But, besides this, various falsehoods have likewise been propagated about the manner of baptism practiced in Abyssinia, all in order to impugn the validity of it, and to excuse the rash conduct of the Jesuits for re-baptising all the Abyssinians, as if they had been a Jewish and Pagan people that never had been baptised at all. The violation of this article of the creed, or confession of Nice, was a cause of great offence to the Abyssinians, and of the misfortunes that happened afterwards. The whole of the Abyssinian service of baptism is in their liturgy. The Jesuits had plenty of copies in their hands, and could have pointed out the part of the service that was heretical, if they had pleased; they did not pretend, however, to do this, and their silence condemns them. As for the idle stories that are told of the words pronounced, such as,--“I baptize you in the name of the Holy Trinity,”--“In the name of Peter and Paul,”--“I baptize you in the water of Jordan,”--“May God baptise you,”--“May God wash you,” and many others, they are all invented by the Jesuits, to excuse the repetition of baptism in Abyssinia, which there was no sort of occasion for, as they might have examined the words and form in the liturgies, which are in every church; and I must here only observe, that if, as the chaplain of Alvarez says, the priest in the pool, on the festival of the Epiphany, was so fond of the proper words as even, at that time, to say, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” the words he quotes to shew this immersion in water on the Epiphany, is a real baptism, I cannot comprehend why they should vary them to other words, when nothing but baptism is meant. But this I can bear evidence of, that, in no time when I was present, as I have above a hundred times been at the baptism both of adults and infants, aye, and of apostates too, I never heard other words pronounced than the orthodox baptismal ones, “I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” immerging the child in pure water, into which they first pour a small quantity of oil of olives, in the form of a cross. The Abyssinians receive the holy sacrament in both kinds in unleavened bread, and in the grape bruised with the husk together as it grows, so that it is a kind of marmalade, and is given in a flat spoon: whatever they may pretend, some mixture seems necessary to keep it from fermentation in the state that it is in, unless the dried cluster is fresh bruised just before it is used, for it is little more fluid than the common marmalade of confectioners; but it is perfectly the grape as it grew, bruised stones and skin together. Some means, however, have been used, as I suppose, to prevent fermentation, and make it keep; and, though this is constantly denied, I have often thought I tasted a flavour that was not natural to the grape itself.