ORTHODOX CHURCH AND PRIESTS. 299 



sale of certain brands of vodka, and by their own ex- 

 ample and all manner of insinuating measures promote 

 its consumption among the peasants. 



The Imperial Government looks with indulgent eye 

 on the drunkenness of its subjects, and resents tem- 

 perance agitation with almost as much jealousy as 

 political, the reason being that the greater part of its 

 revenue comes from the tax on liquor. The priests, 

 who in other countries are ever foremost in checking 

 the growth of intemperance, in Russia promote it by 

 every means short of pouring vodka down the people's 

 throats. With a view to commissions on its sale, the 

 popes excuse its consumption by the too willing 

 moujik on the most specious pretenses. They will 

 even quote Scripture to them to prove that there is 

 no harm in getting drunk, their favorite quotation be- 

 ing: " Not that which goeth into the mouth of a man 

 deflleth him ; but that which cometh out." 



The size of the pope's income depends as much on 

 the ignorance, superstition, and credulity of his parish- 

 ioners, coupled with his own shrewdness, as on the size 

 and population of the parish. His legitimate fees 

 among the peasantry are three rubles for officiating at 

 a funeral, one ruble at christenings, and one ruble for a 

 private morning mass. At weddings he receives any- 

 thing up to ten rubles, and at betrothals a bottle of 

 red wine. In addition to these, however, he manages 

 in one way or another to lay the moujiks under contri- 

 bution to the extent of cultivating his land. 



A pope deems it no disgrace to get drunk, nor does 

 he, by loose living, lose caste in the estimation of his 

 parishioners, so long as his looseness affects nobody's 



