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Chapter III50The Mystery of the “Mispa”In this article, as the title shows, I shall try to give an exposition of the ancient Hebrew Cult of Stone, which they inherited from Abraham (pbuh) , their great progenitor, and to show that this Stone-Cult was instituted at Makkah by that Patriarch and his son Ishmael (pbuh) ; in the land of Canaan by Isaac (pbuh) and Jacob (pbuh) ; and in Moab and elsewhere by the other descendants of Abraham (pbuh) .By the term “Stone-Cult,” let it be understood, I do not mean stone-worship, which is idolatry; by it I understand the worship of God at a specially consecrated stone meant for that purpose. In those days of yore, when the chosen family was leading a nomadic and pastoral life, it had no settled habitation where to build a house, especially dedicated to the worship of God; it used to erect a particular stone around which it used to make a hajj; that is to say, to turn round seven times in the form of a dancing-ring. The word hajj might frighten the Christian readers and they might shrink at its sight because of its Arabic form and because of its being at present a Muslim religious performance. The word hajj is exactly identical in meaning and etymology with the same in the Hebrew and other Semitic languages. The Hebrew verbhagag is the same as the Arabic hajaj, the difference being only in the pronunciation of the third letter of the Semiticalphabet gamal, which the Arabs pronounce asj. The Law of Moses (pbuh) uses this very word hagag or haghagh. [1] when it orders the festival ceremonies to be performed. The word signifies to compass a building, an altar or a stone by running round it at a regular[1] . Unlike the Arabs, both the Hebrew as well as the Aramaic peoples have no j sound in their alphabet; their third letter, gamal, when hard has g sound and when soft or aspirate becomes guttural and sounds gb. (The author).