rch occupying a rise of ground on the eastern side. Hundreds of men
and women--Carelian peasants--thronged around the entrance, crossing
themselves in unison with the congregation. The church, we found, was
packed, and the most zealous wedging among the blue _caftans_ and
shining flaxen heads brought us no farther than the inner door.
Thence we looked over a tufted level of heads that seemed to
touch,--intermingled tints of gold, tawny, _silver_-blond, and the
various shades of brown, touched with dim glosses through the
incense-smoke, and occasionally bending in concert with an undulating
movement, like grain before the wind. Over these heads rose the vaulted
nave, dazzling with gold and colors, and blocked up, beyond the
intersection of the transept, by the _ikonostast_, or screen before the
Holy of Holies, gorgeous with pictures of saints overlaid with silver.
In front of the screen the tapers burned, the incense rose thick and
strong, and the chant of the monks gave a peculiar solemnity to their
old Sclavonic litany. The only portion of it which I could understand
was the recurring response, as in the English Church, of, "Lord, have
mercy upon us!"

Extricating ourselves with some difficulty, we entered a chapel-crypt,
which contains the bodies of Sergius and Herrmann. They lie together, in
a huge coffin of silver, covered with cloth-of-gold. Tapers of immense
size burned at the head and foot, and the pilgrims knelt around, bending
their foreheads to the pavement at the close of their prayers. Among
others, a man had brought his insane daughter, and it was touching to
see the tender care with which he led her to the coffin and directed her
devotions. So much of habit still remained, that it seemed, for the time
being, to restore her reason. The quietness and regularity with which
she went through the forms of prayer brought a light of hope to the
father's face. The other peasants looked on with an expression of pity
and sympathy. The girl, we learned, had but recently lost her reason,
and without any apparent cause. She was betrothed to a young man who was
sincerely attached to her, and the pilgrimage was undertaken in the hope
that a miracle might be wrought in her favor. The presence of the
shrine, indeed, struck its accustomed awe through her wandering senses,
but the effect was only momentary.

I approached the coffin, and deposited a piece of money on the
offering-plate, for the purpose of getting a glimpse of