the spot, some of whom were engaged in chaunting psalms, while the rest were busy in preparing the water and making other necessary arrangements for the occasion. At sun-rise, every thing being ready, an attendant was sent round from the high priest, to point out to each person concerned the part which he was to take in the ceremony. The officiating priest was habited in white flowing robes, with a tiara, or silver-mounted cap on his head, and he carried a censer with burning incense in his right hand: a second of equal rank was dressed in similar robes, supporting a large golden cross, while a third held in his hand a small phial containing a quantity of meiron,[1] or consecrated oil, which is furnished to the church of Abyssinia by the Patriarch of Alexandria. The attendant priests stood round in the form of a semicircle, the boy being placed in the centre, and our party ranged in front. After a few minutes interval, employed in singing psalms, some of the priests took the boy and washed him all over very carefully in a large bason of water. While this was passing a smaller font called ምጥማቅ me-te-mak (which is always kept outside of the churches, owing to an unbaptized person not being permitted to enter the church) was placed in the middle of the area filled with water, which the priest consecrated by prayer, waving the incense repeatedly over it, and dropping into it a portion of the meiron in the shape of a cross. The boy was then brought back, dripping from head to foot, and again placed naked and upright in the centre; and was required to renounce "the devil and all his works," which was performed, by his repeating a given formula four separate times, turning each time towards a different point of the compass. The godfather was then demanded, and on my being presented, I nam-
- ↑ Father Bernat, in a letter from Cairo, dated 1711, gives the following account of consecration of the meiron (or holy chrism used throughout the Alexandrian church in baptism;) "The consecration of the meiron is performed with great expense and many ceremonies by the patriarch himself, assisted by the bishop. It is composed, not only of oil of olives and balm, but of many other precious and odoriferous drugs. When the patriarch consecrates an archbishop (or abuna) of Abyssinia, he gives him some of this meiron, which is not sent into the country on any other occasion." Vide Le Grand, p. 340, English edition.
