158 Folklore from the Southern Sporades.
hath an oracle of sin within him.' Then write : ' Looseth the bonds and quencheth the flame.' ^ Then write the crosses after this fashion — '^
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and after you have written all this, secretly perform the service and place the sacred [elements ?] beneath the priest's coat/^ the married pair being also present; standing in the midst of the church, joining them under his hands as at the crowning [i.e. wedding) ; and when the priest says the words ' Of us all,' pass between the pair, saying secretly, ' Now, O Lord, thou dost set free thy servants.' Then again joining the pair ; and when the priest will say ' Let us attend,' have a child ready outside ; and after the priest has said ' Let us attend,' the priest says again : 'Who has bound the servants of God, Joannes and Maria?' Then the boy says : ' Who can set them free ? ' Again the priest says : ' Holy things to the holy,' and at the end of the service, the priest does the service within the cupboard ^ and quenches the [illegible].
" Write (?) all this ; then you give the half, and the man drinks it, and the woman the other half, and God willing this looses the spell."
The state of the MS. is so damaged that much is left doubtful, yet there is enough to show that the charm was worked during the marriage service, or in a repetition of it ;
' Part of a hymn sung on Ascension Day. 2 <TT{uvpos) K^vpiov), <7T(avp6s^ 0(eoy), the rest as above. ^ 'CrjTTovvL is the priest's coat ; the word is struck out in the MS., and a later hand writes aivi, " platter."
- In the lepoy, where the sacred elements are kept.
