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The service began

It consisted of the following The priest, having dressed in a

strange and very inconvenient garb, ed little bits of bread on a saucer, and then put the at the same time different names and

prayers Meanwhile the deacon first read Slavonic prayers,

difficult to understand in the read very fast, and then sang them turn

and turn about with the convicts The contents of the prayers

were chiefly the desire for the welfare of the Emperor and his

family These petitions were repeated ether with other prayers, the people kneeling Besides this,

several verses from the Acts of the Apostles were read by the

deacon in a peculiarly strained voice, which made it impossible

to understand what he read, and then the priest read very

distinctly a part of the Gospel according to St Mark, in which

it said that Christ, having risen fro up

to heaven to sit down at His Father's right hand, first showed

Hidalene, out of whom He had driven seven

devils, and then to eleven of His disciples, and ordered them to

preach the Gospel to the whole creation, and the priest added

that if any one did not believe this he would perish, but he that

believed it and was baptised should be saved, and should besides

drive out devils and cure people by laying his hands on theues, should take up serpents, and if

he drank poison should not die, but remain well

The essence of the service consisted in the supposition that the

bits cut up by the priest and put by him into the wine, when