sacrifice was offered in the following manner. One priest drew forward the windpip e and

gullet of the sacrifice, and quickly thrust upwards the knife, while another caught the

blood in a golden bowel. Standing at the east side of the altar, he sprinkled it, first at the

north-east, and then at the south-west corner, below the red line which ran round the

middle of the altar, in each case in such manner as to cover two sides of the altar, or, as

it is described, in the form of the Greek letter (gamma). The rest of the blood was poured

out at the base of the altar. Ordinarily, the whole of this service would of course be

performed by priests. But it was valid even if the sacrifice had been killed by a layman,

or with an ordinary knife. Not so if the blood were caught up in any but a consecrated

vessel, or sprinkled by other than the hands of a priest who at the time was Levitically fit

for the service.

We proceed to describe the service of those whose duty it was to cleanse the altar of

incense and to dress the golden candlestick in the Holy Place. A few particulars as to

each of these will not be out of place. The triumphal Arch of Titus in Rome bears a

representation of the golden mortars in which the incense was bruised, and of the

golden candlestick, but not the altar of incense. Still, we can form a sufficiently accurate

idea of its appearance. It was square, one cubit long and broad, and two cubits high,

that is, half a cubit higher than the table of shewbread, but one cubit lower than the

candlestick, and it had 'horns' at each of its four corners. It was probably hollow, and its

top covered with a golden plate, and like an Eastern roof, surrounded by what resembled

a balustrade, to prevent the coals and incense from falling off. Below this balustrade was

a massive crown of gold. The incense burned upon this altar was prepared of the four

ingredients mentioned in Exodus 30:34, with which, according to the Rabbis, seven

others were mixed, besides a small quantity of 'Ambra,' and of a herb which gave out a

dense smoke. To these thirteen substances (Jos. Wars, v. 5. s.) salt was of course

added. The mode of preparing the incense had been preserved in the family of Abtinas.

The greatest care was taken to have the incense thoroughly bruised and mixed.

Altogether 368 pounds were made for the year's consumption, about half a pound being

used every morning and evening in the service. The censer for the Day of Atonement

was different in size and appearance from that for ordinary days. The golden candlestick

was like that delineated in Exodus 25:31, etc., and is sufficiently known from its

representation on the Arch of Titus.

Now, while one set of priests were busy in the Court of the Priests offering the sacrifice,

the two on whom it devolved to trim the lamps of the candlestick and to prepare the altar

of incense had gone into the Holy Place. As nearly as possible while the lamb was being

slain without, the first of these priests took with his hands the burnt coals and ashes

from the golden altar, and put them into a golden vessel--called 'teni'--and withdrew,

leaving it in the sanctuary. Similarly, as the blood of the lamb was being sprinkled on the

altar of burnt-offering, the second priest ascended the three steps, hewn in stone, which

led up to the candlestick. He trimmed and refilled the lamps that were still burning,

removed the wick and old oil from those which had become extinguished, supplied fresh,

and re -lit them from one of the other lamps. But the large central lamp, towards which all

the others bent, and which was called the western, because it inclined westward towards

the Most Holy Place, might only be re -lit by fire from the altar itself. Only five, however,

of the lamps were then trimmed; the other two were reserved to a later period of the

Meantime in the Court of the Priests the sacrifice had been hung on one of the hooks,

flayed, cut up according to rules, cleaned, and handed to the six priests who were