Note 178 — XII. HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE CASPIAN HILLS.
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Some trace of the practice here alluded to is to be found among the Nestorians. “Once a year there is a kind of Agapæ to commemorate the departed, in all the mountain villages. For days previous such families as intend to contribute to the feast are busily engaged in preparing their offerings. These consist of lambs and bread, which are brought into the church-yard; and after the people have communicated of the holy Eucharist, the priest goes forth, cuts several locks of wool off the fleeces, and throws them into a censer. Whilst a deacon swings this to and fro in presence of the assembled guests, the priest recites the following anthem:
“‘The following is to be said over the Lambs that are slain in sacrifice for the dead:—
...
“‘When ye present oblations and offer pure sacrifices, and bring lambs to be slain, ye should first call the priests, who shall sign them with the sign of the cross before they are slain, and say over them these words: He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter,’” etc.
... “‘O Lord, let the oblation which thy servants have offered before thee this day be acceptable, as was that of faithful Abraham the righteous, who vowed his son as an oblation, and stretched out the knife upon his throat, whereupon he saw a lamb hung on a tree like his life-giving Lord who was crucified,’” etc. (Rev. G. P. Badger’s Nestorians, i. 229.)
See also Dr. Stanley’s account of the cruciform spit used by the Samaritans in roasting the Paschal lamb, in the notes to his Sermons before the Prince of Wales.
The Yezidís also have some mixture of Christian names in their superstitions, and sacrifice to Christ. Of the Ossetes of the Caucasus also we are told that the majority are nominally Christians, but in fact semi-pagans, and rarely baptized. They offer sacrifices of bread and flesh in sacred groves, and observe the Christian festivals with various sacrifices, e.g., a lamb at Easter, a pig on New Year’s Day, an ox at Michaelmas, a goat at Christmas. Both Georgians and Armenians are said still to be addicted to the practice of sacrifice in their churches. (Haxthausen’s Transcaucasia, p. 397.)