WITCHCRAFT IN RUSSIA.
A singular trial has, according to the Moscow correspondent of the “ Cologne Q-azette,” lately taken placeat Novogored. A Russian peasant named Alexey efi and six women of his village, having accused another woman of having bewitched them, were sentenced by the district tribunal to tour months’ imprisonment, on the ground that they had protended to be ill in order to give colour to the accusation. The sentence was reversed, however, on appeal to the higher court, and they have now been liberated. The correspondent says that the belief in witches who injure men and cattle by supernatural power is very general in Russia ; there is scarcely a village which does not contain its “yurodivi” (inspired idiot), “kaldunya” (witch), or “klikusha’’ (screaming woman) ; and the fanatical sect of the “ Ohlhti,” whose members reduce themselves to a condition of hysterical mania by constant fasting and castigation, is spread over the whole country. It is remarkable that this illness is only to bo mot with among the rural population, who as a rule are very healthy and strong, and that not a truce of it is to be found in the towns.
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Bibliographic details
Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1954, 29 May 1880, Page 3
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192WITCHCRAFT IN RUSSIA. Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1954, 29 May 1880, Page 3
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