Across Coveted Lands | Page 5

Anthony--Pilgrims--Veneration of Saints--The Dnieper
river--Churches--A luminous cross--Kharkoff--Agriculture--Horse
fairs--Rostoff--Votka drunkenness--Strong fortifications--Cheap and
good travelling--Baku.
Tradition tells us that Kiev was founded before the Christian era, and
its vicissitudes have since been many and varied. It has at all times
been considered one of the most important ecclesiastical centres of
Russia,--if not indeed the most important--but particularly since St.
Vladimir, the protecting saint of the city, preached Christianity there in
988, this being the first time that the religion of Christ had been
expounded in Russia. A century and a half before that time (in 822)
Kiev was the capital city of the state and remained such till 1169. In
1240 it was captured by Mongols who held it for 81 years. The
Lithuanians came next, and remained in possession for 249 years, until
1569; then Poland possessed it until the year 1654, when it became part

of the Russian Empire.
Kiev has the name of being a very intellectual city. Somehow or other,
intellectuality and trade do not seem to go together, and although the
place boasts of a military school and arsenal, theological colleges, a
university, a school of sacred picture painters, and a great many
scientific and learned societies, we find that none of these are locally
put to any marked practical use, except the sacred-picture painting; the
images being disposed of very rapidly, and for comparatively high
prices all over the country. Hardly any religious resorts are great
commercial centres, the people of these places being generally
conservative and bigoted and the ruling priestly classes devoting too
much attention to idealism to embark in commercial enterprise, which
leaves little time for praying. Agriculture and horticulture are
encouraged and give good results.
The priests make money--plenty of it--by their religion, and they
probably know that there is nothing more disastrous to religion in
laymen than rapid money-making by trade or otherwise. With money
comes education, and with education, too powerful a light thrown upon
superstition and idolatry. It is nevertheless possible, even probable, that
in the ignorance of the masses, in the fervent and unshaken confidence
which they possess in God, the Czar and their leaders, may yet lie the
greatest strength of Russia. It must not be forgotten that half-educated,
or half uneducated, masses are probably the weakness to-day of most
other civilised nations.
Some business on a small scale, however, is transacted at the various
fairs held in Kiev, such as the great fair at the beginning of the Russian
year. There are many beet-root sugar refineries, the staple industry of
the country, and next come leather tanneries, worked leather,
machinery, spirits, grain and tobacco. Wax candles are manufactured in
huge quantities, and in the monastery there is a very ancient
printing-press for religious books.
Peter the Great erected a fortress here in a most commanding spot. It is
said to contain up-to-date guns. A special pass has to be obtained from
the military authorities to be allowed to enter it, not so much because it

is used as an arsenal, but because from the high tower a most excellent
panoramic view is obtained of the city, the neighbourhood, and the
course of the river down below.
But Kiev is famous above all for its monastery, the Kievo-Petcherskaya,
near which the two catacombs of St. Theodosius and St. Antony attract
over three hundred thousand pilgrims every year. The first catacomb
contains forty-five bodies of saints, the other eighty and the revered
remains are stored in plain wood or silver-mounted coffins, duly
labelled with adequate inscriptions. The huge monastery itself bears the
appearance of great wealth, and has special accommodation for
pilgrims. As many as 200,000 pilgrims are said to receive board and
lodging yearly in the monastery. These are naturally pilgrims of the
lower classes.
Enormous riches in solid gold, silver and jewellery are stored in the
monastery and are daily increased by devout gifts.
But let us visit the catacombs.
The spare-looking, long-haired and bearded priests at the entrance of
the catacomb present to each pilgrim, as a memento, a useful and much
valued wax candle, which one lights and carries in one's hand down the
steep and slippery steps of the subterranean passages. All along, the
procession halts before mummified and most unattractive bodies, a
buzzing of prayers being raised by the pilgrims when the identity of
each saint is explained by the priest conducting the party. The more
devout people stoop over the bodies and kiss them fervently all over,
voluntarily and gladly disbursing in return for the privilege all such
small cash as may lie idle in their pockets.
Down and down the crowd goes through the long winding, cold, damp,
rancid-smelling passages, devoid of the remotest gleam of ventilation,
and where one breathes air so thick and foul that it sticks to one's
clothes