NUNS AND CONVENTS. 177 



on the grave. In spite of ecclesiastical prohibition, 

 the peasants of remote districts still erect log huts on 

 the graves, and in the case of those who have rubles 

 to bestow on the monks and nuns, full liberty to indulge 

 this ancient custom seems to be given. 



Eating from a dish of rice around the grave, and 

 scattering the remainder over it, is likewise a relic of 

 paganism. The heathen Slavs used to feast and revel 

 on the graves of the newly buried and leave portions 

 of the food for the use of the departed. In modern 

 Russia the feasting is observed at home after the visit 

 to the grave, but the formal eating and scattering of 

 the rice is decidedly pagan. Whether the old heathen 

 builders of the wooden huts would have thought the 

 structures in the Novodaiveetsa monastery a sign of 

 degeneracy, as they certainly would the substitution of 

 the dish of rice for the old feasting and carousing, is a 

 speculation. But there is a wide difference, indeed. 

 Many of the houses cost from 10,000 to 15,000 rubles, 

 and the finest one in the cemetery cost 30,000 rubles. 



Our guide explained further that one of the smaller 

 sources of the convent's revenue ivas the furnishing of 

 samovars of hot water to relatives who come to drink 

 tea with the dead in these houses. Many of the 

 houses were occupied every day in the year for a few 

 hours by one or another of the relatives, it being 

 looked upon as a special mark of love to the departed 

 to visit and drink tea with them every day. These 

 visitors bring tea and sugar, but find it more conven- 

 ient to obtain samovars of hot water from the nuns. 



On saints' days, name days, etc., candles are burned, 

 and tapers in cups of holy oil are always burning. The 



