364 HAUPT— THE BURNING BUSH [April 23, 



the custom of carrying at the head of a caravan, in a cresset mounted 

 upon a long pole, a beacon-fire, the blaze of which served as a 

 guiding-light at night, while the smoke signaled the direction during 

 the day. According to the Priestly Code (which was compiled by 

 Jewish priests during the Babylonian Captivity about 500 B.C.) the 

 cloud was over the Tabernacle by day, and by night fire beaconed 

 there. ^^ But originally the cloud was on the top of Mount Sinai, 

 and at night it had a fiery aspect. 



Sinai means covered zvith senna shrubs.^^ This seems to be the 

 older name of the Mountain of Jhvh. Horeb, which is equivalent 

 to Mont Pele, i. e., Bare Mountain,^' is a later name.^^ The top of 

 the mountain may have been bare after the eruption observed by 

 the Hebrews after their exodus from Egypt. ^"^ The volcano may 

 have been dormant for centuries*" when Moses saw the first flame 

 of fire out of the midst of the bush, i. e., a clump of senna shrubs. 



The famous Arabian geographer and historian Abulfeda (who 

 died in a. d. 1331) says: Opinions differ with regard to Mount Sinai. 

 Some say. It is a mountain in the neighborhood of Elath; others, 

 A mountain in Syria. According to some, shid denotes the stones of 

 the mountain ; according to others, the shrubs thereon.*^ Sana is 

 the Arabic name for senna, and sind means small stones, i. e., the 

 lapilli of the volcano. In Exodus, xix., 13 the Hebrews are warned 



^See Haiipt, The Book of Canticles (Chicago, 1902) page 22 = The 

 American Journal of Semitic Languages, vol. xviii., page 212; compare 

 Haupt, Biblische Liebeslieder (Leipzig, 1907) page 22. 



^° Cassia angustifolia. This shrub, which is more than six feet high, is 

 found on the shore of the Red Sea. The best senna leaves (folia scnnae) 

 come from Arabia. 



^' Horeb may also be interpreted to mean making hare or Destroyer 

 (Arabic harib). 



^^ In several passages (Exodus, iii., i; xvii., 6; xxxiii., 6; i. Kings, xix., 

 8) Horeb represents a later addition. The name Horeb does not occur 

 before the 7"' century b. c. 



^°The top of Mount Etna, which is now bare, was wooded in the six- 

 teenth century. 



*° Mount Vesuvius seemed to be extinct from 1500 to 163 1 ; it was covered 

 with trees and shrubs, the cattle browsed within the crater; but on Dec. 

 16, 1631, there was a terrific eruption which destroyed some 3,000 men. 



"The Arabic text (p. 69 of the Paris edition) reads: wa-turu Sind'a 

 'htdlafu fihi, fa-qila: huzva jdbalun bi-qurbi Ailata, fa-qila: sinaii hijaratuhu, 

 wa-qila: sdjarun fihi. Mount Sinai is called also tUru Sinina. 



