A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 265 



to church. Sylkin tried to cry off by pleading a sore 

 back, but Gerasim would have no malingering, and 

 about midday we saw a string of depressed figures 

 wending their way across the island. Anything more 

 ridiculous than this enforced attendance of the natives 

 can scarcely be imagined. They know nothing what- 

 ever of the doctrine, and neither they nor the Siberiaks 

 understood a word of the service, which, of course, was 

 conducted in the old Slavonic tono;ue. Somethino^ of 

 the spirit in which the worship was held may be 

 realised from the following custom. At the close of 

 the ceremony, a collection was made for the benefit of 

 the pope. Those who gave half a rouble had an altar 

 candle credited to them, but those who gave a whole 

 rouble had the honour of hearing their names shouted 

 aloud by the congregation. We were told that the 

 pope sometimes received as much as fifty roubles at a 

 single service. 



While the people were at church, the gendarme 

 went out to search for vodka. Almost the only evidence 

 of the war at Golchika were the effects of the Russian 

 Government's mag;nificent crusade against alcohol. 

 Only those who have visited the country can have 

 the slightest idea of what the suppression of the drink 

 traffic means to the Yenesei. Surely a nation which 

 can thus make war upon her own besetting sin has 

 already achieved a victory mightier than any that her 

 armaments can win ! Only two days previously this 

 officer had seized 2000 roubles' worth of vodka at one 

 haul. The law was carried out without any distinction 

 of persons. Our friend, Michael Petrovitch, had bought 



