Besides mystic numbers, there were a number of mystic symbols in use among the ancients, by which the great and important phenomena in nature were kept constantly before the eyes of the people. The chief and most widely known symbol is the cross, representing the ascending sun bringing back fresh life to the world at the vernal equinox; but the cross was by no means the only symbol of this important occurrence; trees, torches, the male organs of generation, or phallus, and various animals were frequently used for the same purpose—in fact, the symbolical worship of the ancients assumed gigantic proportions, almost every conceivable device being seized upon to render homage to the great re-fertiliser of the earth. No one of the religious cults was free from a large admixture of what is known as phallic worship—that is, worship of the fertilising principle; and it was a common custom for people to swear by their generative organs, as being the most sacred things on earth, representing the divine energy in a state of procreative activity. Thus we find in Psalm lxxxix. 49 the following words (literally translated): “O my Adonis, where are thy endearments of old, which thou swearedst for the sake of love by thy phallus, O Ammon?” The Hebrew letter ת was the sign of the cross, or phallus, which was also used by the Phœnicians, being derived from the Arabic תױ], the sybol of the life-giver. This passage evidently had reference to the violent death of Adonis, who, at the autumnal equinox, was attacked by a wild boar, which tore away his generative organs and rendered him consequently impotent, until he was born again, when he acquired fresh powers and grew in beauty and stature, ready to re-unite with Venus at the spring equinox.