TABERNACLE. 796 TABLEWARE. has its own history, and was not originally con- nected with this tent. The tent plays no part in the early history of Israel in Canaan, while the ark is of great importance. In the Roman Catholic Church tabernacle is the name given to the receptacle in which the consecrated elements of the Eucharist are re- tained. By the present discipline, the tabernacle is commonly a small structure of marble, metal, or wood, placed above the altar, and of costly material and workmanship. Even when the ex- terior structure is of marble or metal, there is commonly an inner receptacle of wood (prop- erly cedar), lined with silk. The tabernacle is appropriated exclusively to the reservation of the Eucharist, and it is prohibited to keep within it any other object. A red lamp is kept con- stantly burning before the tabernacle. Consult: Colenso, The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshtia Critically Examined (London, 1862-79) ; Kuenen, De Godsdienst ran Israi-l (Haarlem, 1869) ; Wellhausen. Prolego- mena sur Geschiehte Israeh (4th ed., Berlin, 189.5) : Carpenter and Battersby, The Hexateuch (London. 1900) ; Kennedy, article "Tabernacle," in the Hastings Bihle Dictionary (New York, 1902) ; Benzinger, article "Tabernacle," in En- cyclopcrdia Biblica (London, 1903). TABERNACLES, Feast of (Heb. Khaff has- »ul-h-6th) . The name given in the Old Testament codes to a festival which marked the close of the harvest of fruit, oil, and wine in Palestine. As a harvest festival it is also known as the Feast of Ingathering (Ex. xxiii. 16; xxxiv. 22) and can be traced back to the Canaanites. The festival was marked by general jubilation and by a visit to some sanctuary, accompanied by sacrifices for the purpose of testifying gratitude to the giver of fertility'. Among the popular customs observed by the Canaanites was the erection of booths in the vineyards, in which the people dwelt during the vintage. Hence the name Festival of Booths (or Tabernacles) in the four passages besides those already mentioned in which the ritual is set forth (Deut. xvi. 13-15: xxxi. 10-13: Lev. xxiii. 34-36; 39-44: Nimi. xxix. 12-40). This Canaanitish agricultural festival was adopted by the Hebrews and in the Dcuteronomic and Priestly codes was given an historical aspect by interpreting the custom of dwelling in booths as a reminiscence of the nomadic stage in the life of the people, and more particularly of the tra- ditional forty years' sojourn in the wilderness when the tent formed the only habitation. The pristine importance of the festival may be gath- ered from the fact that it was called 'the festi- val' par excellence and that originally it was the single occasion in the year on which a pilirrim- age to a sanctuary was prescribed. As finally shaped in the Hebrew ritual, it extended over the seven days from the fifteenth to the twenty- second day of Tishri (the seventh month), and in addition the eighth day was observed as a 'solemn assembly,' which in Rabbinical .Judaism devel- oped into the festival of 'Rejoicing of the Law.' Booths were erected on the roofs of houses or in the covirts and streets, made of olive, pine, myrtle, and palm branches (cf. Neh. viii. 15). The sac- rifices prescribed for this feast were more numer- ous than for any other. sin-ofTerings (one kid daily) and burnt-offerings (two rams and 14 lambs daily), being prescribed for each day, be- sides "0 bullocks during the seven days (13 on the first day, 12 on the second, and so on in a diminishing scale). Besides these distinctly bililieal enactments, we find in the days of the second temple daily processions around the temple altar, the priestly procession to Siloam to fetch water and its libation in connection with the morning sacrifice (cf. .John vii. 37), the sing- ing of the Halle! psalms (Ps. cxiii.-cxviii.) , the lighting of the four great golden candelabra in the Court of the Women (.John viii. 12), and the carrying of jialm liranches entwined with myrtle and willow together with a specimen of the ethrog (or citron) fruit by the worshipers into the synagogues. The erection of booths and the waving of the palm branches with the ethrog are customs still observed in orthodox Jewish com- munities. Consult the Hebrew archaeologies of Xowack and Benzinger. TABES DORSALIS, taTjez dor-sa'lls. See LoCOMdTUR At.vxi.v. TABLATTJRE (Fr. tahlature, from Lat. tabula, ]ilank, board, table, tablet). A method of musical notation used in the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries. At first it was chiefly employed for the lutes and viols. The lines and spaces of the staff did not represent the pitch of the notes, but the frets of the instrument. Either the lines or the spaces were used, but not both. These lines or .spaces varied according to the number of the strings of each instrument. The French and English tablatures denoted the tones by letters, the Italian by numerals. But the Ger- man or organ tablatures employed a regular staff and musical notation for the melody or highest part, while the tones completing the harmony were written by letters vertically below each note of the melody. All tablatures had three points in common : ( 1 ) All letters or figures be- longing to the same chord were written vertically one above the other; (2) all emploj'ed lines for the division of the separate bars or measures; (3) all made use of a tiniforra system to denote the time-value of notes and rests. These signs were written either above or below the numbers or letters. Rests were denoted by a horizontal line placed below the note sign. TABLELAND. See PL.TE.A.r. TABLE MOUNTAIN, or TAFELBERG, ta'ffl-berG. A mountain of Cape Colony over- looking Cape Town and Table Bay. It is 3540 feet high and is named for its peculiar shape and level top. It is often covered with a white cloud, which is called the 'Tablecloth.' TABLES, Lunar. Tabular lists of numerical data based on the elements (q.v). of the moon's orbit and used for calculating the moon's position on the sky. See Xautical Alm. ac. TABLET OF ABYDOS. See Abtdos. TABLEWARE. Silver-Plated. The manu- facture of silver-plated tableware originated in England, and the centre of its mantifactureWas at Shefiield and Birmingham. The industry now flourishes in Germany and also in the United States, where the Rogers Brothers were the first to apply the process of electro-plating with silver to table utensils. This they did in 1846. and in 1851 a company was formed in Hartford. Conn., for the manufacture of electro-plated ware. At the close of the century the silver-plated and
