And Jehovah, speaking through Ezekiel of his loving choice of the Hebrew daughter of the Amorite and the Hittite, says: “Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.”[576] It seems to be in recognition of the truth that the Egyptian passover was the rite of marriage between Jehovah and Israel, that the Song of Songs, the epithalamium of the Hebrew Scriptures, is always read in the synagogue at the passover service. This idea of the relation of Jehovah and Israel runs through the entire Old Testament, and shows itself in the Jewish ritual of to-day. In the primitive marriage rite the stamp of the red hand of the bridegroom is the certification of the covenant union, at the doorway of the family. But in the Egyptian passover it was the virgin of Israel who certified to the marriage covenant by the bloody stamp on the doorway. Hence it was a feminine symbol, in a bush of hyssop, that was dipped in the blood and used for this stamping.[577] The tree, or bush, is a universal symbol of the feminine in nature. This is shown, for example, in the tree or brush-topped pole as the symbol of Ashtaroth, “wife,”[578] as over against the pillar or obelisk as the symbol of Baal, or “lord,” or “husband.”[579] ----- Footnote 524: The recognition of this truth is a reason for the infibulation of female children among primitive peoples. (See, for example, Captain J.S. King’s “Notes on the Folk-Lore, and some Social Customs of the Western Somali Tribes,” in the London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., 124; also Dr. Remondino’s _History of Circumcision_, p. 51.) Footnote 525: See Appendix. Footnote 526: See “Satapatha Brâhmana,” 1. Kânda, 2 Adhyâya, 5 Brâhmana, 14–16, in _Sacred Books of the East_, XII., 62 f.; also “Satapatha Brâhmana,” III., 5, 1, 11, in _Sac. Bks. of East_, XXVI., 113. Footnote 527: “Satapatha Brâhmana,” I., 3, 1, 18; I., 9, 2, 5–11, 21–24; II., 1, 1, 4, in _Sac. Bks. of East_, XII., 74, 257, 262, 277; also “Satapatha Brâhmana,” III., 3, 1, 11; III., 8, 4, 7–18, in _Sac. Bks. of East_, XXVI., 61, 211–214. Footnote 528: See _Rig-Veda_, II., 36, 4; X., 18, 7. Comp. “Satapatha Brâhmana,” I., 7, 2, 14, in _Sac. Bks. of East_, XII., 194; also “Satapatha Brâhmana,” IV., 1, 2, 9; IV., 1, 3, 19, with note, in _Sac. Bks. of East_, XXVI., 260, 269. See, also, Hopkins’s _Religions of India_, p. 490, and note. Footnote 529: Compare Sir Monier Monier-Williams’s _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, pp. 33, 54 f., 223 f., and Wilkins’s _Hindu Mythology_, p. 233 f. Footnote 530: