All the walls inside the church are covered as completely as possible with pictures, which are either painted on the walls themselves, or are hung in frames against them. The pictures in the narthex are taken, as a rule, from the Old Testament, and those in the hieron from the New Testament. Besides these there are pictures of men and women who are recognised as saints in the Eastern Church. The older these pictures are, the holier they are esteemed. In copying them, therefore, the chief object is to give the copy an appearance of antiquity. Many of the pictures have been painted by the monks themselves, and, as a rule, they are done in very glaring colours. The heads of the saints are always surrounded by a golden glory, on the gilding of which much money is frequently expended. They are also often hung with presents, such as handkerchiefs and other personal finery, which have been offered by pilgrims whose particular saint is represented. Sometimes one sees a wreath of blown birds’ eggs hung up by the picture, a melancholy token of hopes blighted in this world. The front wall in the church, through which access to the outer church is gained, is covered with a lean-to roof, and on this wall there is depicted, in order to excite the imagination and the fear of the heathen folk, on the right hand of the door the bliss of Paradise, and on the left hand the torments of Hell. Here the heathen as they stood outside the church and listened to the singing, would have made manifest to them what would be the lot of those who did not seek the help which the Church offered them, and who refused to be baptized. One thing, however, in the pictures was strange and suggestive, and might have made the heathen doubtful about the charms of Paradise, and this was, that the saints in Paradise were delineated as so fearfully emaciated that they seemed to be nothing but skin and bone, owing to the fasting and the asceticism by which they had made themselves worthy of heaven. The other folk, moreover, who were in hell, seemed to be well-favoured, lusty, and thriving, and altogether more attractive. In the middle of the courtyard, between the monastery buildings, there was a draw-well, and upon a beam placed over it there was the following inscription, which can be read backwards, Νίψον ἀνομήμα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν [3]— (Wash away uncleanness, not from the face alone)—a reminder that water is used in the administration of Holy Baptism. The monks, who year by year became more numerous, obtained by degrees still further privileges from the Czar of Russia.