30 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



this department. The principal additions to the collections have been 

 seemed through the cooperation of the Bureau of Ethnology, with which 

 Mr. Holmes is officially associated. One of the most interesting is a 

 group of vases from a mound on the Savannah River, obtained by Mr. 

 H. L. Reynolds. In connection with the monograph which Dr. Cyrus 

 Thomas, of the Bureau of Ethnology, has undertaken upon the Mound- 

 builders, the curator has conducted researches upon the collections 

 from the mounds of the Mississippi Valley and adjacent regions. The 

 number of specimens added to the collection during the year is estimated 

 at 1,047, and 232 entries have been made in the catalogue. 



Section of Oriental Antiquities. — The collection is under the curator- 

 ship of Prof. Paul Haupt, of the Johns Hopkins University, with Dr. 

 Cyrus Adler acting as assistant curator. 



Many valuable accessions have been received during the year. 

 Among these is a cast of the famous temple inscription discovered by 

 Clermont-Ganneau in 1871, which was obtaiued through the courtesy 

 of the United States minister to Turkey. Mr. Theodore Graf, of Vienna, 

 and Dr. Zehnpfund, of Leipsic, have also made important contributions, 

 A collection of copies of the Assyrian seals has been commenced, and 

 much assistance has been rendered by Dr. William Hayes Ward, of 

 New York, Prof. D. G. Lyon, of Harvard University, and Prof. H. 

 Hyveruat, of the Catholic University in Washington. A collection of 

 oriental manuscripts, formed by Mr. William B. Hodgson, and until 

 recently in the care of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences of 

 Savannah (Georgia), has been placed in the custody of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



The curator attended the Eighth International Congress of Orient- 

 alists, which met at Stockholm in September, as the representative of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



There has been added a case of objects illustrating the public aud 

 private religious ceremonies of the Jews, collected and arranged by Dr. 

 Adler. These objects were obtained partly through purchase, but 

 chiefly through gift and deposit. Some of the more interesting were 

 collected by Dr. H. Friedenwald. 



Dr. Adler thus explains the character of the collection : 



The collection inay be divided into two sections comprising the ob- 

 jects employed respectively in public and private ceremonial. 



The Pentateuch or Law (Hebrew Torah) is considered by Jews the 

 most important part of the Bible, and a section of it is read every week 

 in the synagogue. For this purpose a manuscript copy is employed, 

 printed copies not being used. When not in use the roll is covered 

 with a cloak and placed upright in an ark or chest; to prevent the 

 reader from losing his place, a pointer in the shape of a hand (called 

 in Hebrew Yad or ''hand") is employed. The collection contains a 

 manuscript pentateuch unrolled with the pointer, and above it the 

 cloak and winding-scarf which envelop it when placed in the ark. 



At the morning service in the synagogue the male members of the 

 congregation wear a special garment, a sort of scarf, known as the 



