or fifteen feet in height and breadth. The inside was divided by a richly embroidered vail of fine linen into two parts, the holy place and the holy of holies, in the latter of which was placed the ark of the covenant. Besides this vail of fine linen which separated the most holy place, the tabernacle was furnished with other vails of divers colors: namely, of blue and purple, and scarlet and fine twined linen, from which are derived the emblematic colours of the several degrees of masonry.*

The room in which a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons meets, is called the tabernacle, and is a representation of that temporary tabernacle which was erected by Zerubbabel near the ruins of old temple while the Jews, under his direction, were constructing the new one.

TABERNACLE, CHIEF OF THE. See Chief of the

Tabernacle.

TABERNACLE, PRINCE OF THE. See Prince of the

Tabernacle.

TALMUD. As many of the traditions of masonry are to be found in the Talmud, some acquaintance with the character of that work is essential to the masonic student.

The Talmud, which is a Hebrew word, 71, signifying doctrine, is a collection of treatises written by the rabbins and wise men and embodying the civil and canonical law of the Jews. Moses is believed to have received two kinds of law on Mount Sinai, the

According to Josephus (Antiq. Jud. lib. iii. c. 7.) the tabernacle was a symbol of the universe. The 12 loaves placed on the table were emblematic of the 12 months of the year; the 70 branches of the candlesticks represented the 70 decani or divisions of the planets; and the 7 lamps, the 7 planets. The vails of the tabernacle composed of four different colours, were emblematic of the four elements; the fine linen, made of flax, the produce of the earth, represented the earth; the purple represented the sea, because it was stained by the blood of a marine shell-fish, the murex; the blue represented the air, it being the colour of the sky; and the scarlet represented fire.

one written and the other oral. The written law is to be found in the Pentateuch. The oral law was first communicated by Moses to Aaron, then by them to the seventy elders, and finally by these to the people, and thus transmitted, by memory, from generation to generation. This oral law was never committed to writing until about the beginning of the 3rd century,* when Rabbi Jehuda the Holy, finding that there was a possibility of its being lost from the decrease of students of the law, collected all the traditionary laws into one book, which is called the "Mishna," a word signifying repetition, because it is, as it were, a repetition of the written law.

The Mishna was at once received with great veneration, and many wise men among the Jews devoted themselves to its study. Towards the end of the 4th century, Rabbi Jochanan, the president of a school at Tiberias in Palestine collected their several opinions on the Mishna, into one book of commentaries which he called the "Gemara," a word signifying completion, because the the Gemara completes the work. The Mishna and the Gemara united constitute the Talmud.

The Jews in Chaldea, not being satisfied with the interpretations in the work of Rabbi Jochanan, composed others, which were collected together by Rabbi Asche into another Gemara. The work of R. Jochanan has since been known as the "Jerusalem Talmud" and that of R. Asche as the "Babylonian Talmud," from the places in which they were respectively compiled. In both works, the Mishna or Law is the same; it is only the Gemara or commentary that is different.

The Jewish scholars place so high a value on the Talmud, as to compare the Bible to water, the Mishna to wine, and the Gemara to spiced wine; or the first to salt, the second to pepper, and the third to spices. This work, although it contains many puc

*Morin, however, in his "Exercitationes Biblicæ," assigns the 6th century as the date of the composition. There is much controversy on this subject among scholars. I have, in this article, given the dates agreed upon by the greater number.

rilities, is, however, extremely serviceable as an elaborate compendium of Jewish customs, and has therefore been much used in the criticism of the Old and New Testaments. It furnishes also many curious illustrations of the masonic system; and several of the traditions and legends, especially of the higher degrees, are either found in or corroborated by the Talmud. The treatise entitled "Middoth," for instance, gives us the best description extant of the Temple of Solomon.

TASSELS. The Tracing-board of the Entered Apprentice's degree, when properly constructed, has a border or skirting around it, and at each corner a tassel attached to a cord or cable tow. These refer to the four perfect points and to the four cardinal virtues, and are called the guttural, pectoral, manual, and pedal tassels. They are also said in the English ritual to refer to the four rivers of Paradise.

TASTING. One of the five human senses, of but little importance in masonry, except as one of the sources of our enjoyment and protection, by enabling us to distinguish food which is pleasant and wholesome, from that which is disagreeable and unhealthy. Hence, for this as well as for every blessing of life, are we taught to be thankful to Him who is the "author of every good and perfect gift."

The names of two

TATNAI AND SHETHAR-BOZNAI. Persian governors who opposed the attempts of the Jews to rebuild the temple. When, by the command of Artaxerxes, Zerubbabel and his followers had discontinued the rebuilding of the temple, which they had commenced by permission of Cyrus, his predecessor, they remained quiet until the reign of Darius, who succeeded Artaxerxes. They then recommenced the work, but Tatnai, the Persian governor on the Jewish side of the Euphrates, accompained by Shethar-Boznai and his companions, not being aware of the previous edict of Cyrus permitting the Jews to

rebuild, proceeded to Jerusalem, and demanded by what right they were rebuilding the temple; and when the Jews informed them that they were working under the authority of a former decree of Cyrus, the Persian governors wrote to Darius, giving an account of these circumstances, and inquiring if such a decree was in existence, and if it was the king's pleasure that it should still be obeyed. Darius, influenced by his friendship for Zerubbabel, who visited him on the occasion of this interference, gave orders not only that the Jews should not be molested, but that they should receive every assistance from the Persian officers in their pious undertaking of rebuilding the house of the Lord.

TAU CROSS. The Tau Cross or Cross of St. Antony,* is a cross in the form of a Greek T. It was among the ancients a hieroglyphic of eternal life. It was the form of the Nilometer, or measure of the Nile, used to ascertain the height of the inun. dation, upon which the prosperity of the country and the life of the inhabitants depended, and was, in consequence, used among the Egyptians as an amulet, capable of averting evil. Hence it was a favourite symbol of the Egyptians, and under the form of the "Crux ansata" was to be seen in all their temples, very often held in the hands of their deities or suspended from their necks. Jablonskit says it is the Egyptian representation of the Phallus, considered by some as the symbol of the deity, and by others as that of eternal life. Kircher thinks that the Crux ansata was a monogram denoting Mercury or Phtha, who was the conductor of the souls of the dead; and Dr. Clarket says that the tau cross was a monogram of Thoth, "the symbolical or mystical name of hidden wisdom among the ancient Egyptians; the EO of the Greeks." In the initiation in Hindostan the tau cross, under the name of "tiluk," was marked upon the body of the candidate, as a sign that he was set apart for the sacred mysteries. The

So called because it is said to have been the cross on which that saint suf fered martyrdom.

† Panth. Egypt. i. 282.

Travels, vol. v. p. 311.

same mark was familiar to the ancient Hebrews, for, in the vision of Ezekiel, it is thus alluded to: "Go through the midst of the city, and set a mark, (in the original 1, tau,) upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry, for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."* This mark was to distinguish them as persons to be saved on account of their sorrow for sin, from those who, as idolators, were to be slain, and its form was that of the Hebrew letter tau, which, in the ancient Phenician alphabet, and on the coins of the Maccabees, has the shape of a

cross.

.

Among the Druids it was the custom to consecrate a tree by cutting the form of a tau across upon its bark. In ancient times it was set as a mark on those who had been acquitted by their judges, and by military commanders on such of their soldiers as had escaped unhurt from battle, and hence it was considered as an emblem of life. Finally, observe that the tau is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as the Aleph is the first, and that the tau assumes in the Ancient Phenician and Samaritan alphabets the form of a cross, and we see another consecration of this symbol in the expression, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," which, spoken in the Hebrew language, would be, "I am the Aleph and the Tau."

We are not, therefore, to be surprised that the Tau Cross has been adopted as one of the symbols of Freemasonry, and that in the form of the Triple Tau it constitutes the most sacred emblem of the Royal Arch, symbolizing the fact that the possessors of that degree are consecrated and separated, or set apart, as the recipients of a sublime but hidden wisdom. See Triple Tau.

TEMPERANCE.

One of the four cardinal virtues, the

Ezekiel, ix. 4. The Septuagint has ro oncov, the mark, which Lowth suggests should read rav onusov, the mark tau.

Oliver, Landmarks, ii. p. 621.

My esteemed friend, George R. Gliddon, Esq., the celebrated Egyptian Archæologist, first called my attention to this illustration, which he extended still further, but on a subject irrelevant to the prosent occasion.