RELIGION AND RITES
times as many broad, these services may be seen by all comers. The huge hall is absolutely without decoration, except in one spot where stand the shrine and the altar, a mass of glowing gold and rich colours, mellowed by wide spaces on either side to which the daylight scarcely penetrates. Within a circular enclosure at the outer end of the nave sit a band of acolytes, chaunting to an accompaniment of wooden timbrels. Their voices are pitched in octaves, and the number of chaunters is varied from time to time so as to break the monotony of the cadence. When this has continued for some moments, nine priests, richly robed, emerge slowly and solemnly from the back of the chancel, and kneel before an equal number of lecterns ranged in line on the left of the altar. Each priest carries a chaplet of beads, and on each lectern is a missal. Then the chaunt of the acolytes ceases, and the priest in the middle of the line opens the sutra and reads aloud. One by one his companions follow his example, until the nine voices blend in a monotone, which, in turn, is varied by the same device as that previously adopted by the acolytes. After an interval, another similar band pace gravely down the chancel, and kneeling on the right of the altar, opposite the first comers, add their voices, in the same cumulative fashion, to the varying volume of sound. Finally, the chief priest himself emerges, attended by an acolyte, and kneels, facing the altar, at a large lectern
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