the purpose of a wand or pole, and such detergent or cleansing properties as to render it a fit emblem for pu- rification;" and he suggests it as probable that "the hyssop was a species oi Phytolacca, as combining length of stem with cleansing proiierties, from the quantity of potash which is yielded by the ashes of the American species, P. decundra, of this genus." P. A byssinica grows to the size of a shrub in Abyssinia. Winer {Bibl.Real- worterbuch, s. v. Ysop) observes that the Talmudists dis- tinguish the hyssop of the Greeks and Romans from that mentioned in the law. He then adduces the Origumun, mentioned in the quotation from Rosenmliller, as the ezob of the Hebrews ; but concludes by observing that a more acciu-ate examination is required of the hyssops and Oriyana of that part of Asia before the meaning of the Hebrew term can be considered as satisfactorily de- termined. Five kinds of hyssop are mentioned in the Talmud, One is called HITX simply, without any epi- thet: the others are disting\nshed as Greek, Roman, wild hyssop, and hyssop of Cochali (Mishna, Negaim, xiv, 6). Of these, the four last mentioned were profane, that is, not to be emploj-ed in pimtications (Mishna, Purah, xi, 7). Maimonides (<:le Vacca Rufa, iii, 2) says that the hyssop mentioned in the law is that Avhich was used as a condiment. According to Porphyry {De A bslin. iv, 7), the Egyptian priests on certain occasions ate their bread mixed with hyssop ; and the zaafar, or wild mar- joram, with which it has been identified, is often an in- gredient in a mixture called dukkah, which is to this day used as food by the poorer classes in Egypt (Lane, Mod. Eg. i, 200). It is not improbable, therefore, that this may have been the hyssop of IMaimonides, who wrote in Egypt; more especially as R. D. Kimchi {Lex. s. v.),who reckons seven different kinds, gives as the equivalent the Arabic zaatar, origanum, or marjoram, and the German Dosten or Wohlgemuth (RosenmliUer, Handh.). With this agrees the Tanchum Hieros.JNIS. quoted by Gesenius. So in the Judseo-Spanish version, Exod. xii, 22 is translated "y tomaredes manojo de ori-' gano.^' This is doubtless the species of •' In-ssop" {zaatar) shown to Dr. Thomson, who describes it as " having the fragrance of thyme, with a hot, pungent taste, and long- slender stems" {Land and L'ook,i,161). But Dioscorides makes a distinction between origanum and hyssop when he describes the leaf of a species of the former as resem- bling the latter (comp. Plin. xx, 67), though it is evident that he, as well as the Talmudists, regarded them as be- longing to the same family. In the SjTiac of 1 Kings iv, 33, hyssop is rendered by h'ljo, "houseleck," although in other passages it is represented by zii//'>, which the Arabic translation follows in Psa. li, 9, and Heb. ix, 19, while in the Pentateuch it has zaatar for the same. Patrick (on 1 Kings iv, 33) was of opinion that ezob is the same with the Ethiopic aziib, which represents the hyssop of Psa. li, 9, as well as ySt'OOftov, or mint, in Matt, xxiii, 23. The monks on Jebcl Musa give the name of hyssop to a fragrant plant calledyoV/r//, which grows in great quantities on that mountain (Robinson. Bibl. Res. i, 157). It lias been reserved for the ingenuity of a German to trace a connection between ^Esop, the Greek fabuHst, and the ezob of 1 Kings iv, 33 (Plitzig, Die Sjn-Uche Salomons, Einl. § 2). (See Celsius, Hierobot. i. 407 sq.; comp. Bochart, Hieroz. i, 589; Plenk, Plant. Med. tab. 465 ; Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 284 sq. ; Faber, in Keil's Analect. i, 3 sq. ; Geiger, Phajinaceuf. Bot. i, 491 ; Gesenius, Thesaur. i, 57 sq. ; Sprengel, ad iJioscor. ii, 506 sq. ; Prosp. Alpin. Plant. yEgypt. c. 20 ; Spencer, T^eg. Rit. ii, 15, 4 ; and the Talmudical, classical, and other author- ities there cited.)
The latest result is that of Dr. J. F. Royle (communi- cated in a paper read before the Royal Asiatic Society, and published in their journal for November, 1844), who infers, first, that any plant answering to all that was re- quired should be found in Lower Egypt (Exod. xii, 22) ; in the desert of Sinai (Lev. xiv, 4, 6, and 52; Numb, xix, 6, 18) ; in the neighborhood of Jerusalem (John xix, 29) ; secondly, that it should be a plant growing on walls or
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HYTTAVANES
rocky situations (1 Kings ir, 33) ; and, finallj', that it should be possessed of some cleansing properties (Psa. li, 7), though it is })robable that in this passage it is used in a figurative sense. It should also be large enough to yield a stick, and it ought, moreover, to have a name in the Arabic or cognate languages similar to the Hebrew name. After a careful and minute examination of all the ancient and modern testimony in the case, he finds all these circumstances united in the caper -plant, or Capparis spinosa of Linnreus. See Caper-plant. The Arabic name of this plant, asiif, by which it is some- times, though not commonly described, bears considera- ble resemblance to the Hebrew. It is found in Lower Egypt (Forskal, Flor. Eg.- A rob. ; Plin. xiii, 44). I5urck- hardt {Trar.in Sp: p. 53G) mentions the aszef as a tree of frequent occurrence in the valleys of the peninsula of Sinai, "the bright green creeper which climbs out of the fissures of the rocks" (Stanley, .S". and P. p. 21, etc.), and produces a fruit of the size of a walnut, called by the Arabs Fel/'el Jibbel, or mountain-pepper (Shaw, Sjiec. Phijtorp: Afr. p. 39). Dr. Royle thought this to be un- doubtedly a species of capparis, and probably the caper- plant. The Capparis spinosa was found by j\I. Bove (Eel. (run Voij. Botan. en Eg., etc.) in the desert of Sinai, at Gaza, and at Jerusalem, Lynch saw it in a ravine near the convent of INIar Saba {Exped. p. 388). It is thus met with in all the localities where the czoh is mentioned in the Bible. With regard to its habitat, it gi'ows in dry and rocky places, and on walls : " quippe quum capparis quoque seratur siccis maxime" (Plin. xix, 48). De Candolle describes it as found " in muris et ru- pestribus." The caper-plant was believed to be possess- ed of detergent qualities. According to Pliny (xx, 59), the root was applied to the cure of a disease similar to the leprosy. Lamarck (^Enc, Botan. art. Caprier) says, "Les capriers . . . sont regardes comme . . . antiscorbu- tiques." Finallj', the caper-plant is capable of producing a stick three or four feet in length. Pliny (xiii, 44) de- scribes it in Egypt as " firmioris ligni frutex," and to this property Dr. Koyle attaches great importance, iden- tifying, as he does, the vcsaii)-Ku) of John xix, 29 with the KaXcip(i) of Matthew and JNIark. — Kitto ; Smith. To this identification, however, Dr. G. E. Post (in the Am. ed. of Smith's Bibl. Diet.) justly objects that the caper-plant has a thorny stem, and is too straggling and otherwise unsuitable in form for the us^s designated ; and, more- over, that its Arab, name really has little affinity with the Heb. ezob. He therefore returns to Celsius's idea of the Labiatce, or marjoram tribe, specially the Oriijamnn mam (Arab. Zupha), which groM's on the walls of ter- races, has a long slender stem, or cluster of stems, Avith a bushy top, a fragrant odor, and a bitter but wholesome flavor. With this agrees one of the Arabic and SjTiac renderings alcove noted.