762 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



The objects will be exliibiced in religious groups and not in any geo- 

 graphical relation, except in so far as the worship has actually been 

 affected by geographical considerations. 



The cult objects will be arranged under certain well recognized heads. 



There is usually a public worship in which the sacerdotal and lay 

 classes have definite functions; there are places of worship with fur 

 niture and appointments, symbols about them and shrines within them; 

 there is the sacerdotal person, his costume and the implements he 

 employs; the sacred writings, the filtar or its equivalent; the special 

 public religious occasions, such as feasts; the public religious cere- 

 monies on si)ecial occasions that affect the community, as wars, tri- 

 umphs, distress, famine, and drought. 



The relation of the individual to the cult will come next in order- 

 marriage, birth and death, in some cases, bethrothal; ceremonies at 

 certain ages, more especially of the attainment of puberty; the rela- 

 tion of religion to the organized community, state religious observ- 

 ances; finally the secret religious practices, among which charms and 

 divination would i)robably fall. 



Such collections once made for the individual religious, certain groups 

 of ceremonies will be taken up in the hope that a comparison of the 

 underlying ideas may form a fruitful subject of study.* 



A double purpose would be served, for instance, by an exhibit of 

 sacred books, which would furnish an opportunity for the classification 

 of the book religions. This may be followed by a collection to illus- 

 trate the altar and sacred inclosure. Another subject that would lend 

 itself to such a comparative collection would be votive offerings. Still 

 another would be music and musical instruments. Mortuary and 

 marriage customs and many other subjects will readily suggest them- 

 selves. 



1 can not do better than quote a sentence from the suggestive article 

 of Prof. Jastrow t as expressing the aspirations of the National Museum 

 in this connection : 



With the admirable facilities possessed by a goveriiiiieiit institution [he says], for 

 obtaining objects from all part.s of the world, the scope of this section ought at an 

 early day be made coequal with the universe. 



The study of religions is one by no means narrow, but full of signifi- 

 cance for the historian and anthropologist. The greatest movements in 

 political history have either been occasioned by or resulted in religious 

 movements ; and these are not infrequently stereotyped in some religious 

 ceremony. 



]t is no exaggeration to say that the history of the Koman Church, 



How eiiectively this may be done as a matter of iuvcstigntion has already been 

 shown by the study of sacrifice among the Semites by the late Prof. W. Robertson 

 Smith in his work. The Semitic Religions: Fundamental Institutions, the most 

 notable contribution to the study of Semitic religious which haa ever been made. 

 tBiblical World, January, 1893, pp. 24-32. 



