“Noiselessly the worshippers resume their seated position on the ground outside. Within the _Mishkna_, or tabernacle, the _Ganzivro_ steps on one side, and his place is immediately taken by the senior priest, a _tarmido_, who opens the _Sidra Rabba_ before him on the altar and begins to read the _Shomhotto_, ‘confession’ of the sect, in a modulated chant, his voice rising and falling as he reads, and ever and anon terminating in a loud and swelling _Mshobbo havi eshmakhyo Manda d’haï_, ‘Blessed be thy name, O source of life,’ which the congregants without take up and repeat with bowed heads, their hands covering their eyes. “While the reading is in progress two other priests turn, and prepare the _Peto elayat_, or high mystery, as they term their Communion. One kindles a charcoal fire in the earthenware stove by the side of the altar, and the other grinds small some of the barley brought by the deacon. He then expresses some oil from the sesame seed, and, mixing the barley meal and oil, prepares a mass of dough which he kneads and separates into small cakes the size of a two-shilling piece. These are quickly thrust into or on the oven and baked, the chanting of the liturgy of the _Shomhotto_ still proceeding with its steady sing-song and response, _Mshobbo havi eshmakhyo_, from outside. The fourth of the _tarmidos_ now takes the pigeon left in the cage from the _shkando_, or deacon, standing near him, and cuts its throat quickly with a very sharp knife, taking care that no blood is lost. The little cakes are then brought to him by his colleague, and, still holding the dying pigeon, he strains its neck over them in such a way that four drops fall on each one so as to form the sacred _tau_, or cross. Amid the continued reading of the liturgy, the cakes are carried round to the worshippers outside by the two principal priests who prepared them, who themselves pop them direct into the mouths of the members, with the words ‘_Rshimot bereshm d’haï_,’ ‘Marked be thou with the mark of the living one.’ The four deacons inside the _Mishkna_ walk round to the rear of the altar and dig a little hole, in which the body of the dead pigeon is then buried.