Card/Transcription No.: 239-08

II

employed for joining up the frieze to the panel. It therefore
may be fairly safely said that the framework and planking of
this shrine is of cedar wood (probably Cedrus Libani from the
Lebanon or Asia Minor), and that the cross-tongues used in its
joinery are of Christ's Thorn wood. The tenons (i.e. the end
pieces, parallel to the grain, fitted for insertion into
corresponding mortise-holes in the vertical framing such as
the corner-posts) by being fitted out of the solid wood are
naturally of the `self' cedar wood of the planks that form the
frieze, panel and dado. The Christ's Thorn wood, being of a
harder and tougher nature than the cedar wood, was naturally
employed for the strengthening cross-tongues in the joinery.