714 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vou. xxx1v. 
538. Bac or Puyxactertes.—Made of red velvet, adorned with ara- 
besques in gold appliqué. (Cat. No. 3633, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. 
54. PRAYERS AND BENEDICTIONS RECITED IN PUTTING ON THE PHy- 
LACTERIES.—Stamped on yellow silk. Made in Jerusalem. Measure- 
ments, 9 by 13 inches. (Cat. No. 154445, U.S.N.M.) 
Gift of Dr. Aaron Friedenwald. | 
55. Prayer Suawt (tallith)—Made of white brocade silk, with 
gold-embroidered edges. Length, 6 feet; width, 1 foot 5 inches. 
(Plate LX XVII, Cat. No. 1545880, U.S.N.M.) 
The tallith is a rectangular piece of cloth, made of wool or silk, 
worn by male adults (among the Sefardim, or the observers of the 
Portuguese rite, also by small boys) at the morning services and when 
performing certain religious functions. To each of the four corners 
of the ¢allith are attached the ¢igith or fringes, consisting of four 
threads (usually woolen) run.through an eyelet near the corner and 
then doubled and knotted in a certain manner so that eight threads 
are allowed to hang down asa fringe. It 1s, besides, usually bordered 
with bluish-black stripes and adorned with a silk rmbbon or silver- 
corded lace called “crown” (atarah) on the top. The fallith 1s 
loosely thrown over all the other garments, sometimes passing across 
the top of the head and flowing down over the upper part of each 
arm and over the back, sometimes wrapped around the neck. The 
obligation to wear a garment with fringes is derived from Numbers 
xv, 38; as follows: “ That they make them fringes in the borders of 
their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon 
the fringe of each border a cord of blue. And it shall be unto you 
for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the com- 
mandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye go not about after 
your own heart and your own eyes”; and Deuteronomy xxu, 12: 
“Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four borders of thy vesture, 
wherewith thou coverest thyself.” Besides the tallith, which is worn 
at stated seasons, the Jews wear at present under the upper garments 
during the entire day a garment with fringes, called the “ small ¢al- 
lith” (tallith katan), or the “four corners” (arba kanfoth). It 
consists of a piece of rectangular cloth of any material, but usually 
of wool, about 3 feet long and 1 foot wide, with fringes fastened to the 
four corners in the same manner as to the ¢allith, with an aperture 
in the center sufficient to let it pass over the head, so that part falls in 
front and part behind. This small tallith is assumed to have orig- 
inated in the times of persecution, when the Jews had to refrain from 
exhibiting the garment with fringes and could only in this manner 
comply with the commandment to wear fringes. — 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat, 
