'70 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM^ 1914. 



RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL OBJECTS. 



Religious sentiment expresses itself in creed and cult, and it is 

 the latter which most readily lends itself to nmsenm exhibition. The 

 collection in the National Museum attempts to illustrate and explain 

 by means of objects the rites and practices of seven of the historic 

 religions. It is mainly installed in the south gallery of the west 

 hall, which is entirely occupied, though some of the most striking 

 features, and especially the Buddhist collection of Mr. S. S. Rowland, 

 are displayed in the adjoining rotunda of the building. The furnish- 

 ing of the gallery consists of a practically continuous wall case, 8 

 feet 2 inches high, with projecting or wing cases, 7 feet high, at 

 intervals corresponding with the wall piers, thus producing a bay 

 or alcove arrangement, and as the wing cases, with one exception, are 

 diaphragmed each of the bays has three distinctive fronts. The 

 amount of space thus supplied is, unfortunately, altogether inade- 

 quate for the collection, resulting in an overcrowded arrangement, 

 and preventing the installation of much important material which 

 remains in storage. 



The first two alcoves or compartments are occupied by the collec- 

 tion of modern Jewish ceremonial objects which, consisting to a 

 great extent of a loan from Hadji Ephraim Benguiat and his son 

 Mordecai, is unrivaled in completeness and in artistic and historical 

 value. It comprises furnishings and appointments of the synagogue 

 and objects used in public worships, such as curtains of the Holy Ark, 

 Torah scrolls in richlj^ embroidered mantles with silver bells, breast- 

 plates, and pointers, Megilloth in revolving cases of wood and silver 

 of rare workmanship, manuscripts of prayer books, lamps and 

 candlesticks of brass and silver, lavers and alms boxes, phylacteries 

 and prayer shawls, etc. Of the numerous appurtenances to the 

 Holy Ark, which constitutes the architectural as well as the ideal 

 center of the sj^nagogue, may be singled out a curtain of red velvet 

 with a border of green velvet, measuring 9 feet 5 inches by C feet 3 

 inches, embroidered in silver and gold with a large burning lamp 

 (symbolizing the light that emanates from the Torah, or the Law of 

 God, which is kept in the Holy Ark), surrounded by flowers and 

 passages from the Scriptures; and another curtain of yellow silk, 

 made in Italy in 1T3G and measuring G feet 3 inches by 5 feet 2 

 inches, which is exquisitely hand-embroidered in silver, gold, and 

 silk, with flowers and the tablets of the Decalogue borne upon clouds 

 (the symbol of the Divine presence). A top piece of the Holy Ark, 

 of red velvet, made in England in 1749 and measuring 2 feet 8 inches 

 by 8 feet 1 inch, is adorned in heavy silver applique work with the 

 principal parts of the Tabernacle and Temple, viz, the golden front- 

 let of the high priest, the table of shewbread, the laver, the Ark of 



