J)Ji£SS AND ADORNMENT. 



203 



kind that Abraliam has on ? " asked Sammie. " No," we replied ; 

 " what is it for ? " Abraham himself replied that it was some- 

 thing he wore for luck and to help him, and that every morning 

 when he said his prayers he kissed these blue cords. We found 

 that most of the boys had these, though one said he had not, but 

 his father wore a large one which he let him kiss every day. 

 Sammie told us that he had a different kind which he wore on his 

 arm and on his forehead ; that it was made of leather. He volun- 

 teered to show us one, which 

 he did a few days later. Be- 

 fore he put this on for us he 

 washed his hands and face 

 and brushed his hair. He 

 also fasted until he took it 

 off, as he said he never wore 

 it except before breakfast. 

 Whatever the fringes of the 

 garments and phylacteries 

 may have been once, they 

 are now, with these children 

 and the more ignorant of the 

 adult Jews, nothing more 

 nor less than charms. It 

 will here be of interest to 

 quote some references to 

 these things. In Numbers, 

 XV, 38-41 : " And the Lord 

 spake unto Moses, saying : 

 Speak unto the children of 

 Israel, and bid them that 

 they make them fringes [tas- 

 sels in the corners] in the borders of their garments throughout 

 their generations, and that they put upon the fringes of each 

 border a cord of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that 

 ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the 

 Lord, and do them. . . . That ye may remember, and do all my 

 commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord 

 your God, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be 

 your God." 



As to the phylacteries, there is no such explicit direction as to 

 their making. The details were, however, very exactly arranged 

 by the religious teachers. The leathern boxes could be only made 

 of cowskin ; the thongs must be applied to the left arm and fore- 

 head in a particular way. The little box contains four passages 

 of Scripture — Exod. xiii. 'Z-\(), 11-14; Deut. vi, 4-9, 13-22 — written 

 on rolled strips of parchment. The ink used must be of a particu- 



i. JO 



Disks cut fkom Human Skui.l, uskk as 

 Charms. Illinois Mound. 



