of the blood is
applied to the stone, and the rest poured out or eaten (as sacred food)
by the worshiper. In process of time, when the god has been divorced
from the stone, the latter becomes a table on which the victim is
offered;[550] the old conception survives in the custom of slaying the
victim by the side of the altar, and applying the blood to the horns of
the altar as a representative part of the sacred structure. In the late
Jewish ritual this application of blood is interpreted as a purification
of the altar from ceremonial defilements.[551]

+298+. Originally, it seems, it was only natural stones that were sacred
or divine and were employed as representatives of deities; but by a
natural process of thought the custom arose of using artificial stones
in the same way. By means of certain ceremonies, it was held, the deity
could be induced to accept an altar or a house, or to take up his abode
in an image, as a spirit is introduced by the savage into a fetish
object.[552] The basis of this sort of procedure is first the belief in
the amenableness of the deity to magical laws, and, later, the belief in
his friendly disposition, his willingness to accede to the wishes of his
worshipers provided they offer the proper tribute; but even in very late
ceremonies a trace of the magical element remains.

+299+. The significance of the high pillars, of stone or of metal, that
stood at the entrance of certain Semitic temples, is not clear. Examples
are: in Tyre, the temple of the local Baal (Melkart);[553] Solomon's
temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem, and the temple planned by Ezekiel in
imitation of that of Solomon;[554] compare the temple of the
Carthaginian Tanit-Artemis, a form of Ashtart, the votive stela from the
temple of Aphrodite in Idalium (in Cyprus), and similar figures on
Cyprian coins.[555] Of the various explanations offered of these pillars
that which regards them as phallic symbols may be set aside as lacking
proof.[556] It is not probable that they were merely decorative; the
details of ancient temples, as a rule, were connected with worship. It
has been suggested that they were fire altars,[557] in support of which
view may be cited the figures on Cyprian coins (mentioned above), and
the fact that sailors sacrificed at Gades at a place where there were
two high pillars;[558] but such a custom does not prove that the
sacrifices were offered on the pillars, and these latter are generally
too high to serve suc