After he has been anointed, the Czar is conducted through the Royal Gates and receives the Holy Sacrament in both kinds separately, as if he were a priest, and then are given the Antidoron and wine with warm water, and water to wash his mouth and hands. The Czarina is communicated in the usual manner at the Royal Gates, and is given the Antidoron, wine, and water. The Father Confessor reads before the imperial pair, who have returned to their seats, the Thanksgiving for Communion. After the dismissal the Archdeacon says the royal anthem, πολυχρόνιον, the choir repeating thrice the last part, ‘Many years,’ and the clergy and laity then present congratulate their Majesties, bowing thrice towards them. The Metropolitan presents the cross for the Czar and Czarina to kiss, and the imperial procession leaves the church. THE ABYSSINIAN RITE A curious and unique variety of the Eastern rite survives to this day in Abyssinia[28]. The Negus enters Axum in state, accompanied by his principal officers. At a little distance from the church he alights, and his progress is barred by a cord held across the road by young girls. Thrice they ask him who he is, and at first he answers that he is King of Jerusalem, or King of Sion, and at the third interrogation he draws his sword and cuts the cord, the girls thereupon crying out that he verily is their king, the King of Sion. He is met at the entrance of the church (or sometimes apparently in a tent which is perhaps a moveable church)[29] by the Abuna and the clergy, and enters to the accompaniment of music. He is anointed by the Abuna with sweet oil, all the priests present singing psalms the meanwhile. He is next invested with a royal mantle. Finally a crown of gold and silver, in the shape of a tiara and surmounted by a cross, is set on his head, and a naked sword denoting Justice is placed in his hand. The liturgy is then celebrated, and the Negus receives the Holy Sacrament. When he leaves the church the first chaplain ascends a lofty place and proclaims to the people that N. has been made to reign, and the assembly greet the new monarch with acclamations and good wishes, and come forward in order to kiss his hand. Unfortunately none of the forms of this rite are accessible. The chief point of interest in it lies in the fact that the Negus is anointed. In view of the obscurity which shrouds the history of Abyssinia during the six centuries which followed the Arab conquest of Egypt it would be precarious to say whence this rite with the accompanying anointing was derived. It may have been an independent development in Abyssinia, derived from the accounts of the anointing of kings found in the Old Testament, more especially as many Judaising practices survive in Abyssinia. CHAPTER III THE ORIGIN OF THE WESTERN RITE The Eastern rite was one and one only. There was only one monarch in the East to be crowned, and therefore the rite was subject only to a natural and internal development.