STILL CHANTING AT 

 4 A. M. 



My friend, the as- 

 sistant librarian, kind- 

 ly saw to it that I did 

 not miss the climax of 

 the ceremony. It was 

 strange, at 4 o'clock 

 in the morning, to 

 come out of the cool 

 starlight of the court 

 into the heat and press 

 and splendor of the 

 church, to find the 

 good fathers chanting 

 on as I had left them, 

 as monks had chanted 

 before them for a 

 thousand years. The 

 responses passed from 

 transept to transept in 

 the antique Byzantine 

 monotone. 



First at one lectern 

 and then at the other 

 a young deacon in- 

 toned from an illumi- 

 nated missal. His 

 pale, serious face and 

 the red glint in the 

 hair waving about his 

 shoulders made me 

 think of a Giorgione. 

 Others, in magnificent 

 brocades, swinging 

 censers, came and 

 went. The officiating 

 bishop, an old man 

 bowed down by his 

 jeweled miter and his 

 cloth - of - gold vest- 

 ments, sat on a carved 

 and gilded throne, 

 holding an emerald 

 cross in one hand and 

 in the other a tall gold 

 crozier. And lights were everywhere — 

 in brass and silver candalabra, in a fan- 

 tastic silver tree bearing oranges of gold, 

 in votive lamps and chandeliers before 

 dim images, and in the great brass cor- 

 onal, with its double-headed eagles of 

 Byzantium, swinging from the central 

 dome. 



The focus of the ceremony was an an- 

 cient icon of the Virgin. It stood on a 

 sort of easel draped with rich stuffs, 

 under a parasol of flowered white bro- 



Photograph by H. G. Dwight 

 THE PHIATE OR FONT OE LAVRA : MT. ATITOS, GREECE 



This beautiful and interesting church fountain stands in front 

 of the monastery Church of Lavra. The pliiate was originally built 

 in ic6o, although the brickwork of the present structure dates from 

 the sixteenth or seventeenth century. But the fountain itself and 

 the marble panels surrounding it are, no doubt, original. The foun- 

 tain built in Constantinople by Emperor William II, in commemora- 

 tion of his two visits to Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid, was inspired by this 

 Byzantine design. 



cade. As the office proceeded, the breast 

 of the figure was hung with old Byzantine 

 jewelry and strings of gold coins. Among 

 them I afterward saw a Roman stater, 

 two beautiful Alexanders, and any num- 

 ber of Venetian ducats and besants of 

 Constantinople. 



BLESSING THE BARLEY CAKE 



At sunrise the Virgin was divested of 

 her more precious finery and carried out 

 of the church under her parasol. Pre- 



269 



