re are
hermit monks who spend their lives underground without ever coming up to
the light, and in doing so become bony, discoloured, ghastly creatures,
with staring, inspired eyes and hollow cheeks, half demented to all
appearance, but much revered and respected by the crowds for their
self-sacrifice.

Further on the pilgrims drink holy water out of a small cup made in the
shape of a cross, with which the liquid is served out from a larger
vessel. The expression of beatitude on their faces as they sip of the
holy water, and their amazing reverence for all they see and are told to
do, are quite extraordinary to watch, and are quite refreshing in these
dying days of idealism supplanted by fast-growing and less poetic
atheistic notions. The scowl I received from the priest when my turn came
and he lifted the tin cross to my lips, is still well impressed upon my
mind. I drew back and politely declined to drink. There was a murmur of
strong disapproval from all the people present, and the priest grumbled
something; but really, what with the fetid smell of tallow-candle smoke,
the used-up air, and the high scent of pilgrims--and religious people
ever have a pungent odour peculiar to themselves--water, whether holy or
otherwise, was about the very beverage that would have finished me up at
that particular moment.

Glad I was to be out in the open air again, driving through the pretty
gardens of Kiev, and to enjoy the extensive view from the high cliffs
overlooking the winding Dnieper River. A handsome suspension bridge joins
the two banks. The river is navigable and during the spring floods the
water has been known to rise as much as twenty feet.

The city of Kiev is situated on high undulating ground some 350 feet
above the river, and up to 1837 consisted of the old town, Podol and
Petchersk, to which forty-two years later were added Shulyavka,
Solomenka, Kurenevka and Lukyanovka, the city being divided into eight
districts. The more modern part of the town is very handsome, with wide
streets and fine stone houses of good architecture, whereas the poorer
abodes are mostly constructed of wood.

As in all the other cities of Russia there are in Kiev a great many
churches, over seventy in all, the oldest of which is the Cathedral of
St. Sophia in the centre of the town, built as early as 1037 on the spot
where the Petchenegs were defeated the previous year by Yarosloff. It is
renowned for its superb altar, its valuable mosai