2. JModerns. — INIichaelis, in Commentaliones Sociefafi Gotthir/ensi oiliitce (Brem. 17G3), p. 5 sq., compares the teraphim to the Sdti/ri and Sileni, referring to the statement of Pausanias (vi, 24, 6), that there were graves of Sileni in the country of the Hebrews; and alluding to the hairT/ ones ("devils," D^'I'iJ'tlJ) of Lev. xvii, 7. Creuzer asserts that the teraphim had some- thing of asses in them {CommenUitiones Herod, i, 277 ; Symh. iii, 208 sq.) ; and refers to the old calumny that the Jews worshipped the head of an ass (Tacit. Hist, v, •i; Rutilius, i, 387). Creuzer appeals also (;Sym6. ii,340) to Gen. xxxi, in order to prove the fertilizing, or rather fecundizing, power of the D'^S"!r, which scarcely can be proved from ver. 19 (comp. here Kosenmlilleri Scho- lia ; Jahn, iii, 506 sq.).
IV. Recent Illustrations. — M. Botta found in cavities under the pavement of the porch of the palace at Khorsabad several small images of baked clay of fright- ful aspect, sometimes with lynx head and human body, and sometimes with human head and lion's or bull's body. Some have a mitre encircled at the bottom with
a double pairof horns.and others have their hair rolled in large curls. Li front of several doors he saw the same cavities, of the size of one of the bricks, and about fourteen inches in depth, lined with tiles, and having a ledge round the inside, so that they might be covered by one of the bricks of the pave- ment, without betraying the existence of the cav- ity. It has been sug- gested that these images are the teraphim, or household gods, of the ancient Assyrians, which, being secreted under the pavement near the doors, were intended to protect the entrances of the palace from the admission of evil. See Bonomi, Kimveh, p. lofj.
Figures somewhat similar but less hideous have been found among the Egyptian ruins and elsewhere, which seem to have been employed with a like significance. See Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 25.
V. Literature. — The principal authorities concerning the teraphim are Slichaelis, De Teraphis, in the Com- ment. Soc. Gott. (Brem. ]7ti3), p. 5 sq. •, Hersen, Be Tera- phim (Viteb. 1665) ; VVickmannshausen, /^b Teraphim (ibid. 1705) ; also in Ugolino, Thesanr. xxiii, 7; Antast, Be Diis Familiw Jacohi (Lips. 1744) ; Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 2660-64; Pfeiffer, Exerc. Bibl. p. 1-28; Hot- tinger. Hist. Orient, p. 296; Selden, De Diis St/ris Siintagm, i, 2; Spencer, De Lee/g. Hehr. p. 920-1038; Bochart, Hieroz. i, 023; Carpzov, Appar. Crit. p. 537- 546; Juricu, Hist. Crit. des Dof/mes, ii, 3; Gesenius,
Ancient Assyrian Teraphim.
Ancient Figures, possibly Teraphim.
Thesanr. s. v.; Winkler, Animadvers. Philol. ii, 351 sq. See Idolatry.
Terebinth, a majestic Oriental tree, which has been made by many a rival of the oak. as a represen- tative of the Heb. fi^X, flbx, biX, or "ji^X. See Plain. So Celsius {Hieroh. ii, 34-.58), and naturalists generally since. Travellers frequently confound the two trees. They are, however, cjuite different in many par- ticulars. The bark, shape, and general character are re- markably alike, but the wood, the leaf, and the lilossom differ very obviously. See Topogkaphical Terjis.
The terebinth is the Pistachia terebinthus of bota- nists, called by the Arabs the hetm or butm, and well known in the Greek islands as the turpentine-tree. See Teil. In Chios especially a considerable quantity of turpentine is extracted from it by tapping the trunk ; but this is not practiced in Palestine, where the inhabi- tants seem to be ignorant of its commercial value. It is a very common tree in the southern and eastern parts of the country, being generally found in situations too warm for the oak, whose place it there supplies, although they are occasionally found immediately adjoining, as at Tell el-Kady (Tristram, Land of Israel, p. .581). It is seldom seen in clumps or groves, never in forests, but stands isolated and weird-like in some bare ravine or on a hillside, where nothing else towers above the lower brushwood. Tlie butm is not an evergreen, as is often represented, but its small feathered lancet-shaped leaves fall in the autumn and are renewed in the spring. They are pinnate, the leaflets larger than those of the len- tisk, and their hue is a very dark reddish-green, not quite so sombre as the locust-tree. The flowers are in clusters like those of a vine, inconspicuous, and are fol- lowed by small oval berries, hanging in clusters from two to five inches in length, resembling much the clus- ters of the vine when the grapes are just set. They are of a rudd}' purple and remarkably juicy. Another fruit, or rather excrescence, is found on the tree, scattered among the leaves, of the size of a chestnut, of a pur- ple color variegated with green and white. The people of Cyprus believe that it is produced by the puncture of a tly; when opened it appears full of worms (Ma- riti, i, 209; ii, 114). From incisions in the trunk there
TEREBINTH
284
TER]\[INISM
Branch of the Teiebiuth
flows a sort of transparent balsam, constituting a very pure and fine species of turpentine, with an agree- able odor, like citron or jessamine, and a mild taste, and hardening gradually into a transparent gum. It is called Cyprus or Cliian turpentine, and is obtained in July by wounding the hark in several places, leaving a space of about three inches between the wounds. P'rom these the turpentine is received on stones, upon which it be- comes so much condensed by the coldness of the night as 10 admit of being scraped off with a knife, which is always done before sunrise. It is again liquefied in the sun and passed through a strainer, in order to free it from all extraneous matters. The quantity produced is very small, four large trees, sixty years old, only yielding two pounds and a half: it may be somewhat more in favorable situations. In consequence of this, and its sui)erior qualities, tiie turpentine is very costly, and is often adulterated with inferior substances (Kitto, Phys. Ui.<t. of Palest, p. ccxxxviii). The tree is found also in Asia Elinor (many of them near Smyrna). Greece, Italy, the south of France. Spain, and in the north of Africa, and is there described as not usually rising to the lieight of more than twenty feet. It often exceeds that size, however, in the mountains, and in the plains of Svria it is verv much larger. See Oak.