Modern Oriental Standards.
serve as a distinguishing mark, such as leathern aprons, wisps of hay, pieces of armor, and horse-tails ; then by metallic symbols and images, combined sometimes with feathers, tassels, and fringes; and then plain or figured flags of linen or silk. Besides, the interpretation we have cited is founded on the hypothesis that all sculpt- ure, painting, and other arts of design were forbidden to the Hebrews; and as we are not quite prepared to admit the existence of such a prohibition, we do not feel absolutely bound, unless on its intrinsic probability, to receive an explanation which takes it for granted (Kitto, Pict. Bible, note at Numb, ii, 2).
From the kind of service which each class of en- sign was to render, we may assume that the tribal standard (?5'1, degel), at all times required to be dis- tinguishable " afar off," would be elevated on high poles with conspicuously marked distinctions, and that there- fore, although the mottoes ascribed to the twelve tribes, and the symbolical effigies applied to them, may or may not have been adopted, something like the lofty flabelliform signa of Egypt most likely constituted their particular distinction; and this is the more probable, as no fans or umbrellas were borne about the ark, and, be- ing ro3-al, no chief, not even Moses himself, could as- sume them ; but a priest or Levite may have carried that of each tribe in the form of a fan, as the distinc- tion of highest dignity, and of service rendered to the Lord. They may have had beneath them vitim, or shawls, of the particular color of the stone in the breast- plate of the high-priest (although it must be observed that that ornament is of later date than the standards); and they may have been embellisheil with inscriptions, or with figures which (at a time when everj^ Hebrew knew that the animal forms and other objects constitut- ed parts of written hieroglyidiic inscriptions, and even stood for sounds) could not be mistaken for idols— the great lawgiver himself adojjting eftigieswhen he shajied his cherubim for the ark and ludls for the brazen sea. In after-ages we find ty|)ical figures admitted in the ships carved on the monuments of the Jlaccabees, being the symbol of the tribe of Zebulon, and not even then pro- hibited, because ships were inanimate objects. As for the '• abomination of desolation," if by that term the Koman eagle was really meant, it was with the Jews more an expresxion of excited political feeling under the form of religious zeal than of pure devotion, and one of the many signs which preceded their national doom.
There is reason to believe that the mishpachoth, or
STANDARD
985
STANDARD-BEARER
Various Forms of Ancient Standards.
1. Bactrian eagle ; 2. Persian vexillum ; 3. Standard of Sesostris ; 4. Egyptian ensign set in a frame, signal of castrametation and of direc- tion ; 5. Telegraphic ensign, varying with each Pharaoh ; 6. Subor- dinate Egyptian ensigns ; 7. Tribal tablet ; 8. Plume ensign used in temples.
clan ensigns, and the 6th, or tribal ensign, were, at least in the earlier ages, symbolical figures ; and that the shekels ascribed to David, bearing an olive or citron branch, to Nehemiah with three lilies, to Herod Agrippa with three ears of corn, and to Trypho with a helmet and star, were so many types of families, which may all have been borne as sculptured figures, or, when the purism of later times demanded it, may have been painted upon tablets, like the supposed family or clan motto on the ensign of the Maccabees CiDwia). The practice was equally common among the heathen Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks; and perhaps the figures of those actually used in Jerusalem are repre- sented in the sculptured triumphal procession on the Arch of Titus, where the golden candlestick and other spoils of vanquished Judah are portrayed. A circum- stance which confirms the meaning of the objects rep- resented upon the Jewish shekels is that on the reverse of those of Herod Agrippa is seen another sovereign en- sign of Asia — name- ly, the umbrella (^chattah, chutah, of India ) — always at- tending monarchs, and sculptured at Chehel Minar, and at Nakshi - Bustan, where it marks the presence of the king. It is still the royal to- ken through all the East and Islam Afri- ca; and it appears that in the Macedoni- an cera it was adopted by the Graeco-Egyp- tian princes ; for An- tony is reproached
with joining the Roman eagles to the state umbrella of Cleopatra —
"Interqne eigna (tiirpe!) militaria Sol asi)icit conopenni" (Horace, Epod. ix).
The ensign of the family or clan of the royal house then reigning, of the judge of Israel, or of the captain of the host was, no doubt, carried before the chief in power, although it does not appear that the Hebrew kings had, like the Pharaohs, four of them to mark their dignity ; yet from analogy they may have had that number, since the practice was also known to the Parthian kings subsequently to the Byzantine emper- ors, and even to the Welsh princes. — Kitto, See Ban- ner; Ensign; Flag.
In Daniel the symbols on several standards are per- haps referred to, as the Medo- Persian "ram with two horns;" the he-goat with one horn for Alexander; the goat with four horns for Alexander's successors; and the goat with the little horn for Antiochus Epiphancs (Dan. viii, 3-25; comp. vii, 3-27.) See Standahd-beakkb.