'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎171] (212/1024)

Chap. XI. of Monfieur ^ TT A V E N IE R« \ I ^ I
C H A P. XL
i g cuftomof the Armenians to Baptize their Infants upon Sunday i
I or if they Baptize any upon the week days,it is only in cafe of neceffity
when they think they will not live. The Midwife carries the Infant to
JL Church, and holds it in her arms,Till either the Archbifhop, theBilhop,
or the Prieft has fa id feme part ct the Form oi Baptifm. Then he that baptizes takes
!he Infant which is naked, and plunges it in the Water, and then taking it out again,
puts it into the hands of the God-father, and goes on with the Prayers. While he
reads them, with the Cotton which he has in his hand he twifts a firing about half
an EU long! He makes another alio of red Silk, which is fiat •, then twitting thofe two
firings together, he puts them about the Child’s neck. They fay, that thefe two
firings, ore of white Cotton, and the other of red Silk, fignifies the Blood and Water
Which flow’d from the Body ofCHRIST, when he was wounded with the Lanceup-
ontheCrofs. Having ty’d the cord about the neck of the Child, he takes the holy Oyl
and anoints the Child in feveral parts of the body, making the fign of the Crofs in
every place where he drops the Oylevery time pronouncing thefe words, I baptize
t’m in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghofi. He firft anoints the
Forehead, then the Chin, then the Stomach, the Arm-holes, the Hands and Feet.
As to the making this Oyl, you mutt know, that every feven years, upon the Eve
c f our Lady in Sepfewkr, againft which day they obferve a [rm\\ Lent of eight days,
th Patriarch makes this holy Oyh there being no perfonbut he who has power to
make it* He ufes all forts of fragrant Flowers, and Aromatical Drugs •, but the
principal Flower is that which the Armenians call in their Language Balaffan-Jague,
we in ours, the Flower ofParadife. When the Oyl is made, the Patriarch fends two
Bottles to all the Covents of Afia, Europe, and Africa, without which they cannot
The Ceremony of Baptifm being over, the God-father gees out of the Church with
the Infant in his arms, and a Taper of white Wax in each hand. According to the
■quality of theperfon, when the Child is carry’d out of the Church, the Trumpets,
Drums, Hautboys, and other Infiiuments of the Country make hideous noife and
go before the Infant to the Parents Houfe, where being arriy d, the God-father
delivers the Child to the Mother. She profirates her felt at the >ame time before the
God-father, kitting his feetsand while file continues in that pofiure, the God-father
kiffes her herd. Neither the Father nor the God-father names the Child, but he that,
bapmes aives him the Narre of the Saint vvhofe Feftival falls upon the Sunday on
which the Child is baptiz’d. If there be no Saint’s day that Sunday in the Almanack,
they take the next Name whofe Fefiival fucceeds the Sunday ofBaptifm s ot at t ey
have no affeded Names among them. Upon the return of the God-father with the
Child home, there is a Feaft prepar’d for all the Kindred and Friends, and him that
baptiz’d the infant, with whom all the Prielkand Monks of the Coven t, at lea It of
the Parifh, go along. The poor people were wont to be fo prodigal at theie beafis,
as alfo upon their Marriages and Burials, that the next day they had not wherewitha.
to buy V [duals, much lefs to pay what they have borrow’d for fo needlels an ex-
pence. But now the poor Armenians are grown fo cunning to avoid the Ba iina os
which are gi’vn to Debtors upon the foies of theFeet, when tney cannot pay, accor -
ing to the cuftom of Perfia \ that they carry the Child to Church upon the week
days; without any Ceremony, with tears in their eyes, pretending it to be lickly an
like to dye,and fo make no Feafis at all. r ,
If the Women lye in fifteen or twenty days, or two months before Cbrilmas^tney
defer the baptizing the Infant ’till the Feftival, provided the Infant be healthy. 1 run
in all the Cities and Villages where the Armenians live, if there be any River or
Pond, they make ready two or three flat-bottom’d Boats, fpread with Carpets to
walk upon > in one of which upon Chriftmas-day they fet up a kind of an Altar.
In the morning by Sun-rifing all the Armenian Clergy, as well of that place as c ' J- te:
parts adjoyning, get into the Boats in their Habits, with the Grofs and Banner.! hen
Y 2 ; ' - 1 the lf
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