[174] Dr. Beard, in the art. "Golgotha," in Kitto's Encyc. of Bib. Lit., reasons in a similar method as to the place of the crucifixion, and supposing that the soldiers, from the fear of a popular tumult, would hurry Jesus to the most convenient spot for execution, says, "Then the road to Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, and no spot in the vicinity would probably be so suitable as the slight rounded elevation which bore the name of Calvary." [175] Some have supposed that it was so called because it was the place of public execution. _Gulgoleth_ in Hebrew, or _gogultho_ in Syriac, means _a skull_. [176] Quoted in Oliver, _Landmarks_, vol. i. p. 587, note. [177] Oliver's idea (_Landmarks_, ii. 149) that _cassia_ has, since the year 1730, been corrupted into _acacia_, is contrary to all etymological experience. Words are corrupted, not by lengthening, but by abbreviating them. The uneducated and the careless are always prone to cut off a syllable, not to add a new one. [178] And yet I have been surprised by seeing, once or twice, the word "Cassia" adopted as the name of a lodge. "Cinnamon" or "sandal wood" would have been as appropriate, for any masonic meaning or symbolism. [179] Eclog. ii. 49. "Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens, Narcissum et florem jungit benè olentis anethi: Tum casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia, caltha." [180] Exod. xxx. 24, Ezek. xxvii. 9, and Ps. xlv. 8. [181] Oliver, it is true, says, that "there is not the smallest trace of any tree of the kind growing so far north as Jerusalem" (_Landm._ ii. 136); but this statement is refuted by the authority of Lieutenant Lynch, who saw it growing in great abundance at Jericho, and still farther north.--_Exped. to the Dead Sea_, p. 262.--The Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, who is excellent authority, says, "The Acacia (Shittim) Tree, Al Sunt, is found in Palestine of different varieties; it looks like the Mulberry tree, attains a great height, and has a hard wood. The gum which is obtained from it is the gum Arabic."--_Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of Palestine_, p. 308, Leeser's translation. Phila., 1850.--Schwarz was for sixteen years a resident of Palestine, and wrote from personal observation. The testimony of Lynch and Schwarz should, therefore, forever settle the question of the existence of the acacia in Palestine. [182] Calmet, Parkhurst, Gesenius, Clarke, Shaw, and all the best authorities, concur in saying that the _otzi shittim_, or shittim wood of Exodus, was the common acacia or mimosa nilotica of Linnæus.