ORTHODOX CHURCH AND PRIESTS. 3°5 



who were ahead of us met him first, and, after they 

 had passed him, they, without any visible motive, 

 wheeled round and walked straight across to the oppo- 

 site side of the road. In explanation of this my com- 

 panion informed me that it is considered bad luck to 

 meet a pope on the road, and, by crossing his trail at 

 right angles, thereby forming a cross behind him, the 

 moujiks hoped to avert any calamity that would other- 

 wise overtake them as a consequence of having met 

 him. 



Many of the popes are men of fair education, but 

 others are woefully ignorant, particularly of the Scrip- 

 tures. Sascha told me of a village pope who knew 

 only one passage of Scripture, and this he used to re- 

 peat over and over again as a regular order of service. 

 The congregation used to respond with the same. The 

 passage was, " And Christ went down to Jerusalem.'* 



One day the pope was thrown into consternation by 

 hearing that a nobleman who owned an estate in the 

 district was coming from St. Petersburg and would 

 attend mass next Sunday. It would never do to be- 

 tray to the nobleman the fact that he knew but one 

 passage of Scripture. He consulted a brother pope in 

 the adjoining parish. This gentleman didn't know any 

 Scripture at all, but advised him, as the easiest plan, to 

 substitute Bethlehem for Jerusalem for the occasion of 

 the nobleman's visit. 



This was an easy thing for a man of education like 

 the pope, but, when it came to the responses, the 

 thick-headed moujiks forgot their pastor's instructions 

 about Bethlehem and bawled out the word they had, 

 from long usage, grown accustomed to. The pope was 



