Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

SABIANS AND CHRISTIANS OF ST. JOHN. 287
unceasing prayer, and a variety of initiatory cere-
monies; after which the performer is considered dead
to the world, and is the object of intense reverence
when his soul is weighed in Abathur's balance it is
found to be as heavy as Shithil's own.
The " whole duty of man," as conceived by the
Mandi^ans, has been summarised by M. Siouffi, and
will serve as a fit conclusion to the sketch we have
given of the tenets and customs of the " Christians of
St. John." A year after birth—if possible earlier
the Sabian must be baptised. At seven years he
enters a school, kept by a deacon, where he learns (or
ought to learn) to read the sacred books and to say
— :
the prescribed prayers. On leaving school he must
be apprenticed to a trade— generally he becomes a
goldsmith, carpenter, or ship-builder. In a foreign
country, or a strange house, he must eat no food whicli
he has not dressed himself. He must be baptised every
Sunday. He must pay the debts of others, labour
for the freeing of those who are in captivity, be
generous, hospitable, kind-hearted, never complaining.
He must be humble, and rise if even a beggar salutes
him ; chaste and modest ; his dress unassuming. He
must never be angry or return blow for blow, but
must rather seek reconciliation with his enemy. In
society he must always seek to take the lowest place,
his voice must be always subdued. He must never
cut his beard, and he must always be in a state of
legal purity. He must not forswear himself, nor steal,
nor lie. He must keep the Sundays and feast and fast
days, must honour his parents, and kiss his mother's