evening at the village church-a modest-looking building that was situated upon a small knoll, from the summit of which a fine view of the scenery betwixt the far-off mountains and the village could be obtained.

In the foreground there was a broad, winding valley, whose glittering torrent showed itself here and there whenever the massive old plane trees which fringed its course permitted a glimpse of its shining waters to be caught; the sides of this valley were clothed with a dense fir forest, whose green foliage seemed to rise and fall in waves as the ground which it covered rose into higher and yet higher hills, till in the distance the before-mentioned mountains showed their delicate opalescent hues outlined against the glorious blue sky.

The architecture of the holy edifice was of the plainest description both internally and externally-bare stone walls looking spotlessly clean from their coating of whitewash, pierced here and there by a few narrow windows, and surmounted by a plain pantile roof whose sole projection was a small belfry containing a solitary bell; the floor was paved with rough flagstones which gave a cold and cheerless aspect to the interior, owing to their being unrelieved by either benches or chairs. This want of sitting accommodation was due to the fact that the Greeks perform their devotions standing, and therefore make no provision for resting the body, with the exception of a row of seatless stalls arranged against either side of the church, and on which the worshippers can, if they so will, support their arms.

Facing the main entrance and at the opposite end of the church was the Bema, or sanctuary, which was separated from the main body of the building by a screen, the Iconastasis, on the panels of which were numerous paintings of saints; hence its name. Within this sanctuary was the altar, to which the Papas (priest) gained access when the service commenced by means of an arched doorway in the Iconastasis, this doorway at other times being closed by a heavy curtain. There was but little else in the church to strike the eye of a foreigner, unless it were a gallery for the use of the women, who worship apart from the men, and a noteworthy absence of all images, which are forbidden by the canons of the Greek Church.

At the appointed hour the christening party punctually entered the building and took their stand around a large tin font which had been carried in and placed in the centre of the open, flagged space; this font, more especially when it had been filled with lukewarm steaming water, put me in mind of nothing so much as a large souptureen. The infant, a well-grown male child, was carried in by its mother, who was accompanied by the father, the future godfather,

the midwife, an old woman of eighty, and sundry friends, some of whom had come long distances to be present at the service.

The ceremony was performed by two Papathes, or priests, each arrayed in the usual high hat, which resembles a brimless "chimney pot" flattened out at the top, and white, shapeless linen robe with a large gold cross embroidered on the back. Their long black hair, glistening from the generous use of the oil with which it had been anointed, was gathered up in a tuft at the back of their heads, and was more especially noticeable when they uncovered themselves at certain periods in the service.

Viewed as a whole the group, including the little boy bearing the incense burner, was a striking one; the variety and singularity of the dresses, the dark, swarthy faces of the men, each with his little armament of knives and pistols, and the long elfish locks and flowing garments of the priests, contrasting strangely though not unpleasantly with the bare white walls, gaudily-painted screen, and kindly-looking English gentleman holding the helpless little child that was the cause of so much commotion.

The priests having smilingly intimated to the mother that the service might now proceed, commenced with a long prayer recited in a high nasal voice, which was now and then varied by a peculiar chant unlike anything that I had previously heard. At certain places in the prayer the Papas, the most advanced in years, approached the infant, who was still being held by its mother, and blowing gently in its face, made the sign of the cross over its wistful little countenance; at intervals also he bowed himself before the pictures of the holy saints, swinging the censer to and fro before them till the whole church was fragrant with the sweet, penetrating scent. Although everything was being conducted with due propriety and an absence of anything approaching levity, yet, nevertheless, there were many smiling faces around, not excepting the worthy priests' in the fulfilment of their office. The godfather, who, but for a preliminary dandling of the infant, had up till this time taken no active part in the service, now commenced his onerous duties by receiving the child from its mother, which he did in such a cautious and even clever manner as to lead the spectator to infer that he was no novice at baby handling, even if it had not been further demonstrated by his talented manipulation of the infant, who raised no audible objection to the transfer. But both godfather and godson had certain tribulations to pass through ere the end came. Those of the former commenced forthwith, through the agency of his little charge, who after mutely blinking at the lighted candle held in its custodian's

disengaged hand, turned its attention to that personage's moustache, one of the waxed ends of which it managed to secure. After twisting and twirling about the prize, the unhappy owner of which assumed an appearance of unconcern, the small tormentor tickled his chin with his chubby fingers-a further attention which caused the victim. to wriggle and relax his attentions to the taper, which thereupon deviated from its proper perpendicular deportment. Now, from the chin to the ear is not very far, and when at the ear why not examine its interior, although it is a sensitive spot? I am not prepared to state that such was the child's reasoning, but, be the cause what it may, this inquiring infant's finger found its way to my friend's ear, round which it hovered like a moth round a candle. A stop was put to these youthful speculations by a move being made to the far end of the church, where the godfather, having made certain responses, blew and spat at the devil. After thus flaunting and scoffing at his Satanic Majesty, the priests and godfather returned to the font, where the infant was handed to its mother, who forthwith sat down upon the floor of the church and proceeded, with the assistance of the aged midwife, to divest it of its garments. Judging from sundry grunts on the part of the child during this public removal of its robes, it did not seem to properly appreciate the maternal attentions.

Meanwhile the Papas was not idle--far from it: he was superintending the pouring of cans of hot and cold water into the font, and anxiously testing for the right temperature by plunging his hand beneath the surface of the contents; at last, having satisfied himself on this point, he withdrew this natural thermometer and presented it to a small boy in attendance, by whom it was dried and kissed.

The olive-coloured little morsel of humanity, still behaving in an exemplary manner, was then wrapped in a white cloth and handed. once more to its patient and long-suffering godfather, who, after a prayer had been offered up, delivered it to the priest to be deposited gently on a mat. Making a sign to the mother to advance, she came forward, and having knelt down, addressed herself to the task of holding the mite's legs, which evinced symptons of resistance against this coercion. While retained in this position it was rubbed with myrrh by the Papas on the back and breast. The most exemplary care was taken against the infant catching cold, and as soon as this particular form was gone through it was wrapped in its clothes and again confided to the care of its mother. The priest now rose to his feet, and producing a bottle of holy oil, dipped his fingers therein and with them made a sign of the cross on the child's forehead; the remainder of the oil he poured into the font, the contents

of which he then blessed three times, his right hand being half immersed in the liquid. At this particular portion of the service there was shown, by the manner in which all present drew nearer to the font, a certain shade of anxiety, coupled at the same time with a wistful curiosity, the reason for which I did not fully comprehend till after the approaching rite had been performed, and which was now entered upon by the Papas. Receiving the child from its mother, but this time naked, and holding it under the arms in his powerful grasp, suspended over the surface of the oily water with its poor little legs hanging pendulously downward, he lowered it by a series of gentle drops and ascents into the water, in which it finally rested in a sitting position. The object of all these attentions was apparently so astonished with this, its, most probably, first acquaintance with water, that it showed no other sign of surprise than a widely distended mouth, into which, as was natural, the water poured like a cataract, when the priest immersed its plump little body. It was not in the nature of babyhood to undergo such treatment without offering a vigorous vocal protest, pitched in a high key. The infant in question constituted no exception to the rule, and so energetic, so staccato, became his song without words, that, being a bachelor with no experience of either babies in general or babies in particular, I began to dimly call to mind the hearing or reading of such violent infantile grief sometimes ending in convulsions-a calamity which, if it happened in this case, would be doubly serious, as there was no medical man within miles of the spot. These anxieties, and the accompanying chorus from the baby choir in the women's gallery who had been sympathetically howling, were soon laid to rest by the Papas withdrawing the object of so much commiseration from the water, and, with the assistance of the mother, drying and dressing it in its original clothes, to which had been added a small scarlet cocked hat, that he perched sideways upon its head, and which, with the previous processes of drying and dressing, reduced it to comparative and, finally, to total silence. I should have mentioned that, previous to his conferring the order of the hat, he cut off, after much fumbling and a considerable expenditure of time owing to there being the reverse of a luxuriant growth, three locks of his trust's hair, which he cast into the font. Once more was the little involuntary wanderer committed to the godfather's custody, to whom it was secured by a broad, light-blue sash, or rather shawl, passed round the bodies of each, and tied in a big bow at the back of that good-natured, long-suffering man, whose chin and mouth had a soothing and cheering effect on the mind of the "mother's own,' ruffled by the recent watery rite. The christen

ing concluded by a prayer, lugubriously chanted by the two Papathes, who, together with the infant and its guardian, slowly made the circle of the font three times, bowing at each quarter of the circle. The Bible was then given into the charge of the small censer bearer, who devoutly kissed it and the priest's hand from which it was received, and the whole party, headed by the godfather with his burden, still adorned by the blue sash, wended their way out of the church to the mother's cottage, situated not far distant.

Here all were received with glasses of the inevitable mastic, the spirit which forms such a conspicuous and preliminary feature in the hospitality of this part of the world. After passing a short time in chat, which chiefly related to the ceremony that had just taken place, the godfather was presented by the mother with a handsome scarf, while he, on his part, presented the worthy Papathes with a fee of 25 drachmas, the midwife with a rather smaller sum, and all those who had been present in the church, including a goodly contingent. of juveniles, with 10 lepta each. So ended this, to me, interesting ceremonial, which left me not only richer in experience, but with my stock of lepta increased by ten.

NEIL WYNN WILLIAMS.