The earliest Hebrew books mention the olive _sait_, or _zeit_,[1393] both wild and cultivated. It was one of the trees promised in the land of Canaan. It is first mentioned in Genesis, where it is said that the dove sent out by Noah should bring back a branch of olive. If we take into account this tradition, which is accompanied by miraculous details, it may be added that the discoveries of modern erudition show that the Mount Ararat of the Bible must be to the east of the mountain in Armenia which now bears that name, and which was anciently called Masis. From a study of the text of the Book of Genesis, François Lenormand[1394] places the mountain in question in the Hindu Kush, and even near the sources of the Indus. This theory supposes it near to the land of the Aryans, yet the olive has no Sanskrit name, not even in that Sanskrit from which the Indian languages[1395] are derived. If the olive had then, as now, existed in the Punjab, the eastern Aryans in their migrations towards the south would probably have given it a name, and if it had existed in the Mazanderan, to the south of the Caspian Sea, as at the present day, the western Aryans would perhaps have known it. To these negative indications, it can only be objected that the wild olive attracts no considerable attention, and that the idea of extracting oil from it perhaps arose late in this part of Asia. Herodotus[1396] tells us that Babylonia grew no olive trees, and that its inhabitants made use of oil of sesame. It is certain that a country so subject to inundation was not at all favourable to the olive. The cold excludes the higher plateaux and the mountains of the north of Persia. I do not know if there is a name in Zend, but the Semitic word _sait_ must date from a remote antiquity, for it is found in modern Persian, _seitun_,[1397] and in Arabic, _zeitun_, _sjetun_.[1398] It even exists in Turkish and among the Tartars of the Crimea, _seitun_,[1399] which may signify that it is of Turanian origin, or from the remote epoch when the Turanian and Semitic peoples intermixed. The ancient Egyptians cultivated the olive tree, which they called _tat_.[1400] Several botanists have ascertained the presence of branches or leaves of the olive in the sarcophagi.[1401] Nothing is more certain, though Hehn[1402] has recently asserted the contrary, without giving any proof in support of his opinion. It would be interesting to know to what dynasty belong the most ancient mummy-cases in which olive branches have been found. The Egyptian name, quite different to the Semitic, shows an existence more ancient than the earliest dynasties. I shall mention presently another fact in support of this great antiquity.