EGYPT — NEWBERHY 453 



cisely as those of Baal and Astarte, and many scholars have inferred 

 that Ashera was only another name of the great Semitic goddess 

 Astarte. The ashera pole was an object of worship, for the prophets 

 put it on the same line with the sacred symbols, such as Baal pillars ; 

 the ashera was, therefore, a sacred symbol, the seat of a deity, the 

 mark of a divine presence. In late times these asherim did not ex- 

 clusively belong to any one deity ; they were erected to Baal as well 

 as to Yahw. They were signposts set up to mark sacred places, and 

 they were, moreover, draped. They correspond exactly to the «ir'- 

 poles of Egyptian historic tim.es. I have noted that these ntr-j)o\es 

 v^^ere tall and straight. What tree produced them? In Egyptian 

 inscriptions there is often mentioned a tree named tr.t. It was oc- 

 casionally planted in ancient Egyptian gardens, and specimens of it 

 were to be seen in the Temple garden at Heliopolis. The seeds and 

 sawdust were employed in medicine, and its resin was one of the 

 ingredients of the Kyphi-incense. Chaplets were made of its twigs 

 and leaves. The tree was sacred to Hathor; branches of it were 

 offered by the Egyptian kings to that goddess. In a Saite text it is 

 mentioned with three other trees — pine, yew, and juniper; these are 

 all found in Northern Syria, where they grow together with the 

 cypress; the tr.t tree may therefore be the cypress. Evidence has 

 been brought forward to show that the so^-tree is the horizontal- 

 branched cypress, which was believed to be a male tree, while the 

 tapering, flame-shaped cypress was believed to be the female tree. 

 The Ded column was the symbol of Osiris, and at Busiris was cele- 

 brated a festival of raising this column. The tr.t tree was sacred to 

 Hathor, who is often identified with Isis, and there was a festival of 

 raising the tr.t tree that was celebrated on the nineteenth day of the 

 first month of the Avinter season. It is not known where this festival 

 Avas celebrated, but it may well have been at Neter, the seat of the 

 Isis cult near Dedu-Busiris. The two tree-cults point to Northern 

 Syria as the country of their origin. 



In the architecture of ancient Egypt two distinct styles can be 

 recognized. One is founded on wattle-and-daub, the other on wood 

 construction. Wattle-and-daub is the natural building material of 

 the Nile Valley and Delta, and the architectural forms derived from 

 it are certainly indigenous. Those styles derived from wood con- 

 struction, on the other hand, could not have originated in Egypt, but 

 must have arisen in a country where the necessary timber was ready 

 at hand. Egypt produces no coniferous trees and no timber that is 

 at all suitable for building purposes, or indeed for carpenter's work 

 of any description. The wood of the sycamore fig is very coarse- 

 grained, and no straight planks can be cut from it. The simt-acacia 

 is so hard that it requires to be sawn while it is green; it is very 



