holding these crowns was
considerable, and required that those who performed the service should
be relieved once by other bridesmen. After a time the crowns were
placed on the heads they had been held over. Wearing these crowns and
preceded by the priests, the pair walked three times round the altar
in memory of the Holy Trinity, while a portion of the service was
chanted. Then the crowns were removed and kissed by each of the
marrying pair, the bridegroom first performing the osculation. A cup
of water was held by the priest, first to the bridegroom and then to
the bride, each of whom drank a small portion. After this the first
couple retired to a little chapel and the second passed through the
ordeal. The preliminary ceremony occupied about twenty minutes, and
the same time was consumed by each couple.

There is no divorce in Russia, so that the union was one for life till
death. Before the parties left the church they received
congratulations. There was much hand-shaking, and among the women
there were decorous kisses. Our party regretted that the custom of
bride kissing as practiced in America does not prevail in Kamchatka.

When the affair was ended, the whole cortege returned to the house
whence it came, the children carrying pictures of the Virgin and
saints, and holding lighted candles before them. The employment of
lamps and tapers is universal in the Russian churches, the little
flame being a representation of spiritual existence and a symbol of
the continued life of the soul. The Russians have adapted this idea so
completely that there is no marriage, betrothal, consecration, or
burial, in fact no religious ceremony whatever without the use of lamp
or taper.

In the house of every adherent to the orthodox Russian faith there is
a picture of the Virgin or a saint; sometimes holy pictures are in
every room of the house. I have seen them in the cabins of steamboats,
and in tents and other temporary structures. No Russian enters a
dwelling, however humble, without removing his hat, out of respect to
the holy pictures, and this custom extends to shops, hotels, in fact
to every place where people dwell or transact business. During the
earlier part of my travels in Russia, I was unaware of this custom,
and fear that I sometimes offended it. I have been told that
superstitious thieves hang veils or kerchiefs before the picture in
rooms where they depredate. Enthusiastic lovers occasionally observe
the same preca