,Q2 MOSCOW. 
chap, among themselves. Incense was then otfeied 
IX ' , to the pictures and to the people: and, this cere- 
mony ended, the archbishop read aloud a decla- 
ration, purporting that the deceased nad died in 
the true faith; that he had repented of his errors, 
and that his sins were absolved. Then turning 
to us, as the paper was placed in the coffin, he 
said again in Latin, “ This is what all you 
foreigners call the Passport; and you relate, in 
your books of Travels, that we believe no soul 
can go to heaven without it. Now I wish you 
to understand what it really is; and to explain to 
your countrymen, upon my authority, that it is 
nothing more than a declaration or certificate 
concerning the death of the deceased. Then 
laughing, he added, “ I suppose you commit all 
this to paper: and some future day, perhaps, I 
shall see an engraving of this ceremony, with 
an old archbishop giving a dead man his pass- 
port to St. Peter',’ 
( 1 ) There is a passage in Mr. Weber's Journal very characteristic of 
this extraordinary man. Mr. Weber, with his friend Mr. Thornton, 
paid to him a visit in the Convent of Befania; and, in his description 
of the monastery, I find the following account of the Archbishop. 
“ The space beneath the rocks is occupied by a small chapel, fur- 
nished with a stove for winter devotion ; and on the right-hand is a 
little narrow cell, containing two coffins; one of which is empty, and 
destined for the present archbishop; the other contains the bones of 
the Founder of the Monastery, who is regarded as a Saint. The oak 
coffin was almost bit to pieces by different persons afflicted with the 
tooth- 
