What the attitude of the Ukrainian Government will be in matters of religion is as yet conjectural. The revolutionary movement throughout Russia as a whole has been anti-clerical. The Russian peasant, however, is innately devout. THE GREAT STACKS OF STRAW LEFT AFTER THRESHING: UKRAINE It was the vast, grass-covered steppes which first attracted the roving Cossacks to the Ukraine. These same steppes, when put under cultivation, yield bountiful harvests of wheat. It was on Ukrainian grain that Germany expected to feed her millions after the treacherous treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was designed to dismember the Russian Empire and leave it helpless in the hands of the despoilers. In centuries past there were magnificent forests of vast extent in the northern section of the Ukraine, but the trees have gradually disappeared. Reforestation is one of the obligations resting upon this people when peace again comes to them. been the best of feeling toward them by the Orthodox population and a terrible. massacre occurred in 1905. It has always been a stirring revolutionary center and has caused the imperial government much trouble in the past quarter of a century. KIEV, THE HOLY CITY OF THE UKRAINE Kiev is the holy city of the Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit it each year. The natural landscape is heightened at all times in its pictorial effect by the picturesque groups of pilgrims, staves in hands and wallets on backs, who may be seen clambering up the hills, resting under the shadow of a hill, or reverently bowing the head at the sound of a convent bell. Here is the story as it is recently related by Russian chroniclers. A thousand years ago, or thereabouts, a very holy monk, named Anthony, came to The characteristic big wooden yoke and low-hung shafts identify this vehicle at once as Russian. The undulating plains of the Ukraine, once a pasture-land only, now yield bountiful crops of grain. UKRAINIAN PEASANT WOMEN IN THE STREETS OF KHARKOV: RUSSIA In summertime these countrywomen come to the city barefooted in order to save shoe leather, which is very expensive in a land that annually exports hundreds of thousands of hides in times of peace. Kiev and dug a cell for himself in the hill. The devout life of this monk soon drew other holy men around him, and all at first made their homes in the caves. It is said that many of the early monks never again emerged into daylight after they once entered the caves. Some shut themselves up in niches and remained self-immured the rest of their days, living on the food placed there each day by their brothers. When the food remained untouched, the monks knew that a saintly spirit had fled. The place was then walled in, and the niche remained the monk's home after as well as before his dissolution. KIEV'S GHASTLY CATACOMBS The catacombs are indeed ghastly to visit, for there are rows upon rows of skulls in them. Access is had by narrow steps, and then through labyrinthine subterranean passages one descends deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth, winding hither and thither along a pathway. Finally there begins a series of niches, in which repose the bodies of the saintly recluses. The pilgrims pass each holy tomb, reverently kissing the shriveled hands laid out by the monks for that purpose. They do not distinguish between the holy and the holier, but pay a tribute to each one impartially in order to conciliate all. Much contagion must be spread by this unsanitary method of homage. No doubt many an infection, and possibly even a great pestilence, could be traced directly to this spot, where the indiscriminate osculation of church relics is observed. ICON RECEIVES 100,000 KISSES A YEAR The Cave Monastery, or Pechersky Lavra, is a large stone structure on the hill, at a little distance from the city, and is surrounded by a high stone wall. It is AN OLD WINDMILL OUT ON THE STEPPE: UKRAINE The windmill is a landscape feature as characteristic of the Ukraine as of Holland; but the mills of this region are not nearly so picturesque as those kept in perfect repair by the thrifty Dutch. Many of the Ukrainian structures seem ready to fall to pieces, and they are seldom painted. Their mission is to grind the grain in a country which is so flat that there is no such thing as water-power. entered through a holy gate. Each monk has his own apartment, with a little garden attached. Several hundred monks live in the monastery and a number of lay brethren are also allowed to dwell there. In the principal church is preserved a miracle working icon, known as the Death of Our Lady. It was brought from Constantinople and has received no fewer than a hundred thousand kisses a year. It is painted on cypress wood, now black with age. Every line of the picture is marked by precious stones and each head has a halo of brilliants, while an enormous diamond glitters above the head of Christ. The wealth of the Lavra at Kiev is |