“But how do you pray? Do you cross yourself? We pray so.” He showed me how he prayed, folded his hands on his stomach, and shut his eyes.
“I understand,” I replied. “We pray like that, but we kneel also, and some of our Protestants cross themselves also.”
He looked shocked but went on:
“Where do you live? You ought to come to our gatherings. There are many of us here now since the Declaration.”
He was referring to M. Stolypin’s Ukase of October 1908, which granted freedom to all religious sects in the Empire. I told him I was not living anywhere in particular, but that I had been tempted to take a Georgian cottage at a place called Pkhelshi, which had been offered me at ten roubles a month. My only doubt was of the cleanliness of the place. I was afraid of being eaten up by insects. The Baptist was horrified.
“Afraid of insects!” said he. “Better be afraid of getting your throat cut. No, you leave it to me; I know where you can go. I’ll take you to our pastor, he has a mill on the river. He is a very good man and very humble. You go and live with him, he won’t take more than five roubles.”
So I had come to the mill and put my things there, and made it my abode for the time being. The driver of the cart was very proud of his find, and introduced me to the miller with not less mystery and secrecy than he would have unwrapped a gold nugget which he might have picked up on the mountains. The host took me over and the other bade me farewell; we should meet again at one of their “gatherings.”
I had two rooms but no furniture. The miller found me a table and I used a box to sit on. I bought a mattress at a “bazaar” in Vladikavkaz, and a German oil-stove and glasses and saucers and plates and a saucepan, and a wooden spoon to stir my soup, and metal spoons to eat it and sup it, and some knives and a fork. I also bought a penny broom to sweep the floors and some muslin to make a curtain. Setting up house on my own account for the first time was a matter of great excitement. In case anyone might like to try a similar experiment let me write here the prices I paid:
| Mattress | 6 shillings |
| Oil-stove (of the Beatrice kind) | 7 shillings |
| 2 buckets | 2 shillings |
| 2 saucers, 4 plates, 2 glasses | 1 shilling |
| Saucepan | 2 shillings |
| Tea-pot and hot-water jug | 1 shilling |
| A broom, padlock, nails | 1 shilling |
| A shopping-basket | 6 pence |
and the muslin cost 8d., and two tins for washing purposes cost 1s. 6d. The other people were very interested in my place, but did not seem surprised at the deficiencies. A Russian woman promised to do my washing, and my neighbour, a Persian, offered me water from his samovar whenever I required it.