Accession No.: 7.422Date: May, 1920
Photographer: George R. Swain
Caption: Monastery of St. John. Four monks playing with mallets on the great "semandron" in the court. A fifth monk beyond with a small semandron in his hand. The use of these wooden bars is said to have originated in a time whe n the use of bells was forbidden to monasteries. The great semandron is a bar of oak (about 2x8 inches in cross-section and nearly 25 feet long). One wonders if it is some old ship timber.