The new converts--who, be it remembered, were unable to read and write--were ordered by Imperial ukaz to sign a written promise to the effect that "they would completely forsake their infidel errors, and, avoiding all intercourse with unbelievers, would hold firmly and unwaveringly the Christian faith and its dogmas"*--of which latter, we may add, they had not the slightest knowledge.

The childlike faith in the magical efficacy of stamped paper here displayed was not justified.

The so-called "baptised Tartars" are at the present time as far from being Christians as they were in the sixteenth century.

They cannot openly profess Mahometanism, because men who have been once formally admitted into the National Church cannot leave it without exposing themselves to the severe pains and penalties of the criminal code, but they strongly object to be Christianised.
* "Ukaz Kazanskoi dukhovnoi Konsistorii." Anno 1778.
On this subject I have found a remarkable admission in a semiofficial article, published as recently as 1872.* "It is a fact worthy of attention," says the writer, "that a long series of evident apostasies coincides with the beginning of measures to confirm the converts in the Christian faith.

There must be, therefore, some collateral cause producing those cases of apostasy precisely at the moment when the contrary might be expected." There is a delightful naivete in this way of stating the fact.