This will be the more plainly seen when we bear in mind the importance given to circumcision as a covenant between God and man. Another equally suggestive custom among the Patriarchs was the act of taking the oath, or making a sacred promise, which is commented upon by Dr. Ginsingburg in Kitto’s _Cyclopædia_. He says: “Another primitive custom which obtained in the patriarchal age was, that the one who took the oath put his hand under the thigh of the adjurer (Gen. xxiv. 2, and xlvii. 29). This practice evidently arose from the fact that the genital member, which is meant by the euphemistic expression _thigh_, was regarded as the most sacred part of the body, being the symbol of union in the tenderest relation of matrimonial life, and the seat whence all issue proceeds and the perpetuity so much coveted by the ancients. Compare Gen. xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5; Judges vii. 30. Hence the creative organ became the symbol of the _Creator_, and the object of worship among all nations of antiquity. It is for this reason that God claimed it as a sign of the covenant between himself and his chosen people in the rite of circumcision. Nothing therefore could render the oath more solemn in those days than touching the symbol of creation, the sign of the covenant, and the source of that issue who may at any future period avenge the breaking a compact made with their progenitor.” From this we learn that Abraham, himself a Chaldee, had reverence for the Phallus as an emblem of the Creator. We also learn that the rite of circumcision touches Phallic or Lingasic worship. From Herodotus we are informed that the Syrians learned circumcision from the Egyptians, as did the Hebrews. Says Dr. Inman: “I do not know anything which illustrates the difference between ancient and modern times more than the frequency with which circumcision is spoken of in the sacred books, and the carefulness with which the subject is avoided now.” The mutilation of male captives, as practised by Saul and David, was another custom among the worshippers of Baal, Asshur, and other Phallic deities. The practice was to debase the victims and render them unfit to take part in the worship and mysteries. Some idea can be formed of the esteem in which people in former times cherished the male or Phallic emblems of creative power when we note the sway that power exercised over them. If these organs were lost or disabled, the unfortunate one was unfitted to meet in the congregation of the Lord, and disqualified to minister in the holy temples. Excessive punishment was inflicted upon the person who had the temerity to injure the sacred structure. If a woman were guilty of inflicting injury, her hand was cut off without pity (Deut. xxv. 12). The great object of veneration in the Ark of the Covenant was doubtless a Phallic emblem, a symbol of the preservation of the germ of life.