“The Venerable Mordukh Soulis was for many years a pastor in the Bolvirian parish, located in the swamps of the low-lying valley of the Dyul River. He was a stern, stern, gloomy-looking, dark-skinned old man who instilled fear and awe in all his parishioners. The last years of his life he lived in complete solitude, having neither relatives, nor loved ones, nor servants, nor any kind of human society near him; in a word, not a single living soul! So he lived alone in his small pastoral house, which stood secluded to the side, nestled under a rock hanging over him, nicknamed “The Hanging Show.” Despite the strange, almost complete immobility of his seemingly frozen face, reminiscent of a mask, his eyes constantly anxiously wandered around, as if looking around, and sparkled wildly from under his overhanging eyebrows...”