Page:The travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch - Volume I.djvu/38

10 the whole of the proclamation. They lodged us in a house near the church: and in the morning of Saturday, the second of Teshrin the first, they took us, in company with our hosts from Aleppo, to the warm baths Eski Kablouja; in the hot and refreshing waters of which we bathed, and then went to the garden of Kesenta.

In the evening, on our return, we performed the Ἑσπερινόν (Vesper Service) of the Eve of Sunday, the third after the Feast of the Cross, in the aforesaid church. From this place, Broussa, to Constantinople, and thence as far as Vallachia and Moldavia, including the adjacent countries, the Christians are not in the habit of performing the Ἀγρυπνία (Vigils) as we do in our country: but when it is a great festival, they perform it on the preceding eve, before the midnight prayer, and continually throw incense at the Κύριε ἔϰραξα (O Lord, I have cried), till the time of the Δόξα (Glory, or Doxology): in the mean time the congregation is assembling. They mentioned in the proclamation the name of our Lord the Patriarch first; afterwards the names of their Metropolitans. At the Εἴσοδος, all the priests present took the Κορώνη, and put on their copes after their custom, and walked round in the Εἴσοδος, singing "O Divine Light:" and it is a sign, when a priest walks round in the Εἴσοδος the evening before, that he is coming to perform mass the next day. Remark, that the Principal, or head of the priests, has the duty of repeating the Psalm for Sun-set, and "O Divine Light," and, "Now dismiss thy servant:" and so, in the Morning Prayer, he has to repeat the Morning Psalms, and then "Glory to the Sender of light," &c. On the morning of the before-mentioned Sunday, our Lord the Patriarch said mass in this church. Throughout all the country of Greece they begin with the first; and after the seventh ᾨδὴ (Hymn) and the Συναξάρια (Martyrology), they say Πᾶσα πνοὴ and the Gospel, and "Save, O God, thy people;" and the officiating priest comes out carrying the Gospel to the