The commission of the inquest succeeded in obtaining many of the hymns of the Scoptsis chanted in their assemblies. They are for the most part the most foolish and barbarous absurdities put into bad rhymes and intermixed with flattering allusions to their sect. It is nearly impossible to translate these absurdities into a human language. Dr. Kopernicky has, however, attempted to translate one as a specimen.
" Bless, O secret synod ! thy faithful orphans to render glory to the Lord by means of the Divine round"-the dance of the Scoptsis-" it invokes the spirit that he may smile upon us-our Lord and our Life ! descend from the seventh heaven. He marches through all the villages ; light dwells in Him. The Word is gone forth, the Word delivered by the prophets that we should not do evil." " And again, my dears, I go to tell you a serious saying: that the treasure may be prepared" (?) The secret and invisible manna descends to us from heaven, and the living water flows to us also." "Do not delay the moments, for I go to collect the seed."
" All the archbishops and senators will admire his great suffering. " Our Father the Emperor (Peter III) suffers his last suffering, and inclines himself in prayer before Sabaoth.
"O my heavenly Father ! I do Thy will, I do Thy will, and I teach my little children and order them to keep the law.
" Do thou carry the heavenly word, and do thou implore Sabaoth for us all, O our dear Bird !
" Our light, 0 Lord ! will reign shortly both in heaven and on earth. The glory of God, honour and power for ever. Amen !"
After the chants and the exhausting dances, the prophesies follow. The prophet Babanine, in white stockings, the Bible open in her hands, places herself upon a cloth stretched out in the middle of the chamber. The sectaries all on their knees, surround her. Babanine begins:-
" Let us pray rightly, that the second Christ may be brought to life again ? He is present among us. Open your ears, for I am going to do miracles ! Behold the book of generation (?), the theologian (.sic) goes to read it to you." And afterwards she begins to prophesy, in absurd and badly rhyming verses, at first, for all in general, and then for certain Shaloputs in particular. Thus, to one of them she predicts : " Thou, like to the prophet Abbakhum, thou shalt be host in all the cities; and thyself white as a pigeon, thou shalt feed the white pigeons."
To another, who is preparing himself to be castrated, Babanina exclaims :-" 0, thou soul well-beloved ! thou shalt receive from heaven signs which will astonish the whole family of Israel. . . . And the Father will not fail to give thee the heptagon (?) crown. It is alone necessary that thou shalt decide to pour out thy blood for Christ!" All the auditory weep aloud, moved by these sublime words.
It is with particular vehemence that this Babanine preaches against the sin of the violation of the secret, as of Judas selling Christ. She also interprets with ardour the Apocalypse, and principally the sixth chapter. The second verse of this chapter is referred to Peter III, who, being castrated, vanquished the enemy; the fourth verse is supposed to relate to Alexander I; the fifth and sixth verses to the Scoptsis, and the extension of their sect. Bilihris tritid signifies the sacrifice of castration ; tres bilibres hordei denario signifies that one not castrated must work three times more than the eunuch to attain salvation. Oleum signifies grace, vinicm joy, destined for the Scoptsis. The eighth verse has relation to Nicholas I, who delivered the people of God-the Scoptsis-as a prey to the beasts of the earth, to the archbishops, and impure authorities. In the ninth chapter, the " seal of God" signifies mutilation, and the " locusts" war and crimes.
This is a tolerably faithful, although certainly not complete picture of this savage and extraordinary sect. The fully proved existence of such a sect, especially as a Christian sect, seems to be a phenomenon truly worthy to attract the attention of anthropologists.
Dr. Kopernicky says that he considers there are many reasons for believing that this aberration in Christianity cannot be explained otherwise than by the psychological peculiarity of the race of Moscovites, in which it prevails. He adds, that he well recollects the judicious and profound opinions pronounced by the Rev. Dunbar Heath, already alluded to, upon the difference which exists between the Somite and Aryan races in their appreciation of the doctrine of Christianity. In reflecting on the Scoptsis, who exist and prosper among the Moscovites, it may be equally asked-what is this race which, having received Christianity, is capable of producing and suffering such fruits.
Dr. Kopernicky holds it for an anthropological fact least questionable that the ideas and religious creeds, sound or absurd, moral or immoral, etc., which are produced, or develope themselves among a certain race, depend greatly upon the character of the psychological sentiments natural to that race. This is the reason why the Gospel was so readily accepted, and has taken such root among the Aryan people, and why, on the contrary, the Koran has had most success and most persistence among the Semites. It is also the reason why, as has been demonstrated by the learned discussions in the bosom of this Anthropological Society of London, the propagation of Mohammedanism has more chances of success among African Negroes than Christian missions have hitherto had.
In examining the nature and the origin of Christian sects from this point of view-as so many varieties in religious belief produced in Christianity-it is seen that we shall confirm the same fact of the existence of an intimate and natural bond between the psychological character of a race and its religious ideas and practices. Thus, among the Christian sects so numerous in the United States of America, we only see for the most part extravagances which are purely doctrinal, or different aberrations which manifest themselves by strange rites, and which are at most ridiculous or absurd. But a sect so denaturee et barbare as that of the Scoptsis, the Chlystis, the Molokans, and others which prosper among the Moscovites, never could subsist in America, even for half a year. They would be driven away in a manner the Mormons, who are much less monstrous than the Scoptsis, have been driven into the desert.
Then what is this Moscovite race, which, becoming Christian, gives birth to religious monstrosities of this kind ? It is not the Sclave race without doubt, since that which precisely distinguishes the Sclavic nations in their religious creeds is their attachment to a religion once adopted and become traditional. Thus, to speak only of the Orthodox Sclaves, the nearest to the Moscovites, i.e. the Ruthenians and the White Russians, the fact is, that since the introduction of Christianity there have never existed sects among them, in the way that they are seen among the Muscovites.
But, it may be replied, that race has nothing to do with the origin of such sects as the Scoptsis, since this is a morbid phenomenon, so to speak, and which, under one form or another, may arise anywhere, especially where, as in Russia, the people are not enlightened and the clergy ignorant.
A reply might be made by directing attention to the same Ruthe-nians, the Serfs, the Bulgarians, and the Moldo-Wallachians, who are not at all more advanced in civilisation than the Moscovites, but among whom a similar phenomenon never has been and never will be produced. It is certainly because that, in the nature of these races, there are no necessary elements for the production and nourishment of such monstrosities.
There is one thing among the Scoptsis to which Dr. Kopernicky is disposed to attribute a Tatar origin, i.e., their dancing and rotation until fainting and ecstasy are produced, which reminds us of the whirling Dervishes of Central Asia. This is so much the more probable, as there are other sects, as the Chlystys and the Dancers, in which dancing and prophesying constitute integral parts of their religious mysteries.
Dr. Kopernicky's recital reveals a striking difference in the state of society and laws under which the Scoptsis are placed from those which prevail in this country. Here all things are tolerated in religion, even enforced celibacy, both of males and females, however unnatural. Although not accompanied with mutilations such as those practised by the Scoptsis, it is equally contrary to the law of nature, and also productive of a frightful amount of evil. Similar mutilations to those practised by the Scoptsis, as far as castration goes, are sometimes met with in this country, but they are usually made known only among the inmates of our lunatic asylums, who occasionally mutilate themselves.
The term " Raskol", it has already been explained, is the name under which all dissenters in Russia are included. This designation appears to be applied to the Great Russians or Moscovites solely. It is worthy of being communicated to the Society that there is another sect of the Bespopovchchina, or first division of the Raskol, who are in Siberia, which sect has proceeded to greater lengths even than those exhibited by the Scoptsis. This is the Tschovstevennicks (meaning those who are sensible, as if in derision of their practices) who, not only live in celibacy, but also voluntarily devote themselves to the flames, which has been done in recent times amid religious chants, and without drawing from them any indications of pain by cries or trepidation. It was thus that in the neighbourhood of the town of Tumen, in Western Siberia, one thousand seven hundred persons, with an ecclesiastic named Dometian, took the resolution to bum themselves together.
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Isidore Kopernicky, J. Barnard Davis, 1870
