"FATHER THEODOR" 27 



notwithstanding that he had had to reload his goods 

 from camels to horses. The Russian Government, 

 however, did not then seem inclined to spend a 

 large sum in carrying out the submitted scheme, 

 and an engineer was commissioned to report on the 

 probable cost. According to my observations a 

 good deal of dynamite would be wanted, sheer 

 rocky falls into the river being numerous. It was 

 here, while lunching on board the small steamer 

 that was to convey us and our fortunes up the Ob, 

 that, for the first time, I was given a full account 

 of the legend of the so-called "Father Theodor " 

 by our friend the Ispravnik, who was a young police 

 officer at Tomsk at the time of Father Theodor's 

 death in the sixties. I had always considered this 

 legend as one of the most curious and interesting-, 

 and it may be worth while to relate the facts round 

 which an impenetrable mystery still hovers. 



In almost all Siberian villages there is scarcely a 

 house which does not contain the portrait of an old 

 man known as " Father Theodor," whose memory, 

 as a saint, will outlive many generations throughout 

 the country. About the year 1830, it is said, a man 

 appeared at Tomsk under the name of Theodor. No 

 one knew whence he came or who he was. The 

 only fact that had been confirmed was that he had 



