[157] βακτηρίον. A bacterion is now a disease-germ. A marked instance of how the sense of words may become changed. [158] Of course, it is possible enough that Æsculapius carried a staff at times. The Greeks, however, were not so much given to the practice as some other peoples, as the Egyptians (see Rawlinson’s Egypt and Babylon, p. 240. New York, 1885), or the Babylonians, of whom Herodotus (i, 195) says that “every one carries a walking-stick carved at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something similar.” [159] Ὀμφαλός means navel. Umbilicus was derived from it. The Jews regarded Jerusalem as the navel of the earth (see Ezekiel, v, 5), and also every other people has flattered itself as having it within its possessions. (See chap. iv of Rev. Dr. William F. Warren’s Paradise Found. Sixth edition. Boston, 1885.) [160] Strabo, ix, 3. [161] Republic, iv. [162] See Pindar’s Pythian Ode, iv. [163] Strabo, ix, 3. [164] In most of the Oriental countries, including Egypt, there was always more or less of a belief in one great divinity. “The Supreme Omnipotent Intelligence” of the Hindus was “a spirit by no means the object of any sense, which can only be conceived by a mind wholly abstracted from matter.” (Institutes of Menu). El was a name given the Ineffable One by the Phœnicians and other peoples. Il or Ilu and Jaoh, the “being,” the “Eternal,” the “Jehovah” of the Hebrews, were designations of him used by the Babylonians, and from him, it was believed, the great trinity, Anu, Hea, and Bel emanated. Some, however, especially in early times, confounded him with Anu. Baal, the “Lord,” was a common designation of him in Syria and elsewhere. [165] Dictionary of Mythology. London, 1793. [166] Anantas. [167] Ancient Art and its Remains, p. 519. [168] The reader is doubtless familiar, through the Bible, with consecrated stones. A Maççeba was a necessary mark of every “high place.” Jacob set one up (Gen., xxxi, 45).