d procured a hatchet with which to
kill it. While threatening the poor creature he made his wife observe
its anguish and terror, and the fowl was saved at the same time as the
soul of Madame Pistzoff, who admitted that fowls, at any rate, do not go
gladly into the cooking-pot.

The number of Pistzoff's followers increased daily, and the sect of the
"White-robed Believers" was formed. Their main tenet being
_loving-kindness_, they lived peacefully and harmed none, while awaiting
the supreme moment when "the whole world should become white."

For the rest, the white-robed ones and their prophet followed the
doctrines of the _molokanes_, who drank excessive quantities of milk
during Lent--hence their name. This was one of the most flourishing of
all the Russian sects. Violently opposed to all ceremonies, they
recognised neither religious marriages, churches, priests nor dogmas,
claiming that the whole of religion was contained in the Old and New
Testaments. Though well-educated, they submitted meekly to a communal
authority, chosen from among themselves, and led peaceful and honest
working lives. All luxuries, even down to feminine ornaments or dainty
toilettes, were banned. They considered war a heathen invention--merely
"assassination on a large scale"--and though, when forced into military
service, they did their duty as soldiers in peace-time, the moment war
was in view it was their custom to throw away their arms and quietly
desert. There were no beggars and no poor among them, for all helped one
another, the richer setting aside one-tenth of their income for the less
fortunate.

Hunted and persecuted by the government, they multiplied nevertheless,
and when banished to far-away districts they ended by transforming the
waste, uncultivated lands into flourishing gardens.

CHAPTER III

THE STRANGLERS

A sect no less extraordinary than the last was that of the Stranglers
(_douchiteli_). It originated towards the end of 1874, and profited by
a series of law cases, nearly all of which ended in acquittal. The
Stranglers flourished especially in the Tzarevokokschaisk district, and
first attained notoriety under the following circumstances.

A large number of deaths by strangling had been recorded, and their
frequency began to arouse suspicion. Whether they were due to some
criminal organisation, or to a series of suicidal impulses, the local
police were long unable to decide, but in the end the culpr