Note 7 — Chapter XVIII · THE YENESEI.

Mr. Seebohm tells me that, as regards material comforts, this village is far in advance of the ordinary Russian villages. He found the land well cultivated and railed off, the cattle kept out by gates, and there was a hospital for the sick. The houses were ventilated, the joining work was good, and there were books. All intoxicants were forbidden, and likewise tobacco and tea and coffee. Morally, in fact, it was a model village and without crime. The inhabitants, however, of whom there were more men than women, had a remarkable appearance. They were all sallow; the men were beardless, with squeaky voices; and no inhabitant was less than forty years of age. A “baby’s music” had never been heard among them. They keep all the festivals of the Russian Church, but have no priest. They say that every man is a priest, and that he can perform priestly acts only for himself. They provided Mr. Seebohm, as a guest, with both tea and butter, but the Scoptsi themselves eat no animal food but fish, use no butter and drink no milk. At least this was so originally; but here breaks forth a fact that should be respectfully dedicated to all who suppose it within the bounds of possibility to bring every one, or to keep every one, to the same way of thinking. These people number less than a score, have no one in the village not of their own persuasion, and yet they have split into two sects, the difference being that one drinks milk and the other does not. Originally some 700 or 800 were sent from the government of Perm; but many on the Yenesei were dying, and they petitioned to be removed elsewhere, and are now to be found with other Scoptsi in large numbers in the province of Yakutsk. As to the relative salubrity of these and other Siberian provinces, the only clue that I have is that whereas in 1879 the death-rate in the government of Perm, whence these people came, was 5·07 per cent., it was 4·13 in the province of Tobolsk, 3·89 in that of Irkutsk, and 3·51 in the province of Yeneseisk.