th_, a month corresponding to parts of December and January. The
Jewish year began in the early spring, and Tebeth was the tenth month.

_Purim_, a feast kept before the New Testament time. Later, when the
Jews were hated and shamefully abused by Christians, Purim was a
favorite feast, because it gave great opportunity for the Jews to
express their contempt for their oppressors. It was always a noisy and
joyful feast. The book of Esther was read in the synagogues, and
whenever the name of Haman was pronounced in the reading, the boys
rapped on the floors and benches, making a great noise. It came, as
the story of Esther tells, in the middle of Adar, which is in February
and March.

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JUDITH.

_Apocrypha_. The name given to a collection of books of various
kinds, long used as a part of the Old Testament, and still so regarded
by the Catholic church. They were not held to be sacred by the
Jews, but were by the early church. They contain histories, tales,
books of wisdom and good advice. Some of the histories, like that
of the Maccabees in this volume, are excellent and keep close to
truth, but some of the tales, while stories of great interest, do not
pretend to be exact statements of fact. Such is this story of Judith.
All of them, however, are written to show some character of
heroism or goodness. This story of Judith is a stirring tale of
bravery. Bravery is something that men and women, boys and
girls, all need to learn.

_Holofernes_, called a general of Nebuchadnezzar in the story. A king
named Orophernes was the friend of a later king who was an enemy of
the Jews. This may be the origin of the name.

_Asher_, a tribe of Israel living in Northern Palestine.

_Dotaea_, the Dothan of the Old Testament.

_Geba_, a common name of towns in Palestine. It means "hill." This
Geba was about three miles north of Samaria.

_Scythopolis_. The Bethshan of the Old Testament, about three miles
from the river Jordan.

_Bethulia_. A town near Dothan, the site not known. It may be that, in
an original form of the story, some other place was named, possibly
Samaria or Jerusalem.

_Children of Esau_. Edomites, who were long at sharp enmity with the
Jews.

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STORIES OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA.

_Cherith_, thought by some to be the Wady Kelt, one of the deep narrow
valleys between Jerusalem and the Jordan, where the land is
uninhabited, all a mass of rock and steep mountain and desert.

_Zare