occupied, the fortunate guests passing in and out with a provoking air
of comfort and unconcern. We ascended to the second story, which was
similarly arranged, and caught hold of another benevolent monk, willing,
but evidently powerless to help us. Dinner was just about to be served;
the brother in authority was not there; we must be good enough to wait a
little while;--would we not visit the shrines, in the mean time?

The advice was sensible, as well as friendly, and we followed it.
Entering the great quadrangle of the monastery, we found it divided,
gridiron-fashion, into long, narrow court-yards by inner lines of
buildings. The central court, however, was broad and spacious, the
church occupying a rise of ground on the eastern side. Hundreds of men
and women--Carelian peasants--thronged around the entrance, crossing
themselves in unison with the congregation. The church, we found, was
packed, and the most zealous wedging among the blue _caftans_ and
shining flaxen heads brought us no farther than the inner door.
Thence we looked over a tufted level of heads that seemed to
touch,--intermingled tints of gold, tawny, _silver_-blond, and the
various shades of brown, touched with dim glosses through the
incense-smoke, and occasionally bending in concert with an undulating
movement, like grain before the wind. Over these heads rose the vaulted
nave, dazzling with gold and colors, and blocked up, beyond the
intersection of the transept, by the _ikonostast_, or screen before the
Holy of Holies, gorgeous with pictures of saints overlaid with silver.
In front of the screen the tapers burned, the incense rose thick and
strong, and the chant of the monks gave a peculiar solemnity to their
old Sclavonic litany. The only portion of it which I could understand
was the recurring response, as in the English Church, of, "Lord, have
mercy upon us!"