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“Yet I knew no more than they how to counsel them, how to
help them. I could only weep with them, and fast till my
strength gave out.”
So runs his testimony before the court of justice. This man
was afterwards led astray by one of those unscrupulous
impostors who find these emotional religionists only too easy a
prey. He was seized by the authorities and cast into prison.
Having made his escape, he wandered from province to
province throughout the land, from the Upper Volga to
Caucasia, from Moscow to Siberia, hiding by day, and at night
pursuing his journey, everywhere warning the people against
the rule of Antichrist, and urging them to flee from the falsity
and corruption of the world. Frequently arrested, he told the
authorities he was God’s servant, seeking to save his soul from
the power of Satan, his servants, and sin.
These sectaries are most numerous in the governments of
Petersburg, Vologda, Jaroslavl, Tver, Olonjetsk, Kastroma,
Kasan, and Vjatka.
The Moltchalniki, or the Dumb, are closely connected with
the Beguni, and share most of their opinions, with the addition
that they persistently refuse to answer any of the official
questions concerning their name, age, rank, &c., and before the
judges at their trials maintain an unbroken silence. The
sentences passed upon them, though for the most part entailing
banishment to Eastern Siberia, they hear with the greatest
unconcern, and leave the court without saying a word. Some
of them not only refuse thus to parley with the ministers of
Antichrist, but even eschew all speech among themselves as
leading to sin.
An advocate, to whom had been allotted the duty of
defending a moltchalniki, describes his experience in the
following account.
“I had been entrusted with the defence of one of these
sectaries. I went to the prison where he was confined, and
asked permission to visit him. After a few minutes they
brought me into the presence of a powerfully-built man of
medium height; he wore trousers of ample size, over which
were drawn boots that came up to his knees, and a kaftan,
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