THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



125 



Photograph by Nevin O. Winter 

 UKRAINIAN PEASANT WOMEN IN THE STREETS OP KHARKOV I RUSSIA 



In summertime these countrywomen come to the city barefooted in order to save shoe 

 leather, which is very expensive in a land that annually exports hundreds of thousands of 

 hides in times of peace. 



Kiev and dug a cell for himself in the 

 hill. The devout life of this monk soon 

 drew other holy men around him, and all 

 at first made their homes in the caves. 

 It is said that many of the early monks 

 never again emerged into daylight after 

 they once entered the caves. Some shut 

 themselves up in niches and remained 

 self-immured the rest of their days, liv- 

 ing on the food placed there each day by 

 their brothers. When the food remained 

 untouched, the monks knew that a saintly 

 spirit had fled. The place was then walled 

 in, and the niche remained the monk's 

 home after as well as before his dissolu- 

 tion. 



Kiev's ghastly catacombs 



The catacombs are indeed ghastly to 

 visit, for there are rows upon rows of 

 skulls in them. Access is had by narrow 

 steps, and then through labyrinthine sub- 

 terranean passages one descends deeper 



and deeper into the bowels of the earth, 

 winding hither and thither along a path- 

 way. Finally there begins a series of 

 niches, in which repose the bodies of the 

 saintly recluses. 



The pilgrims pass each holy tomb, rev- 

 erently kissing the shriveled hands laid 

 out by the monks for that purpose. They 

 do not distinguish between the holy and 

 the holier, but pay a tribute to each one 

 impartially in order to conciliate all. 



Much contagion must be spread by this 

 unsanitary method of homage. No doubt 

 many an infection, and possibly even a 

 great pestilence, could be traced directly 

 to this spot, where the indiscriminate 

 osculation of church relics is observed. 



ICON RECEIVES 100,000 KISSES A YEAR 



The Cave Monastery, or Pechersky 

 Lavra, is a large stone structure on the 

 hill, at a little distance from the city, and 

 is surrounded by a high stone wall. It is 



