Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/277

262 commencing in a low, monotonous tone, gradually increasing in rapidity and loudness, and, with the growing excitement of his hearers, he begins a slow jumping movement, modulated on his song, and becoming more and more violent as his voice rises higher and the chanting quickens; the audience, arranged in couples, engaged to each other in advance, imitate his example and join the strain; the bounds and the singing grow faster and louder as the frenzy spreads, until, at its height, the elder shouts that he hears the voices of angels; the lights are extinguished, the jumping ceases, and the scene that follows in the darkness defies description. Each one yields to his desires, born of inspiration, and therefore righteous, and to be gratified; all are brethren in Christ, all promptings of the inner spirit are holy; incest, even, is no sin. They repudiate marriage, and justify their abominations by the Biblical legends of Lot's daughters, Solomon's harem, and the like. Other of their rites are abject and disgusting; their chief is the living Christ, and their communion consists in embracing his body; ordinary disciples may kiss his hand or foot; to those of more fervent piety he offers his tongue!

These fanatics are vigorously pursued by the police, their meetings are dispersed, men are imprisoned and women confined in houses of correction, but, notwithstanding, they have spread from the capital to cities of the interior; their performances in their different communities have varied, but have been always of the same licentious nature.

At Riazan a prophetess assumed the title of "Mother of God;" chosen adepts performed the sacred dance in couples before her with blasphemous obscenities too horrible to name, while she exhorted them in the words addressed to the wise virgins whose lamps were trimmed;