The “whirling” idea is also contained in the root _kārar_ (in its intensive _pilpel_ form, _kirkēr_), “to whirl about,” or “rotate.” It occurs, in this sense, only once in the Old Testament, 2 Sam. vi. 14-16, of David dancing before Jahwe[34]; and in this passage we have another root which does not occur elsewhere in the sense of dancing, viz. _pāzaz_ (again in the intensive form _pizzēz_); this expresses the idea of agile leaping as part of the dance[35], the cognate Arabic root means “to be excited.” The idea of leaping is also contained in another root _rāqad_ (in its intensive form _riqqēd_) which in its ordinary sense means “to skip about[36]”; as applied to dancing it occurs in the passage last mentioned, and see further, Isa. xiii. 21, Job xxi. 11, Joel ii. 5, Eccles. iii. 4, 1 Chron. xv. 29; in Ps. xxix. 6 it is used of a calf “skipping.” The root _sābab_, used of “going round” the altar, is spoken about below (pp. 93 f.), so that we can leave this for the present. So far, then, we have briefly touched on words used in reference to dancing which either express or suggest the ideas of its being something enjoyable, of its involving the bending about of the body, whirling about, leaping, and skipping; as well as that of forming a circle, perhaps round the altar, but in any case encircling something, or going round about it. Now we come to some rather special words. In including _dālag_ in our category we realize that this is only justified because we are using the word “dancing” in its extended, as well as in its more restricted, sense; and we have shown above that this is not only permitted, but necessary in view of the general ideas underlying the whole subject. This word is used of the “leaping” of a hart in Isa. xxxv. 6, just as the word _rāqad_ is used, as we have seen, of the “skipping” of a calf; the latter, as already pointed out, occurs in several passages in the sense of “dancing”; _dālag_ may, therefore, be regarded as in some sense parallel to it. In Cant. ii. 8 _dālag_ certainly seems to refer to some form of dancing. But in two other passages the word has a special sense; in these, though the reference is not to dancing in the strict meaning of the term, it is used of a ritual step of a leaping character, and may justifiably be applied to dancing in the more extended sense. Thus, in 1 Sam. v. 5 it is said that no one ever treads on the threshold of Dagon’s house in Ashdod. This is explained in the Septuagint by the addition of the words “leaping over they leap over”; this is probably only an explanatory gloss (though it is conceivable that they represent a text in which _dālōg yidlōgū_ occurred), but it witnesses, at any rate, to what was a well-known custom, for in the other passage, Zeph. i. 9, punishment is pronounced against “all those who leap over the threshold,” without further explanation, showing that something quite familiar is being referred to. There was a similar Persian custom which forbad stepping