Nature and Art, March 1, 1867.] 
CEREMONIES OE THE GREEK CHURCH. 
71 
heard a sound these twenty years, poor dear 
man. He often says — ‘Mrs. S.,’ he says, ‘I’d die 
happy, if I could hear the sound of your sweet 
English tongue, — only once’t,’ he says, the dear, 
kind, innocent, good man.” 
“ But you should have made it known to him 
somehow.” 
“ Don’t I know that 1 He should know it, but 
lie doesn’t, there’s neither a black nor a white lie 
in it. I tould him hard and fast, and often enough, 
both before and since we were married. His 
cousin once’t, out of a spite to me, wrote it down 
on paper that I was Irish, and Mi'. Smith ordered 
him out of the house there and then ! ” 
“ But could not you write it?” 
She crimsoned over cheek and brow in a 
moment. 
“ Oh, ma’am, sure if you’ll remember you know 
I couldn’t. Sure you might think of the milk- 
tallies, and the marks I made on the wall of the 
larder against the butcher’s book. Sure, if I 
could write, wouldn’t you have got a letter to tell 
you about poor Bizz ? and the good fortune the 
Lord laid out for me, a pool’, ignorant, half heart- 
broken girl ! and it all came about through the 
fever Mr. Smith had, and none of his servants 
would go near him but me. Day and night I tended 
him for weeks, and when he got to be himself again, 
he made me Mrs. Smith, and taught me to talk on 
my fingers which I can do now famous. I think 
he’d die if he thought I was Irish, and I’m sure if 
he heard me spakeing this blessed minute, setting 
a case lie was to the fore, he’d think it was French, 
or Italian, or German, I was talking, and where’s 
the great odds 1 Sure, I hear it’s the fashion now, 
for ladies and gentlemen to read, write, talk, and 
spell, every language in life except their own, and 
that’s the cause (as I hear) of all the bad English 
that do be in books. They’ll all have to be sent 
to Ireland, I’m thinking, to learn raid English ; 
that is, the people that do be making the books, I 
mean, — and sure,” she added with one of her sly 
smiles, “ I wouldn’t wonder if you made one out 
of 
‘ Bizz and her Foes.’ ” 
CEREMONIES OF THE GREEK CHURCH. 
I N' the most ancient part of the Kremlin at 
Moscow is an old sacristy, and there is kept 
the original vessel which brought the chrism , or 
anointing oil, from Constantinople, and which, by 
the orthodox of the Greek Church, was believed to 
contain a portion of the precious ointment used by 
Mary Magdalene. This vessel is a copper bottle or 
vase, silvered over and ornamented with mother-of- 
pearl. 
In the same sacristy there are two large silver 
boilers and a third of larger dimensions, which 
were a present from the Empress Catherine ; in 
these there is, during Lent every year, made, or 
consecrated, a quantity of oil as a chrism : this is 
done as a ceremony of great solemnity by the 
Metropolitan of Moscow, assisted by his clergy. 
The chrism is compounded not of oil alone, but of 
about thirty different ingredients— oil, and essential 
oils, white wine, gums, balsams, and spices,— and to 
the whole are added a few drops from the “alabaster,” 
which is the title of the bottle of chrism from 
Constantinople. When the whole is duly prepared, 
and consecrated by the ancient forms and ceremonies, 
a few drops from the mass are again put into the 
ancient “alabaster,” and by this practice, sixteen 
silver bottles, similar to the ancient one, are filled, 
and the original stock of precious ointment is duly 
preserved. This sacred oil is called “ Mir,” and 
these bottles are sent to the different bishops of 
Russia. It is used for the following ceremonies : 
the Emperor at his coronation is anointed with it ; 
it is used at the consecration of all churches of the 
orthodox communion, and at the baptism of every 
orthodox Russian subject. 
The ceremony of baptism, like all the ceremonies 
of the Greek Church, is very beautiful, and ought 
to impress those who go through its performance 
with a sense of its solemnity. The godfathers and 
godmothers proceed with the child to the church, 
and are met at the door by the priest: he gives the 
child the sign of the cross on the forehead, and pro- 
nounces the benediction, saying, “The Lord preserve 
thy going out, and thy coming in ! ” The sponsors 
present four lighted candles, which the priest puts 
upon the font ; he then consecrates the water, by 
dipping the cross into it ; he then, after the use of 
incense, leads the sponsors, with candles in their 
hands, in a procession round the font ; having cir- 
cumambulated the font three times, the sponsors 
give the name of the child in writing ■ the priest 
attaches the name to one of the images of the 
church, and laying it on the breast of the child, asks 
“whether the child believes in God the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost ? ” The answer “ yes,” is given 
three times, and the sponsors then turn their backs 
to the font, as a sign of their aversion to the next 
three questions, which are, “Whether the child 
renounces the devil 1 Whether he renounces his 
angels 1 Whether he renounces his works ? ” They 
have to answer to each question, “ I renounce,” 
and spit three times upon the ground, in token of 
malediction. On turning again to the font, they 
are asked by the priest “ Whether they promise to 
bring up the child in the true Greek religion 1” 
