ey make use of better
and more modern appliances than their neighbours, and so generally
realize more for their commodities.

Far from civilization, in the impenetrable forests of the great
lone land of Archangel, the fugitive Raskolniks were able to found
retreats for themselves, untroubled and unobserved; these refuges
still exist, and are called "Obitel" or cells. In the district of
Mezen there are many such establishments, both for men and women;
among the former the Anuphief Hermitage, or cells of Koida, stand
in a splendid position, on the banks of both lake and river Koida,
some 100 versts in summer by river, and 50 in winter, over ice,
from the town of that name.

On Nonconformist, as on Orthodox, is laid the burden of severe
fasting; as Master Chancellour tells us, in 1553, "This people
hath four Lents,"--indeed, the eating working year is reduced to
some 130 days. In the North, where vegetables and berries are few
and fruit non-existent, the Mujik is left to fast on "_treska_,"
rotten codfish--and the condition of the man who begins Lent underfed
is indeed pitiable when he ends it. The endurance of the Old Believer
is marvellous; no offer of food will tempt him from what he considers
his duty.

Let us turn our attention from the Raskolniks, or Old Believers
of the far North, who, as we have seen, so literally "forsook all"
for their ancient Faith, to some few of the many new, or lately
developed creeds whose followers are seeking after truth with equal
earnestness and vigour, but along very different lines. Sect begets
sect in the world of theology, much as cell begets cell in the
economy of life. Change seems the active principle of all dissent;
new cults are forever springing up in the mystic childlike minds of
the Tsar's great peasant family, nor could one expect uniformity
of confession, when the size and neighbours of that family are
considered, for Mohammedan, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, and
Shamanist surround it, are made subject to it, and eventually become
a part thereof. A Mosque stands opposite the Orthodox church in
the great square which forms the centre of Nijni-Novgorod, a Roman
Catholic and a German Lutheran church almost face the magnificent
Kazan Cathedral, in the Nevski-Prospekt of St. Petersburg. The
waiters of nearly all restaurants, from Archangel to Baku, are
Mohammedan Tartars, the Jew is in every market-place, the native
heathen races, Lapp, Samoyede, Ostiac, Yakout, and a sco