MOSCOW. 118 



arch, with its venerable public halls ; and the House ?f 

 the Holy Synod, with its ancient library ; and its htJls 

 with the two great silver kettles, and thirty silver jars, 

 in which the holy oil, or " wir," is manufactured, having 

 as its elixir vita drops of the oil from the flask used by 

 Mary Magdalene when she anointed Christ's feet. This 

 is sent to every part of the empire, to anoint infants 

 when baptized, from the " vitches " of the Czar down to 

 queer-looking creatures beyond the Caspian, among the 

 forests of Siberia, near the walls of China, or on the 

 shores of the Arctic Ocean ; and applied also to the 

 dying, who are passing into the land where there is 

 neither barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free. 



We have also to enter the Cathedral of the Archangel 

 Michael, so holy to the Russians. Just glance at that 

 fresco of Jonah, in which there are three Jonahs, each 

 with his name over his head ; one Jonah thrown over- 

 board, the other disgorged, and the other received by 

 the King of Nineveh. What a delightful and primitive 

 combination of ship, waves, whale, sailors, prophet or 

 prophets, kings, and nobles, with Nineveh itself, in that 

 space above the door ! Within are the tombs, side by 

 side, like huge coffins, of the Russian monarchs down to 

 Peter the Great. 



There is also the Church of the Annunciation, in which 

 the czars are crowned, paved with jasper, agate, and 

 cornelian (without beauty), having the throne of the 

 czars, and relics without number, gold and silver counted 

 by the pound weight, and with a picture of the Virgin 



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