FOOTNOTE:
[1] TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. In spite of this circumstantial prefatory statement, and the accusation which was brought against this "legend" on its first appearance by one over-clever critic,—viz., that it was ancient and threadbare in public knowledge,—the fact remains that the Author invented every syllable of it. Tula is the Sheffield of Russia, being the seat of the Government gun-works, and possessed of innumerable shops engaged in the manufacture and sale of all sorts of metal goods.
Sestroryetzk, on the shore of Finland, opposite Kronstadt, is the site of a gun-factory, founded by Peter the Great in 1714.
"The ancient faith" means that the old gunsmith belonged to "The Old Believers," also called the Raskolniki—a sect which insists that the proper, Orthodox manner of making the sign of the Cross is with the thumb and forefinger, instead of with the thumb and first two fingers; and which refused to accept the correction of typographical errors in the Church Service books ordered by the Patriarch Nikon, in the reign of Peter the Great's father. In the early days they were harshly treated, and even burned themselves alive rather than accept the "heresy" of the "State Church." Nowadays, no attention is paid to them, officially or otherwise.
The Steel Flea
The Steel Flea[2]