552 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



forehead below the hair and between the eyes, the knot being at the 

 root of the neck, while the ends of the strap pass over the shoulders 

 and hang down on either side. Next, the end of the strap of the tefilla 

 of the arm is wound thrice around the middle linger and around the 

 hand. Each of these performances is accompanied by appropriate 

 benedictions and the recitation of passages from the Scriptures. In tak- 

 ing off the tefiUin that of the head is removed first, then that of the 

 arm. The straps are folded around the bases (Plate 10, fig. 2), and the 

 tefillin are reverently put into a bag, which is sometimes included in 

 another, so that the sacred objects may be more carefully protected,^ 



22. Inner bag of tefillin. — Made of silk and embroidered. Made 

 at Chalcis (island of Euboea, Greece), in the seventeenth century, and 

 found there after the Jews had departed for the battle of Athens in 

 1822. (Plate 10, fig. 3. U.S.N.M. No. 154582.) 



23. Bag of tefillin. — Made of velvet in Morocco. (Plate 11, 

 fig. 2. U.S.N.M. No. 154580.) 



24. Prayer shawl {tallith). — Made of white brocade silk, with gold- 

 embroidered edges. Length, 6 feet; width, 1 foot 5 inches. (Plate 13. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 154588^) 



The tallith is a rectangular piece of cloth, made of wool or silk, 

 worn by male adults (among the Sefardim, or the observers of the Portu- 

 guese rite, also by small boys) at the morning services and when per- 

 forming certain religious functions. To each of the four corners of 

 the tallith are attached the gigith or fringes, consisting of four threads 

 (usually woolen) run through an eyelet near the corner and then doubled 

 and knotted in a certain manner, so that eight threads are allowed to 

 hang down as a fringe. It is, besides, usually bordered with bluish- 

 black stripes and adorned with a silk ribbon or silver-corded lace called 

 "crown" (atarah) on the top. The tallith is loosely thrown over all 

 the other garments, sometimes passing across the top of the head and 

 flowing down over the upper part of each arm and over the back, 

 sometimes wrapped around the neck. The obligation to wear a gar- 

 ment with fringes is derived from Numbers xv, 38: "That they make 

 their fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their gen- 

 erations, and that they put upon the fringe of each border a cord of 

 blue, and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it 

 and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them. And 

 that you go not about after j^our own heart and your own eyes;" and 

 Deuteronomy xxii, 12: "Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four 

 borders of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself." Besides 

 the tallith^ which is worn at stated seasons, the Jews wear at present 

 under the upper garments during the entire day a garment with 

 fi-inges, called the " small tallith " {tallith hatati), or the "four corners" 



^ Compare Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1896, p. 997, and plate 21. 



