tiles


Note:  Do not rely on this information. It is very old.

Chrisom

Chrisom, a flask used to contain the sacred oil or chrism with which a child was anointed at baptism, and also denoting the white linen cloth which was bound upon the child's head by the priest to keep the sacred oil for a time upon the brow. A chrisom child denoted one who died within a month of birth. Jeremy Taylor speaks of "phantasms that make a chrisom child to smile," and Dame Quickly tells us how "a parted like any chrisom child," when recounting Falstaff's death.