RASKOLNIKS 245 



children to recruit the sect, but these children are not born 

 in wedlock. The Skoptsi are said to be usurers and money 

 changers. 



(3) Molokani (Milk-drinkers), said to be so named because 

 they make it a point to drink milk and use other prohibited 

 foods during Lent and fast days, to show their objection to 

 the Orthodox Church. They abhor all external ceremonies of 

 religion, but lay stress upon the Bible. They say there is 

 no teacher of the Faith but Christ himself, and that we are 

 all priests ; and they carry their logic so far as to have neither 

 church nor chapel, simply meeting in one another's houses. 



(4) Dukhobors (Spirit wrestlers) are those who deny the 

 Holy Ghost and who place but a minor importance upon the 

 Scriptures. They are better known to America, for some thou- 

 sands of them emigrated to Canada, where they are now 

 good colonists. They give a wide place to tradition, and desig- 

 nate man as "the living book," in opposition to dead books 

 of paper and ink. In some respects they are pantheists, say- 

 ing that God lies within us, that we must struggle with the 

 spirit of God to attain the fulness of life. They do not give 

 an historical reality to the Gospel narratives, but take them 

 figuratively. Their idea of the Church is in conformity with 

 their belief; they consider it an assembly of the righteous on 

 earth, whether Christians, Jews, or Moslems. Yet they have 

 all the peculiarities and fanaticism of the Slav. 



(5) Stundists, or a kind of Russian Baptists. These seem 

 to be an offshoot from the Lutherans or Mennonites who set- 

 tled in Russia. The name is derived from the German Stunde, 

 or hour, because they assembled at stated hours to read the 

 Bible or worship. They rejected the sacraments, even baptism 

 at first, but yet retain it. They gave up all Church holidays, 

 and agreed with the Melokani in repudiating the idea of a 

 clergy. They are nearly all Little Russians, in the South of 

 Russia. 



(6) Subhotniki (Sabbatarians), who have substituted Satur- 

 day, the Jewish Sabbath, for Sunday. They have also taken 

 up a great many Jewish practices from the Old Testament 

 along with such elemental Christian forms which they retain. 

 They are practically Unitarians, and expect the Messias ; and 

 they are also said to be like the Mormons, living in polygamy 

 in many instances, although most of them are content with 



