"The Nest for Godly People."

Evening Star, Issue 6802, 6 January 1886, Page 3

"The Nest for Godly People."

An Odessa correspondent writes:- bach is the title of a Russian religious sect which has come into existence during the last fifteen years. Its headquarters appear to be at the historic fortress town of Bender, in the neighboring government of Bessarabia, and its strange name is due to the fact that its members—all of the peasant class-dig a grave in the floor (which is of dried earth) of their habitations, or else in their gardens, and lie therein until overcome by hunger, in order, as they say, to commune with God, confess to him their sins, and examine their past life. To enable them the better to do this the grave is covered with a wooden box-like hd or canopy, having a door in it for ingress and egress; so that they lie in the grave as in a coffin, and were it not for the small apertures in the top part of it they would run the risk of being suffocated. When the grave or ' nest' is in the garden it i 3 thickly surrounded with bushes for the sake of greater privacy, and guarded by a savage watch-dog to prevent curious or impertinent people going near it. These sectarians pretend that in their ecstatic moments, and when sutlering extreme hunger, they see saints and devils, and some of them are subject to hallucinations. Another peculiarity of the members of this sect is that they hold as little conversation as possible with other people, or, in fact, with each other; so that the kind of life which they endeavor to lead is akin to that of uncloistcred monks."