Editing Ceremony of Purification (section)

===The Full Ceremony===
For Handmaidens and Priestesses, the ceremony is more detailed and intense. The period of Stillness is about 12 hours with the lamp gradually fading to darkness. The Reckoning is naturally very thorough. The third stage, Veiling, sees the person covered all over with blood, with the blood being rubbed into every area of her body by Slaves (for Handmaidens) or Handmaidens (for Priestesses). (The trough that the woman stands in is called a ''zanja''.) She then bathes in a pool to remove all traces of blood. Her naked body is then inspected to ensure that all blood is gone. The final step is to stand naked on a balcony facing the sun (this is usually a sheltered balcony, not visible from outside) and recite an oath of obedience.