Nowack is of a similar opinion; he says that the word here can hardly mean more than “to celebrate a feast”; but he adds: “perhaps the word is originally used of the sacred dance[40].” But apart from the question of the relationship between _ḥāgag_ and _ḥūg_, if the Arabic _Ḥagg_, “the going round in a circle,” is the word from which the Hebrew _ḥag_ is derived, and presumably there is little doubt about that, then the root-meaning of _ḥāgag_ will be “to go round in a circle,” and this was the essence of the sacred dance—or of one type of the sacred dance—among the Semites. Wellhausen points out that the central and most important part of the _cultus_ of the ancient Arabs was the circuit round the sanctuary, or, when this was offered, round the sacrifice. It is from this fact, he says, that the _Ḥagg_, which means really “the sacred dance,” is so called. He points out, further, that this original meaning of the word has not even yet been entirely lost in Arabic, for the verb still often has as its transitive object the stone or the “house.” The holy stone is itself called _Davar_ “the object of the encirclement” because of the custom of performing the sacred dance round it. Evidence is forthcoming that this was done not only round the sacred stone, the _Kaaba_, but also in all sanctuaries generally[41]. König gives as the primary meaning of _ḥāgag_ “to make dancing movements,” “to turn,” and regards the sense of “celebrating a feast” as secondary[42]. This is borne out by the use of the word in Ps. cvii. 27, where it means “to go round in a circle,” like a drunken man. The chief original Hebrew term for a religious dance was doubtless _ḥag_. The rendering “feast” or “festival” will indeed suffice in most cases, but only because religious festivals necessarily included the sacred dance, at least as long as the sacred stones remained in the sanctuaries[43]. There is thus sufficient justification for reckoning this root among those which are used for “to dance” in the Old Testament. Then as to the root _pāsaḥ_ (in its intensive form _pisseaḥ_). According to Exod. xii. 13, 23 the root-meaning of this word would appear to be “to spare,” for we read there: “... and when I see the blood _I will pass over_ you, and there shall be no plague upon you”; and again: “... and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, Jahwe _will pass over_ the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to destroy you.” Both Zimmern[44] and Schrader[45] hold that the word is derived from the Assyrian _pasâḥu_, “to pacify,” which would support the _Exodus_ interpretation. Robertson Smith, on the other hand, thinks it by no means clear that this was the original meaning;