e, broke the window-pane and leapt into the
street. Crowds gathered, and the Brother, turning to them, prophesied
that shortly he would be--arrested! Thereupon the police made their
appearance and removed him to the lock-up, and the crowds dispersed,
filled with admiration for Brother James, who not only coped with
demons, but actually foretold the evil that they would bring upon him.

In addition to the genuine visionaries, there were many swindlers who
took advantage of the popular credulity. Such was the famous pilgrim
Nicodemus, who travelled throughout Russia performing miracles. In the
end the police discovered that he was really a celebrated criminal who
had escaped from prison.

But Nicodemus was, as a matter of fact, better than his reputation,
for, in granting absolution for large numbers of sins, his charges were
relatively small. He is said to have assured whole villages of eternal
forgiveness for sums of from twenty to a hundred roubles.

Frequently some out-of-work cobbler would leave his native village and
set forth on a pilgrimage in the character of a _staretz_; or some
"medical officer," unable to make a living out of his drugs, would
establish himself as a miracle-worker and promptly grow rich. When one
_staretz_ disappeared, there were always ten new ones to take his
place, and the flood mounted to such an extent that the authorities
were often powerless to cope with it. Persecution seemed only to
increase the popular hysteria, and caused the seekers after truth to
act as though intoxicated, seeing themselves surrounded by a halo of
martyrdom.

C. THE RISING FLOOD

CHAPTER I

THE MAHOMETAN VISIONARIES

The flood of religious mania reached even beyond the borders of
European Russia, and its effects were seen as much among the followers
of other religions as among the Christians.

Mahometanism, although noted for its unshakable fidelity to the dogmas
of Mahomet, did not by any means escape the mystic influences by which
it was surrounded. To take one example from among many: in the month
of April, 1895, a case of religious mania which had broken out among
the Mahometan inhabitants of the south of Russia was brought before the
law-courts at Kazan. It concerned a set of Tartars called the
_Vaisoftzi_, which had been founded in 1880 by a man named _Vaisoff_,
whose existence was revealed in unexpected fashion. A lawyer having
called at his house, at the request of one of his cred