At Poti are frequently to be seen the followers of a sect that causes much uneasiness to Russia. I allude to tlie sect called the Scoptsy, ' mutilated,' the successors of the Hlisty, ' people of God,' ' who believed that the Almighty descended to the earth at Rome and Jerusalem, and that the Christian religion and its sacraments, which flourished for many years afterwards, was annihilated by the antichrist; but upon the supplication of the ' people of God,' Jehovah descended a third time, in the person of Daniel PhiHppovitch of the district of Yourielf, and for the enlightenment of Russia in the true faith, one Ivan Timaf^yevitch Sousloff was invested with the deity, thereafter becoming the real Christ, the son of God. The God Jehovah then gave twelve commandments forthe guidance of his people, and the Christ, Ivan Timaf^yevitch, established meetings for worship, and certain prophets after election became inspired by the Holy Spirit. Daniel PhiKppovitch rejected the Scriptures, and commanded the people to be guided by the Holy Spirit as revealed by their prophets, who were the source of all human wisdom. The great object in life, viz. to meet with a mysterious death like Adam, and to rise again mysteriously as Christ did, was only to be secured by doing penance, and enduring such privations as fasting, chastity, the self-infliction of torture, the mortiBcation in one's self of all that is worldly, and the renunciation of all the gifts of nature in the search for divine inspt-
' In his treatise on ' the people of God,' M. Dobrotvorsliy assumes that Iheir ttftching wns introduced from the West, by the Zoparogue Cossncks; but the FraUjcrfy Roudaltoff (//hA e/the Orthodox Church, St. PeleriUirfi, 1866) asserls that this heresy is an offshoot of quakerism brought into Russia by a foreigner named Knltman, to«mrds the close of the seventeenth centui y.
"Google ration — the human heart being the true temple of the Lord, and not the visible Church with its priests and ordinances.
The moral obligations of the Hlisty were as follows: — They were not to drink wine or beer; they were not to show themselves on Sundays and feast days, for they were to spend their time in prayer; they were not to pronounce the name of the devil, sing profane or obscene songs, and they were not to steal. The unmarried were not to marry, and the married were to unmarry; that is to say, the man was to live with his wife as if she were a sister, and they were to love and believe in the Holy Spirit.
Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, some of the Hlisty who had worked themselves up to the highest degree of fanaticism, in their enthusiastic desire to observe strictly the doctrine which enjoined absolute chastity, resorted to extreme measures, and the frenzied sectarians of both sexes having suffered mutilation, went about spreading the new and pernicious doctrine, which received a fearful impulse, first, during the excited state of the lower classes upon the sudden death of Peter III. in 1762, a few days after his abdication, and afterwards during the short but confused reign of the Emperor Paul.
When Alexander I. ascended the throne, the Scoptsy took advantage of the clemency exercised by that sovereign in the early years of his rule, to advance their insane schemes, which comprehended the oi^anization of a theocracy for the conversion and government of Russia, elaborated by one Eliansky, amd directed by the celebrated apostle Andri IvanofT; ' and then commenced the system of oppression and persecution that condemned so many of those misguided wretches to banishment, the places selected for their deportation being Yekaterynbourg, Dinamund, Maran near
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Poti, and Elyzavetopol; but they are now permitted, under the mild rule of Alexander II., to roam whithersoever they please.
The Scoptsy are industrious, honest and truthful; the men are easily rec<^nised by their beardless and wrinkled faces, and effeminate voices. The latest proceedings taken by the State against a large number of the sect, were instituted in the government of Kalouga in 1872.
During the past night a great howling and barking was set up by the watch-dc^s of the houses about the hdtel, and continued with little intermission for several hours. In the morning we were informed that the restlessness of the dt^s was occasioned by the jackab, who are quickly scented as they prowl about the streets in search of prey.
The departure of the steam tender was fixed for 8 A.M., but with customary unpunctuality it did not leave the river until 9.15; the vessel was uncomfortably crowded, the accommodation and attendance being of the worst description.