“The numbers increase as the hour of the ceremonial comes nearer, and by midnight there are some twenty rows of these white-robed figures, men and women, ranked in orderly array facing the _Mishkna_, and awaiting in silent expectation the coming of the priests. A couple of _tarmidos_, lamp in hand, guard the entry to the tabernacle, and keep their eyes fixed upon the pointers of the Great Bear in the sky above. As soon as these attain the position indicating midnight, the priests give a signal by waving the lamps they hold, and in a few moments the clergy of the sect march down in procession. In front are four of the _shkandos_, young deacons, attired in the _rasta_, with the addition of a silk cap, or _tagha_, under the turban, to indicate their rank. Following these come four _tarmidos_, ordained priests who have undergone the baptism of the dead. Each wears a gold ring on the little finger of the right hand, and carries a tau-shaped cross of olive wood to show his standing. Behind the _tarmidos_ comes the spiritual head of the sect, the _Ganzivro_, a priest elected by his colleagues who has made complete renunciation of the world and is regarded as one dead and in the realms of the blessed. He is escorted by four other deacons. One holds aloft the large wooden tau-cross, known as _derashvod zivo_, that symbolizes his religious office; a second bears the sacred scriptures of the Star-worshippers, the _Sidra Rabba_, “the great Order,” two-thirds of which form the liturgy of the living and one-third the ritual of the dead. The third of the deacons carries two live pigeons in a cage, and the last a measure of barley and of sesame seeds. “The procession marches through the ranks of the seated worshippers, who bend and kiss the garments of the _Ganzivro_ as he passes near them. The _tarmidos_ guarding the entrance to the tabernacle draw back the hanging over the doorway and the priests file in, the deacons and _tarmidos_ to right and left, leaving the _Ganzivro_ standing alone in the centre, in front of the earthen altar facing the North Star, Polaris. The sacred book _Sidra Rabba_ is laid upon the altar folded back where the liturgy of the living is divided from the ritual of the dead. The high priest takes one of the live pigeons handed to him by a _shkando_, extends his hands toward the Polar Star upon which he fixes his eyes, and lets the bird fly, calling aloud, ‘_Bshmo d’haï rabba mshabbah zivo kadmaya Elaha Edmen Nafshi Eprah_,’ ‘In the name of the living one, blessed be the primitive light, the ancient light, the Divinity self-created.’ The words, clearly enunciated within, are distinctly heard by the worshippers without, and with one accord the white-robed figures rise from their places and prostrate themselves upon the ground toward the North Star, on which they have silently been gazing.