II. of imaginary beings, that it might be supposed CHAP. a Pagan rather than a Christian temple. The different representations of the VIRGIN, throughout Russia, will shew to what a pitch of absurdity superstition has been carried. Almost all of them are to be found in the principal churches; and the worship of them forms a conspicuous feature in the manners of the Russians. Some of those pictures have a greater number of votaries: but, although they be all objects of adoration, yet they have each of them particular places, where, as tutelary deities, they obtain a more peculiar reverence; and sometimes there are small chapels and churches dedicated particularly to some one of these representations :—such, for example, as THE VIRGIN OF VLADIMIR; THE VIRGIN WITH THE BLEEDING CHEEK; and THE VIRGIN WITH THREE HANDS! The authors of the Universal History assign this last picture to the church of the Convent of the New Jerusalem. It was perhaps originally painted as a barbarous representation, or symbol, of the Trinity; and in that case it more properly applies to another convent in the neighbourhood of Moscow. The following story has, however, been circulated concerning its history. An artist, being employed on a picture of the CHAP. Virgin and Child, found, one day, that instead II. of two hands which he had given to the Virgin, Virgin with Hands. Three a third had been added during his absence from his work. Supposing some person to be playing a trick with him, he rubbed out the third hand, and, having finished the picture, carefully locked the door of his apartment. To his great surprise, he found the next day the extraordinary addition of a third hand in his picture, as before. He now began to be alarmed; but still concluding it possible that some person had gained access to his room, he once more rubbed out the superfluous hand, and not only locked the door, but also barricadoed the windows. The next day, approaching his laboratory, he found the door and windows fast, as he had left them; but, to his utter dismay and astonishment, as he went in, there appeared the same remarkable alteration in his picture, the Virgin appearing with three hands regularly disposed about the Child. In extreme trepidation, he began to cross himself, and proceeded once more to alter the picture; when the Virgin herself appeared in person, and bade him forbear, as it was her pleasure to be so represented. Many of these absurd representations are said to be the work of angels. In the Greek II. Bogh. Church they followed the idols of Paganism, CHAP. and have continued to maintain their place. They are one of the first and most curious sights which attract a traveller's notice; for it is not only in their churches that such paintings are preserved; every room throughout the empire has a picture of this nature, large or small, called the BOGH, or GOD, stuck up in Russian one corner to this every person who enters offers adoration, before any salutation is made to the master or mistress of the house. The adoration consists in a quick motion of the right hand in crossing; the head bowing all the time in a manner so rapid and ludicrous, that it reminds one of those Chinese-Mandarin images seen upon the chimney-pieces of old houses, which, when set a-going, continue nodding, for the amusement of old women and children. In the myriads of idol paintings dispersed throughout the empire, the subjects represented are very various and some of them, owing to their singularity, merit a more particular description, than can be afforded without engraved representations. (1) The picture itself is said to bear the name of Obraze; but as the Obraze is considered by every Russian as his Household God, it is very generally called Bogh, which is the Russian name for GOD. Antient History of Novogorod-First Churches in Russia CHAP. THE melancholy ideas excited by the present III. Antient appearance of Novogorod have been felt by all History of travellers. Who has not heard the antient Novogorod, III. Antient A. D. 450. saying, which prevailed in the days of its great- CHAP. ness? Nomade Slavonians were its founders, about the time that the Saxons, invited by Vorti- History of gern, first came into Britain. Four centuries Novogorod, afterwards, a motley tribe, collected from the original inhabitants of all the watery and sandy plains around the Finland Gulph, made it their metropolis. Nearly a thousand years have passed, since Ruric, the Norman, gathering them together at the mouth of the Volchova, laid the foundation of an empire, destined to extend over the vast territories of all the Russias: afterwards, ascending the river, to the spot where its rapid current rushes from the Ilmen to the Ladoga Lake, he fixed his residence in Novogorod. In the midst of those intestine divisions which A.D. 1015. resulted from the partition of the empire at the death of Vladimir, who divided his estates between his twelve sons, there arose three independent princes, and a number of petty confederacies. The seat of government was successively removed from Novogorod, to Suzedal, Vladimir, and Moscow. NovOGOROD adopted a mixed government, partly monarchical, and partly republícan. In the middle of the thir (2) "QUIS CONTRA Deos, et MAGNAM NOVOGORDIAM ?" VOL. I. D. |