Holy Church has stepped in and substituted for the ceremonies which I have just described, special services for those about to occupy new premises, and these Christian functions now largely take the place of the Pagan rites; but the change of ceremony has not dethroned either the _domovoy_ or the _rodítyelui_, who still reign, and will doubtless reign for the next thousand years, over the imagination of Ivan Ivanovitch, as the personal and permanent and undoubted guests and guardians of his establishment. There is a special _domovoy_ in charge of the bath-house which forms a feature in every Russian village. This _domovoy_ has a strong objection to the villagers bathing themselves late at night, specially if they do so without having first prayed aloud. It is not very clear what form his displeasure takes when his wishes in this connection are disregarded; but it is known that he dislikes the practice of late bathing. Probably it keeps him up. However, if the moujik be impious enough to disregard his objections and to take a bath at an unseasonable hour of the night, when all good moujiks, and _banniks_ also, should be asleep, a can of warm water and a birch-rod-swisher should be left by the untimely "ablutioner" in propitiation of the _bannik_ (who is the _domovoy_ of the bath-house) thus kept from his rest by the thoughtless and unselfish conduct of the former. Whether the _bannik_ ever utilises the opportunity thus offered him of enjoying a comfortable scrub, tradition does not say. If the bath _domovoy_ is a good Russian, and has imbibed anything of the nature of the moujik during his long connection with that unsavoury member of society, probably he does _not_ use the warm water and the swish; for he will not wash himself unless he is forced to do so by circumstances over which he has no control, such as popular opinion, or the customs or the bye-laws of the village in which he has his habitation.