en fell exhausted to the ground,
their tired bodies no longer opposing the manifestation of their souls,
and the prophets and prophetesses gave voice to divine inspirations.

Once a year the "high ceremonial" was held. A tub filled with water
was placed in the middle of the room, and lit up by wax candles, and
when the surface of the water became ruffled the ecstatic watchers
believed God to be smiling upon them, and intoned in chorus their
favourite hymn---

"We dance, we dance,
And seek the Christ who is among us."

In some of the churches this ceremony concluded with the celebration of
universal love.

On account of its numerous ramifications, the sect presented many
divergent aspects. The _teleschi_, following the example of Adam and
Eve in Paradise, performed their religious rites in a state of nature;
and there were other branches whose various dogmas and practices it
would be impossible to describe.

CHAPTER XIX

THE RELIGION OF RASPUTIN

The career of Rasputin provides one of the most disquieting chapters in
the history of sexual and religious emotions, and furnishes remarkable
proof of the close relationship which exists between these two sides of
human life, to all appearances diametrically opposed.

The supposed monk had undoubted hypnotic powers, and through his
success in sending people to sleep in his native Siberian village (in
the neighbourhood of Tomsk), he earned the reputation of being a "holy
man." As they had never heard of either suggestion or hypnotism, the
Siberian peasants were all the more impressed by his miracles. Before
long he decided to make use of his mysterious power on a larger scale,
and departed for St. Petersburg, where the news of his exploits had
preceded him. The Tsarina, who suffered from insomnia, sent for him,
and--thanks also to certain qualities which it is best not to
specify--Rasputin's fortune was made in a day.

The village of his origin had an undesirable reputation, for its
inhabitants were loose-livers, and the scandal of the surrounding
countryside. But even in this environment the monk's family had made
themselves conspicuous by their low and unmentionable customs. The
young Gregory, known by the diminutive of Gricha, began his exploits at
a very tender age, and earned the sobriquet of Rasputin, which means
"debauched." He was mixed up in all kinds of dubious affairs--for
instance, thefts of horses, the bearing of false witness, and ma