voluntary starvation.

Chadkin's teaching was that as Anti-Christ had already come, there was
nothing left to do but escape into the forests and die of hunger. When
he and his adherents had reached a sufficiently isolated spot, he
ordered the women to prepare death-garments, and when all were suitably
arrayed, he informed them that in order to receive the heavenly grace
of death, they must remain there for twelve days and nights without
food or water.

Frightful were the sufferings endured by these martyrs. The cries of
the children, as they writhed in agony, were heartrending, but Chadkin
and his followers never wavered. At last, however, one of the
sufferers, unable longer to face such tortures, managed to escape, and
Chadkin, fearing the arrival of the police, decided that all the rest
must die at once. They began by killing the children; next the women
and the men; and by the time the police appeared on the scene there
remained alive only Chadkin and two others, who had forgotten in their
frenzy to put an end to themselves.

CHAPTER II

THE DIVINITY OF FATHER IVAN

It seems enough, in Russia, when a single individual is obsessed by
some more or less ridiculous idea, for his whole environment to become
infected by it also. The ease with which suggestions make their way
into the popular mind is amazing, and this reveals its strong bias
towards the inner life, the life of dreams. The actual content of the
dreams is of small importance, provided that they facilitate the soul's
flight to a better world, and supply some link in a chain which shall
attach it more firmly to the things of eternity. Consequently, those
who have any supernatural experience to relate are almost sure to find
followers.

An illiterate woman named Klipikoff one day proclaimed the good news of
the divinity of Father Ivan of Cronstadt. The incredulous smiles of
her fellow-citizens were gradually transformed into enthusiastic
expressions of belief, and Madame Klipikoff proceeded to found a
school. About twenty women began to proclaim openly throughout
Cronstadt that Father Ivan, the miracle-worker, was divine, and he had
difficulty in repudiating the honours that the infatuated women tried
to thrust upon him. According to the priestesses of this
"unrecognised" cult, Father Ivan was the Saviour Himself, though he hid
the fact on account of the "Anti-Christians"--that is to say, the
priests and the church authorities. Those w