Part 9 (1/2)
In the olden feudal days in England meals were arranged in precisely the same way, as may be seen to-day in College Halls at the Universities or the London Temple. Here in the Monastery the raised dais at the end was occupied by the _Igumen_, seated on a chair of state; his most important monks were next him, then came the lower grades, and below the wooden salts sat the novices and apprentices.
Three meals a day are served in this hall, a long grace preceding and closing each, and a certain number of the younger men are told off to wait on the others, which they have to do as silently as possible, while portions of the Bible are read out by a monk during each meal from a high desk.
After leaving the dining-room we went over the workshops, where in winter everything of every sort is made; these four hundred and seventy men--if they do not work for the outer world--work for themselves and their island home. They build their churches and other edifices, make the bricks and mortar, their coats and clothes, their boots and shoes, mould their pottery, carve their wooden church ornamentations, shape them in plaster, or beat them in metal. There are goldsmiths and joiners, leather tanners and furriers, amongst them, and during the long dreary frozen winters they all ply these trades. Verily a small body of socialists, each working for the general good of the little colony.
It is then they make the sacred pictures, the _ikons_ for which the monastery is famous, which, together with rosaries and photos, are sold during the summer months to visitors. When these things are disposed of the monks count their profits and make their bills by the aid of coloured b.a.l.l.s on a frame, such as children sometimes learn to count with. There are five red b.a.l.l.s on one bar, five yellow on another, etc., and by some deft and mysterious movement of these b.a.l.l.s the monk, like any ordinary Russian shopkeeper, quickly makes up his bills and presents his account.
”You must come in one of our pilgrim boats to another of our islands,”
said our friend Sebastian, to which proposal we readily agreed.
What a boat it was! Talk of the old Viking s.h.i.+ps that sailed to America or Iceland, and held a couple of hundred persons. The _Valamo_ pilgrim's boat did not fall far short in bulk and capacity of those old historic craft. Six oars on each side, and three or four men at each, with plenty of room in the well, or at the stern and bows, for another hundred persons to stow themselves away. We were not pilgrims, and the _Igumen_ had kindly ordered a steam launch to tug us. Some fifty or sixty other visitors took advantage of the occasion and accompanied us on our ”water party.”
It was certainly very beautiful and most unique. Monks in all ages and all countries have ever seemed to pitch upon the most lovely spots of mother earth in which to plant their homes, and our friends at _Valamo_ were not behind in this respect.
We were amazed at the beautiful waterways, constantly reminding us of the backwaters in the Thames. On the banks we pa.s.sed farms; splendid-looking creameries, where all the milk was now being made into b.u.t.ter or cheese for the winter--luxuries denied, as has been said before, to _Valamo_ during the fasting season.
We came to a primitive pier, where the trees hung right over the sides, the leaves dipping into the water. It was very secluded, very beautiful, and wonderfully reposeful. Our path lay through a lovely wood, where wild flowers grew in profusion, among them a kind of wild orchid with a delicious perfume, and the small wild arum lily. It is strange that such rare plants should grow there, when one remembers that for six or eight months of the year the land is ice-bound. On the island we visited a small church, within the sacred precincts of which no woman's foot dare tread, but we had a peep at another chapel where a hermit once lived. He never spoke to any one for seven years, and slept nightly in his coffin, in which he was not buried, however, it being necessary to keep the article for visitors to gaze upon.
On our return we much enjoyed a cup of tea in our cloister chamber, where the Russian _samovar_ was boiling in readiness. It was not long ere the sonorous monastery bell tolled six, and every one turned towards the church for service, which was to last till about nine o'clock--service of that duration being a daily occurrence. Every one stands the whole of the time. After nine o'clock the monks and novices go to bed, but at three A.M. the great bell rings and they all have to get up again for another service, which lasts for two or three hours more. Altogether at _Valamo_ about five or six hours out of every twenty-four are spent in prayer.
During the winter months every one in the monastery has to be present at both the day and night services, namely, stand or kneel on bare flags in the church for the time just mentioned. In summer the authorities are not so strict, and provided all attend the service every night, and the second one two or three times a week, nothing is said about a couple or so being missed.
Being a monastery church, all the men stood on one side, the women, visitors, and pilgrims on the other, during the service at which we were present. Afterwards, in the Greek Churches in St. Petersburg, we found that the s.e.xes were not divided in this manner.
It was the first time we had partic.i.p.ated at a Russian service, and the chief impression left on our minds was the endless movement of the congregation. They were everlastingly crossing themselves, not once, but two or three times running, and every few minutes they all did it again; then about every twelfth person would kneel down, and putting his hands on the floor before him touch the ground with his forehead like the Mohammedans when they pray to the Prophet, and tell their beads as true monks tell theirs. One man we watched go down _forty times running_ and cross himself three times between each reverence! A penance, no doubt, but a penance unlikely to do any one much good, at least so we could not help thinking.
Again, a woman, a poor fat old pilgrim, who got on her knees with the greatest difficulty, remained with her forehead on the ground for at least five minutes, till we really began to wonder if she were dead; but at last she rose after some trouble, for we had to help her up, and we fervently hoped that was the end of her penance, poor old soul. Not a bit of it; a quarter of an hour afterwards she was down again and when we left she was still praying. Then a strange-looking sort of priest came and stood beside us, instead of joining the other men who cl.u.s.tered round the _Igumen's_ throne or before the altar. After scrutinising him for some time, surprised at a man standing among the women, we discovered _he_ was a _she_ come on a pilgrimage to pray. She of strange garb was an abbess!
The reverence in the Greek Church is far more living than it now is in the Church of Rome, though outwardly both are so much alike to the outsider. The Catholic priests cannot marry, while the priests in the Greek Church may do so.
We were getting very tired of standing listening to the monotonous reading of the psalms, watching the priests walking about in their long black robes, taking their hats off and on, and endlessly kneeling or bowing to the great _Igumen_ who stood during the whole ceremony on a carved wooden throne covered with scarlet velvet. The singing was very unequal. The choirs came in from both sides of the altar twice, and formed themselves into a half circle on the floor of the church--as choirs used to do at the representations of the Greek plays of old. We were well-nigh suffocated with incense and the strange odour that emanates from a Russian peasant, and had begun to think of those queer little wooden beds in which we were to pa.s.s the night--and what a contrast the primitive cell was to that gorgeous glittering church--when we saw our ”beautiful boy” beckoning to us.
We followed him out.
”I have bad news for you,” he said; ”your boat for to-morrow is to leave to-night--in half an hour.”
”Why?” we asked, aghast.
”The other pa.s.sengers desire to leave to-night and proceed by way of the _Holy Island_ back to _Sordavala_; they all wish it, so the captain is going.”
”But is there no other boat for us?”
”None to-morrow,” he replied.
”But it was arranged to leave to-morrow,” we faltered. ”We took our tickets on that understanding; we have unpacked here; we are prepared for a night in a monastery, and have given up our rooms at _Sordavala_.”
”It is of no avail,” he said; ”the greatest number carry the day here, and the others all want to go. I have done my best, but it is of no use.”