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sons to sacred offices, did not take place, however, until they had reached the age of nine or ten: Those they set set apart whom infants, were carried through the same course with the others during some stage of their discipleship. In such cares, the priest to whose care a boy was committed, would lead him, at day break, up a mountain top, give him the purifying drink, and bid him unclear his eyes upon the spot whence the sun was to rise, so as to catch the first beams of that luminary, from which he was not to withdraw his gaze until the light died away in the west. If he never once took his eyes from the sun during the entire course of the day, he was supposed to be qualified forever after to fulfill his duties through the night as well as the day; but were the eye withdrawn even for a moment, all the precious labour was lost. During the first day's probation and the succeeding night, the instructing priest remained with the pupil and both fasted rigidly and the night was passed in walking and giving and receiving knowledge upon high and holy thrones. On the following morn, the priest took the boy to some more secret part of the mountain, where no female eye could penetrate and there taught him the mysteries of the Divining Chrystal, how and where it was to be used, and what must be said in all the ceremonies when