The same monks are as great merchants as any in the land of Russia, and do occupy buying and selling as much as any other men, and have boats which pass to and fro in the rivers with merchandise from place to place where any other of their country do traffic. They eat no flesh during their lives, as it is reported; but upon Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, it is lawful for them to eat eggs, butter, cheese, and milk, and at all times to eat fish; and after this sort they lead their lives. They wear all black garments, and so do none other in all the land, but at that abbey only. They have no preachers—no, not one in all the land to instruct the people, so that there are many, and the most part of the poor in the country, who if one ask them how many gods there be, they will say a great many, meaning that every image which they have is a god; for all the country and the Emperor’s Majesty himself will bless and bow and knock their heads before their images, insomuch that they will cry earnestly unto their images to help them to the things which they need. All men are bound by their law to have those images in their houses; and over every gate in all their towns and cities are images set up, unto which the people bow and bend, and knock their heads against the ground before them. As often as they come by any church or cross, they do in like manner. And when they come to any house, they bless themselves three or four times before they will salute any man in the house. They reckon and hold it for great sin to touch or handle any of their images within the circle of the board where the painting is, but they keep them very daintily, and rich men deck them over and about with gold, silver, and stones, and hang them over and about with cloth-of-gold. The priests are married as other men are, and wear all their garments as other men do, except their night-cap, which is cloth of some sad colour, being round, and reacheth unto the ears; their crowns are shaven, but the rest of their hair they let grow as long as Nature will permit, so that it hangeth beneath their ears upon their shoulders; their beards they never shave. If his wife happen to die, it is not lawful for him to marry again during his life. They minister the Communion with bread and wine, after our order, but he breaketh the bread and putteth it into the cup unto the wine, and commonly some are partakers with them; and they take the bread out again with a spoon, together with part of the wine, and so take it themselves, and give it to others that receive with them after the same manner. Their ceremonies are all, as they say, according to the Greek Church, used at this present day; and they allow no other religion but the Greeks’ and their own, and will not permit any nation but the Greeks to be buried in their sacred burials or churchyards.