdad and Korna, is, on an aver- age, about two liuudred yards wide ; at Mosul its breadth does not exceed three hundred feet. The banks are steep, and overgrown for tlie most part with brushwood, the resort of Uons and other wild animals. The middle part of the river's course, from Mosid to Korna, once the seat of high culture and the residence of mighty kings, is now desolate, covered with the reUcs of ancient great- ness in the shape of fortresses, mounds, and dams, which had been erected for the defence and irrigation of the country. At the nuns of Nimrud, eight leagues below Mosul, is a stone dam quite across the river, which, when the stream is low, stands considerably above the surface, and forms a small cataract ; but when the stream is swollen, no part of it is visible, the water rushing over it like a rapid, and boiling up with great impetu- osity. It is a work of great skill and labor, and now venerable for its antiquity. The inhabitants, as usual, attribute it to Nimrod. It is called the Zikr ul-Aawaze. At some short distance below there is another Zikr (dike), but not so higli, and more ruined than the for- mer. The river rises twice in the year: the first and great rise is in April, and is caused by the melting of the snows in the mountains of Armenia ; the other is in November, and is produced by the periodical rains. (See Kinneir, Geoff. Mem. of Persian Empire, p. 9, 10 ; Rich's Koordistan ; Chesney's Euphrates Expedition ; Sir R. K. Porter's rrai'e/s; etc.) — Kitto. See Tigris.