Part the Seventh.
Novogorod,
Moscow, and the Cossack Country.
Book XIII.
Novogorod.
——
Sect. I.
Celebration of the New Year.—Description of the Convent of Saint George.
On the eve of the first of Ilool (ايلول), the beginning of the year Seven Thousand One Hundred and Sixty-four since the Creation of the World, they rang the bells, to assemble the people for the commemoration of St. Simeon the Stylite, to keep the first day of the year, and to offer up a Πολυχρόνιον for the Emperor; and they performed the small Ἑσπερινόν. In the middle of the night, they arose at the ringing of the bells, and began chaunting the Evening Psalms. At the Εἴσοδον, the Heads of Monasteries put on their copes, as usual; he who was the chief, and took precedence of them all, being the Archimandrite of the Convent of St. Barlaam; the second being the Archimandrite of the Convent of St. Nicolas; the third, the Archimandrite of the Convent of St. Anthony; the fourth, the Archimandrite of the Convent of the Holy Ghost. These four are they who, with the Patriarch and the Metropolitan, put on mitres, and give their blessing, as Bishops. Each of them has two Deacons to support his arms, at all times, as a Bishop has: and when they came out at the Εἴσοδον, the Archimandrite of St. Barlaam stood in the centre, with the rest around him. Then they placed the five loaves, which were very small, in a sort of silver chandelier of great beauty, around which they set vessels of wine and oil. At the Πολυέλαιον, the Metropolitan, with the Archimandrites, put on their copes as above, and they set
