Source: http://theology101.org/neu/srp/srp08.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 20:12:38+00:00

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EACH season of the year has its own songs set apart for it in Russia, hallowed by old traditions, and linked with customs of which the original meaning has, in most cases, long been forgotten, but which still retain much of that firm hold upon the popular mind which they possessed in heathen times. In none of them are the traces of the old religion more perceptible than in the songs which are sung at Christmas-tide, chiefly in White-Russia and Little-Russia, and which bear the name of Kolyádki. The name of Kolyáda, or Koleda, which is given to the festival celebrated at that time has been explained in various ways, being derived by one philologist from Kolo, a wheel, and connected by another with Kolóda, a kind of yule log; but others are decidedly of opinion that it is merely an adaptation of the Roman Kalendæ, the word having been introduced into the Slavonic languages by way of Byzantium 1.
On the Eve of the Nativity.
Through all the courts, in all the alleys.
And in the third room, the many Stars.
"For many years, for many years 2."
the idea. The Virgin Mary appears, either bathing or washing vestments in the Jordan, and directly afterwards she bears a son, and the an gels, come and carry him away to heaven. Or she bathes her child, and places him in the manger, and the doors of a temple are opened, and lights are lit, and Christ Himself serves at the altar. These legends are not supposed to be of Christian origin, but are looked upon as old heathen myths to which a Christian character has been given, being akin to the Lithuanian idea of Perun's mother daily bathing the weary and travel-stained Sun, and sending it forth again bright and rejoicing.
The Maiden who appears in these songs as the Virgin Mary is found in others guarding wine. Heavenly birds, in a Little-Russian Kolyadka, fly to her, and would fain drink the wine. She awakes and drives them away, saying that she has need of the wine for her own wedding, and for that of her brother and sister.
The steep hill gave forth, gave forth a sound.
Guarded the wine--fell into a heavy slumber.
And wakened the fair lady.
She waved at them her sleeve.
"Away with you afield, heavenly birds!
And I myself am a young betrothed one 3."
And the Moon met the bright Dawn.
"O Dawn, Dawn! wherever hast thou been?
Wherever hast thou been? Where dost thou intend to live?"
And the second pleasure--to give his daughter in marriage 4."
horse with a mane of gold; his sabre flashes like the Sun, and so do the swords of his trusty comrades, who enable him to drive away his foes and gain his bright bride. In him Orest Miller sees the lightning which pierces the dark clouds and rescues the fair sunlight from eclipse, just as he recognizes some thunder-bearer in the "proud youth" of one of the Ruthenian Kolyadki. In it we see a dark mountain, from behind which come a flock of sheep, and after them follows a "proud youth" with three pipes, the sound of whose piping exercises a magic influences over all the realm of Nature.
The third pipe is of aurochs horn.
There went up voices to the heavens 6.
He sharpens his steel knife.
Near the cauldron stands a goat.
They are going to kill the goat.
Have sucked dry my heart."
Oi Kolyadka! Oi Kolyadka 8.
the sacrifice described in the song was actually performed in old days in Russia as well as in Lithuania, though its memory is now preserved in popular poetry alone. Some writers, it should be mentioned, are of opinion that this song belongs to the Midsummer, rather than to the Christmas festival, the pig, and not the goat, being the animal generally sacrificed in the winter 9. The last few lines of the song are very like, if not identical with, those which occur in the story "of the Kid Prince," a Russian counterpart of that of Brüderchen mid Schwesterchen in the Kinder- mid Hausmärchen.
Afield, afield, out in the open field!
And behind that plough is the Lord Himself.
The stalks there shall be like reeds!
The ears shall be [plentiful] as blades of grass!
The sheaves shall be [in number] like the stars!
The loads shall be gathered together like black clouds 1."
Here the Mother of God is evidently some such benignant divinity as the Teutonic Holda. There is a tradition among the Lusatian Wends that the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ once passed by a field in which a peasant was sowing barley, and she said to him "God be with thee, good man! As soon as thou hast sown, take thy sickle and begin to reap." In a little time came a crowd of Jews in pursuit of her, and asked the peasant if he had seen a mother and child go by. "She passed not long ago," he replied, "just when I was sowing this barley." "Idiot! why that must be twelve weeks ago!" exclaimed the Jews, seeing that the barley was now ripe, and the peasant was reaping it, and they turned back. The same story is told in a Little-Russian Kolyadka, only the Virgin carries on her hand a hawk--one of the symbols of the Sun-god--instead of leading the infant Christ.
And in the midst of the sea two oaks.
"How can we create the world?
Fine sand and blue stone.
We will breathe on the blue stone.
The cool waters, the green grass.
The clear moon and all the stars 2".
Glory to God in heaven, Glory!
To our Lord on this Earth, Glory!
May our Lord never grow old, Glory!
May his bright robes never be spoiled, Glory!
May his good steeds never be worn out, Glory!
May his trusty servants never falter, Glory!
May the Right throughout Russia, Glory!
Be fairer than the bright Sun, Glory!
May the Tsar's golden treasury, Glory!
Be for ever full to the brim, Glory!
May the great rivers, Glory!
Bear their renown to the sea, Glory!
The little streams to the mill, Glory!
But this song we sing to the Corn, Glory!
To the Corn we sing, the Corn we honour, Glory!
For the old folks to enjoy, Glory!
For the good folks to hear, Glory 4!
The word translated "Lord" in the second line is Gosudar', the term generally applied to the Emperor, but it seems to be used here in the sense of head of the family, lord of the household. Of the other songs of the same class there are many which are very hard to understand. The most intelligible are generally those which refer to marriage, such as the following, in which the divine blacksmith (Kuznets) is introduced--the Slavonic Vulcan, who became transformed in Christian times into the double saint Kuz'ma-Dem'yan [Cosmas and Demian].
There comes a Smith from the forge, Glory!
The Smith carries three hammers, Glory!
Smith, Smith, forge me a crown, Glory!
Forge me a crown both golden and new, Glory!
Forge from the remnants a golden ring, Glory!
And from the chips a pin, Glory!
In that crown will I be wedded, Glory!
With that ring will I be betrothed, Glory!
One of the legends about Kuz'ma-Dem'yan is, that once, when he had just made a plough, a great snake tried to attack him. But no sooner had it licked a hole through the iron door of the smithy than the Saint seized it by the tongue with his pincers--as firmly as St. Dunstan seized the devil--harnessed it to the plough, and forced it to plough up the land "from sea to sea." The snake vainly prayed for a draught of water from the Dnieper; the Saint drove it till it came to the Black Sea. That sea it drank half dry, and then it burst 6.
O vineyard, green and red!
There lies an untuned lute, Kolyada!
Who shall tune the lute? Kolyada!
Shall tune the lute, Kolyada!
Rooms so high, so high of my mother.
Give, oh give me back my gold!
With a fourth rod of pearl 8.
Grown all over with moss.
All this is somewhat hard to comprehend, but the explanation given by the mythologists is, that the golden ring represents the sun, hidden away and, as it were, buried by wintry storms and clouds, and that this game--the counterpart of " hunt the slipper," and many other recreations of the same kind--is in reality an ancient rite. It is evidently connected with the custom prevalent among so many nations, our own included, of hiding a ring (or a coin, or a bean) in a loaf or cake, about the time of the New Year.
According to rustic tradition, all sorts of hidden treasures are revealed at this period of the year. During the "holy evenings" between the Nativity and the Epiphany the new-born Divinity comes down from heaven and wanders about on earth, wherefore every sort of labour during that period is held to be a sin. At midnight, on the eve of each of those festivals, the heavenly doors are thrown open; the radiant realms of Paradise in which the Sun dwells, disclose their treasures; the waters of springs and rivers become animated, turn into wine, and receive a healing efficacy; the trees put forth blossoms, and golden fruits ripen upon their boughs 9.
Oh, Ovsén! oh, Ovsén 2!
On what will he come?"
This peculiarity seems to link Ovsén with Fro or Freyr, the Teutonic sun-god, who possessed a boar, Gullinborsti, whose golden fell made the night as clear as the day, whose speed was that of a horse, and who drew the car of the god 3. In reference, probably, to this idea, pigs' trotters, and the like, used to be offered as a sacrifice to the gods at the beginning of a New Year, and the custom still prevails in Russia of preferring such dishes at that time, and giving them away as presents.
The New Year, it may be as well to remark, began in olden times with the month of March, and this method of computation remained in force till A.D. 1348.
The commencement of the New Year was then shifted to the 1st of September, an arrangement which held good till the year 1700, when it was made to begin with the 1st of January 4.
In some of the songs the name Ovsén, or Govsén, as it is sometimes written, occurs as a refrain under the form of Tausen. Here is one, of a later date than those which have already been quoted, in which the names of Kolyada and Ovsén are coupled.
Do not go to the Horde, do not serve the king.
Serve thou the White Tsar.
Nor sleep upon a bed.
house to house two youths. One of them, called the Rich Kolyada, is dressed in new and holiday attire, and wears on his head a wreath made of ears of rye; the other, whom they call the Poor Kolyada, wears a ragged suit and a wreath made of threshed-out straw. When they come to a cottage they wrap up each of the two youths in long coverings, and tell the owner of the house to choose one of them. If his choice falls upon the Rich Kolyada, a song is sung by his visitors, which states that a good harvest awaits him, and plenty of money; but if he chooses the Poor Kolyada, then the singers warn him that he must expect poverty and death.
In Little-Russia, on the festival of the New Year, a number of corn sheaves are piled upon a table, and in the midst of them is set a large pie. The father of the family takes his seat behind them, and asks his children if they can see him. "We cannot see you," they reply. On which he proceeds to express what seems to be a hope that the corn will grow so high in his fields that he may be invisible to his children when he walks there in harvest-time. A similar custom is said by German writers of about the twelfth century to have prevailed in their times among the Baltic Slavonians, only in that case it was a priest, who hid himself behind a pile of sheaves 6.
case is used as a general expression for corn, or for the coining harvest, and is spoken of as a living person, as some great lady who is met on the threshold by boyars and princes, and who comes attended by two other personages of importance, "Honourable Oats," and "Golden Barley." Here is one of the formulas recited during the cooking of the New Year's Kásha. "They sowed Buckwheat, they let it shoot up all the summer long. Both fair and rosy did our Buckwheat grow up. They called, they invited our Buckwheat to visit Tsargrad, to feast at the princely banquet. Off set Buckwheat to visit Tsargrad, with Princes, with Boyars, with Honourable Oats, with Golden Barley. They awaited Buckwheat, they tarried till its coming at the Stone Gates. Princes and Boyars met Buckwheat, they set Buckwheat at the oaken table to feast. As a guest has our Buckwheat come unto us 7.
"Give us a pig for Vasíly's Eve."
originally Perun, who, under Christian influences, became Elijah, or Ilya.
An idea which is intended to be conveyed by the custom of scattering seeds which is still kept up by the singers of songs to Ovsén.
up in the courtyards after the morning service is over, the cattle are driven up to them, and the corn and the animals are sprinkled with holy water. This appears to be a relic of a festival observed in old times, when the cattle were first driven out afield after the winter was past, and seems to speak of a warmer clime as its birthplace, for sprinkling with water is a somewhat unseasonable custom at a time when every spring or stream is frozen. Not less inopportune is the custom which prevails in some parts of bathing on the occasion of "Meeting the Spring," the bath often having to be taken in one of the holes in the ice kept open for the purpose of procuring water during the frosty season. Either the custom has been imported from a southern land, or the date of the festival has been altered.
Such an alteration has been brought about in some cases by, the Church, for the introducers of Christianity into Russia found that certain festivals, which the people had observed from time immemorial, occurred during the season of Lent. As the Clergy objected to this, but were not powerful enough utterly to abolish the feasts, they transferred them to the week preceding Lent--the Máslyanitsa, or "Butter-week," [Máslo = oil or butter] answering to the Carnival of Western Europe.
parts of Russia a large sledge, drawn by twelve horses, is driven about at this time, followed by other sledges containing singers and musicians. On the principal sledge is placed a pillar with a wheel on the top, and on the wheel sits a man dressed in a peculiar style, with bells and cymbals attacked to his clothes, and holding in his hands bread and a bottle of spirits. He probably represents the Sun, of which a wheel was so well known an emblem, and he seems to be a male counterpart of the girl who, as the representative of Kolyada, used to be driven about in a similar manner on the days immediately following the winter solstice.
In other places a sort of huge "Christmas Tree" is carried round, an emblem of summer fruitfulness. In Archangel an ox, resembling the French buf gras, occupies the place of honour on the sledge; and in Siberia a ship, with sails spread, conveying a figure representing "Lady Maslyanitsa," and a bear 1. As in mythical speech a ship generally means a cloud, fraught with showers destined to enrich the earth, and the bear is one of the familiar emblems of the thunder-god, the Siberian equipage is looked upon by the mythologists as a type of the storm-compelling deity, who was supposed to make his power specially felt about the time of the vernal equinox, or an emblem of the productive powers of nature, manifesting themselves at springtide amid wind and thunder and rain.
In some parts of Russia the end or death of winter is celebrated on the last day of the "Butter-week," by the burning of " the Straw Mujik"--a heap of straw, to which each of the participators in the ceremony contributes his portion. The same custom prevails in Bulgaria, accompanied by dancing round the bonfire, the firing of guns and pistols, and the singing of songs in honour of Lado or Lada, the peculiar deity of Spring. There, also, during the whole week, the children amuse themselves by shooting with bows and arrows, a custom which has descended to them from their remote ancestors, and which is supposed, by some imaginative writers, to have referred in olden times to the victory obtained by the sun-beams--the arrows of the far-darting Apollo--over the forces of cold and darkness.
year. In Upper Lusatia the figure of Death is constructed of straw and rags, and fastened to the end of a long pole, to be pelted with sticks and stones. Whoever knocks it off the pole is certain to live through the year. Afterwards the figure is either thrown into water, or taken to the boundary of the village lands and flung across it: its bearers then return home carrying green boughs or an entire tree, emblems of the springtide life which has taken the place of banished death. Sometimes the figure is dressed in white, as if in a shroud, and in one hand is placed a besom, in token of winter's sweeping storms, and in the other a sickle--one of the characteristic signs of the goddess whom the Old Slavonians represented as reaping the living harvest of the world. In Slavonia the figure is thumped with bludgeons, and then torn in twain, just as a somewhat similar puppet is treated in the middle of Lent in Spain and Italy. In Little-Russia a female figure is carried about, while springtide songs are being sung, and then is set on fire, the villagers singing, while it burns, joyous invocations to the Spring.
To us also give health!
On what hast thou come?
On what hast thou ridden?"
All the maidens are in the street!
One maiden is not there.
She fastens a favour on a bridle.
By whom shall it be obtained?
It shall be obtained by my destined husband 2.
On March 9, the day on which the larks are supposed to arrive, the rustics make clay images of those birds, smear them with honey and tip their heads with tinsel, and then carry them about singing songs to Spring, or to Lada, the vernal goddess of love and fertility. The peasants have a springtide calendar of their own, according to which--on the 1st of March [o. s.] the Baibak, or Steppe Marmot, awakes from its winter's sleep, comes out of its hole, and begins to utter its whistling cry. On the 4th arrives the Rook, and on the 9th the Lark. On the 17th the ice on the rivers becomes so rotten that, according to a popular expression, "A Pike can send its tail through it." On the 25th the Swallow comes flying from Paradise, and brings with it warmth to the earth. On the 5th of April the Crickets bestir themselves; and on the 12th the Bear comes out of the den in which he has slept away the winter.
Like the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons 3, the Old Slavonians seem to have greeted with special joy the return of the swallow, "the bird of God," as it is called in Ruthenia, "the Virgin Mary's bird," as the Bohemians name it, whose early arrival foretells an abundant harvest, whose presence keeps off fire and lightning, and the robbing of whose nest brings down terrible evils on the head of the robber, or at least brings out freckles on his face.
The cuckoo, also, is regarded with much respect in Slavonic lands. In the Old Polish Chronicle of Prokosz, quoted by Jacob Grimm in the Deutsche Mythologie (p. 543), it is stated that the people believed that the God Zywie, the Lord of Life, used to transform himself into a cuckoo, in order to address the faithful with ominous voice. This deity is the male counterpart of Jiva, the Slavonian Goddess of the Spring, whose name is a contracted form of Jivana, in Polish Ziewonia, that is, "the giver of life" (jizn'). Many of the other stories about the cuckoo and the swallow, mentioned by Mr. Kelly in his "Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folklore 4," are known to the Russian peasants.
Become gossips, love each other, make presents to each other!
To whom art thou a gossip?
So that we may never be at variance.
They then exchange crosses, and divide the "Cuckoo" into two parts, one of which each of them keeps in memory of the occasion. Afterwards the whole party prepare and eat omelettes, and finish the day with dance and song. In the Orel Government. according to Tereshchenko, it is, or used to be, customary for men also to enter into the state of mutual cuckoo-gossipry 7.
rite having reference to the christening of such children as have died unbaptized, and are therefore obliged to fly wailing through the air. The baptismal idea must have originated during the Christian period of Russian history--perhaps about the time when, under the rule of Yaroslaf, the remains of the sons of Svyatoslaf, the heathen princes Yaropolk and Oleg, were exhumed for the purpose of being baptized, after which they were interred within a church; but the kumovstvo, or gossipship, is, in all probability, nothing more than a slightly altered form of the old pobratimstvo, or mutual brotherhood by adoption. To this day the Servians keep up a custom very similar to the Russian Cuckoo-Christening, held at Eastertide in memory of the dead, with kissings through willow circlets, and exchanges of red eggs, after which the men are called Pobrati, "adopted-brothers," and the girls "friends 9."
Shall I soon be married?
The length of time during which the girl will have to wait will be signified to her by the number of repetitions of the Cuckoo's cry 1.
And rich, like the soil.
"Bud, O trees, bud! or I will flog you."
And on the next day, the Saturday in Holy Week, they shake the trees, while the church-bells are ringing, and go about the garden clashing keys. This they do under the impression that the more noise they make the more fruit will they get.
dance in the heavens, and so in Ruthenia the peasants rise before the dawn, and climb high places in order to witness the spectacle. In pagan times the gods were supposed to walk the earth at Springtide, and so the Russian peasant now believes that, from Easter Sunday to Ascension-day, Christ and His Apostles wander about the world, dressed in rags and asking alms. In the Government of Smolensk it is believed that Christ always visits the earth on Thursday in Holy Week, and so, in readiness for the heavenly guest, a particular kind of loaf is prepared in every house. In most of the villages of White-Russia songs are sung at this season in honour of the Virgin, of St. George and St. Nicholas, and of the Prophet Elijah, and eatables, adorned with green boughs, are provided. Among the viands generally figures a roast lamb or sucking-pig, the bones of which are afterwards--either scattered about the fields to protect the crops from hail, or are kept in the houses to be burnt, during the time of the summer storms, as a preservative against lightning.
With the first week after Easter commences the festival of the Krasnaya Gorka, "the red, or bright little hill," the epithet referring, like the red colour of the Easter eggs, to the brightness of the spring, and the name of "little hill" being given to it because it was originally held, or at least inaugurated, on some high place. It lasts from Low Sunday till the end of June, and its chief feature is the Khorovod--the circling dance attended by choral song. The chief singer on these occasions is a woman, who holds in her hands a round loaf and a red egg--each an emblem of the Sun. Turning her face towards the east she begins one of the vernal songs, which is then taken up by the chorus, and in many places this is attended or followed by the destruction of the figure of Death, or Winter, to which allusion has already been made.
Many of the songs are addressed to the Goddess of Love, the presiding genius of the season, or at least have reference to her influence, and in some places it is customary to sing them under the windows of young wedded couples. But the dead also are remembered at this season of the year. The old pagan rites formerly performed in their honour are still kept up in some parts of Russia. The festival called Rádunitsa, held at the same time with, or just after, that of the Krasnaya Gorka, is chiefly devoted to the memory of the dead. In certain districts the women and girls still take food and drink to the cemeteries, and there "howl" over the graves of their dead friends and relatives. When they have "howled" long enough, they sit down and proceed to eat, drink, and be merry, deeming that the dead can "rejoice" with them. After their meal, the fragments which remain over are thrown to the evil spirits, in order to prevent them from troubling the repose of the dead, and with similar intent their flasks and drinking-cups are emptied over the graves 4. Then they return home, dress themselves in holiday attire, and go out to the Krasnaya Gorka, to commence their songs and the games to which those songs form an accompaniment.
With his sword the gates.
Will I give a golden ring.
In this dramatic poem, with the leading idea of which may be compared the "Passage of the King and Queen" among the Czechs and Servians, or the German "Maigraf and Maigräfin," Orest Miller, [Opuit, I. 51] sees evident reference to the idea of the Sun, as a bright Prince, piercing with his beams, as with a sharp sword, the icy obstacles by which Winter strives to keep him from his fair bride the Earth.
Low have they bent in greeting.
"Farest thou well, O beauteous maiden?"
How dost thou fare alone without me?
Since that time when we two parted."
Be twined together, O fence, be twined together!
And do thou be coiled up, O golden pipe!
Be folded up, O rustling damask!
From behind the hills the maiden has driven out the ducks.
Come away home, gray one . . . .
Come along the street to the end.
They have called the bold one.
Eventually the song and game resolve themselves into those already described (at p. 8), under the title of "The Murman Cap."
Here is one more of the Songs sung at this time of year--a song specially worthy of notice on account of the hostile expressions it contains with respect to Byzantium, a city which, after the conversion of the Slavonians to Christianity, acquired a sacred character in their eyes.
I will go up to Tsar-gorod.
With my lance will I shatter the wall!
A barrel of treasure will I roll away!
Like unto my own father dear!
A pelisse of fox's skin will I bring out!
Like unto my own mother dear 7!
Get thyself ready to be seen.
Shower, let thyself go well.
I will put it on an oak.
Will bear thee to a foreign land.
The spring rain was supposed to produce a beneficial effect even upon the human body, and therefore it was customary to wash in it. Its efficacy was increased if it came attended by thunder. "St. Peter [evidently Perun's successor] lifts up his voice and gives us wine, that we may all drink our fill," says a Bohemian song. And in order to obtain that celestial wine from the clouds, not only were songs sung, but certain rites were observed.
"We pass through the village, and the clouds across the sky. We go quicker, and the clouds go quicker, but the clouds have overtaken us, and have bedewed the fields," And again, "We go through the village, and the clouds across the sky, and see, a ring drops from the clouds!"
the name has become Papeluga, as appears from the song which the children sing in time of drought--"Papeluga! Go into heaven, open the gates, and send rain from on high, that the corn may grow well!" In different parts of Germany similar customs used to prevail, and Jacob Grimm [D. M. 560-562] thinks that the Dodola and Purpirouna were originally identical with the Bavarian Wasservogel and the Austrian Pfingstkönig, whom he connects with old rain-preserving rites, although the custom of covering them with foliage, and then flinging them into a brook, has now degenerated into a mere practical joke played off upon the lazy.
The name of Dodola is by some philologists derived from doït' = to give milk, Dodola being looked upon as a bountiful mother, a type of teeming nature. Others connect it with Did-Lado, from the Lithuanian Didis = great, and Lado, the Slavonic Genius of the spring. From the mention of a ring made in the Dodola songs, and in others referring to storm and rain, it is supposed that a golden ring, in mythical language, is to be taken as a representation of the lightning's heavenly gold.
We have called Yegory . . . .
In Bulgaria a regular sacrifice is said to be still offered up on the occasion, a ram being killed by an old man, while girls spread grass on which the blood of the victims is poured forth. A White-Russian song represents Yegory as opening with golden keys--probably the sunbeams--the soil which has been hard bound all the winter.
Over White-Russia and all the world 8.
"Death Week! [The Fourth Sunday in Lent--the time of the expulsion of Death = Winter], what hast thou done with the keys?"
"I gave them to Palm-Sunday."
"Palm-Sunday I what hast thou done with the keys?"
"I gave them to Green Thursday [the day before Good Friday]."
Green Thursday! what hast thou done with the keys?"
"I gave them to St. George. St. George arose and unlocked the earth, so that the grass grew--the green grass."
In White-Russia it is the custom on St. George's Day to drive the cattle afield through the morning dew, and in Little-Russia and Bulgaria the young people go out early and roll themselves in it.
Besides the springtide Yurief Den, there is another St. George's Day in the autumn, or rather winter, on the 26th of November. Upon that day, said a tradition which prevailed in Russia up to the sixteenth century, the people in a certain district by the sea [Lukomorie] used to die--to come to life again upon the corresponding, Saint's Day, in April.
Before temporarily giving up the ghost, they were in the habit of placing the wares they had on sale in a certain spot, from which the neighbours who wanted them took them away. The settlement of accounts took place as soon as the owners of the goods came to life again. This legend seems to be closely connected with that which Herodotus found himself unable to believe, of the people who lived beyond the bald-headed and goat-footed races, and who slept away six months of the year at a stretch--a story which Heeren supposed to have referred to the length of the Polar night, and which has also been explained as meaning that there were people who "lived indoors in comparative darkness half the year 9."
and bars of the dungeon, so that Yegory was able to come out of it, and once more to see the white light. After that he fought many battles, including one with a fiery serpent, always coming off victorious, and finally he killed the heathen king, from whose veins poured forth such a torrent that Yegory stood up to his knees in blood. All this, says Afanasief, is nothing more than a poetic representation of the struggle which takes place in spring between Perun and the dark storm-clouds, which are crushed beneath his mace, or pierced by the shafts of his lightning. For a time the demon of wintry storms may hide the sun, keeping him, as it were, imprisoned, but the spring comes, the sunlight bursts out again in all its glory, and the thunder-god once more goes forth conquering and to conquer 1.
holiday, held upon the Thursday before Trinity Day, or Whit-Sunday. On that day the Russian villagers, and the common people in the towns, go out into the woods, sing songs, weave garlands, and cut down a young birch-tree, which they dress up in woman's clothes, or adorn with many-coloured shreds and ribbons. After that comes a feast, at the end of which they take the dressed-up birch-tree, carry it home to their village with joyful dance and song, and set it up in one of the houses, where it remains as an honoured guest till Whit-Sunday. On the two intervening days they pay visits to the house where their "guest" is; but on the third day, Whit-Sunday, they take her to a stream, and fling her into its waters, throwing their Semík garlands after her.
provisions with them, and would dance and make merry around the hut.
In these instances the Semík birch-tree, the bush," the "poplar," and the Whitsuntide puppet, are all representatives of some Deity of the Spring whom the people worshipped in olden days, and whose memory still survives, although "the wearing of the green" has been adopted by the Church, and the birch-trees which once were put to pagan uses are now turned into the ornaments of Christian temples. All over Russia every village and every town is turned, a little before Whit-Sunday, into a sort of garden. Everywhere along the streets the young birch-trees stand in rows, every house and every room is adorned with boughs, even the engines upon the railways are for the time decked with green leaves. On the eve of Whit-Sunday the churches are dressed in green as ours are at Christmas, and the next day the women and children go to the morning service carrying posies, which they preserve during the rest of the year, deeming them a preservative against all sorts of maladies.
My wreath in the waters 2. . . .
If the wreath swims steadily, without running ashore, its late wearer will marry happily and live long; if it circles around one spot, there is reason to fear some misfortune, a broken engagement, or an unrequited love; and its sinking is a very evil omen, foreboding that he or she who wore it will either die soon, or at least go down to the grave unmarried.
The songs which are sung in the Khorovods on these occasions frequently refer to a contest between two apparently mythical personages, and two mythical names are mentioned in them--those of Lado and of Tur. About Tur very little is known, but there seem to be reasonable grounds for identifying him with Perun or with Freyr 3. Lado, or Did-Lado.
He from out of the great city.
To contend with him on the grass.
Oi Did, Lado! to contend.
Oi, Did, Lado! has dropped him.
To good people to tell.
Oi, Tur! Did! Lado! to tell 4.
The contest here described has been explained in various ways. Some commentators think it is the same as that mentioned in a Servian song, in which the Lightning-Maiden struggles with the Thunder-Youth and conquers him. Others, taking Tur to be the solar deity, refer it to the substitution for the daylight of the evening glow or the clear summer-night.
Some traces of tree-worship may be found in the song which the girls sing as they go out into the woods to fetch the birch-tree, and to gather flowers for wreaths and garlands.
To you go the maidens!
The eatables here mentioned seem to refer to sacrifices offered in olden days to the birch, the tree of the spring. The oak, to which no sacrifice is offered, is the summer tree.
On the banks of the river Metch, near Tula, there stands a circle of stones. These, according to popular belief, were once girls who formed a Khorovod on this spot, and who danced on Whit-Sunday in so furious a manner that they were all thunder-smitten into stone.
In some of these songs reference is made to the bathing of a gaily-attired maiden, to whom is given the name of Kostroma, and sometimes not only the bathing but also the drowning of a "brave youth" is vaguely mentioned. These allusions connect them with the class of songs called Kupalskiya, which are sung at Midsummer, and which are evidently rich in mythical purport, though it is often difficult to ascertain their exact meaning, as they have come down to the present day in a very mutilated condition. In popular speech the St. Agrafena [Agrippina], to whom the 23rd of June is dedicated, is surnamed Kupálnitsa, and St. John the Baptist, who is honoured on the 24th, is known as Iván Kupálo. The rites which belong to these two festivals are also kept up on the Feast of All Saints, the first Sunday after Whitsuntide.
The word Kupálo has been explained in different ways, some philologists, for instance, connecting it--with kupát' = to bathe, and others with kúpa = a heap--heaps of straw or brushwood being used for the bonfires which in Russia, as in many other parts of Europe, are the chief characteristics of these Midsummer festivals. Professor Buslaef points out the fact that the root kup conveys the idea of something white, bright, and also rapid, boiling, as it were, vehement--in Russian yary, whence seems to be derived the name of the similar mythical being Yarilo. Jacob Grimm [Klein. Schrift. II. 250] compares kupa with the German Haufe, and the Lithuanian kaupas, a heap, kapas, a mound, etc.
"May my flax be as tall as this bough!"
of herbs and flowers on St. John's Day is common to various Slavonic peoples, as also is the habit of washing in dew on the morning of the festival.
Even at the present day, it is said, heathen rites are secretly observed in some of the remote districts of Russia. However this may be, it is well known that they prevailed in many places until a comparatively recent, period, a fact which accounts for the significance attached to these Midsummer festivals in the eyes of the people. Of thoroughly heathenish origin is a custom still kept up on the Eve of St. John. A figure of Kupalo is made of straw, the size sometimes of a boy, sometimes of a man, and is dressed in woman's clothes, with a necklace and a floral crown. Then a tree is felled, and, after being decked with ribbons, is set up on some chosen spot. Near this tree, to which they give the name of Marena [Winter or Death], the straw figure is placed, together with a table, on which stand spirits and viands. Afterwards a bonfire is lit, and the young men and maidens jump over it in couples, carrying the figure with them. On the next day they strip the tree and the figure of their ornaments, and throw them both into a stream.
That is, says Afanasief, [P. V. S. III. 722] Perun and Lada bathed in the dewy springs on the hills of heaven. He shook the earth with his thunderbolts, she made the grass grow in the fields.
over a marriage, and the other tragic, as if to lament for a death. In the former case it appears to be a mystical union between the elements of fire and water that is celebrated; in the latter the downward course of the sun towards its wintry grave. It is true that the feast of All Saints generally occurs some weeks before the summer solstice, and therefore it might at first sight seem difficult to explain as solar myths any allusions to decay or death that may be conveyed in its songs and customs, were it not well known that the Church arbitrarily altered the time of many popular festivals, and may therefore in this case have transferred to the week after Whitsuntide what were originally Midsummer ceremonies.
during the fast preceding that day, and so they have been transferred to a period a little before or after it. They bear the name of "The Funeral of Kostroma," or of Lada or Yarilo, and they evidently symbolize the decay and temporary suspension of the vivifying powers of nature as winter comes on. In the Governments of Penza and Simbirsk the "funeral" used to be represented in the following manner:--A girl was chosen to act the part of Kostroma. Her companions then saluted her with low obeisances, placed her on a piece of wood, and carried her to the bank of a stream. There they bathed her in the waters, while the oldest member of the party made a basket of lime-tree bark, and beat it like a drum. After that they all returned home, to end the day with games and dances. In the Murom districts Kostroma was represented by a figure made for the most part of straw, and dressed in female attire. This was carried to the water's edge by a crowd which divided into two parts, of which one attacked the figure and the other defended it. At last the assailants gained the day, stripped the figure of its dress and ornaments, trod it under foot, and flung into the stream the straw of which it was made. While this act of destruction was going on, the figure's defenders hid their faces in their hands, and seemed to deplore the death of Kostroma.
Voroneje the people used to meet in an open place, and decide who should represent Yarilo. Whoever was chosen for that purpose was fantastically clad, and had small bells fastened to his dress. Then, holding in his hand a mallet--an ancient emblem of the thunderbolt--he paraded around, dancing, singing, gesticulating; and after him followed a noisy crowd, which eventually divided into two bodies, between which a kind of boxing-match took place. In the town of Kostroma the people chose an old man, and gave him a coffin containing a Priapus-like figure representing Yarilo. This he carried outside the town, being attended on the way by women chanting dirges and expressing by their gestures grief and despair. Out in the fields a grave was dug, and in it the figure was buried amid weeping and wailing, after which games and dances were commenced, calling to mind the funeral games celebrated. in old times by the pagan Slavonians. A similar custom used to prevail in Little-Russia, where, before the figure was buried, it was shaken, as if with the hope of awaking the dead Yarilo--the Slavonian representative of Adonis.
that the mythical being may have derived its name, inasmuch as its figure was made of straw mixed with weeds, twigs, etc. The general supposition, however, seems to be that expressed by Afanasief [P. V. S. III. 726], who says that the names conveyed to the popular mind the idea of living beings, similar to mankind, and that they appear to have originated at an exceedingly remote period.
But the Oriole is unweaving.
Weave or not at thy will, O Nightingale!
Nor peck the spring wheat.
Oi Lado! Oi Lado 9.
believed, cannot pass by without thunder. In olden times it was consecrated to Perun, the thunder-compelling deity; since the introduction of Christianity it has been transferred to Ilya, the Thunderer, as the Servians call the Prophet Elijah. But, except among the Bulgarians, there are no special songs devoted to Ilya's Day.
by the thunder, nor will water drown him, but he will live on, secure from poverty, to a green old age.
With the spring commences the season of field-labour, which is inaugurated by a religious service. Crosses, holy pictures, and banners, round which are twined festoons of green leaves and flowers, are carried in procession to the fields, and the priest blesses the soil, and sprinkles it with holy water, a ceremony which is repeated before the commencement of the hay and corn harvests. At Candlemas each peasant has a wax candle specially consecrated, and this he carefully preserves, in order to bear it to his plot of land at seed-time and harvest. On Lady-Day, and on the day before Good Friday, small loaves are consecrated, which are afterwards placed near, or crumbled up among, the seed-corn. When the sowers go into the fields to sow, they bend low towards the east, the west, and. the south, uttering prayers each time, and flinging a handful of corn. Until this ceremony has been performed they do not begin their regular work of sowing.
There the Rye is thick.
And of the half-grain a pie.
For the crown of gold is woven.
This fair crown with flowers.
Thy good fortune into his rooms.
Will make ready for us the Dojinok [Harvest-home].
When the Talaka is brought in procession to a house, the master and mistress come out to meet her with low salutations, and the offering of bread and salt. Then she is invited indoors, and given the place of honour during the ensuing feast, at the end of which she takes off her crown, and gives it to the master of the house.
in honour of the Prophet Elijah, and in another district one of oats is consecrated to St. Nicholas. As it is well known that both the Saint and the Prophet have succeeded to the place once held in the estimation of the Russian people by Perun, it seems probable that Volos really was, in ancient times, one of the names of the thunder-god 4.
Volos in olden times was known as the God of Cattle, and in that capacity he, together with Perun, is appealed to in the oath by which Svyatoslaf ratified his treaty with the Greeks. Various explanations of his name have been offered, Sabinin connecting it with that of Odin, which sometimes passed in the mouths of the people, through the form Woden or Wôde into that of Wôld or Wôl, and Prince Vyazemsky connecting Veles, one of the forms of the name, with the Greek βελιος, ἀβέλιος = ἥλιος. Afanasief considers that the name was originally one of the epithets of Perun, who, as the cloud-compeller--the clouds being the cattle of the sky--was the guardian of the heavenly herds, and that the epithet ultimately became regarded as the name of a distinct deity.
Vlasy [Blasius], who was a shepherd by profession. To him the peasants throughout Russia pray for the safety of their flocks and herds, and on the day consecrated to him [February 11] they drive their cows to church, and have them secured against misfortune by prayer and the sprinkling of holy water. At the same time they carry offerings of butter to the church, and place them in front of St. Vlas's picture--a custom which has given rise to the saying "Vlas's bread is in butter!"
position, as has already been stated, until the year 1700 5.
The first week of September bears the name of Seminskaya Nedyela or Simeon's Week, and it is also known as the Bab'e Lyeto or Woman's Summer. Some critics have derived the name from that of the cluster of stars called in Russia Baba [the Pleiades], which is apparent at that time of year; but it seems really to be due to the fact that, after the harvest is over, and all field-work is ended for the year, the babas, or women, betake themselves to what is called special "woman's work" (bab'i rabotui), such as spinning, etc. At this season the peasants predict what the coming winter will be like, judging by the abundance or rarity of the gossamer webs--the German Alteweibersommer [D. M. 744]--in the fields. By the Carpathian Slavonians this season of the year is called Bab'in Moroz--the Woman's Frost; and a legend is current among them of an old sorceress who was frozen to death on the heights, a story which may have been invented in order to explain the strange appearance of one of those stone female statues which used to stand by the roadside in some parts of Transylvania.
"And the Tarakan on what ?" she continues.
"The Tarakan on Tarakans," is the answer.
wrong, thinking that the presence of such insects brings with it blessing from on high.
September is apt to be a gloomy month in Russia as far as the weather is concerned. And as the weather has its influence on the spirits, a number of proverbs are current with reference to the month, such as, "As surly as September," "September's spleen has seized him," or "He has Septembrian thoughts."
Lado mine, Lado, beer have we brewed!
That beer will cause us to lie down to sleep.
On account of that beer shall we all clap our hands.
Now on account of that beer shall we all take to quarrelling 8.
Father Ovín, cure my utín.
Hence the old proverb says, "Churches are not like ovins: in them [i.e. the former] the holy pictures are all alike," i. e. it's all one whether you pray in your own parish church or in any other. But the old heathen worship of the domestic hearth, or of the ovín, was confined to such places only as belonged to each individual worshipper.
The 6th of September is one of the two principal days--the other being the 6th of December--set aside for the celebration of the Bratchina, or brotherly feast [brat = brother], held at the common expense. On each of those days the villagers go in a body to church, and there offer a large candle and have a service performed for the gaining of all things good. Afterwards they feast together and entertain hospitably their friends from the neighbouring villages. The relics of the meal are given to the poor, and any bread-crumbs that may remain undisposed of are tossed into the air, in order to propitiate the unclean spirits that might be tempted to destroy the trees or the cornfields.
Mead I drank not, nor small beer.
Vodka delicious I drank, I drank.
But a bucketful I drank, I drank.
Clung to the posts of the door.
The drunken woman, the tipsy rogue 1.
Subbota, Dmitry's Saturday--a name now given by the peasants to the autumnal festival they hold every year in remembrance of their ancestors and dead relatives. If at that time a thaw follows the first frosts of winter, the people say, Roditeli otdokhnut, "the Fathers enjoy repose," for they hold, as will be seen in the chapter on Funeral Songs, that the dead suffer from cold, as well as from hunger, in the grave. On the day of the commemoration the peasants attend a church service, and afterwards they go out to the graves of their friends, and there institute a feast, lauding amidst many tears the virtues and good qualities of the dead, and then drinking to their eternal rest. So important a, feature in the ceremony is this drinking, that it has given rise to a proverb, "One begins for the repose of the dead, and one goes on for one's own pleasure." It is customary on such occasions to hand over a portion of the articles provided for the feast to the officiating ecclesiastics and their assistants, a fact to which allusion is made in the popular saying, "It is not always Dmitry's Saturday with priestly children."
which, in the great majority of cases, leads to a marriage, some day after the cares and toils of harvest are over. How many relics of the past are still preserved in the customs attendant upon a Russian marriage, and how rich it is in old songs, the next chapter will attempt to show.
186:1 The Croatian verb, Kolyadovati, means "to offer a sacrifice," but the word Koleda, as used by the Tver peasants, stands for "the daily dole of alms to the poor." In Croatia the word has retained its old heathen associations: in the Russian provinces it has yielded to the influence of Christianity. See Schöpping, R. N. p. 13.
190:3 Sakharof, I. iii. 22.
190:4 Sakharof, I. iii 22.
190:5 The Little-Russian or Polish equivalent for the Great-Russian Gospodin, the German Herr, the French Monsieur, etc.
191:6 Afanasief, P. V. S. III. 757.
192:7 Literally "the fiery or inflammable stone," the epithet being in general purely conventional.
192:8 Snegiref, R. P. P. II. 68.
193:9 See Schöpping, R. N. p. 10. He says that the names Kolyada and Kupalo were not unfrequently confused, and that the latter feast to this day bears the name of the former in Dalmatia.
194:1 Afanasief, P. V. S. III. 758.
195:2 Afanasief, P. V. S. II. 466.
197:3 Snegiref, R. P. P. III. 8. Tereshchenko (VII. 150) says that the songs derived their name from the fact of their being sung at table during a meal.
198:4 Sakharof, I. iii. 11.
199:5 Sakharof, I. iii. 12.
199:6 Afanasief, P. V. S. I. 561.
200:7 Sakharof, I. iii. 11.
200:8 Sakharof, I. iii. 21. There are many variants of the song, but they do not differ materially.
201:9 Afanasief, P. V. S. III. 741.
202:1 This name (pronounced avsén) is derived by some writers from Oves (pronounced av-yós), oats, and connected by others with Vesná, Spring. The Feast of Ovsén was originally on the first of March.
203:2 Snegiref, R. P. P. II. 111.
203:3 Grimm, D. M. 194.
204:5 Tereshchenko, VII. 123. The refrain occurs in the original at the end of almost every line.
205:6 Orest Miller, Opuit, etc. I. 52.
206:7 O. Miller, Chrest. I. 5.
207:9 The Svat (or Svakha) is the man (or woman) who proposes or arranges a marriage in Russia.
209:1 Snegiref, R. P. P. II. 132.
214:3 Grimm, D. M. 723.
214:4 Pages 97-101. See also Grimm, D. M. 1088.
215:5 Dugi. The arch springing from the shafts of a Russian cart or carriage, above the head of the draught-horse, is called a Duga.
215:6 The word Kuma, dim. Kumashka, is the French Commère, Scotch "Cummer," our own "Gossip," originally a connexion by common godmothership.
216:7 Afanasief, P. V. S. III. 226-228. Tereshchenko, V. 41.
216:8 See supra, chap. II. p. 144.
217:9 Afanasief, P. V. S. III. 229.
219:2 Opuit, etc. I. 48.
221:3 Grimm, D. M. 268.
222:4 Tereshchenko, V. 17. For further information on this subject see infra, pp. 310-313.
224:5 See infra, p. 283.
226:7 Snegiref, R. P. P. III. 37-46.
231:8 Afanasief, P. V. S. II. 402.
232:9 See Rawlinson's Herodotus, III. 172.
233:1 Afanasief, P. V. S. I. 699-704. It should, however, be stated that the above-mentioned legend about Yegory has been preserved in certain poems, which some critics assert to be of a different origin from that of the songs to which the present chapter is mainly devoted. The question will be discussed on another occasion.
236:3 See Afanasief, P. V. S. I. 662, 663. The word tur (cf. taurus) means an aurochs or bison.
237:4 Snegiref, R. P. P. III. 124.
243:7 Quoted by Kemble from a mediæval MS. See Kelly's "Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore," p. 58, where a full account is given of similar customs in other countries.
243:8 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 590.
246:9 Snegiref, R. P. P. IV. 67. Kurgán is a non-Slavonic word for a tumulus. The Ivolga, or Oriole, being golden-plumaged, may have been classed among the fire-bringing birds.
247:1 Afanasief, P. V. S. III. 763. A number of similar Bohemian traditions are given by Grohmann in his Aberglauben und Gebräuche am Böhmen etc. pp. 102-104.
249:2 Imya =name; Imyanínui = name-day, day consecrated to the saint after whom a person is named. Imyanínnik, one who celebrates his name-day.
250:3 Toloká in some parts of Russia means the gathering of the hay or corn harvest by the united labour of a man's neighbours, and Tolók is a threshing-floor, or a corn-field left to lie fallow.
252:4 For a similar custom, anciently observed in Mecklenburg in honour of Woden, see Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, p. 141. Dr. Mannhardt in an article recently published (in Russian) by the Moscow Archæological Society, suggests that, in ancient times, the Slavonians may have plaited their beards in Assyrian fashion, and adduces in support of his suggestion the testimony of an urn found in a Wendish tomb near Dantzic in 1855, on which is represented the face of a man with a barred or chequered beard.
254:5 Tereshchenko, III. 10. See supra, p. 203.
255:6 It has been already mentioned that the soul was often represented by the heathen Slavonians as a fly, gnat, or other insect. See supra, p. 118.
255:7 The Tarakans are a kind of cockroaches. They must not be confounded with some other insects of a sturdy nature, and not easily to be expelled, or in any way subdued, which the people call Prusáki or "Prussians."
257:9 Ulfidas translates the Greek κλίβανος by Auhns, in Matt. VI. 30, where our version has "cast into the oven." The Slavonic equivalent used in the Ostromir Gospel (A.D. 1056-7) is peshch, the modern pech, a stove.

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