once understood that he himself had omitted the "further" in the formula. As Sarmad died he placed his severed head on his hand and walked away, saying that he would dash it against the walls of the palace of the unjust Emperor. But his Pīr met him and warned him not to be rash. The head fell from his hands and he died just before the Great Mosque of Delhi, where he was buried and his tomb stands to this day.[1]
Notes on some Early Ecclesiastical Practices in Armenia.
From an ancient source we learn that the Christian clergy in Armenia once dressed themselves in certain skins. Faustus of Byzance, an historian of the first half of the fifth century, relates (bk. vi.) the following of Zavên, who was Catholicos, or head, of the Armenian Church about the year 386:—"He taught all the priests to wear the dress of soldiers. For they abandoned the apostolic rule of the churches, and began to walk after their own imaginings; since the priests no longer wore in compliance with the religious rule the long robe (= Gr. ποδηρής), as was the law originally, but began to have cross-cut garments above the knees. And they adorned their garments with all sorts of broidery, and gave themselves unsuitable airs. And the priests clothed themselves without scruple in the hides of dead (or strangled) wild animals, which was not appropriate. But Zavên dressed himself in galloons and circular lappets fimbriated with ribbons, and wore sableskin and ermine and wolfskin, and threw over his person foxskins; and so arrayed, they went without scruple up to the bema[2] and sat there."
- ↑ Sarmad is an historical character. He was an Armenian who became mad through love for a Hindu girl, and went about naked. He attached himself to Dāra, eldest son of Aurangzīb, who held unorthodox views. He was executed by Aurangzīb as a heretic about 1661 a.d. The story of the headless saint walking about is common in Musalmān hagiology.
- ↑ I.e. the altar in church.
