SUSPICIOUS PEASANTS. 161 



The poor woman was quaking with fear, but was too 

 frightened to oppose us in anything we might wish to 

 do. The children avoided us and watched us furtively 

 from a distance. 



On entering the house we failed to cross ourselves 

 before the ikons, or holy pictures, in the corner. This 

 sacrilegious omission struck new terror to the heart of 

 our unwilling hostess, who decided then and there that 

 we were a pair of antichrists, come to " steal away 

 the souls of the family." She crossed herself several 

 times whenever we spoke to her, and dispatched one 

 of the children to summon a neighbor. 



The neighbor arrived, in the form of an ancient crone, 

 who was probably the village znakharka, a mysterious 

 individual to the villagers, half witch, half quack, but, 

 to the better educated, wholly knave. After surveying 

 us awhile and talking the matter over, the znakharka 

 prescribed a piece of bread wet with holy water as the 

 most likely thing to counteract any evil designs we 

 might have on the household. 



On January 5 every year a quantity of water is con- 

 veyed to the churches of Russia, where it is converted 

 into holy water by the blessings of the priests. Every 

 Orthodox Russian carries home a bottle of this water 

 and keeps it in the house. It is supposed to be effi- 

 cacious for many ailments, both bodily and spiritual. 



The poor woman now produced her precious bottle 

 of holy water, and, pouring some on pieces of bread, 

 gave a piece to each of the children and to a young 

 calf that was in the room. She then ate a piece her- 

 self. 



Her terror of us was so genuine that I bade Sascha 



