In the Holy Place was the altar of incense, on which incense was burnt in honour of Jehovah; this was probably a sort of tripod, surmounted by a bowl with a lighted brazier. There was also the table of shew-bread and the seven-branched candlesticks. The table, on which twelve loaves were placed every week, was undoubtedly analogous to the tables of offerings to the gods so often represented in Egyptian bas-reliefs, with loaves piled upon wine-pitchers; furniture of the same kind also seems to be spoken of in the cuneiform inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzer. The bas-relief on the Arch of Titus at Rome represents Jewish captives carrying on their shoulders the furniture of their ruined temple, and among this spoil figures the table of shew-bread such as it was in Herod’s Temple, under the form of a square cippus. [Illustration: Fig. 179.--Seven-branched candlestick (M. de Vogüé, p. 33.)] The seven-branched candlesticks, ten in number, had a peculiar form, also revealed to us by the Arch of Titus and some other monuments. On the base with two steps a central stem is fixed, to which six branches are fitted, three on each side, arranged in the shape of a fan. Each of the seven branches is adorned with three flowers and a socket. On the base, fantastic animals are seen in relief. Hiram-Abi, the famous worker in metals from Tyre, in Solomon’s pay, also “made lamps and tongs of gold, and bowls and snuffers and basons and spoons and censers of pure gold,”[86] shovels and goblets of bronze. The candlesticks and other treasures of the Temple, carried away to Rome by Titus, were seized by Genseric during the sack of the city by the Vandals (A.D. 455). They were removed to Carthage, but, on the conquest of the Vandals by Belisarius, were taken in triumph to Constantinople. The Jews petitioned the Emperor Justinian to restore these treasures to the Holy City, to which they rightfully belonged, and he is said to have ordered that they should be sent to one of the Christian Churches in Jerusalem, but we hear no more of their fate in the pages of history.[87] [Illustration: Fig. 180.--Capital of the bronze columns. (Restoration by M. de Vogüé).] In the court of the priests, before the vestibule of the Temple, there were two separate bronze columns, reminding us of Egyptian obelisks, named Jachin and Boaz. The restoration of these two columns, marvels of Phœnician art, and invested in the eyes of the Jews with a talismanic power, has often been attempted. They were hollow, and their metal walls were 3⅓ in. thick. “Their capital, 5 cubits high, had the form of fleur-de-lis, the lower part of which, swelling outwards, was covered with a reticulated ornament enclosed within two rows of pomegranates.”[88] The total height of each column was 41 ft., the diameter of the shaft was 6 ft. 5⅓ in., the pomegranates, 200 in number, formed a double collar round each capital.