76 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



their houses with garlands of flowers, and strew 

 roses in the synagogues ; and in Germany each 

 Jewish family has a high rough cake, to represent 

 Mount Sinai, composed of seven layers of paste, 

 to designate the seven heavens through which 

 they pretend that Jehovah descended to declare 

 the law to Moses. As the Passover was the 

 type of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, so 

 the feast of Weeks was the type of our Christian 

 Pentecost, which took place fifty days after the 

 resurrection, and on which the astonishing mi- 

 racle was performed, of the gift of tongues to the 

 Apostles. 



" The feast of Tabernacles was established in 

 the middle of the seventh month of the eccle- 

 siastical year, or in the first month of the civil 

 year, which began in September. All Israel 

 were obliged to assemble in order to celebrate 

 this feast, and to live in tents or booths made 

 of green boughs, during its continuance. The 

 same word in Hebrew signifies both tabernacles 

 and tents, and this great religious festival was 

 held in memory of the journey through the wil- 

 derness, and of the mode in which their fore- 

 fathers had dwelt there in tents, during forty years. 

 On the first day, the people, with branches of 

 palm trees, willows, and myrtles in their right 

 hands, and a citron bough bearing its fruit in the 

 left, joined in procession round the altar, waving 

 the branches and singing Hosannas. The six fol- 



