Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/83

Rh were settled on the banks of the Yenisei as it flowed through the steppe.

That night was Easter Eve. The whole village had been apparently fasting for some weeks past during Lent, for I had observed, passing by in the former villages, that the peasants had been denying themselves meat. That evening after midnight they were going to be released from their durance, and so the whole village sat up quietly while the priest burnt incense and chanted prayers before the icons and tallow-bespattered altar of the little Greek church. Toward midnight a large company assembled at the church, while the priest monotonously droned "Gospody pomuilui" (Lord, have mercy). At the stroke of midnight, when the church was full, the priest, with uplifted hands, declared "Kritus voscressenny" (Christ is risen), and instantly, with shouting and yelling, the whole company rushed out of the church into the streets. Revolvers, tin kettles, everything and anything with which a noise could be made, was pressed into service, and a terrific din ensued which lasted for half-an-hour. Then the crowd began to disperse to their homes, where they were going to break their fast with an immoderate consumption of food and drink. The reaction after so immoderate a fast is not surprising. Next day most of the inhabitants of the village were in various degrees of intoxication, and it was only with some difficulty and considerable delay that we managed to get horses and men to take us on to the next village.

To celebrate Easter and the close of a long fast by getting thoroughly drunk is the Slavonic ideal of enjoyment! But the vodka spirit is pure, and