[259]
On arriving at manhood you assisted your mother in her initiations,1 reading the service-book while she
performed the ritual, and helping generally with the paraphernalia. At night it
was your duty to mix the libations, to clothe the catechumens in fawn-skins, to
wash their bodies, to scour them with the loam and the bran, and, when their
lustration was duly performed, to set them on their legs, and give out the
hymn:Here I leave my sins behind,Here the better way I find; and it was your pride that
no one ever emitted that holy ululation so powerfully as yourself. I can well
believe it! When you hear the stentorian tones of the orator, can you doubt that
the ejaculations of the acolyte were simply magnificent?
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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