Note 3 — Chapter XXXVI · THE PENAL COLONY OF KARA.

The only place where I met any of these in confinement was in the prison hospital at Tomsk, in which were three Subbotniki,—one of them a priest, and the others descendants of priests,—who were suffering from scorbutic disease, and who were in prison, I think I understood, for trying to propagate their creed; though, as this would seem to be contrary to what I understood were now the laws respecting dissenters, it may be that I did not understand the whole case. Subbotniki are so called because they believe that we ought to keep Subbota, or Saturday, as the day of rest. They are said also to consider circumcision a binding ordinance, because it was to Abraham, the father of the faithful, that the Lord gave it, and Moses wrote, “in your generations for ever.” In some other respects, perhaps, such as purifications, they may further Judaize.