an! ale 
279 
ters, is an evidence that these MSS. cannot be later than that 
period; this mark will be found in regular use wherever these 
letters occur throughout the MSS. The two volumes (for 
they are volumes in the original sense of that word), now ex- 
hibited to the Academy, each contain one of the fifty-four 
sections, into which the Jews divide the Law for weekly read- 
ing, namely the 13th, ‘or Maw Ts), containing Exod. i. to 
vi. 1, inclusive; and the 23rd, called »1/pD 74s, containing 
Exod. xxxvili. 21, to xl. 38, inclusive. 
In the account which the Jesuit missionary, Father Go- 
zani, has given of the Synagogue of K’ae-fung-foo, in 1704, 
published in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, he states that 
there were in the sanctuary thirteen recesses, each containing 
a Pentateuch roll, one for Moses, and one for each of the twelve 
tribes of Israel, as the Jews informed him. One of these 
rolls, he tells us, which was the most ancient and authentic of 
them, having suffered damage from the overflow of the river 
Hoam-ho (yellow river), on which the town stands, the Jews 
had caused the other twelve copies to be made, as security 
against a similar accident. He tells us further, that in ano- 
ther part of the synagogue was a great number of ancient 
boxes or coffers, each containing a section of the Pentateuch, 
and other books of the Scripture ; his words are :—‘‘ Un de ces 
livres fut heureusement sauvé de la grande inondation du fleuve 
Hoam-ho qui submergea la ville de Cai-fom-fou, capitale de 
cette Province. Comme les lettres de ce livre ont été moiiil- 
lées, et qu’elles sont presque a demi effacces, ces Juifs ont en 
soin d’en faire douze copies, quils gardent soigneusement dans 
les douze tabernacles, dont je viens de parler. Ou voit encore 
en deux autres endroits de cette synagogue plusieurs anciens 
coffres, du ils conservent avec soin un grand nombre de petits 
livres, dans lesquels ils ont divisé le Pentateuque de Moise, 
quils appellent Takim, et les autre livres de leur Loy.’* 
* Lettres Edif. et Cur. tom. vyii., p. 7. 
