284 SIBERIA 



merited on this I was further informed that there is 

 one man who is practically known to have committed 

 two murders in the suburbs of Novo-Nicolaevsk, but 

 as no witness saw him commit them he is at large, in 

 company with several other banished murderers, in 

 the same town. .We also bought some Moscow-made 

 biscuits from a banished convict in a grocery store. 

 All the pickles, jams, sauces, and nearly all manu- 

 factured articles, come from Moscow. The Cattley 

 family imported a small consignment of biscuits from 

 Carlisle, but the duty and carriage were too dear to 

 make the continuance of such a trade useful. I 

 lafterwards had a stroll round to a new red-brick 

 church, where a religious service was in progress, 

 as I much wanted to see how a Siberian service 

 was conducted. As I approached the doors I was 

 reminded of one of those scenes depicted in the Bible, 

 where the maim, the halt, and the blind gathered 

 together to hear the Gospel. Here, however, the 

 crowd was composed of beggars, whose chief object 

 was the solicitation of alms from peasants who, if 

 appearances went for aught, were quite as poor as 

 they were . However, the occupation seemed to be 

 remunerative enough, as the beggars were receiving 

 Easter eggs, bread, and all kinds of eatables, and 

 occasionally money. I pushed my way through the 

 doorway, up four steps, and into the porch, from 

 •whence I could see right through to the altar, at 

 which the priest was officiating. Peasants were buy- 

 ing candles at prices ranging from five to fifty 

 kopecks, and these they were lighting and passing 

 up to be placed on the altar. I was informed that 

 the priest was particularly desirous that his congre- 

 gation should buy those which were sold at fifty 

 kopecks insteaid of those at five kopecks, as his profit 

 on all transactions amounted to 90 per cent. From 

 information I collected from several sources, I 



