Note 4 — Chapter XXVII · THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA.

In Russia one continually meets with these sacred pictures, said to work miracles: and sometimes relics, though the latter not so often as in Roman countries. In two places I have been curious enough to inquire for the evidence that might be given to substantiate the so-called miracles. Of course, in many cases, the wonderful things said to have been performed are enveloped in the mist of antiquity, but one explanation offered at Novgorod, in the Yuryef monastery, was to the effect that the very man who had shown us the bells, many years ago, saw two women arrive at the place, who were screaming and possessed of the devil, but that on coming to the grave of Father Fochi (the great saint of the place) they were made whole. The second explanation offered me, at the Spasski monastery in Yaroslaf, was of a similar character. A certain ikon, before which I was standing, was alleged to have been placed in the church in 1828. A girl, 17 years of age, was seized by demoniacal possession, and dreamed that she saw a certain picture. On waking, she was said to have searched through the town for the picture, which, on looking through the church window, she recognized in the ikon before us, and from that day she was made whole! Such are some of the stories upon which rest the alleged power of ikons to work miracles. But, as I have said before, the Russians are by no means “sceptical.” Consequently, if a church or a monastery only possesses a well-known miracle working ikon, the fortune of the place is made. Persons come from far and near to pray before it, bringing, of course, a present, and not unfrequently adding a thank-offering if the prayer be heard. A poor man, having a diseased leg or a sick cow, purchases a little silver model of his leg or his cow, and hangs it upon the ikon (I have seen several such), or, if the offerer be rich, he brings gems to adorn the wonder-working picture. These pictures, on special occasions, are taken to the houses of the faithful, being carried through the streets in procession, the people doffing their caps; and I have seen the more devout, in the hope of receiving a blessing, run between the bearers and under the picture carried upon their shoulders. At Kasan we saw the coffin of Bishop Gregory, from which chips are cut by sufferers to place on their wounds to be healed. The monk who accompanied us, and who was, intellectually, superior to some I have met, said that it was a well-known fact, and believed by all, that the relics of saints placed upon diseased parts of the body, and used with faith, are good for healing. The bishop, he said, died 200 years ago, but the wood of the alleged coffin did not appear to me to have reached the age of 200 weeks, and the whole concern looked modern.