THE SHOFAR-ITS USE AND ORIGIN/ 



By Cyrus Adlkk, Assistant Curator of Oriental Antiquities. 



The modern Jewish synagogue has preserved in its ceremonial, anions 

 other customs, the use of the shofar, translated in the English version 

 of the Bible " cornet." Several times during the service on IsTew Year's 

 day, or Bosh hashanah, at the conclusion of the Bay of Atonement, on 

 the seventh day of the festival of Tabernacles or SuJckoth, Hostiana 

 Baba, and during the entire month of Ellul, after the recital of the 

 supplications or Selichoth, the shofar is sounded. Its use on all these 

 occasions is not general and probably never was, but it still survives in 

 many places. For the Xe w Year's service it is the characteristic feature. 



The shofar is usually made of a ram's horn, straightened and flat- 

 tened by heat. All natural horns can be shaped either by heat or by 

 cooking in oil.t 



The bore of the instrument is a cylindrical tube of very small caliber, 

 which opens into a kind of bell of parabolic form. J 



It is not only the solitary ancient musical instrument actually pre- 

 served in the Mosaic ritual, but is the oldest form of wind instrument 

 known to be retained in use in the world. § 



In the discussion of Wetzstein's paper, cited below, Prof. Steinthal 

 pointed out that this was an instrument no doubt used in prehistoric 

 times. 



* In the abstract of this paper published in the proceedings of the American Ori- 

 ental Society, October, 1889, p. clxxi, if., I made the request forthe communication 

 of additional information on the subject, and I have been favored with some valuable 

 suggestions from the late Prof. Paul de Lagarde, of Gottingen. 



1 1 have recently met a curious survival of the use and manufacture of a musical in- 

 strument made of natural horn. While walking on Pennsylvania avenue, Washing- 

 ton, August 22, 1890, I saw a negro boy about 10 years of age with a cow horn in his 

 hand. He told me that he had cut off the end, shaped the mouthpiece with a hot 

 poker, and then scraped it witli a knife. On being urged, he blewit quite easily. I 

 endeavored to secure possession of it, but the boy declined to part with his handi- 

 work. 



i Musical Instruments Historic, Rare, and Unique, by A. J. Hipkins, Edinburgh, 

 Black, 1888, p. 12. 



§ Ibid., p. 1, and South Kensington Museum Art Hooks, edited l>y William Maskel] ; 

 Musical Instruments, by Carl Engel, London, 1ST"): Chapman & Hall, p. 21. 



437 



