New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-16

Leroy-Beaulieu seriously discusses the question
whether Russians Christians at all The
doubt is one which has been raised by RUSSIAN
authors themselves men who would have peen
glad to prove that their countrymen were IN
everything different from the races that sur
rounded them His conclusion Is that they are
Christians-and pagans as well. Their pagan
ism still survives. he says, in their songs ana
traditions and folk-stories. The great gods OF
the old paganism have disappeared. but the
minor deities, representations Of the forces or
nature, are still remembered. The Russian
peasant still has his water demon and water
maidens the half-animal, half-human spirit OF
the forest and the household genius who by
preference infests the oven. The similarity OF
these creatures of the Imagination to those or
modern Greek folklore Is Significant fact
which the author does not mention. But, in any
case paganism equivalent to this Russian popu-
lar faith. survives in Germany and Great Britain
IL not in France. NJ. Leroy-Beauleu mentions
witchcraft also. but adds what is perfectly true.
that "a little digging will lay this bare IN all
Western peoples" Russian paganism under the
form of Christianity goes further. 1t has for
gotten its ancient god of the sky and the storm,
Perun the Thunderer. but 1t has preserved his
attributes in the person of the prophet Elias
cessor of Helios. the sun god. When 1T thunders
the peasant now says that the prophet Is driv-
ing his fiery chariot across the sky. The au-
thors argument halts little here. for II is plain
that the Russian may have borrowed this super
st,tion lust as he did his Christianity, from the
Greeks without thinking Of his own chief d.
yinity Among the Greeks themselves the fancy
had a literary origin. for 1t only necessary
10 lengthen the short second syllable In Helios
the aspirant was never given anyway TO make
Elias as observed by the Christian poet Sedulius
In the fifth century:
ST sermons Achivi
Una per accentum mutetur litera sol est.
But the old religion survives Enthusiastically in
the ceremonies and lamentations used to drive
away the diseases of men and beasts, In the
belief In spells and the evil eye, and above all
IN the readiness with which the peasant reverts
TO idoatry whenever II comes in his way. Es-
necially in Siberia" says NJ. Leroy Beaulieu,
"a great many Orthodox peasants yield to the
gross Vaccinations of Shamanism and become
regular clients of the Shamans or sorcerer-
priests Along the banks of the Lena many
freouent the Buddhist sanctuares Of their
neighbors. the Buriats Even in the environs
Of Irkutsk the capital Of Eastern Siberia the
seat of an Orthodox archbishopric. Burat idols
NAV be found in the Russian izbas as well as
images Of ST. Nicholas in Buriat nuts Nay III
European Russia, in the Volga region, the peas
ant Is often contagously affected by the super
stitions-poythestc or fetchstc-of his neigh-
bors Of alien race the Tchuvashes or Tcher-
emiss" quaint bit Of paganism or the sort
which limits the existence OF dvinities Is pre-
| served in the popular saying about st. Memo
| las the present guardian of the RUSSIAN
! both on land and at sea-that when God gets
| too old to manage the universe he VIII succeed
| TO the place. But with all these notions the
| most significant fact is the minute adherence
| to custom In all that traditional and TO the
| letter in all that was written where religion
was concerned The standard by which accuracy
| in these matters could be judged was supposed
| 10 be fixed. An evolution is possible In the
Latin Church, because there Is a living author
| ity 70 which appeal can be made. But In ma
| tional churches Of the Orthodox faith there Is
no appeal except to the Scriptures. to the
Greek Fathers or to the books of devotion
which have been used from time immemorial
1t IS the pride of these Churches that they
have not changed since they were first or
| ganzed To the Orthodox Church of Russia the
| books in the Old Slavic language are as sacred
as the books in Latin Of the Western Church
are to its children.