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boards in the river. The candidate stands stark naked between
his two godfathers, their faces turned to the east. The leader
reads prayers, cursing Satan and spiritual and temporal
authorities. The neophyte’s passport is rent to pieces as a
symbol that he has for ever broken “with the power of this
world.” He is then immersed in the water. After the
ceremony he is clothed in a white garment that reaches to his feet,
and receives a new name. A lengthy fast is prescribed for
him, and he takes a solemn oath never to submit to spiritual
or worldly authority, for they are the work of Satan; to regard
all who live in the present system of society as Satan’s servants;
never to take up a passport, pay taxes, or fulfil any kind of
official duty; to have no fixed home, but to live the life of a
wanderer only.
Every new member must be instructed in the following
tenets:—Antichrist is at the head of the present organisation
of State, Church, and society. Tsar, governors, metropolitans,
and all other officials are Satan’s servants. The so-called
Divine service, sacraments, religious ceremonies, &c., simply
repress true and living Christianity. One must pray in secret
without any forms whatever. Women are in every respect free
and equal with men. Marriage is based on the most unrestrained
freedom. Some say, “It is not a civil or religious ceremony
that makes true marriage, but a mutual sympathy and harmony.”
“Marriage as a sacrament and civil act is out of date. Men
and women must live together as they best please to preserve
the human race,” say others.
Among some groups marriage is celebrated in the following
manner: Having received a promise of marriage from a woman
or girl, the man goes to an appointed meeting-place, and there
carries off his bride with some show of force,[1] either to his
house, if he be of the pristano djershdjeteli referred to above,
or somewhere in the forest. Then they live a wandering life
from village to village, district to district, staying a longer or
shorter time with their sisters and brothers. This union
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