SSMEISKI WOMJvN 



The Semeiski are a sect of Russian nonconformists who have emigrated to Siberia and 

 have established themselves on the eastern shores of Lake Baikal. They are a thrifty, 

 industrious, and moral people, living in great isolation, which has tended to preserve their 

 curious costume. They are excellent farmers and grow all the grain used in the govern- 

 ment mines in Siberia. In each Semeiski village there is a prayer-house_ in which all the 

 inhabitants say their prayers in common and where the elders read the lives of' the saints 

 and explain difficult texts of Scripture. They live without priests, but once every three years 

 they assemble at Yaroslav, a town on the upper Volga, where one of their priests resides, 

 to receive the sacraments. During the interval baptisms and marriages are performed by 

 the local elders. 



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