An assistant pinches the skin of his right arm between his fingers, and the officiant forces a pointed bone five inches long through the fold thus formed.
But if he means that there is no incarnation at all, we do not understand how the officiant and the ancestor can be confounded.
The officiant is one with the ancestor from whom he is descended and whom he reincarnates.
As in the former ceremony, they all sit down in silence while the officiant acts, representing the movements of the animal when leaving its chrysalis and taking its first flight.
This word is the more exact because in this ceremony, the officiant is in no way considered an incarnation of the ancestor, whom he represents; he is an actor playing a role.
This is the ancestor whom the rite commemorates; now the officiantneed not be descended from him.
In order to accentuate the representative character of the rite, it would be sufficient for the duality of the ancestor and the officiant to become more marked; this is just what happens among the Warramunga.
We have already spoken of one of the means employed: the officiant pours water over the sacred stones and himself.
The officiant in the rice-planting ceremonies is either one or more family priests.
If the ailment is attributed to the war divinities, then the warrior chief becomes the officiant and, after appeasing the angry spirit with a blood offering, secures the release of the unfortunate soul.
With a warrior chief forofficiant certain religious rites[8] are performed.
The priest is, in fact, either alone or aided by others of his kind, the officiant in nearly every religious ceremony; laymen merely sit round and take desultory interest in the ceremonial proceedings.
The officiant is to repeat the spell three times over each peg, and is then to strike them so as to pierce various parts of the body of the image.
In one of the Italian spells the officiant is told: "Spit behind you thrice and look not behind you.
One ascends the altar, leaving the others swinging their thurifers at its foot--hands his to the officiantand retires.
Then the officiant ascends the altar alone, and, standing, declaims the Address, as it is called.
Upon the sounding of a bell the curtains are drawn back, the officiant tenses the image in silence with four double swings, and, as he ceases the choir sings the appointed antiphon.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "officiant" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
