HAUPT— MANNA, NECTAR, AND AMBROSIA. 235 



more probable, however, that the powdered manna-lichen was mixed 

 with tamarisk-manna and alhagi-manna (Arab, taranjahir). The 

 manna-lichen was ground in querns or pounded in mortars (Num. 

 II, 8) and mixed with the honey-like drops exuding from the soft 

 twigs of the tamarix Gallica or with the exudation of the camel's 

 thorn (alhagi Mauronmi or camelorum). After this mixture of 

 powdered manna-lichen and tamarisk-manna or alhagi-manna had 

 been baked in baking-pots, it tasted like honey-cake (Exod. i6, 31) 

 or like pastry baked in sweet-oil (Num. 11, 8). 



The real meaning of the name tnamia has never been explained. 

 Arab, nuinn means not only manna, but also gift, present, favor, 

 benefit ; it denotes also the manna-insect which causes the secretion 

 of the manna by puncturing the twigs of the tamarisk {i.e. the 

 Coccus mannipanis or Gossyparia mannifera). The presence of 

 these insects may be responsible for the legend that when some of, 

 the manna was left until the following day, it became wormy and 

 offensive except on the sabbath (Exod. 16, 20.24). The accounts 

 given in Exod. 16, 14-36; Num. 11, 7-9 are inaccurate and em- 

 broidered. The primary connotation of Heb. man, manna, is not 

 gift, but separation, elimination, secretion. It is connected with the 

 preposition mm, from, which means originally part (VS 397; GB^® 

 435^, 4; GK-^, § 119, w, note i). To part may mean to partition, 

 apportion. Arab, maniiah, fate, signifies properly portion (Heb. 

 menat, helq). This is also the primary connotation of Arab, mann 

 and minhah, gift, present. AV uses to part for Heb. Jiiprid in Ruth 

 1,17, where Ruth says to Naomi : The Lord do so unto me and more 

 also if aught but death part thee and me. Here Luther has : Dcr 

 Tod muss mich und dich scheidcn, and Ausscheidung is the German 

 term for secretion. Arab, mana, iam'inu, to plow, is to break the 

 ground. The original meaning of Heb. mm, species, is diznsion. 

 Lat. species means not only particular sort, but also look, form (Heb. 

 temuna; cf. BA i, 124). The post-Biblical min, heretic, signifies 

 properly separatist. Brugsch and Ebers combined Heb. man with 

 the late Egyptian mmi; if this denote manna, it is no doubt a loan- 

 word, so that it throws no light on the etymology. 



In Exod, 16, 15 the name manna is derived from man-Jiii: when 

 the ancestors of the Jews saw it, they said to one another: mdn-hn, 



