a visit to the troitska monastery, and what was seen there.—curious legends.—monks at dinner.—european fairs.—the great fair at nijni novgorod.—sights and scenes.—minin's tomb and tower.—down the volga by steamboat.—steam navigation on the great river.—kazan, and what was seen there.—the route to siberia.
the troitska (trinity) monastery is about forty miles from moscow, and reached by railway in little more than two hours. our friends took an early start, intending to see the monastery and return the same day which is by no means difficult, as there are three trains each way every twenty-four hours. fred had spent the previous evening in reading up the history of the place they were to visit. as soon as they were seated in the train he gave the following summary to his companions:
"the monastery was founded in 1342 by st. sergius, a son of a russian nobleman of rostof, who was famed for his intelligence and piety. the princes of muscovy used to ask his advice in their contests with the tartars, as well as in other matters. dmitry of the don sought his blessing before going to the battle of kulikova, where he defeated the tartars; he was accompanied by two monks, disciples of sergius, who fought by dmitry's side during the memorable battle. in consideration of the great services thus rendered, the monastery received grants of land and became very rich. st. sergius died in 1392, and it is said that he remained a simple monk to the last.
"in 1408 the tartars laid the monastery waste, and scattered the monks. they reassembled about fifteen years later, and the monastery was re-established. it has never since been recaptured, though it was besieged by thirty thousand poles in 1608. the monks made a vigorous defence, and the siege was finally raised by a russian force which came to their assistance. the french started from moscow for the monastery in 1812, but only went about half way. the tradition is that the saint appeared miraculously, and covered the road leading to the monastery with such an array of soldiers in black that the french did not dare to attack them.
[pg 272]
"while the poles were in possession of moscow in 1612, the monastery aided the inhabitants with food and money. the poles again sent an army to conquer the place, but it was repulsed by the monks without any assistance from the russian soldiers. the plague and the cholera, which have both visited moscow, have not entered troitska, and consequently the place is much venerated for its sanctity.
copy of picture in the monastery.
"there is a legend that when the saint first came to the spot he met a huge bear in the forest; the bear rushed forward to destroy him, but suddenly paused, and from that moment the saint and the bear were friends. for the rest of their days they lived together, and when the saint died the bear remained on the spot, and gave evidences of the most earnest grief. this story is implicitly believed by the orthodox russians, and the gentleman from whose writings i have taken it says he heard it from the lips of a russian lady, and narrated so artlessly that it would have been painful to have expressed any doubt of its truth."
other legends of the monastery, and incidents showing its prominence in russian history, whiled away the time till the station at troitska was reached. after a substantial breakfast at the railway-station, the party proceeded to the famous edifice, which is more like a fortress than a religious establishment. its walls have a linear extent of nearly a mile; they are twenty feet thick, and vary in height from thirty to fifty feet. they would offer little obstruction to modern artillery, but it is easy to see that they could make a stout resistance to such cannon as the poles possessed three centuries ago. there are towers at the angles, eight in all,[pg 273] and one of them is surmounted by an obelisk which bears a duck carved in stone, in remembrance of the fact that peter the great used to shoot ducks on a pond near the monastery.
for what they saw at troitska we will refer to frank's journal:
"there were crowds of beggars along the road from the railway-station to the gate of the monastery. it seems that the place is an object of pilgrimage from all parts of russia, and the beggars reap a goodly harvest from those who come to pray at the shrine of the saint. before the railway was opened, the high-road from moscow seemed to pass through a double hedge of beggars, and the traveller was never out of hearing of their plaintive appeals for charity.
window in church of the trinity.
"we were cordially welcomed to the monastery, and one of the monks, who spoke french, accompanied us through the place. there are ten churches within the walls, the oldest being the church of the trinity, and the largest that of the assumption. the shrine of st. sergius is in the former. it is an elaborate piece of workmanship, of pure silver, weighing nine hundred and thirty-six pounds, and is so constructed that the relics of the saint are exposed. near the shrine is a painting of the saint, that was carried in battle by peter the great and the czar alexis, and there is a record on a silver plate of other battles in which it was used.
[pg 274]
pity the poor.
"there are other pictures of the saint displayed on the walls of the church. the whole interior of the building is covered with ornaments in massive silver and gold, and it is no wonder the french made an effort to plunder the monastery when they learned of the treasures it contained. there is a representation of the last supper, in which the figures are of solid gold, with the exception of the judas, which is of brass. the images are covered with pearls and precious stones in great profusion. in some cases they are so thickly spread that the metal can hardly be seen.
"in the church of the assumption is a two-headed eagle, which commemorates the concealment of peter the great under the altar during the insurrection of the streltzi. they showed us a well that was dug by st.[pg 275] sergius, and discovered after its locality had been unknown for nearly three hundred years. near the church is a tower two hundred and ninety feet high, and containing several bells, one of them weighing sixty-five tons. russia is certainly the country of gigantic bells.
"a description of all the churches at troitska would be tedious, especially as we have spoken of the two of greatest interest. the sacristy is in a detached building, and contains more curiosities than i could describe in a dozen pages. there are mitres, crowns, crosses, and other ornaments that have been given to the monastery by the various rulers of russia or by wealthy individuals, many of them set with jewels of remarkable size and beauty. a copy of the gospels, given by the czar michael in 1632, is in heavy covers, ornamented with designs in enamel; in the centre of the design on the front cover is a cross made with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, and there is a similar though smaller cross on the back.
"the robes worn by the priesthood are as numerous and costly as those we saw at moscow, and so are the ornaments that accompany them. the pearl head-dress which catherine ii. wore at her coronation is preserved here, and serves as an ornament on a priestly robe. there is a crown presented by elizabeth, and an altar-cloth from john the terrible. and so we could go on through a long list of magnificent gifts from kings and emperors, and an equally long array of vestments worn by high dignitaries of the church on state occasions.
"the piety of the pilgrims is shown by their adoration, not of these jewelled crowns and diadems, but of the wooden utensils and coarse garments which belonged to the founder of the monastery. these relics are distributed among the glass cases which contain the costly mementos we have mentioned, with the evident intention of setting forth as clearly as possible the simple ways of his life.
curious agate at troitska.
"one of the curiosities they showed us was a natural agate, in which there is the figure of a monk bowing before a cross. the cross is very clearly defined, and so is the cowled figure kneeling before it, though the latter would hardly be taken as representing anything in particular if regarded[pg 276] by itself. we examined it carefully to see if there was any deception about it, but could not detect it if there was. the monk, the cross, and the rock on which the cross stands appear to be wholly formed by the natural lines of the agate. the stone is about four inches high, and oval in shape; on one side it is rather dull and opaque, but it is bright on the other, and distinctly shows the eyes of the monk.
paper-knife from troitska. st. sergius and the bear.
"the monks of troitska wear black caftans topped with high black hats without brims; black veils hang down over their shoulders, and nearly every monk wears his hair as long as it will grow. we saw them at dinner in their refectory, where one of the number read the service while the rest went on with their eating and drinking; they were talking freely among themselves, and did not seem to listen at all to the reader. in general they appear to be well fed and cared for, and, so far as we could observe, their life is not a rigorous one. they offered carvings in wood, ivory, and mother-of-pearl, and we bought several of these things to bring away as curiosities. among them was a paper-knife, with the handle representing st. sergius and the bear in the forest. the work was well done, and the knife will make a pretty ornament for somebody's desk in america.
"when we entered the refectory the monks invited us to dine with them, and we regretted that we had already breakfasted at the railway-station. there is a lodging-house for travellers attached to the monastery, and comparing favorably with a russian hotel of the rural sort. nothing is charged for the rooms, but the lodger who can afford it must pay for his food, and in addition he is expected to drop something into the contribution-box which the monks will show him before his departure. the cooking is said to be excellent, and the table as well supplied as any in moscow. they have a pilgrim's table, where one may dine free of charge, but the food is simple and limited in quantity.
"there is a studio of painting in the monastery, where the monks and[pg 277] their pupils, forty or fifty in all, were busily at work copying from religious subjects of both greek and latin origin. they are not confined to church paintings, as we saw portraits of the emperor and other members of the imperial family, and several battle-scenes in which russian arms have figured. there is a very good painting representing the attack of the poles upon the monastery, and another illustrating the defence of sebastopol during the crimean war.
specimens of ecclesiastical painting on glass.
"the monastery was enormously rich at one time, not only in the treasures it possessed, but in grants of land and serfs which had been given by the government. in 1764 it had one hundred and six thousand male serfs, and its lands covered many thousands of acres. though losing its serfs, it has not been without compensation, and the monastery is handsomely supported, partly by an annual donation from the government, and partly by the gifts of pious russians."
doctor bronson and the youths returned to moscow in the evening, as[pg 278] they had planned, and on the next day made their preparations for continuing their journey.
their next place of destination was nijni novgorod, where they wished to attend the great fair, which was then in progress. they decided to go by the express train, which leaves moscow in the evening and reaches nijni novgorod in the morning. the distance is about two hundred and seventy miles, and there is very little to see on the way.
russian cooper's shop and dwelling.
the only place of consequence between moscow and nijni is vladimir, named after vladimir the great. it has about fifteen thousand inhabitants, and is the centre of a considerable trade. anciently it was of much political importance, and witnessed the coronations of the czars of muscovy down to 1432. its kremlin is in a decayed state, and little remains of its former glory, except a venerable and beautiful cathedral. our friends thought they could get along with the churches they had already seen, and declined to stop to look at the cathedral of vladimir.
[pg 279]
on arriving at nijni they were met at the station by a commissioner from the hotel de la poste, to which they had telegraphed for rooms. in the time of the fair it is necessary to secure accommodations in advance if one is intending to remain more than a single day. tourists who are in a hurry generally come from moscow by the night train, spend the day at nijni, and return to moscow the same evening. thus they have no use for a hotel, as they can take their meals at the railway-station or in the restaurants on the fair grounds.
"this is practically the last of the great fairs of europe," said the doctor to his young companions as the train rolled out of moscow. "leipsic still maintains its three fairs every year, but they have greatly changed their character since the establishment of railways. they are more local than general, and one does not see people from all parts of europe, as was the case forty or fifty years ago. the fairs of france and germany have dwindled to insignificance, and now the only really great fair where europe and asia meet is the one we are about to visit."
frank asked how long these fairs had been in existence.
"fairs are of very ancient origin," the doctor replied; "that of leipsic can be distinctly traced for more than six hundred years. the word 'fair' comes from the latin feria, meaning day of rest, or holiday, and the fairs for the sale of goods were and still are generally connected with religious festivals. the greeks and romans had fairs before the christian era; fairs were established in france in the fifth century and in england in the ninth, and they were common in germany about the beginning of the eleventh century, when they were principally devoted to the sale of slaves.
"coming down with a single bound to the great fair of russia, we find that there was an annual gathering of merchants at nijni more than five hundred years ago. long before that time there was a fair in kazan, then under tartar rule, but russian merchants were prohibited from going there by order of john the terrible. the fair of nijni was removed to makarieff, seventy miles down the river, in 1641, where it remained a long time. the monks of makarieff controlled the fair until 1751, when it passed into the hands of the government, and has remained there ever since.
"the fair at makarieff was held on low ground near the town. owing to an inundation in 1816, the government restored the fair to nijni, and decreed that it should be held annually between the 27th of july and the 22d of september. the ordinary population of nijni is about forty thousand; two hundred and fifty thousand merchants, laborers, and others[pg 280] come to the fair, so that for two months of the year nearly three hundred thousand people are assembled here."
"how are they all accommodated with lodgings and food?" one of the youths asked.
nijni novgorod during the fair.
"the permanent town of nijni novgorod," said the doctor, "is separated from fair-town, if we may so call it, by the river oka, which here joins the volga. the fair is held on a tongue of land between the volga and the oka, and fair-town and nijni proper are connected by bridges of boats. it is a regular town or city, built for the purposes of trade. it has its governor, police force, fire brigade, and all the paraphernalia of a city, and the government collects by means of a tax about fifty thousand dollars for the support of the organization."
"then it is a city with a busy population for two months of the year, and a deserted town for the other ten?"
nijni novgorod after the fair.
"exactly so," was the reply; "fair-town at nijni in season and out of season will remind you of the difference between coney island or long branch in july and in january.
[pg 281]
"we'll drop the subject till to-morrow," said the doctor, and with this suggestion the conversation was suspended.
on their arrival at nijni, where they expected to remain two or three days, the party went to the hotel as already stated, and then made a hasty survey of the stock sights of the place. they saw the kremlin, which is a place of considerable strength, and contains the governor's residence, the military barracks, law-courts, telegraph station, and other public buildings. there is a fine monument to minin and pojarsky, and in a church not far off is the tomb of the patriotic cattle-dealer.
our friends climbed to the top of minin's tower (bashnia minina), where they had a magnificent view of the surrounding country, including the valleys of the volga and oka for a long distance, the permanent town and its kremlin, the site of the fair, with its miles of streets, and its thousands of boats and barges tied to the river-bank. frank recalled the view from the hill near hankow, at the junction of the han and yang-tse in china, and pointed out many features of similarity. fred said he was reminded of the junction of the ganges and jumna at allahabad, and an appeal to the doctor brought out a reference to the union of the alleghany and monongahela at pittsburg.
the permanent town was quickly disposed of, as the youths were impatient to inspect the great fair. for an account of what they saw we will again refer to their journals.
"what a cloud of dust there is here," said frank, "and they say the dust turns to mud, and deep mud, too, after a heavy rain. they make a[pg 282] pretence of watering the streets when the weather is dry, but the work is not very well done; and besides, the vast number of people walking about keeps the ground in very active occupation.
"nearly all the houses are of brick or iron, and great care is taken to prevent fires. the lower stories of the houses are used for shops, and the upper for storage, or for the residence of those who have hired the buildings. the sewerage system is said to be excellent, the sewers being flushed several times daily by water pumped from the river.
"the governor's house is in the centre of this fair-town. under it is a bazaar for the sale of goods from all parts of europe and asia, and we naturally took this house for the centre of trade. along the streets and avenues there are shops of all kinds, and we seemed to be in the bazaars of all the oriental countries we have ever visited, together with the shops and stores of all the western ones. the list of the goods we saw would almost be a list of all the articles of trade throughout the civilized and uncivilized world, and we hesitate to begin. name anything that you want to buy and the guide will take you to where it is sold.
"the mode of dealing is more oriental than occidental, as the merchants in any particular kind of goods are clustered together as in the bazaars of the east. for a mile or more there are warehouses filled only with iron, and very judiciously they are on the bank of the river, to save labor in handling and transportation. the tea-merchants are together, and so are the dealers in bokharian cotton, tartar sheepskins, siberian furs, and other things on the long list we do not intend to write out in full.
"restaurants of every name and kind are here, good, bad, and indifferent. the best is under the governor's house, and we recommend it to any of our friends who follow in our footsteps and visit nijni. there are russian, armenian, and catholic churches, and there are mosques and pagodas, so that every visitor may suit himself in religious matters.
"as for the people we confess to some disappointment. the great majority are russians, as a matter of course, but it is rather greater than we had looked for. we had thought we would see all the countries of asia represented by their national dress, together with english, french, germans, and other people of western europe. all were there, it is true, but not in the numbers we had expected.
[pg 283]
tartar merchant.
"kirghese, bokhariots, turcomans, and other people of central asia, were to be seen here and there, and so were kalmuck tartars, armenians, persians, and an occasional chinese. but sometimes we could walk around for an hour or so without seeing anybody but russians, or hearing any language except the one to which we have become accustomed since our arrival at st. petersburg.
returning from the fair.
"we bought a few souvenirs of the place; but, so far as we could observe, the prices were quite as high as in the gostinna dvor of st. petersburg or moscow. it requires a great deal of bargaining, and a knowledge of prices beforehand, to avoid being cheated, and even then you can never be sure that you are fairly treated. the mode of dealing is emphatically oriental, and a great deal of time is spent in dickering. nobody seems to understand the advantages of fixed prices.
"it is said that the annual business at the fair of nijni novgorod amounts to three hundred millions of dollars, though it has somewhat diminished of late years. much of the dealing is on credit, the goods being delivered at one fair and paid for at the next. over a pot of tea transactions will be made that cover many thousands of dollars, and neither party has a scrap of paper to show for them. collections through the courts would be next to an impossibility, and therefore personal honor is at a high premium. the merchant who fails to meet his engagements would be excluded from the fair, and thus deprived of the means of making new negotiations.
[pg 284]
"the government requires the bakers to report each day the amount of bread they have sold, and thus a rough estimate of the number of people present is obtained.
"there are two other fairs held at nijni, but they are of comparatively little consequence. one, early in july, is devoted to horses; the other, in january, is for the sale of timber, wooden-ware, and boxes. the latter is held on the ice of the oka. in january, 1864, the ice gave way and a great number of people and horses were drowned."
two or three days were spent at the fair, and then our friends engaged passage on a steamboat to descend the volga. the youths were surprised at the number and size of the steamers navigating this river, and still more surprised to find that many of them were of american pattern. the first passenger steamers on the volga were built by americans, and were found so well adapted to the work required of them that the system has been continued. some of the boats are of the mississippi model, while others resemble those of the hudson river. at first they had only side-wheel steamers, but in the last few years several light-draft stern-wheelers have been built (also by americans) and found especially useful in threading among the numerous sand-bars at the period of low water.
many boats of great power are used for towing barges up and down the river, and find plenty of employment during all the time the volga is free from ice. altogether, about five hundred steamboats of all classes are engaged in the navigation of the volga.
it is sixteen hundred miles from nijni to astrachan, and the voyage usually takes five or six days. the boats do not run at night, on account of the difficulty of navigation, which is worse than that of the lower mississippi, and more like the missouri than any other american stream. the fare (first class) on the best steamers is about twenty-five dollars, exclusive of meals, which will cost from twelve to twenty dollars more. competition occasionally reduces the figures considerably, but, as a general thing, the russians are too shrewd to conduct their business at a loss in order to injure that of a rival.
"we are on a fine boat, which reminds me of the very one that carried us from st. louis to memphis," writes fred in his journal. "she is called the nadeshda ("hope"); and that reminds me it was the hope on which i went from memphis to natchez, when frank and i travelled down the mississippi. her captain speaks english, the steward speaks french, and we have learned enough russian to get along very well with the servants without the aid of an interpreter. the cabins are large, clean, and comfortable, and altogether we expect to make a comfortable voyage.
[pg 285]
"we left nijni about noon, and the captain says we shall be twenty-four hours getting to kazan, where he will stop long enough for us to see the place. as i write, we are passing makarieff, formerly the seat of the great fair, but now of little importance.
"there are many boats and barges floating with the current in addition to the huge tows which are managed by the steamboats. the captain says that before steam navigation was introduced there was a great deal of towing by horse-power; and how do you suppose it was done?
launching a russian barge.
"there was an immense barge, with powerful windlasses or capstans, which were operated by horses walking in a circle as in the old-fashioned cider-mills. a huge cable, all the way from a quarter of a mile to two miles in length, would be sent up stream, and either anchored in the channel or fastened to a tree on shore. when all was ready the horses were set in motion, and the towing-barge, with all the boats and barges attached to it, slowly ascended against the current. progress was very slow, but it was safe, as there was no danger from exploding boilers or overheated furnaces. as many as two hundred horses were sometimes employed by single barges.
tartar village near the volga.
"our captain says that back from the river are many villages of cheramess, a people of tartar origin, who preserve many of their ancient customs. they are loyal subjects of the government, and in nearly all their cottages one will find the portraits of the emperor and empress. in accordance with their custom of veiling women, they hang a piece of thin gauze over the portrait of the empress.
[pg 286]
"the summer road between kazan and nijni is on the south bank of the river; the winter road is on the ice, and is marked with green boughs placed in a double row, so that the road cannot be missed. these boughs are placed by the administration of roads, and no one can travel on the ice of the river until it has been officially declared safe. the south bank is quite abrupt, while on the north the country frequently stretches off in a level for a long distance. most of the towns along the banks are said to have been founded by john the terrible in his expedition for the capture of kazan.
"we reached kazan as promised soon after noon, and had the rest of the day for seeing the place. we were all ready when the boat touched the shore, and were off as soon as we secured a carriage. the city is about five miles from the river, but we found the drive to it not at all uninteresting. we passed through a suburb where a mosque and a church standing close together symbolized the friendly relations between the russian and tartar inhabitants.
"kazan is a handsome city with about sixty thousand inhabitants, of whom one-third are tartars. we drove through the tartar quarter, and found it very much like the russian, with the exception of the people in the streets and the signs on the shops. the buildings have the same general appearance, and were probably built by russian architects. john the terrible destroyed a large part of the city soon after its capture. he[pg 287] levelled everything in the kremlin, including the tombs of the tartar kings, and since his day the city has been swept by fire no less than three times. consequently there is very little of the ancient architecture; a portion of the tartar wall of the kremlin remains, and that is about all.
"kazan is famous for its manufactures of leather, soap, candles, and other things, and there are said to be nearly two hundred factories in and around the city. it is specially celebrated for its tanneries, and annually turns out large quantities of 'russia leather.'
tartar baker's shop.
"we hadn't time to visit the university of kazan, which has about five hundred students, and ranks first in the empire for instruction in oriental languages and literature. it has persian, arabic, chinese, and other oriental professors, and we were told that a student might study any one of twenty-six languages within its walls.
"of course we could not neglect the cathedral, where is preserved a[pg 288] miraculous picture, which was found unscathed in the midst of the ashes after a great conflagration. on its head is a diamond crown, presented by catherine ii. near the town is a pyramidal monument in memory of those who fell during the siege and capture of the city.
"just at dusk we returned to the nadeshda, where we found a substantial supper waiting for us, and made the acquaintance of a fellow-countryman, mr. hegeman, who was to be our companion for the remainder of the voyage. he was familiar with russia, having lived in the country nearly twenty years, and travelled in all parts of it. he was well informed on every subject, and gave us a great amount of valuable statistics and descriptions. we talked until quite late in the evening; and when he joined us at breakfast the next morning the boat was steaming down the volga and nearing the mouth of the kama, where several passengers were to leave us.
"'they are going to perm,' said the captain of the nadeshda, 'and some of them are on the way to siberia.'
"we asked if this was the way to siberia, and the captain explained that it was one of the routes. 'steamers ascend the kama to perm,' said he, 'and from perm there is a railway to ekaterineburg, which is on the siberian side of the ural mountains. the line has been extended to tumen, three hundred miles farther, and ultimately it will be pushed on till it reaches irkutsk, on the shores of lake baikal, and close to the frontier of china.'
"how we wished we could make the journey through siberia! over the ural mountains, across the steppes, down the amoor, and out into the waters of the pacific ocean! what a magnificent tour, and what strange things to see on the way!
"mr. hegeman heard our wish, and said he would tell us all about the trip across siberia as soon as we were under way again. as the nadeshda steamed down the volga he gave us an account, which we have tried to preserve as nearly as possible in his own words."
