SUPERSTITION OF THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY
The Raglans .were the last European r»oe to bo converted to Christianity, and era »tlli wlthia * distance of heathenism, that is easily meaaureble. It la, therefore, little to., be wondered; at that ..•» number of singular superstitions ahbul& Htlll survive among the peasantry, rather Kite those prevailing m Franoe enci England duclng the mlddb ->gei, The Kuislan journala are not unh read In this country, but If, they were mo-e within the lingatattq saaoutoes of Koglli/,. • oadeja eager aftmj novelties, they • * ;a':i : Vbe maeh astonished at not a few loun of I news reported. Had newspaper;, been puolished In A..D. MOO m London, they would, we fancy, have frequently chroDioled similar events to those we fiott recorded m the columns of the TuuJßlttb press to day. The belief m wltouonrft i 8 stll very general, and every now o.nd then the papers contain acoounts of. wretched old women been barbaroa^W tortured and murdered because th^y were believed tobe witohes. It m%\ take several generations of progress an& education before the* peasantry c\ the, remoter distrlotaget ild of auga bloodthirsty superstitions. Aa » saoe they tre genotally amiable and affectionate, rarely quarrelling In their oops, ai is too frequently the o»He m England*; it, is only when tbelc supernatural teirora aroused that ' they seek what they think li their 'own Bafety m malignant manifestations of f rantlo cruelty. In, the Ukraine tbe people believe »» all ftQrta of anpferl nHtueol beings, from, v&mplrea to water apt I' ea. . Amoi\2 the mcsi grotesque o f their lnatita^loßß is the ceremony >jerfotifted m Borho remote plaoaa to bt3 O g on raiu m aeasona of droughty , An ol.^ ; WO man, without a rag of cover* ia i dt ' midnight harnoßSod to a plough a»a driven through the village, whilst the ma'.e portion of the population are supposed to be sleeping. Her driven* are tho village maldenß m their nlghtgowca. If PJl y o f tho men, exoapt tk« beards, &ii.ouid ba lompted "S pJTifaoe oraiojiity to look' ori* this B'TraDgo prcceasion, a great mlsioc une will befal thu community. There it> v romantlo {stele to theae ftuperntlUoßß
forian»*eiy, Io South Ruiai* evetjf sUtam and tree Is believed to havr- its epUltu»» denizen, brloßing mottale tha look they deserve. Buisia li a Uvd cf oontWB«. where obsolete sopeßi Itlone jostle wittt tbe latest inventions of the nlnetoenth eenhiry. ,
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2287, 26 November 1889, Page 2
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396SUPERSTITION OF THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2287, 26 November 1889, Page 2
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