Note 3 — Chapter VIII · THE OBI.

We heard from other sources that for brandy these aborigines will sell everything short of their souls, and even these would appear sometimes to tremble in the balance, if the following story be true:—A Russian priest, it seemed, intent upon adding sheep to his fold, even though by very questionable means, sometimes gave drink to the Samoyedes and Ostjaks, and, when they were in a muddled condition, baptized them, put round their necks the cross, and thus brought them into the fold of the orthodox Russian Church. On coming to their senses they sometimes objected to what had been done, but, like the recruit who took the Queen’s shilling, they were caught, and the only way to escape was to bribe the priest to erase their names from his register, and let them go. This was told us by a man who had lived in the Samoyede country. The story presented such a bathos of proselytizing zeal, that I asked particularly if it were really true, and was answered in the affirmative. In the time of the Emperor Nicholas, zealous missionary priests received honours and decorations in proportion to the number of Pagans and Jews they baptized; but this, I believe, is not the case now. I heard, further east, of other questionable means taken by a priest to obtain proselytes from the aborigines of the Amur. This, however, was done by one who, during my stay in the town, publicly disgraced his cloth by intemperance. These enormities, therefore, must be laid to the account, not of the Russian Church, but to that of certain of its corrupt officials. They are mentioned here on the principle that not only the truth but the whole truth should be told; and, further, because I would fain not have to allude to the subject when I come hereafter to record better things, as I shall have to do, of the missionary efforts of the Russian Church in Siberia.