ed. Many of the males
probably knew, or at least suspected, what was going on; but they
prudently remained within doors, knowing well that if they should
be caught peeping indiscreetly at the mystic ceremony, they would be
unmercifully beaten by those who were taking part in it.

This custom is doubtless a survival of old pagan superstitions. The
introduction of the Icon is a modern innovation, which illustrates that
curious blending of paganism and Christianity which is often to be
met with in Russia, and of which I shall have more to say in another
chapter.

Sometimes, when an epidemic breaks out, the panic produced takes a more
dangerous form. The people suspect that it is the work of the doctors,
or that some ill-disposed persons have poisoned the wells, and no amount
of reasoning will convince them that their own habitual disregard of
the most simple sanitary precautions has something to do with the
phenomenon. I know of one case where an itinerant photographer was
severely maltreated in consequence of such suspicions; and once, in St.
Petersburg, during the reign of Nicholas I., a serious riot took place.
The excited populace had already thrown several doctors out of the
windows of the hospital, when the Emperor arrived, unattended, in an
open carriage, and quelled the disturbance by his simple presence, aided
by his stentorian voice.

Of the ignorant credulity of the Russian peasantry I might relate
many curious illustrations. The most absurd rumours sometimes awaken
consternation throughout a whole district. One of the most common
reports of this kind is that a female conscription is about to take
place. About the time of the Duke of Edinburgh's marriage with the
daughter of Alexander II. this report was specially frequent. A large
number of young girls were to be kidnapped and sent to England in a red
ship. Why the ship was to be red I can easily explain, because in the
peasants' language the conceptions of red and beautiful are expressed
by the same word (krasny), and in the popular legends the epithet is
indiscriminately applied to everything connected with princes and great
personages; but what was to be done with the kidnapped maidens when they
arrived at their destination, I never succeeded in discovering.

The most amusing instance of credulity which I can recall was the
following, related to me by a peasant woman who came from the village
where the incident had occurred. One day in winter, about the