“Why does not Cleopatra Gregorovna eat anything?” asked I one day of an acquaintance at a dinner-party concerning a lady who sat opposite to me; “she looks wretchedly pale and thin.”
“Oh, she cannot eat anything, she is condemned to a perpetual fast” (i.e. to eat of lenten dishes only).
“Why so?”
“Because once, immediately after taking the sacrament, when she was a child about nine years old, she had a violent attack of vomiting, and the priests ordered that she should fast for the rest of her life, as it could only be the Evil One, you know, that had possessed her and caused so great a misfortune.”
At another time I was travelling with an old lady who was continually taking a little sip of something out of a small phial. Of course I could not ask her what it was, and to tell the truth I began to suspect her very wrongfully. I was soon undeceived, for the next morning the maid came to my friends in great tribulation, saying that her mistress had a bottle of holy water, which she (the servant) had had the misfortune to break in the night, and she did not know what would be said or done to her if the old lady were told of it, for she had caused it to be blessed before setting out in order to avert their being overturned, so that, if any accident happened to us, she alone would be blamed for it all, because she had spilled the holy water. As it was merely a wine-bottle of the commonest description, we advised the distressed girl to obtain another from the postmaster of the station, and to fill it at the neighbouring well, promising at the same time the greatest secrecy on our part. She followed our counsels, and her mistress, who had not the slightest suspicion of what had been done, consoled herself as before with the little sips, to our infinite amusement. The next day we fortunately arrived in Moscow safe and sound, which she undoubtedly ascribed to the virtues of the contents of her bottle.
During one of my visits to Moscow I went into the church of Ivan near the Kremlin. I was astonished to see a stout-looking woman lying flat on her face on the pavement before one of the shrines, and barking like a dog. The priest was singing a mass, but his voice was nearly drowned by the noise she made; the more loudly he sang, the more loudly she barked, and she seemed determined, come what would, to have the best of the duet. A crowd of people surrounded the altar, who stood crossing themselves with the greatest devotion and bowing continually, but they did not seem at all surprised at the strange scene they were witnessing. A priest or deacon stood by with a tray in his hand, to whom many of the devout gave offerings; and every time the chink of the money was heard, I remarked that the din became greater. At last I asked a bystander what it all meant, and what particular service was being performed.
“It is a woman,” answered he, “that is possessed of the devil. She has lately arrived in Moscow from a great distance on a pilgrimage, and is in hopes of being cured by the saint. The priest is exorcising the evil spirit.” I immediately left the church, and never learnt whether he succeeded or not in driving out the demon, who doubtless disappeared when no more contributions were made to the tray.
Among the superstitions of the country may be mentioned the blessing of the cattle by the priest before they are sent out in the spring to graze, and of the different kinds of fruit before they are allowed to be sold in the market. The latter may be a wise law in the state of ignorance in which the lower classes are at present, for they are just like children and cannot govern their appetites, so they would infallibly render themselves ill by eating unripe fruit, if their superstition did not act as a check upon them.
The common people really believe that the pictures of saints can see what they are doing. A lady told me an amusing anecdote of a servant belonging to one of her acquaintances. It was during one of the two long fasts ordered by the Greek Church. The poor girl was sorely tempted by a can of fresh milk that was brought into the kitchen; the temptation was too strong, she could no longer resist it; so she took off her apron and threw it over the portrait of the Virgin (for in every kitchen, and almost in every room, some picture is suspended), being very careful to look that there was no hole through which she could peep. She then turned her back and took a long draught of the delicious fluid, after which she removed the apron and quietly tied it round her waist as before, being perfectly convinced that Heaven had been blinded to her backsliding.
The four besetting sins of the Russian serfs are their propensity for lying, their deceitful cunning, their want of honesty, and their frequent intoxication. But undoubtedly their state of slavery, their half-civilized condition, and the demoralizing effects of their government have mainly contributed to these grave defects.