And with them he enters into the bema and, having been given a censer, he censes the Holy Table, looking first of all to the east, then north, west, and south, and having again censed towards the east, he censes the patriarch also. The patriarch bows to him and takes the censer, and censes the emperor in return. After this the emperor removes the crown, and gives it into the hands of the deacons. Then the patriarch puts into his hand a portion of our Lord’s body, and after that he drinks of the life-giving blood, not from a spoon like the rest of the people, but from the cup itself like the priests. Then the emperor replaces the crown, and comes out of the bema, and after the congregation has shared in the Communion, and he has been blessed by the patriarch, and the priests, and has kissed their right hands, they lead him to the part called catechumena to receive the acclamations of the people. When this is finished, he comes down again, and he and the empress mount on horseback, and ride back to the palace to partake of a banquet.”[93] Codinus Curopalata[94] has also a description, almost in the same words, but with some additions. The future emperor is “led to the triclinium called Thomaites, which looks on to the Augusteum, where are standing the populace with the army. But before the emperor shows himself, what are called epicombia are thrown to the people by one of the senators, whom the emperor has selected. These epicombia are made as follows. They cut pieces of cloth, and in each piece they bind up three gold and as many silver numismata and three obols, and then throw them to the people, and they scatter as many thousands of these as the emperor shall arrange. Now it is customary to throw these epicombia in the proaulion of the great church, that is in the part called Augusteum;--he who scatters them standing above the steps of the Augusteum.” Inside the church a wooden tribunal had been prepared in the gynaeceum, and at the end of the ceremony “the young emperor with his wife the empress, and the emperor, his father, and his mother, ascend. But the golden velothyra hide the tribunal, so that they shall not be seen. Then the psaltae sing ‘Lift up,’ and immediately the velothyra are raised, and the princes in the gynaeceum are greeted with acclamations by the people.” CHAPTER V THE RITUAL ARRANGEMENTS AND INTERIOR PARTS OF THE CHURCH _Main Divisions._--Du Cange, in the commentary to his edition of the Silentiary’s Poem, was the first to make a serious attempt to elucidate the interior arrangements of S. Sophia. This appeared with the poem in the folio of 1670,[95] but a revised edition was incorporated in his _Historia Byzantina_, 1680.[96]