Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/32

ARK OP THE COVENANT. parts of the furniture of the tabernacle con- structed in the Wilderness, and afterwards of the temple huilt by Solomon at .Jerusalem. We have two descriptions of it in the Pentateuch, Exod. XXV. 10-22 and xxvii. 1-9, both passages belonging to the Priestly Document.

From these descriptions, it appears that the ark was a chest of shittira-wood (very generally supposed to be the wood of a species of acacia, but by some regarded as that of the wild olive), overlaid with gold within and without, two cubits and a half in length, one cubit and a half in breadth and in height, with a crown or raised border of gold round about. 'ithin the ark was deposited the "testimony," consisting of '"the two tables of the Law" — i.e.. the stone tab- lets upon which the Ten Commandments were inscribed (Exod. xl. 20). The golden lid of the ark was called the mercy-seal or propitia- tory: above it were the c/ieriibim (see Cherub), made of the same piece of gold with it, and be- tween them the place of the Shechinah or mani- festation of the Divine Presence. It should, however, be mentioned that neither in Deuteron- omy nor in the Books of Kings are these figures of the cherubim mentioned. The ark had golden rings, through which passed staves of shittim- wood, overlaid with gold, for carrying it in the journerings of the Israelites, concerning which very particular rules were laid doATi (Num. iv. ). While being carried from one place to another, it was covered first with a "covering of badgers' skins." and above this with a "cloth wliolly of blue" ; and when reposing in the taber- nacle and temple it was put into the "most holy place," into which the high-priest alone was to enter ui)on the Day of Atonement. After the tabernacle had been set up at Shiloh, the ark was deposited there (Josh, xviii. 1). When Israel sustained defeat at the hands of the Phil- istines at Eben-ezer they sent to Shiloh for the ark (1 Sam. iv. 3-5). In the battle which fol- lowed, the Philistines captured the ark; they carried it about to several places in their land, but in each place misfortune followed its ar- rival, and at the advice of their diviners the Philistines returned the ark to Israel at Beth- Sheraesh, whence it was removed to Kirjath- Jearim (I Sam. iv. 11-vii. 2); hence David re- moved it to Jerusalem (2 Sam. vi. 1), and Solo- mon assigned it a place in the Temple (1 Kings viii. 0). Miat finally became of the ark is un- known ; perhaps it was captured in Xebuchadnez- zar's siege of Jerusalem. At any rate there was no ark in the Second Temple (Josephus, B. J. V. 5, .5).

It is not easy, from the various accounts of, and references to, the ark in the Old Testament to obtain a clear idea of what the ark actually was. or what was its age. From Egyptian and Babylonian sources, we know that it was cus- tomary to carry the images of tlie gods about in portable shrines : and if, therefore, the Ark of the Covenant belongs to the oldest period of Hebrew history, it must have served as the abode of the Deity, suitable for a time when there waa as yet no fixed sanctuary regarded as the seat of Yahwch. This view accords both with the state- ment (Xuni. X. .3.5, .3(p) that the ark was car- ried into battle (for among other nations it was customary to carry images and symbols of the gods into battle), and with the narrative in the Book of .Samuel, from which it appears that where the ark rested, there Yahweh himself was supposed to have his abode for the time being. Whether, however, the description given of the ark in the Priestly Document applies to the earlier periods of Hebrew history is more than doubtful: it is probably a description of the ark as it aj)peared in the daj's of Solomon. and for which, as an ancient palladium to which the peo- ple were attached, a place was found in the Temple. As to the original contents of the ark, it is now held by many critics that the Hebrews at one time had a stone as a symbol of their God, and that the traditional tables of stone belong to a later period, when the fetich was replaced by a symbol that accorded better with the more ad- vanced religious conceptions.

ARKO'NA. The northeast promontory of the German island of Riigen (q.v.), in the Baltic (ilap: Prussia, El). It rises about 145 feet above the sea, and has a lighthouse, erected in 1826.

ARKOSE, iir-kos'. See Sandstone.

ARK SHELL, or Noah's Ark. A marine bivalve mollusk, common along the eastern coast of the United States, and representing the cosmo- politan family Arcada". The shells do not exceed three inches in length, are'ventricose, hairy, and have the hinge margin long and perfectly straight. As the umbones are wide apart, this leaves a sort of tlat "deck," which probably led Linnaeus to the rather fanciful designation. They dwell near shore, especially where weedy rocks abound, but one species is known in the inland fresh waters of India. The commonest American species is Area pexata (called "bloody clam," on account of its red gills and exudations), which is covered with coarse liairs. See Plate of Aba- lone, ETC.

The genus Area has existed for a great length of time, its ancestors being found in the rooks of all geological periods smce the Ordovician, but in special abundance in the Tertiary deposits of all countries.

ARK'WRIGHT, Sir Richard (1732-92). Celebrated for his invention of cotton-spinning machinery, was born at Preston, in Lancashire. Of humble origin, the youngest of thirteen children, and bred to the trade of a barber, his early opportunities of cultivation were exceedingly limited. In 1761 he gave up his business as a barber in Bolton, to become a traveling dealer in hair, and the profits of his trade were increased considerably by a secret process for dyeing hair which he had acquired. His residence in the midst of a cotton-spinning population naturally led him" to take an interest in the processes used in that manufacture, and his mind was soon turned toward improved methods. Having no practical skill in mechanics, he secured the services of a watchmaker, named Kay, to assist him in the construction of his apparatus. About 1767 he seems to have given himself wholly up to inventions in cotton-spinning machinery. In the following year he removed to Preston, where he set up his first machine, the celebrated spinning- frame, consisting chiefly of two pairs of rollers, the first pair, which were in contact, revolving with a slow motion, and passing the cotton to the other pair, which revolved with such increased velocity as to draw out the thread to the required degree of fineness. A subsequent operation was to spin the yarn from these threads. No 