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]
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.)
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.
“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.
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.
Compare Sir Monier Monier-Williams’s _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, pp. 33, 54 f., 223 f., and Wilkins’s _Hindu Mythology_, p. 233 f.
Sir Monier Monier-Williams’s _Buddhism_, pp. 371–373. This writer, speaking of the prominence in India of the symbolism of the _linga_ and _yoni_ combined, ascribes it to the theory of the two essences, “Spirit regarded as a male principle, and Matter, or the germ of the external world, regarded as a female.” He says: “Without the union of the two no creation takes place. To any one imbued with these dualistic conceptions the _linga_ and the _yoni_ are suggestive of no improper ideas. They are either types of the two mysterious creative forces ... or symbols of one divine power delegating procreative energy to male and female organisms. They are mystical representatives, and perhaps the best impersonal representatives, of the abstract expressions ‘paternity’ and ‘maternity,’” [and their conjunction in marital union]. (_Brahmanism and Hinduism_, p. 224 f.)