There is a clear recognition of this idea in many Bible references to the lifting up of the hands unto God, as if in covenant relations with him. Thus, Abraham says to the king of Sodom, “I have lift up my hand unto the Lord;”[232] as if he would say, I have pledged myself to him. I have given him my hand. And the Psalmist says: “I will lift up my hands in thy name.”[233] God himself says, by his prophet: “I will lift up mine hand to the nations;”[234] that is, I will covenant with them.[235] And so in many another case. Indeed, the Assyrian word for swearing (_nish_) is literally “lifting up the hand;”[236] and the Hebrew word _nasa_ means to lift up the hand or to swear.[237] The uplifted hand in a judicial oath seems to be a survival of the same thought, that an appeal is thus made to God, as one’s covenant God. Again, there may be a reference to the “hand of might” in a covenant relation, in those passages where God is spoken of as bringing his people out of Egypt by “a strong hand,” or “a mighty hand,” and as dealing with them afterwards in the same way.[238] An uplifted hand is a symbol found also on the stepped pyramid temples of Polynesia.[239] This sign of the red hand is still a familiar one among the aborigines of America. It is stamped on robes and skins, and on Indian tents.[240] Schoolcraft says of it: “The figure of the human hand is used by the North American Indians to denote supplication to the Deity or Great Spirit, and it stands in the system of picture-writing as the symbol for strength, power, or mastery, thus derived [through a covenant relation]. In a great number of instances which I have met with of its being employed, both in the ceremonial of their dances and in their pictorial records, I do not recollect a single one in which this sacred character is not assigned to it.”[241] A frequent use of the hand-print among the American Indians is as “a symbol applied to the naked body after its preparation and decoration for sacred and festive dances.” These preparations are “generally made in the arcanum of the medicine, or secret lodge, or some private place, and with all the skill of the priest’s, the medicine-man’s, or the juggler’s art. The mode of applying it in these cases is by smearing the hand of the operator with white or colored clay, and impressing it on the breast, the shoulder, or other part of the body. The idea is thus conveyed that a secret influence, a charm, a mystic power, is given to the dancer, arising from his sanctity, or his proficiency in the occult arts.” Schoolcraft, speaking of this custom, says: “The use of the hand is not confined to a single tribe or people. I have noticed it alike among the Dacotah, the Winnebagoes, and other Western tribes, as among the numerous branches of the red race still located east of the Mississippi River, above the latitude of 42°, who speak dialects of the Algonquin language.”[242]