JEWS IN CHINA. 
361 
from the Mahomedans who wear a white cap, and are, therefore, sometimes 
called Pc-maho-hoai-hoai. In the early ages of their establishment in 
China, the Jews possessed employments under the government and great 
estates, and reckoned more than seventy families of the different tribes of 
Benjamin, Levi, Juda, &c., but in later times a great part of them were 
converted to Mahomedanism ; and at the period when they were visited by 
Father Gozani and other missionaries, they were reduced to seven families, 
comprising about a thousand persons. 
The misfortunes of the city of Cai-song-fou, which at all periods appears 
to have contained a large proportion of their numbers, and their chief 
synagogue, contributed greatly to lessen their amount. In the reign of Van- 
Lec a conflagration reduced their synagogue to ashes, and destroyed all their 
books except a Pentateuch. The synagogue having been rebuilt was again 
destroyed in 1642 by the inundation of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River : 
re-established at the charge of Tchao, a Jewish mandarin, it was called Li- 
pai-se, “ the place of ceremonies,” a name which it still retains. 
The Li-pai-se, according to Father Domanges, who passed eight 
months at Cai-song-fou, is about sixty feet in length, and about forty in 
breadth, but is surrounded by contingent buildings, occupying a space of 
ground four hundred feet long, and a hundred and fifty wide. The buildings 
inclose small courts ornamented with figures of lions, vases for incense, 
flowers, and stone monuments bearing inscriptions setting forth the history 
of the establishment. Immediately before the Li-pai-se, balustrades inclose 
a space in which a great tent is pitched for the feast of the Tabernacles. 
In the middle of the nave of the Li-pai-se, stands a magnificent chair raised 
very high, and ornamented with a beautiful embroidered cushion. This is 
the chair of Moses on which is placed the Pentateuch on Saturdays and other 
solemn days. Near the chair is a Van-sin-hai, or painting inscribed with 
the Emperor’s name. Over this is written in Hebrew letters of gold : 
“ Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, our God, is the only God. Blessed he his Name ; 
Glory to His Kingdom for all eternity .” In another part is a kind of square 
tent, the “ Holy of the Holies” of the Jews in China. They call it Bethel, in 
the Chinese language Tien-tang, “ Temple of Heaven.” This place incloses 
their Ta-kings or great books, as the copies of the Pentateuch are called. Over 
the Bethel is written in Hebrew characters of gold : “ Know that Jehovah 
is the God of Gods, the Lord , a great God strong and terrible.” Behind 
the Bethel are the two tables of the law written in letters of gold. Near the 
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