VIII.] KUSSIAN EXILES, 293 



few persons in these regions who had been exiled thither for 

 political reasons, but on the other hand very many exiled 

 criminals of the deepest dye — murderers, thieves, forgers, in- 

 cendiaries, &c. Among them were also some few Fins and 

 even a Swede, or at least one who, according to his own state- 

 ment in broken Swedish, had formerly served in the King's 

 Guard at Stockholm. Security ©■f person and property was in 

 any case complete, and it was remarkable that there did not 

 appear to be any proper distinction of caste between the 

 Russian-Siberian natives and those who had been exiled for 

 crime. There appeared even to be little interest in ascertaining 

 the crime — or, as the customary phrase appears to be here, the 

 " misfortune " — which caused the exile. On making inquiry on 

 this point I commonly got the answer, susceptible of many 

 interpretations, " for bad behaviour." We found a peculiar sort 

 of criminal colony at Selivaninskoj, a very large village situated 

 on the eastern bank of the Yenesej in about the latitude of 

 Aavasaksa. My journal of the expedition of 1875 contains the 

 following notes of my visit to this colony. 



The orthodox Russian church, as is well known, is tolerant 

 towards the professors of foreign religions — Lutherans, Catholics, 

 Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Shamans, &c. ; but, on the 

 other hand, in complete correspondence with what took place 

 in former times within the Protestant world, persecutes sectaries 

 within its own pale, with temporal punishments here upon earth 

 and with threatenings of eternal in another world. Especially 

 in former times a great many sectaries have been sent to Siberia, 

 and therefore there are sometimes to be found there peculiar 

 colonies enjoying great prosperity, exclusively inhabited by the 

 members of a certain sect. Such is the Skopt colony at Selivan- 

 inskoj, in connection with which, however, it may be remarked 

 that the nature of the religious delusion in this case accounts 

 for the severity of the law or the authorities. For, on the 

 ground of a text in the Gospel of Matthew interpreted in a 

 very peculiar way, all Skoptzi subject themselves to a mutilation, 

 in consequence of which the sect can only exist by new prose- 

 lytes ; and remarkably enough, these madmen, notwithstanding 

 all persecution, or perhaps just on that account, actually still 

 gain followers. A large number of the Skoptzi were Fins from 

 Ingermanland, with whom I could converse without difficulty. 

 They had, through industry and perseverance, succeeded in 

 creating for themselves a certain prosperity, were hospitable and 

 friendly, and bore their hard fate with resignation. They would 

 not themselves kill any warm-blooded animal, for it was "a sin 

 to kill what God had created ;" which did not hinder them from 

 catching and eating fish, and from selling to us, who in any 

 case were lost beings, a fine fat ox, on condition that our own 



