122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. von. xxxtv. 
92. Bowl OF CUT GLASS, WITH GILDED RIM.—Used at the Passover 
meal. Measurements, height, 25 inches; diameter, 5? inches. (Cat. 
No. 4554, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. 
93. Cover For Passover pisH.—Silk embroidery on linen. Italian 
work of the early sixteenth century. Measurements, height, 224 
inches; width, 2 feet 74 inches. (Cat. No. 4552, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. | 
94. Piece or BRocADE.—Used as tablecloth at the Passover meal, or 
seder. Measurements, 3 feet 104 inches by 1 foot 64 inches.’ (Cat. 
No. 154596, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. 
95. Taste Center.—Used at the Passover meal, or seder. Linen, 
with edge and corners richly embroidered in silk and gold. Made in 
Janina, Turkey, in the seventeenth century. Length, 3 feet 10 inches; 
width, 1 foot 7 inches. (Plate XCI, Cat. No. 154601, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. | 
96. Servirrre.—Used at the Passover meal, or seder. Woolen, 
with lace edge worked in silver and silk. Made in Chios in the six- 
teenth century. Length, 4 feet 3 inches; width, 1 foot 74 inches. 
(Cat. No. 154598, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. 
97. Omer Tasiet.—Manuscript in gilded frame. 
The harvest season was formally opened with a ceremony of waving 
a sheaf of barley in the Sanctuary on the second day of the Passover 
feast, which began on the 15th of Nisan (March-April). Before this 
ceremony took place the harvesting of grain was forbidden: * “And 
ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this 
selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation of your God.” From 
that day seven weeks, or forty-nine days, were counted,’ to the feast 
of Pentecost; hence its Hebrew name Hag ha-Shabuoth “ feast of 
Weeks,” and the usual English name “ Pentecost,’ which is the 
nevtnxootn pentekoste, meaning the fiftieth day. It is also called 
“feast of harvest,” ° because the grain harvest then approached its 
close, and “ day of first fruits,” ¢ because two loaves of bread from the 
new wheat were offered on that feast. With the destruction of the 
Temple the ceremony of waving the sheaf in the Sanctuary neces-. 
sarily fell away, but the counting is still observed and the prayers 
4 Leviticus xxiii, 14. 
> Leviticus xxiii, 15; Deuteronomy xvi, 9. 
¢ Hxodus xxiii, 16. 
@Numbers xxviii, 26.—Compare Bxodus xxxiv, 22. 
€ Leviticus xxiii, 17. Since the dispersion Pentecost has been connected by 
tradition with the day on which the Law (Torah) was given on Mount Sinai, 
and the festival is called hag mattan torah, the feast of giving the Law. 
