In addition to theatrical role-playing with costumes, fraternal groups used colorful painted wood props to make their degree rituals come alive. The initiates learned the meaning of the various symbols more easily when they could be tied to physical representations of the elements of the stories being told. Odd Fellows used the “Tables of Stone,” or Decalogue, in the Encampment Degrees to symbolize moral law and toleration. Taken from the biblical story in Exodus, where God gives the commandments to Moses to govern His people, they are used in the Encampment Degrees to represent the Jewish religion, with a cross to represent Christianity, and a crescent to signify Islam. Together, the three symbols represent tolerance and harmony.