Acta Ethnographica Hungarica – Volume 37 – Page 316
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The dual figure of the human and demonic werewolf was the main determinant of the living and dead, as well as “two-souled” figures of the Romanian, Serbian (and Ukrainian) witches. The other prominent ingredient was the belief that those who were, … They are mostly shepherds (in the witchcraft trials, mainly cowherds), and as such, are men, who, in the form of a wolf or dog, attack the “hostila” (neighbouring) flock. The Hungarian witch, who, in the form of a wolf, dog, or snake, …
Harvard Ukrainian Studies – Page 313
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1997 – Snippet view – More editions
Tereshka elaborated on his evil deeds, confessing that he had bewitched people with spells involving enchanted salt sprinkled over a black dog at crossroads, causing potential clients to fall ill and then to pay him for his healing services. Several more encounters with the torturers led Tereshka to confess that his wife, Olenka, had become his partner in witchcraft (vedovstvo). After extensive torture and fully elaborated 30 confessions, Olenka and Tereshka were both executed on July …
Encyclopedia of witchcraft: the Western tradition – Volume 4 – Page 1140
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Richard M. Golden – 2006 – Snippet view – More editions
Such a dog was born only once in three generations and was called iarchuk, but the owner of this valuable dog had to take care when it was a puppy because local witches would try to steal and kill it. Some people, such as the seventh son of a seventh son, could also resist witchcraft. Such plants as poppies, hemp, and nettles were supposed to protect a house from witches. Ukrainian witches regularly gathered for Sabbats. Prior to their journey, they had to come to the house of a …
Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine …, Volume 43
WITCHCRAFT.
By the author of “Astrology, Divination, and Co-Incidence,” “Faith-Healing and Kindred Phenomena,” etc.
The art is old and new, for verily
All ages have been taught the matter.
ISON says that among all the poets who deal with fairies, witches, magicians, demons, and departed spirits, the English are much the best, “and among the English Shakspere has in- comparably excelled all others. There is something so wild and yet so solemn in his speeches of his ghosts, fairies, witches, and the like imaginary persons, tha we cannot forbear thinking them natural, . . and must confess, if there are such beings in th world, it looks highly probable that they would talk and act as he has represented them.”
As Addison saw his fatal day thirty years before Goethe’s natal star arose, he could not compare the prince of German poets with others; but if the ruling sentiment of modern critics may be accepted, Shakspere’s ghosts and witches still maintain their superiority. These are “the secret, black, and midnight hags” that brewed the charm for Duncan’s murder, and the familiar but ever awe-inspiring ghost of Hamlet’s father:
I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night.
But the fancies of poets can give no help to him who deals with one of the darkest tragedies of humanity, the only stain on the ermine of Sir Matthew Hale,—whose fame without it would rival that of Daniel for wisdom, as it does for integrity,–and the chief stigma upon the early history of New England. Nor is witchcraft of the past only: for by many theologians it is believed to reappear in modern spiritualism, and by a multitude of Christians to be a
GOETHE.
reality, because, as they suppose, it is plainly asserted in the sacred Scriptures; and its baleful spell still holds four fifths of the fifteen hundred millions of the human race “fast in its slavish chains.”
DEFINITION.
FROM the earliest ages religions, true and false, claimed divine aid, and their production of effects by other than natural causes was considered by all except avowed unbelievers to be lawful. The supernatural is occult; but the latter word is used only to apply to the illegitimate, and to the imaginary sciences of the middle ages. As the terms at first employed were descriptive, rather than definitive, they came naturally to be used promiscuously, one word sometimes standing for everything preternatural exclusive of religion, and at others for a single form of such action. In an English book dating from the middle of the sixteenth century most of these ancient terms are included in a single sentence: “Besides the art magyck, sortilege, physnomye, palmestrye, alcumye, necromancye, chiromancy, geomancy, and witchery, that was taught there also.” (Bale, “English Votaries.”)
Magic, applied by the Greeks to the hereditary caste of priests in Persia, still stands in the East for an incongruous collection of superstitious beliefs and rites, having nothing in common except the claim of abnormal origin and effects. Astrology, divination, demonology, soothsaying, sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy, enchantment, and many other systems are sometimes included in magic, but each term is also employed separately to stand for the whole mass of confused beliefs which, outside of the sphere of recognized religion, attempt to surpass the limitations of nature. For this reason the title of a work on this subject seldom indicates its scope.
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But witchcraft has been restricted by usage and civil and ecclesiastical law until it signifies a voluntary compact between the devil, the party of the first part, and a human being, male or female, wizard or witch, the party of the second part,-that he, the devil, will perform whatever the person may request. The essential element in witchcraft as an offense against religion and civil law is the voluntary nature of the compact. Possession by the devil against the will, or without the consent of the subject, elongs to a radically distinct idea. The sixth chapter of Lord Coke’s “Third Institute” concisely defines a witch in these words: “A witch is a person which hath conference with the devil, to consult with him to do some act.” English laws in 1655 define witchcraft as “Covenant with a familiar spirit, to be punished with death.”
CURRENT BELIEF.
WITCHCRAFT is at the present time believed in by a majority of the citizens of the United States. The larger number of immigrants from the continent of Europe are more or less in fear of such powers. To these must be added no inconsiderable proportion of persons of English and Scotch descent; for a strong vein of superstition is discernible in many Irish, Scotch, and some English, whose “folk-lore,” diffused in nursery tales and neighborhood gossip, has entwined itself strongly about the fibers of spontaneous, subconscious mental imagery. Among the more ignorant members of the Catholic Church of every nationality the belief produces a mysterious dread, against which men and women cross themselves, and resort to various rites supposed to be efficacious. Where colonies of immigrants have remained isolated, retaining the use of their own language, the influence of witchcraft is more easily traced. The interior of Pennsylvania affords betterillustrations of this, and on a larger scale, than any other State. It has been but two or three years since suit was brought by a man against his mother, in one of the counties of Pennsylvania, to recover damages for a dog which he charged her with having killed by witchcraft; and he not only brought suit, but obtained judgment from a justice of the peace. Various witnesses testified as to their experiences in witchcraft, and only one said that he had never had a friend or relative who was bewitched. In divers villages in Pennsylvania, some of them in the Dunkard settlement, are women who are supposed to be witches. Some are shrewd enough not to apply their arts for Vol. XLIII.–52.
strangers, but to those whom they know, as stated in an article in the New York “Sun” some years ago, they will sell charms to ward off lightning from buildings, dry up the wells of the enemies of applicants, force cows to give bloody milk, cause sickness in the family, destroy beauty, separate man and wife, and reunite estranged lovers. In the interior parts of the Southern States, where a large proportion of the white population cannot read, and there is little admixture of society, there are “witch-doctors,” who, assuming that all disease is caused by witches, secure thriving practice in counteracting their influence. The Philadelphia “Times,” on the authority of a reputable correspondent, who gives many facts to sustain his representations, says: “For generations the poor whites have believed in witches, and the belief is deepseated and incurable.” * The African population brought this belief from the Dark Continent, and it persists among them to this day, though the progress of religion and education is doing something to check it. I have recently noted in various parts of the United States more than fifty suits instituted by persons against those who they claimed had bewitched them; but under existing laws the accused could not be prosecuted except where money had been obtained under false pretenses, or overt acts of crime had been suggested or committed. During pedestrian tours in New England, in various parts of the West, and in every Southern State, I have frequently stayed for the night at the houses of poor farmers, laborers, fishermen, and trappers. In such journeys I have invariably listened to the tales of the neighborhood, stimulating them by suggestion, and have found the belief in witchcraft cropping out in the oldest towns in New England, sometimes within the very shadow of the buildings where a learned ministry has existed from the settlement of the country, and public schools have furnished means of education to all classes. The horseshoes seen in nearly every county, and often in every township, upon the houses of persons, suggested the old horseshoe beneath which Lord Nelson, who had long kept it nailed to the mast of the Victory, received his deathwound at Trafalgar. In Canada the belief is more prevalent than in any part of the United States, except the interior of Pennsylvania and the South. In the French sections, exclusive of the educated,—a relatively small number,-the belief, if not universal, is widely diffused. But it is by no means confined to Canadians of French extraction. Until within a few years the descendants of the English and Scotch in many parts of British America were more widely separated from each other and from the progress of modern civilization than the inhabitants of the United States, or the settlers of the more recently populated continent of Australia, making due allowance for certain sections of New Zealand and Tasmania. In all these regions the educated generally dismiss it as a mystery, or repudiate it as an ancient superstition. Nevertheless it is often found in the more isolated communities, hamlets, and rural districts, liable on slight provocation to manifest itself in superstitious fears, insinuations, and accusations. In the West Indies this belief prevails among the negroes, and is not unknown among the more ignorant whites. Of South America and Mexico travelers, missionaries, and foreign residents bring similar accounts. In Italy those of the people who are not Protestants or free-thinkers generally believe in the possibility of witchcraft, and to the peasants it is a living reality. Nor are all who reject the Catholic Church or avow irreligion free from credulity as regards occult influences. Modern Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, and the neighboring States abound in similar superstitions. The common people of Hungary and Bohemia fear witchcraft, and it still dominates a considerable part of the rural population and the allied classes of Germany, and particularly of Austria. French peasants are afraid of evil eyes, warlocks, ghosts, spells, omens, enchantments, and witches; not in every part of the country, but in the more primitive sections. In France their persistence is promoted by dialects, kinship,and other influences peculiar to the country. It has been but a few years since the world was shocked by the burning of an old woman as a witch in the district of Sologne, cupidity and superstition leading to the crime. Having softening of the brain, she did and said strange things, from which her children concluded that she was a witch and determined to burn her to death. When the time decided upon arrived, they sent for a priest, who confessed her. Soon after his departure her daughter screamed, “It is greatly borne upon me that now is the time to kill the hag; if we delay she may commit a sin in thought or deed, and the confession will go for nothing.” As she burned, two of her three children cried, “Aroint thee, witch !” I do not refer to this to intimate that the French people sympathize with such things, for all France was filled with horror, and the murderers were brought to justice, but as an illustration of the persistence of the belief. In Norway, Sweden, and Denmark witchcraft still throws a spell over many of the sailors, fishermen, and solitary farmers. In Lapland sorcerers and witches abound, the witches
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claiming the power of stilling the wind and causing the rain to cease. It has been a comparatively short time since English seamen trading in Archangel were in the habit of landing and buying a fair wind from the witches. But it is in Russia that the popular belief more generally resembles that of the whole world many centuries ago. Ralston, in “Songs of the Russian People,” states: “But a little time ago every Russian village had its wizard, almost as a matter of course, and to this day it is said there is not a hamlet in the Ukraine that is not reported to keep its witch.” When I was traveling in the interior of that country, accompanied by a master of the Russian language, I found that the peasants still believe that witches and wizards can steal the dew and the rain, send whirlwinds, hide the moon and the stars, and fly through the air on brooms and tongs. Their chief meetings take place three times a year, on “bald hills,” and there are thousands of stories of witches going up chimneys and flying through the air; an analogy exists between these and the ancient German legends on the same subject. They chalk crosses on their huts and windows, hang up stove-rakes for protection, tie knots, and wear amulets. Plagues in men and cattle are popularly attributed to witches. Epileptics, and those afflicted with St. Vitus’s dance, are supposed to be bewitched. According to popular belief in Russia, witches assume the form of dogs and cats and owls; but the shape they like best is that of a magpie. The Metropolitan Alexis solemnly cursed that bird, “on account of the bad behavior of the witches who have assumed its plumage.” In Scotland, Ireland, and England the belief in witchcraft lingers, and only those who are at the pains to inquire how far it extends, and how strong the impression is, can form an adequate idea of either.
LOOKING BACKWARD.
IT is important to notice how late in the Christian era individual belief, popular excitements, and judicial proceedings have been sufficiently conspicuous for permanent record.
In “Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning,” by Browne, a barrister atlaw, and Stewart, senior assistant in the laboratory of St. Thomas’s Hospital, a standard work for physicians, chemists, and jurists, published in London in 1883. I find the case of Dove; and that in the said trial various references were made to the prevalence of the belief in witchcraft among persons of the prisoner’s class. It appears from the evidence that his interviews with the witch-man on the subjects of lost cattle, removing strange noises from his house, the bewitching of his
Russian Folk Belief – Page 105
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Linda J. Ivanits – 1989 – Preview – More editions
for example, a certain type of milkweed was collected on May 9 (St. Nicholas) for use against sorcery.12 Throughout Russia peasants believed that one good backhand stroke with a fist or with an axle destroyed a witch or sorcerer; it was usually specified that one must never strike twice (Narrative 8 1).13 In addition … The first-born pup of a dog giving birth for the first time was especially potent medicine, and for this reason witches allegedly made every effort to steal such a pup at birth.
Children’s Literature Review – Volume 40 – Page 6
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1996 – Snippet view – More editions
Sent to borrow needle and thread from a neighbor, little Sasha wanders into the home of Bony- Legs (Baba Yaga, the Russian witch whose house stands on chicken legs) and is saved from being the witch’s dinner when the dog, cat, and gate repay Sasha’s kindness and help her escape. Although this is intended (and nicely gauged) for the beginning independent reader, it’s also a good choice for reading aloud to younger children. Q3 AN INSECT’S BODY (1984) Kirkus Reviews …
Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale
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Andreas Johns – 2004 – Preview – More editions
The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale Andreas Johns. CHAPTER FIVE The Ambiguous … The Dragon Mother Folktales about dragon slayers are widespread in Europe, and AT 300 (The Dragon Slayer) is popular in Russia as well. Baba Yaga appears ambiguously … European tradition area. The tale often begins with the hero’s birth: He and his brothers are born when the tsarina, a servant woman, and an animal (a cow, cat, dog, or bull) eat 1 The East Slavic tale …
The Songs of the Russian People: As Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and …
By William Ralston Shedden Ralston
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These are to keep off witches, who fear every symbol of the Thunder-god’s hammer, as, for instance, the sallow, the aspen-stake, and the fern. If any one takes a willow or aspen-twig with him to matins on Easter day, say the peasants in the Poltava Government, and looks at the congregation through it, he will see all the wizards and witches among them turned upside down4. In the Chernigof Government it is believed that if, on the last day of the Mtislyanitsa any one takes a piece of cheese, wraps it up, and cariies it about with him during the whole of Lent, then on Easter eve the witches of his village will appear to him, and ask for cheese.
To a wizard who dealt in natizul, or amulets, [uzui = ties; iizd = a knot; fizW «= to tighten], was given in old times the names of Xifnznil’ or IzoViiil: These amulets generally consisted of various materials, such as herbs, roots, embers, salt, bats’ wings, heads and skins of snakes, etc., which were tied up in small packets, and hung round the neck. Some* times a spell was written on a piece of paper which was attached to the pectoral cross worn by Russians. After the introduction of Christianity, incense [A/Vow] entered so largely into the composition of these amulets that they received from it the general designation of hhhmhi. These amulets ore still in great request among the peasants, especially among those who have to undertake long and hazardous journeys. In olden days it seems to have lieen customary to
• AfunjWf, 1\ V. S. in. vs.
* »
take young children to a-witch, who provided them with suitable amulets.
The efficacy of these tied or knotted amulets depended to a great extent upon the magical force of their knots. To these knots frequent reference is made in the spells. Here is one, for instance, intended to guarantee its employer against all risk of being shot:—
“I attach five knots to each hostile, infidel shooter, over arquebuses, bows, and Jill manner of warlike weapons. Do ye, O knots, bar the shooter from every road and way, lock fast every arquebuse, entangle every bow, involve all warlike weapons, so that the shooters may not reach me with their arquebuses, nor may their arrows attain to me, nor their warlike weapons do me hurt. In my knots lies hid the mighty strength of snakes—from the twelve-headed snake5.” “With such a spell as this it was supposed that the insurgent chief, Stenka llazin, had rendered himself proof against shot and steel.
Sometimes the .amulet is merely a knotted thread. A skein of red wool wound round the anus and legs is supposed to ward off agues and fevers; and nine skeins, fastened round a child’s neck are deemed a preservative against scarlatina. In the Tver Government a bag called ryrizlo is fastened round the neck of the cow which walks before the rest of a herd, in order to keep off wolves. Its force binds the maw of the wild licust [ryuziif = to bind]. In accordance with a similar idea, a padlock is earned three times round a herd of horses, before they are allowed to go afield in the spring, he who carries it locking and unlocking it as he goes, while these magical words are being uttered, “I lock from my herd the mouths of the grey wolves with this steel lock.” After the third round the padlock is finally locked, and then, when the horses have gone off, it is hidden away somewhere till late in the autumn, when the time comes for the herd to return to winter quarters. In this case the “firm word” of the spell is supposed to lock up tho mouths of the wolves. The Bulgarians have a similar method of protecting their cattle against wild beasts. A woman takes a needle and thread after dark, and sews together the skirt of her dress. A child asks her what she is doing, and she tells him she is sewing up the ears, eyes, and jaws of the wolves, so that they may not hear, see, or bite the sheep, goats, pigs, and calves. In the Smolensk. Government, wlien cattle are being driven afield on St. George’s day, the following spell is used :—
* Afannsicf. P. V. S. nr. ttU
“Deaf man, deaf man, dost thou hear us?” “I hear not.”
“God grant that tho wolf may not hear our cattle 1″ Cripple, cripple, canst thou catch us?”
“I cannot catch.”
“God grant that the wolf may not catch our
cattle!” “Blind man, blind man, dost thou see us?”
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“God grant that the wolf may not see our cattle” V*
Sometimes the amulet locks away hurtful things from a man’s body. A net, from its affluence of knots, was always considered very efficacious against sorcerers; and therefore, in some places, when a bride is being dressed in her wedding attire, a fishingnet is flung oyer her, to keep her out of harm’s way. With a similar intention the bridegroom and his companions arc often girt with pieces of net, or at least with tight-drawn girdles, for before a wizard can begin to injure them he must undo all the knots in the net, or take off the girdles. The girdle, with which the idea of a snake is frequently connected, has some mystic sympathy with its wearer, and therefore the peasants in some parts believe, that if a sick man’s girdle be taken off, and thrown on the highway, whoever pieks it up and puts it on will have its former wearer’s diseases transferred to himself7. The knotted surface of a harrow (made of interwoven branches) gives it great power against witchcraft. The best way to catch a witch is to hide under a harrow, and angle for her with a bridle.
Russian cows have always been as liable as those of other countries to be drained of their milk by witches. During the Christmas Scyatki the peasants object to letting their cattle leave the cow-sheds, for fear of attacks from the powers of darkness. On the 3rd of January the witches return from their Sabbath in a state of ravenous hunger, and are to be debarred from the cow-sheds only by means of a church taper attached to the doors. Crosses chalked upon the eve of the Epiphany, arc also very useful. On St. Vlas’s [Blasius’s] day [Feb. 11] it is necessary to sprinkle the flocks and herds with holy water, for at that time, in Little-Russia at least, werewolves, in the shape of dogs and black cats, suck the cows, mares, and ewes, and slaughter their male companions. On St. George’s day in April, and agaia during “NVhitsun and Trinity weeks, the danger is no less to be dreaded. At Midsummer bonfires are made of nettles, etc., and the horned cattle are driven through the flame, in order to keep off wizards and witches, who are then ravenous after milk. On the 30th of July witches frequently milk cows to death, dying themselves afterwards of a surfeit.
‘A similar ui-liiT i> .-aid to Ll- olill prevalent in England.
A witch can milk a cow from a great distance. In order to do so she sticks a knife into a plough, a post, or a tree: the milk trickles along the edge of the knife, and continues to do so till the cow’s udder is emptied. On the eves of St. George’s day, WhitSunday, and Midsummer day, witches go out at night without clothing, and cut chips from the doors and gates of farmyards. These they boil in a milk-pail, and so charm away the milk from those farms. Careful housewives are in the habit of examining their doors, and of smearing any new gashes they find in them with mud, which frustrates the plans of the milk-stealers. In such cases the witches climb the wooden crosses by the wayside and cut chips from them, or lav their hands on stray wooden wedges. These they stick into a post in the cattle-sh^ds, and
Studies in Russia
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He will not allow the forest-spirit to play pranks in the garden, nor witches to injure the cows. He sympathises with the joys and sorrows of the house to which he is attached. When any member of the family dies, he may be heard (like the Banshee) wailing at night; when the head of the family is about to die, the Domovoy forebodes the sad event by sighing, weeping, or sitting at his work with his cap pulled over his eyes. Before an outbreak of war, fire, or pestilence, the Domovoys go out from a village, and may be heard lamenting in the meadows. When any misfortune is impending over a family, the Domovoy gives warning of it by knocking, by riding at night on the horses till they are completely exhausted, and by making the watchdogs dig holes in the courtyard, and go howling through the village. And he often rouses the head of the family from his sleep at night when the house is threatened with fire or robbery.
‘Each Domovoy has his own favourite colour, and it is important for the family to try and get all their cattle, poultry, dogs, and cats of this hue. In order to find out what it is, the Orel peasants take a piece of cake on Easter Sunday, wrap it in a rag, and hang it up in a stable. At the end of six weeks they look to see of what colour the maggots are which are in it. That is the colour which the Domovoy likes. In the governments of Yaroslaf and Nijegorod the Domovoy takes a fancy to those horses and cows only which are of the colour of his own hide.’ — Ralston, ‘Songs of the Russian People.’
If a family change their residence, there is considerable apprehension lest it should not be agreeable to the Domovoy. So, exactly at noon, after the furniture has been removed, the oldest woman in the family takes a new jar, and rakes into it the embers left in the stove and carries them in state to the new house, covered with a clean cloth. At the door stand the master and mistress of the house, with bread and salt. The old woman smites upon the doorposts and asks if the visitors are welcome. Then the hosts bow and say, ‘Welcome, Grandfather Domovoy, to the new house.’ Upon this, taking the towel from her jar, the old woman shakes it towards the four corners of the room, empties the ashes into the stove, breaks the jar, and buries its fragments under the floor.
A tragic part in Russian history has been played by the island fortress of Schliisselburg, with its low yellow bastion towers; and, as in the case of all the scenes of royal or imperial tragedies, permission to visit it is very rarely accorded, and then only imperfectly. Here, in 1741, the unfortunate young Emperor Ivan VI., grandson of Ivan V., and greatnephew of Peter the Great, was imprisoned in the revolution which placed his cousin Elizabeth upon the throne.
‘The wretched captive, lately the envied emperor of a quarter of the globe, was lodged (for sixteen years) in a casemate of the fortress, the very loophole of which was immediately bricked up. He was never brought out into the open air, and no ray of heaven ever visited his eyes. In this subterranean vault it was necessary to keep a lamp always burning; and as no clock was either to be seen or heard, Ivan knew no difference between day and night. His interior guard, a captain and a lieutenant, were shut up with him ; and there was a time when they did not dare to speak to him, not so much as to answer the simplest question.’— Tooke’s ‘Life of Catherine II.’
In 1762, after the accession of Catherine II., an attempt of one Vassili Mirovitch (second lieutenant of the garrison in the town of Schliisselburg) to get possession of the person of Ivan VI., in the hope of recovering through him some family estates which had been confiscated, resulted in the cruel death of the prince.
‘The inner guard placed over the imperial prisoner consisted of two officers, Captain Vlassief and Lieutenant Tschekin, who slept with him in his cell. These had a discretionary order signed by the empress, by which they were enjoined to put the unhappy prince to death, on any insurrection that might be made in his favour, on the presumption that it could not otherwise be quelled.
‘The door of Ivan’s prison opened under a sort of low arcade, which, together with it, forms the thickness of the castle-wall within the ramparts. In this arcade, or corridor, eight soldiers usually kept guard, as well on his account, as because the several vaults on a line with this contain stores of various kinds for the use of the fortress.
. . . ‘Having wounded and secured the governor, and being arrived at the corridor into which the door of Ivan’s chamber opened, Mirovitch advanced furiously at the head of his troop, and attacked the handful of soldiers who guarded Prince Ivan. He was received with spirit by the guard, who quickly repulsed him. He immediately ordered his men to fire upon them, which they did. The sentinels returned their fire, when the conspirators were obliged to retire, though neither on one side nor the other was there a single man killed, or even wounded in the slightest degree.
‘The soldiers of Mirovitch, surprised at the resistance they met, showed signs of an inclination to retreat. Their chief withheld them; but they insisted on his showing them the order which he said he had received from St. Petersburg. He directly drew from his pocket and read to them a forged decree of the senate, recalling Prince Ivan to the throne, and excluding Catherine from it, because she was gone into Livonia to marry Count Poniatofsky. The ignorant and credulous soldiers implicitly gave credit to the decree, and again put themselves in order to obey him. A piece of artillery was now brought from the ramparts to Mirovitch, who himself pointed it at the door of the dungeon, and was preparing to batter the place; but at that instant the door opened, and he entered, unmolested, with all his suite.
‘The officers, Vlassief and Tschekin, commanders of the guard which was set on the prince, were shut up with him, and had called out to the sentinels to fire. But, on seeing this formidable preparation, and hearing Mirovitch give orders to beat in the door, they thought it expedient to take counsel together. . . . On this consultation, they came to the dreadful resolution of assassinating the unfortunate captive, over whose life they were to watch.
‘At the noise of the firing, Ivan had awoke ; and, hearing the cries and the threats of his guards, he conjured them to spare his miserable life. But, on seeing these barbarians had no regard to his prayers, he found new force in his despair ; and, though naked, defended himself for a considerable time. Having his right hand pierced through and his body covered with wounds, he seized the sword from one of the monsters, and broke it; but while he was struggling to get the piece out of his hand, the other stabbed him from behind, and threw him down. He who had lost his sword now plunged his bayonet into his body, and, several times repeating his blow, under these strokes the unhappy prince expired.
‘They then opened the door, and showed Mirovitch at once the bleeding body of the murdered prince, and the order by which they were authorised to put him to death, if any attempt should be made to convey him away.’1—Tooke’s ‘Life of Catherine II.’
It was at Old Ladoga near Schliisselburg that the Tsarilsa Eudoxia, the discarded first wife of Peter the Great, and mother of his son Alexis, was imprisoned in 1718, being only released from captivity on the accession of her grandson Peter II.
Our longest excursion from S. Petersburg was that to Imatra in Finland, for which at least three days are necessary. It is quite worth while, not so much from any beauty of scenery, but from the glimpse it gives of the Finns, though to the eye of a stranger they have little now to distinguish them from ordinary Russians.
Finland, the Fen-land, Seiomen maa, is a vast land of lakes and granite rocks. It is about as large as the whole of France, and has altogether about half as many inhabitants as London—a proportion of seven to the square mile. In Eastern Finland,.’the Land of a Thousand Lakes,’ more than half the country is occupied by stony basins of clear water, to which the rivers are only connecting links. Northern Finland has little vegetation except moss and lichen, and all over the rest of the country are vast desolate districts. Finland is twelve times less populous in proportion than France, even three times less populous in proportion than Russia itself.
1 Ivan was buried in the monastery of Titschina near S. Petersburg. The rest of the family of Brunswick—Catherine, Elizabeth, Peter, and Alexis, children of the Regent Anne by Anthony Ulric, Duke of Brunswick, released from imprisonment under Catherine II., ail died at Gorsens.
Finland is the only European state, except Hungary, which has preserved the name of a nation not Aryan. Its people, called Chouds in the Slavonic Chronicles, preserve, at least in the north, their traditions and cultivate their language, which is Oriental, and nearly related to Hungarian. In the south they are becoming more amalgamated with the Russians. Of Mongolian race, they are the earliest inhabitants with whose history we are acquainted in the north of Russia, and are the natural inhabitants of the soil of S. Petersburg. Possibly they are the red-haired nation living in wooden cities, mentioned by Herodotus as lying to the north of his Sarmatians. In the days of the English Alfred, the Finns had a great city at Perm, with a gilt female idol, whom they worshipped; and by means of the two rivers Volga and Tetchora, they carried on a great trade with the Caspian, the people of Igur, or Bukhara, and India. The Aurea Venus of Perm was mentioned by Russian chroniclers under the name of Saliotta Baba—the golden old woman. After the Asiatic hordes had overrun Southern Russia, the Finns were driven out of their original settlements by the Bulgarians, and in their turn drove out the Lapps, who were compelled to take refuge in the extreme north. The Finns continued to be idolaters—worshipping Ukko, the god of air and thunder ; Tapio, the god of forests; Akti, the god of lakes and streams; and Tuoni, the god of -fire—till the twelfth century, when Eric IX. of Sweden landed on the west coast with an army and with S. Henry, an Englishman, the first bishop and martyr of Finland, and conquered the country, physically and spiritually. The Swedes governed Finland as Sweden was governed, and gave the Finns a representation in the Swedish Diet. Having been Catholic
Through Russia on a Mustang
By Thomas Stevens
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getting matters curiously muddled. Thus the Prophet Elias has succeeded to the office of Perun, the ancient god of thunder. St. Elias is now the Russian peasants’ ” clerk of the weather.” He it is who gives or withholds the rain necessary to the growing of their crops. And when it thunders and lightens, it is St. Elias driving in his chariot across the heavens.
A Russian peasant will not harm a pigeon, nor would he think of eating one, even if suffering from want of food. AH through Russia, and particularly in the lower forest zone south of Moscow, the country is full of pigeons, that enjoy complete immunity from molestation. In the country they are as tame as the semi-, domestic pigeons owned by breeders in American cities.
The pigeon has always been a sacred bird in Russia. In the old pagan times it was consecrated to Perun, the god of thunder, just mentioned. When the missionaries of the Cross invaded the country and prevailed against Perun and his associates, the lucky pigeon lost nothing of its sacred character by the new order of things. The converts, by some occult process of reasoning, came to associate it with their idea of the Third Person of the Trinity. The sacred character of the pigeon, like the office of ” weather clerk,” has been brought over from the old religion to the new and consecrated to the Third Person of the Trinity, which the majority of the peasants think to be St. Nicholas.
Readers will remember stories that have occasionally reached us from Russia of atrocities committed byfanatical peasants in the villages of the interior. On one occasion the burning of a poor old woman startled the Western World and taxed the credulity of the newspaper-reading public. Then a man or woman was buried alive; and we heard of a woman severely mangled by a wolf while rescuing a child from attack, left to perish in an out-house because no moujik would admit her into his house. On this horseback ride, which put me for several weeks in contact with the peasantry, I managed to pick up more or less information concerning their peculiar superstitions.
Although the peasants have certainly advanced a step or two in knowledge and understanding during the thirty years since their emancipation, the powers of darkness still hold well-nigh undisputed sway over the minds of a majority of the rural population of Russia. Ignorance links arms with superstition, and the two revel in the interior villages whenever the normal apathy of the moujik brain is disturbed by fear or suspicion. Though he is sitting on the threshold of the twentieth century, and the humblest tillers of the soil in lands not far from him learned years ago that the world they live in is a planet revolving around the sun, the moujik still thinks that it rests on the backs of three whales, or monster turtles, in the ocean.
No limit exists to the absurdities that find expression in the beliefs and superstitions of such a people. The women and girls, of course, are the most superstitious. Unreasoning faith makes them tenaciously loyal to their old pagan traditions. In Little Russia it was the rather uncomplimentary lot of myself and companion to come daily under the suspicion of being , the Evil One, Antichrist, the “Cattle Plague,” or other malignant spirit in disguise.
In many of the postayali dvors of Little Russia a young peasant woman performs the functions of hostler. One of the small diversions of the day’s ride would be to speculate on the form these manifestations of fear would assume in the next girl hostler. There was nothing fantastic about our appearance; we were simply strange horsemen in a country where strangers are rare, and were dressed differently from anybody they had ever seen.
The consternation of the girl on opening the tall gate in response to our summons, and suddenly finding herself in the presence of a pair of the supernatural beings of the papular witchcraft, often caused us to laugh outright, and always provoked a smile. A wild sort of fear came into her eyes, and she would shrink behind the gate. The first impulse would be to make the sign of the Cross, but fearful lest we, being Antichrists, might take offense at this, she would wait until we had passed in, when, fancying herself unnoticed, the holy symbol would be furtively and rapidly mad’..
This sort of girl would be rooted to the spot with fear. Other girls, of more robust intellects, occasionally took to their heels, scampering away into the house like wild creatures. During our stay these superstitious damsels would be in an exceedingly uncomfortable frame of mind. Fearful of coming near us, they were equally fearful lest their all too evident reluctance to serve us might give offense and cause us maliciously to ” wither their souls,” or bring them other evil fortune. As an occasional phenomenon, we would find a girl who would be neither afraid of us nor of submitting to the camera.
The Russian peasants still believe in the agency of witchcraft and sorcery, and when visited by an epidemic, such as the smallpox, cholera, or cattle plague, a stranger appearing in their midst alone is sure to be regarded with suspicion. And if the stranger happens to be a “tall, shaggy old man” or a “withered old woman with flashing eyes,” or otherwise resembles the creatures of the popular superstition who are associated with these malignant maladies, the fanatical peasants would not hesitate to bury the unfortunate wretch alive.
On the base of a memorial to Czar Nicholas, in St. Petersburg, is portrayed a scene in which the Czar quells a tumult among the peasants by raising his arm in anger. It depicts an actual occurrence of his reign in the streets of St. Petersburg, at the time of the cholera, when the moujiks rose in tumult against the police because they refused to arrest persons who had been seen “carrying cholera powder into a house” for the purpose of spreading the disease.
Certain curious rites are still faithfully practiced in many Russian villages to ward off the “cattle plague,” which the moujiks believe to wander about the country in human form. Among the Malo Russians the cattle plague is an old woman who wears red boots, and can walk on the water. Hence an old hag-like woman who should turn up in a Russian village in red boots would, especially in time of an epidemic, be in danger of her life. Stories are current among the people of moujiks who unwittingly gave a night’s lodging to this weird creature, and in the morning every member of the family was dead.
In some districts remedial measures are periodically taken against a visitation of the murrain. The cattle are all driven into the village, and a big circle is made around it with a plow, which is dragged by the oldest woman in the community. All the female villagers follow in procession behind the plow, carrying ikons, chanting weird incantations, and beating tin pans and cooking vessels. One old woman bestrides a broom a la witch, and a widow, wearing nothing but a horse-collar around her neck, keeps pace with the one who is dragging the plow. If a dog or a cat, frightened by the noise, rushes out, it is immediately seized and killed, on the supposition that it is the cattle plague in disguise, trying to escape.
In other districts casting a black cock alive into a bonfire at the end of certain ceremonies is believed to be efficacious in warding off many contagious diseases. Bonfires are built in the village, and young women in night-dresses drag a plow and carry a holy picture, with much unearthly screeching, after which the unfortunate rooster is cast into the flames. In some villages, when a visit of the cattle plague is to be dreaded, if a stray cow happens to be found among the herd, it is burned alive, as the peasants believe that the “cattle death” has thus assumed the form of a cow to escape detection.
One of the most curious and widespread beliefs of the peasants is that every house contains a domovoi or house-spirit. Russian peasants catch glimpses of the domovoi about as often as Americans see ghosts, but they all believe in his existence. The domovoi is described as a little old man, no bigger than a five
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