This action, so symbolical of utter destruction, is still used in the East to denote the same thing. Dr. Thomson says, “The people of this country have the same custom of breaking a jar when they wish to express their utmost detestation of any one. They come behind or near him and smash the jar to atoms, thus imprecating upon him and his alike hopeless ruin” (The Land and the Book, vol. 2, p. 497).