Caucasus; he had so starved his miserable regiment, and given such bad food for the men’s use, that a pestilence broke out among them, and _ils se mouraient comme des mouches_, as it was said. It took half his fortune to bribe the authorities to hush the matter up. In fact, from all that is seen and heard in Russia, one would think that the lower classes are created expressly to become the prey of the upper, just as we see the smaller fish serve to support the larger, or to be regarded merely as a breed of sheep whose fleece the farmer takes whenever he pleases to do so. CHAPTER XIV. Description of churches—A devotee—Saints’ portraits—The lower class of worshippers—Infant communion—Administering the sacrament—A funeral—Customs of oriental origin—Tartar burying-ground—A wake—Prayers for the dead—Horror of death—A baptism—Authenticity of Christ’s portraits—A procession in Moscow—Miraculous portrait of the Virgin—Religious processions—Aquatic procession—Pilgrims—A pilgrimage—The miraculous image at Jaroslaf—Angelic artists—Monks and money—A holy tradition—Religious ceremonies—Confession in the Greek Church—Representation of Christ’s interment—High mass in the Kazane church. The Russian churches are much decorated internally; in some, indeed most of them, the walls are entirely covered with the pictures of saints, the Virgin and Child, and, the Protestant will be shocked to see, of the Creator also, who is generally represented under the figure of an aged man with long white hair and beard, having the triangle or symbol of the Godhead either in his hand or above his head. He is sometimes represented as sitting on the clouds, with his foot placed on the earth or globe; indeed so depicted it appeared to be merely a copy of the heathen Jupiter or the northern Thor. Sometimes our Saviour and the Virgin Mary were painted one on either side. The circle of glory round the brows of the saints is ordinarily of silver gilt, but very often of pure gold, set with pearls and precious stones. Many of the dresses are of metal (either gold or silver gilt), and they so entirely cover the space that only the face and hands of the figures are visible out of the mass of rich settings of innumerable pearls, rubies, and diamonds. An anecdote was told us by the head of a judicial department, of a very devout lady, who was so exceedingly assiduous in repeating prayers, and in earnestly embracing the portrait of “Our Lady” in the Kazane church, that the priests began to suspect that so much unction was not purely spiritual; they therefore set the police to watch, and “sure enough” they discovered that the devotee had actually succeeded in dislodging some of the valuable diamonds with her teeth: she was punished by being sent on a pilgrimage to Siberia. Many of the saints’ portraits are extremely ancient, and costly as regards the materials of which they are composed,