€HELICUT. 391 
mis-statementshavealsobeen made respecting a ceremony practised 
by the Abyssinians on the feast of the Epiphany, which falls, 
according to their reckoning, on the 11th of January, when the 
greater part of the inhabitants are accustomed to assemble by the 
brooks or lakes in the neighbourhood, for the purpose of perform- 
ing a species of ablution,* which has been interpreted into an 
annual repetition of baptism. I made many enquiries respecting 
this custom, which Mr. Pearce had witnessed every year during 
his stay in the country, and I found that it was always considered 
as a mere commemoration of Our Saviour's baptism \' and 
that, it was rather a holiday scene of riotous mirth, than a religious 
ceremony. The younger part of the company, after they have 
received the priest's blessing, jump into the water, and as Ludolf 
well describes, proceed to leap and dance, and duck one ano- 
ther, and by and by to fill the neighbouring fields with hoopings 
and hollowings ; the usual consequences of such kind of sport." 
The Abyssinians administer the holy Sacrament of commu- 
nion in both kinds, with leavened bread always prepared fresh 
for the occasion, and with wine made of a red grape, common in 
some parts of the country ; while in others, they are obliged to 
use as a substitute, a liquor made of dried grapes squeezed in 
water. After the consecration of the bread and wine, just before 
they are delivered to the people, a bell is rung, and all those 
who are present bow themselves to the earth ; but this does not 
appear to be done from any idea of the real presence, as no such 
belief was entertained by any of those with whom I conversed on 
* Mr. Bruce has given a very just account of this ceremony^ which he witnessed at 
Adowa. 
Il 
