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 inferior strength and upon those who fast thou shalt impose light labours.

II. And thou shalt make for them a cell, and they shall dwell together three by three.

III. And they shall partake of food all together in one chamber (or house).

IV. And they shall not take their sleep lying down, but thou shalt make for them seats so that when they are sitting down they shall be able to support their heads.

V. At night time they shall put on garments without sleeves, and their loins shall be girded up, and they shall be provided with skull-caps; and they shall partake of the Offering on the Sabbath and on the First Day of the Week, wearing skull-caps without any nap upon them, and each skull-cap shall have in the front thereof a cross [worked in] purple.

VI. And thou shalt establish the monks in four and twenty grades, and to each grade give a letter of the Greek alphabet from Âlâf to Tâw (i.e., from A to Z); every grade a letter.’ ”

And the blessed Pachomius performed and fulfilled [these things] according as he had been commanded by the angel; and when the head of the monastery asked him that was next to him concerning the affairs of the brethren, the man said unto him, “The voice of Alphâ [and] the voice of Bîtâ salute the head [of the monastery].” Thus the whole of that assembly of brethren had letters of the alphabet assigned to them, according to the designation of the four and twenty letters. To those who were upright and simple he assigned the letter yôdh (i.e., ι), and to those who were difficult and perverse he assigned the letter ksî (i.e., ξ), and thus according to the dispositions and according to the habits and rules of life of the orders [of monks] did he assign letters unto them.

And he (i.e., the Angel) commanded that “a monk who was a stranger and who had a different garb from theirs should not enter in with them to the table; the man who sought to be accepted as a monk in that monastery was obliged to labour there for three years, after which he was to receive the tonsure. When the monks were eating together they were to cover up their faces with [their] head-coverings, that they might not see each other eating, and might not hold converse together over the table, and might not gaze about from one side to the other.” And he commanded that during [each] day they should repeat twelve sections of the Psalter,