THE RUSSIAN PEASANT

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 22

THE RUSSIAN PEASANT

MANNERS THAT MEMORY RECALLS PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS CREEDS [Written by Fanny Scumkhmann.] No. 1L There arc many anecdotes told of the priest. One anecdote _ tells of a peasant who asked of the priest permission to marry in another village. The priest refused “Do think what 1 lose by it. First, your wedding; then, secondly, you will have children—say, for instance, seven or eight- -seven or eight baptisms. Thirdly, three or four will probably dio—three or four deaths, then. Three or lour will grow upland marry—three or four marriages. These will also have children. Think, how can I lot you go:"” “ Hut, lather, yon tiro old; all that mav not happen in your lifetime,” “ All right, then,” said the priest, ' “ Let ns make the bargain for It) roubles.'’ The life of the priest is not an enviable one. His parish is often exceedingly pour, and he is barely paid. But with all his faults and oiton vices lie never refuses to go to a dying man, though the man may be unable to jiay and the priest may have to drive through a lonely waste in storm and rain, .sometimes without hope that lie will return alive. How many have, not returned.

Though there is a great dislike among the peasants for the clergy and monks, they take the priest as a necessary item of the church’s ceremonies and needs. Hites and services of the church are accepted without question by tho majority of tho Russians as divine ordinances. The peasant expresses his religions feelings by crossing himself before tho ikons, the holy images which hang in every house throughout Russia, la sunshine and sorrow ho turns to Ids ikon. On frequent occasions, leasts, festivals, and. holidays, a candle is lighted and placed in a holder opposite the ikon. There are ordinary ikons and miracle-work-ing ikons. It happens that n monk has a vision, in which he is informed of the presence of a miraculous ikon hidden at a certain spot. He hastens thither, generally at the dead of the night, and the next day the country runs wild with the news. Tho ikon becomes then a producer of revenue lor the impoverished church and an image to which devotion is paid by thousands of pilgrims. The Holy Orthodox Church demands from tho peasant fasts—fourteen days in June, seven weeks in Lent, trom the beginning of November till Christinas, and every Wednesday and EHdty throughout the year. Flesh, _ jowl, milk, eggs, butter, sugar arc forbidden, and in the last weeks twice weekly is oven fish denied to him. Though Hie peasant’s diet during the year is very poor, the fast is strictly observed by him. At the feast of Masslenitza, or butter week, he gives himsdif up to an orgy of moat and drink. Merrily ring the church bells, and a_ multitude of sleighs with galloping, excited horses and somi-intoxicated drivers, with occupants singing gaily and playing the balaika, pass to and fro in the village. Tho first three or four days the villagers keep to themselves; they eat. drink constantly, and especially butter is absorbed in abundance. The lavorilo dish is blinni, a kind of pancake baked in butter and served in a sauce of melted butter. The peasant is in merry mood, forgetting economy and throwing'to the winds all thoughts of the future. With wife and children lie drives here and there to the nciglir boring villages. The air is rent with, singing, shouting, salutations, and wiC They are all a little intoxicated, and singing, driving, dancing, and drinking go until the evening, when Jvinc Vodka fa. kind of brandy) transforms them into a state which beggars description. At .12 o’clock on Sunday the least is over. From that moment for seven long weeks must tho peasant last. On the arrival of Passion week, the last week of the fast, preparations commence for the Easter festival. On Holy Thursday (ho church is thronged with people holding tapers in their hands, some beautifully ornamented, on which the peasants squander sums of inoncv. Thev keep the tapers alight on Thursday, and rekindle them on Easter Eve, and, marching Jrqin tillage to village, produce streams ol illumination throughout the night. On Good Friday a representation ol the Lord s coffin‘is made, the coffin being covered with a, cloth, on which Obnst body with the wounds is painted. On Saturday night at the hour ol mid night the bell tolls, the doors of holy sanctum of bronze or gold open wide, disclosing the Holy of Holies and the priests standing in Hie midst ol thick volumes of incense-laden vapor. The tapers are (hen kindled and light lilts the church. All sing in unison 1 Christ Is Risen. The pall is then removed from the coffin, ami the priest swings the golden censor over the bowed heads of the people. In all parts of file chinch peasants are kneeling, lying at lull length, regardless nl Hie trampling feel", kissing the pavement, the Icet of Christ on the numberless ikons. Then the joyous crowd sweeps towards Hie entrance to Hie Holy of Holies, where the priest bestows on each a kiss and a blessing. At 4 o’clock in Hie morning the masses return and bring their lirst meal alter the long fast to be blessed bv the priest. Then begins the festival of kissing. Everyone kisses everyone else. High, low, rich, poor, all kiss one another. The groat icature nt Hie Easter festival is eggs, and they arc everywhere. The peasant, who is an ardent devotee of the church and its rituals, is, however, dominated by superstitions, by belief in numerous spirits, which he imagines (ill (ho wicked world. There are the household, lannyard, barn, balh, hole, wood, held spirits, water demons, wafer fairies, and incarnations. The household demon, the Domovoi, is supposed to be hidden in stores, cupboards, boxes, and is usually silting on men’s chests while they sleep. ‘[What will the Domovoi do to-day?” is flic peasant's first thought. The spirit haunts dwellings, plays disagreeable tricks on housewives and their husbands. The peasant woman, the baba, often places outside Hie outer door provisions in order that the Domovoi may cat, and, in favorable mood, guide her husband, who is late nt night at a drinking bout, safely home. When events of great importance, such as marriages, births, and deaths, arc being celebrated, food is set for the Doinovoi outside (ho outer door. Sometimes through Hie medium of a dream the Domovoi advises the peasant to steal the master’s wood. A very evil spirit is the bath spirit, or Bannik. who after 7 o'clock in Hie evening takes possession of the bathhouse. The peasants avoid bathing after the third.

[as ' the Bannik takes his bath at 1 the ’fourth turn, and may then push bricks at them or threw boiling water at them. Yet the peasant adores his vapor bath. Old and young assemble on bath night, and naked stand, sit, and lie at-full length on bench, table, and floor. As the vapor, produced by a lingo stove dr by pouring cold water over heated bricks, rises and falls in great thick rolls, their spirits rise with it. They dance and sing, and as the pores of their skins are opened a stream of life-giving ether enters and provokes wild exultation. The peasant thinks that he is intoxicated with the spirit permeating his whole organism. All becomes chaos. They beat each other, dance wild dances, then fly out with shouts and screams and roll in the snow. A moment thus in the snow, and then they rush back to tho heated bathroom.

The great majority of the peasants belong to a sect called Raskelniki, or Old Believers. Many centuries ago the patriarch Nikon had ordered a revision of the rites of the church. All manner of errors had crept into the services, the copying of the sacred books, and the painting of the ikons. When the errors were rectified, a great number of the people refused to recognise the new rites and counted them heretical. They left the great body of the church and were called Raskelniki. or Schismatics, or Keepers of the Old Rites. Their differences of belief were confined to the spelling of the name Jesus, the crossing of themselves with two fingers instead of three, and so forth. They guided their behaviour by visions and omens, and followed tlie darkest superstitions. They neither smoked nor drank; they counted it a sin to cut their hair; they never used the scissors. never shaved themselves. They were wealthier than the others, and usually helped each other, as their seet was persecuted by the Orthodox Church. They were numerous and strict in the north, and formed there many wealthy communities. Many see in this creed the comfort the peasant took in having a different creed from Ins master. It was, maybe, an unconscious protest in the bondman’s free soul, his human dignity against the master, tho State, the church.

Though the peasant is ignorant, can neither road nor write, in hissonl lives a deep religious feeling, a desire to find the truth. For that reason in Russia there arc numerous sects. The sect Molokano is often met in the_ villages of the south. One can recognise them by the greater wealth of their dwellings, their morality, and the profound knowledge of the 13ible and Scriptures. In their beliefs they are nearer to the I’resbyterians. Ail the sects were persecuted until 1907, when religious freedom was proclaimed. The Russian peasant, with a head covered with shaggy hair, with all his ignorance, yet abounds in naural intelligence, wisdom, and kindness. He is as full of contrasts and paradoxes as Ins vast country itself.