NOVOGOROD. 
Church they followed the idols of Paganism, 
and have continued to maintain their place. 
They are one of the first and most curious 
sights which attract a traveller's notice ; for it 
is not only in their churches that such paintings 
are preserved ; every room throughout the 
empire has a picture of this nature, large or 
small, called the Bogii, or God, stuck up in 
one corner 1 : to this every person who enters 
offers adoration, before any salutation is made 
to the master or mistress of the house. The 
adoration consists in a quick motion of the 
right hand in crossing ; the head bowing all 
the time in a manner so rapid and ludicrous, 
that it reminds one of those Chinese-Mandarin 
images seen upon the chimney-pieces of old 
houses, which, when set a-going, continue 
nodding, for the amusement of old women and 
children. In the myriads of idol paintings 
dispersed throughout the empire, the subjects 
represented are very various : and some of 
them, owing to their singularity, merit a more 
particular description, than can be afforded 
without engraved representations. 
(1) The picture itself is said to bear the name of Obrazei hut as 
the Obraie is considered by every Russian as his Household God, it 
is very generally called Bogh, which is the Russian name for God. 
