Christs and false tsars; the most fabulous stories yet have credence, and the most barefaced mystifications find dupes.
In 1874, scarcely at a day's journey from the capital, in the neighborhood of Pskov, it was currently reported, and actually believed, that the government had the intention of sending five thousand young girls to the Black Sea for distribution among the Arabs, and of bringing back as many swarthy maidens to fill their places. Marriage became an epidemic throughout the district, and every youth or damsel, of suitable years, was quickly provided with a mate to escape either deportation or a copper-colored wife. An inquiry established the fact that the tale originated with an innkeeper named Iakovlev, as. an ingenious method of increasing his custom, inasmuch as, at a marriage ceremony, the tavern is as well patronized as the church.
If the fable have its religious side, it is the more readily believed. In the same vicinity a sect was discovered, in 1872, composed almost entirely of women, the creation of a runaway monk named Seraphim. Its proselytes were called the "Strijenisti," or the "Shorn," as at their initiation their hair was cropped, and the sale of their tresses was a source of income to its founder. His peculiar doctrine, which was the special allurement, taught that sin must precede, and is an indispensable preliminary to atonement; as their chief, he provided his disciples with the means of grace.
Similar instances abound, and explain the severity of the Russian code against false prophets and religious impostors.
Besides rogues and charlatans, there are many who sincerely believe in their mission, who have a devotional craze, which imposes upon a people whose emotions are easily aroused, and who share the belief, common
