190 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
by any native Egyptian tree; in the Empire flag-staves were regularly 
imported from Syria; it is probable therefore that in the earlier times 
they were introduced from the same source. A well-known name for 
Syria and the east coast of the Red Sea, as well as of Punt, was Ta-ntr, 
‘the land of the ntr-pole.’ This was the region in which the primitive 
Semitic goddess Astarte was worshipped. In Canaan there was a 
goddess Ashera whose idol or symbol was the ashera pole. The names 
of Baal and Ashera are sometimes coupled precisely 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 exclusively belong to any one deity; 
they were erected to Baal as well as to Yahw. They were sign-posts set 
up to mark sacred places, and they were, moreover, draped. They 
correspond exactly to the ntr-poles of Egyptian historic times. I have 
noted that these ntr-poles were tal! and straight. What tree produced 
them? In Egyptian inscriptions there is often mentioned a tree named 
tr.t. It was occasionally 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 sd-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 celebrated 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 winter season. 
It is not known where this festival was 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 
recognised. 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 construction, 
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 descrip- 
tion. The wood of the sycomore-fig is very coarse-grained, and no 
straight planks can be cut from it. The sint-acacia is so hard that 
it requires to be sawn while it is green; it is very irregular in texture, 
