elonging to this category is the Jumpers, among whom the
erotic element is disagreeably prominent. Here is a description of their
religious meetings, which are held during summer in the forest, and
during winter in some out-house or barn: "After due preparation prayers
are read by the chief teacher, dressed in a white robe and standing in
the midst of the congregation. At first he reads in an ordinary tone
of voice, and then passes gradually into a merry chant. When he remarks
that the chanting has sufficiently acted on the hearers, he begins
to jump. The hearers, singing likewise, follow his example. Their
ever-increasing excitement finds expression in the highest possible
jumps. This they continue as long as they can--men and women alike
yelling like enraged savages. When all are thoroughly exhausted, the
leader declares that he hears the angels singing"--and then begins a
scene which cannot be here described.

It is but fair to add that we know very little of these peculiar sects,
and what we do know is furnished by avowed enemies. It is very possible,
therefore, that some of them are not nearly so absurd as they are
commonly represented, and that many of the stories told are mere
calumnies.

The Government is very hostile to sectarianism, and occasionally
endeavours to suppress it. This is natural enough as regards these
fantastic sects, but it seems strange that the peaceful, industrious,
honest Molokanye and Stundisti should be put under the ban. Why is it
that a Russian peasant should be punished for holding doctrines which
are openly professed, with the sanction of the authorities, by his
neighbours, the German colonists?

To understand this the reader must know that according to Russian
conceptions there are two distinct kinds of heresy, distinguished from
each other, not by the doctrines held, but by the nationality of the
holder, it seems to a Russian in the nature of things that Tartars
should be Mahometans, that Poles should be Roman Catholics, and that
Germans should be Protestants; and the mere act of becoming a Russian
subject is not supposed to lay the Tartar, the Pole, or the German under
any obligation to change his faith. These nationalities are therefore
allowed the most perfect freedom in the exercise of their respective
religions, so long as they refrain from disturbing by propagandism the
divinely established order of things.

This is the received theory, and we must do the Russians the justi