lks;
which he, from time to time, moistened a little in the water from a
vessel which stood ready, and sprinkled to the four corners of the
temple. The priests again took up the strain in chorus, repeating over
and over the burden of the song.

_"Zaothra, I praise thee and desire thee with praise!
Bareshma, I praise thee and desire thee with praise!
Zaothra, with Bareshma united, I praise you
and desire you with praise!
Bareshma, with Zaothra united, I praise you and
desire you with praise!"_

Suddenly the chief priest laid down the Bareshma, and seizing one of the
golden goblets, filled it, with the wooden ladle, from the dark
receptacle of the juice. As he poured it high, the yellow light of the
lamp caught the transparent greenish fluid, and made it sparkle
strangely. He put the goblet to his lips and drank.

The king, sitting in silence upon his carved throne at the other
extremity of the temple, bent his brows in a dark frown as he saw the
hated ceremony begin. He knew how it ended, and grand as the words were
which they would recite when the subtle fluid had fired their veins, he
loathed to see the intoxication that got possession of them; and the
frenzy with which they howled the sacred strains seemed to him to
destroy the solemnity and dignity of a hymn, in which all that was
solemn and high would otherwise have seemed to be united.

The chief priest drank and then, filling both goblets, gave them to the
priests at his right and left hand; who, after drinking, passed each
other, and made way for those next them; and so the whole number filed
past the Haoma vessel and drank their share till they all had changed
places, and those who had stood upon the right, now stood upon the left;
and those who were first upon the left hand, were now upon the right.
And when all had drunk, the chief priest intoned the great hymn of
praise, and all the chorus united with him in high, clear tones:

_"The All-Wise Creator, Ahura Mazda, the greatest, the best, the
most fair in glory and majesty,"

"The mightiest in his strength, the wisest in his wisdom, the
holiest in his holiness, whose power is of all power the
fairest,"

"Who is very wise, who maketh all things to rejoice afar,"

"Who hath made us and formed us, who hath saved us, the holiest
among the heavenly ones,"

"Him I adore and praise, unto him I declare the sacrifice, him I
invite,"

"I declar