4B6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



but we should recollect that, in 

 the Russiiin vocabulary, the terms 

 beautiful, red, and coloured, are all 

 three represented by the same 

 word, so that a confusion of ideas 

 might easily occur. 



On another side an old miser is 

 seen on his death-bed : the com- 

 pany surrounding him are, as be- 

 fore, angels and devils ; the latter 

 are very urgent to seize upon his 

 parting soul, but prevented by the 

 former, who claim him to them- 

 selves, because, forsootli, he had 

 bequeathed a large sum by will to 

 the monastery. The devils, thus 

 disappointed, peruse the will and 

 codicil with much earnestness and 

 apparent chagrin. The moral of 

 the tale needs no explanation. 



The profound respect and awe 

 impressed on the countenance of 

 every one we met lent an air of 

 solemnity even to their ludicrous 

 superstitions ; and a stranger al- 

 most felt inclined to chide himself 

 for making a visit of mere curio- 

 sity. Our meditations, however, 

 on this singular spectacle were in- 

 terrupted by our guide arriving to 

 inform us the priest was waiting 

 to conduct us to the relics. We 

 descended a long staircase en 

 ramp, to the mouth of the sacred 

 catacomb, being formed into a 

 regular procession, and each bare- 

 headed, carrying a lighted taper 

 in his hand. It was a labyrinth 

 rained in the solid rock, consist- 

 ing of walks, chambers, branches, 

 &c., ascending and descending for 

 the distance of several hundred 

 yards ; the passage about six feet 

 wide, and coved at the top ; its 

 sides neatly plastered and stained 

 with a black wash ; the flooring 

 laid with iron plates about a foot 

 square. The remains of seventy- 



three saints, or piimitive Chris- 

 tians of Russia, the objects of 

 veneration, were deposited in semi- 

 circular niches that occurred at in- 

 tervals on the passage. The bo- 

 dies were wrapped round and ban- 

 daged up with swathings of silk 

 after the fashion of mummies, 

 though no part, not even the face, 

 was left visible J what was within 

 I know not ; but they were scat- 

 tered over Avith pieces of money, 

 the offerings of the devotees. The 

 coffins, which were always left 

 open, were of an oblong square 

 tigure, decreasing in breadth from 

 the head downwards, adorned on 

 the interior with flowers of gold 

 painted on a red ground. These 

 personages were the same who 

 once found an asylum here while 

 alive, at a day when the unsettled 

 nature of the times rendered them 

 liable to perpetual persecutions 

 abroad. 



St. Anthony is the chief and 

 patron saint: we were first shewn 

 liis oiatory, and the cell in which 

 he dwelt, say they, forty years, 

 which, in memory of the ' holy 

 man, the monks are constrained 

 to visit at least twice every day. 

 Next we proceeded in regular 

 order to the shrines of St. Precop, 

 St. Polycarp, St. Theodore, St. 

 Luke (the Russian), and St. 

 Nicholas, the last of whom having 

 died at the distance of 3000 versts, 

 was wafted hither by the angels 

 in one hour : there was also a 

 Russian St. Mark, who, to outdo 

 all other acts of abstemiousne.'^s, 

 never drank even of jmre water 

 oftener than once each day, and 

 then only the contents of a small 

 cruse made in the shape of a 

 cross, containing about a gill in 

 quantity} and a certain St. John 



who 



