SUPERSTITION AND CRIME. 207 



calling in question the existence of the devil or the actuality of dia- 

 bolical agencies in human affairs without undermining the founda- 

 tions of the ecclesiastical system, of which he was an acknowledged 

 supporter. Such a declaration would " take away our hope," as the 

 Scotchman said of the denial of a literal hell-fire and the doctrine 

 of eternal punishment. It was for the same reason that the great 

 body of the Catholic clergy, from Pope Leo XIII and the highest 

 dignitaries of the church down to the humblest country vicar, so 

 easily fell into the snares laid by Leo Taxil and accepted the signa- 

 ture of the devil Bitru as genuine, and his revelations concerning the 

 pact of the freemasons with Satan as authentic. It is certainly some- 

 what startling to meet with such a case of gross superstition as the 

 above-mentioned in one of the seats of modern science and centers 

 of European civilization. In rural districts, remote from the influ- 

 ences of intellectual culture, however, instances of this kind are of 

 quite frequent occurrence, and often result in the commission of 

 crime. Human sacrifices to Satan are still by no means uncommon 

 in many parts of Russia, and are supposed to be effective in warding 

 off famine and in staying the ravages of pestilence. Even in Ger- 

 many and other countries of western Europe the belief in their 

 prophylactic virtue is remarkably prevalent, and would be often put 

 into practice were it not for the stricter administration of justice and 

 the greater terror of the law. 



In October, 1889, the criminal court in the governmental prov- 

 ince of Archangelsk, in northern Russia, sentenced a Samoyede, 

 Jefrern Pyrerka, to fifteen years' imprisonment with hard labor for 

 the murder of a maiden named Ssavaney. His sole defense was 

 that an unusually severe winter with a heavy fall of snow had pro- 

 duced a famine followed by scurvy, of which all his children had 

 died. He therefore made an image of the devil out of wood, smeared 

 its lips with fat, and set it up on a hillock. He then attempted to 

 lasso one of his companions, Andrey Tabarey, and had already 

 thrown the noose round his neck, when the energetic wife of the 

 intended victim intervened and rescued her husband. Shortly after- 

 ward he succeeded in strangling the girl and offering her as a sac- 

 rifice to his idol. In the province of Novgorod, known as " the dark- 

 est Russia," it is a general custom among the country people to sac- 

 rifice some animal, usually a black cat, a black cock, or a black dog, 

 by burying it alive, in order to check the spread of cholera. In the 

 village of Kamenka, a peasant, whose son had died of this disease, 

 interred with the body eight live tomcats. The immolation of dumb 

 animals, however, is deemed less efficacious than that of human be- 

 ings. On one occasion, when the cholera was raging severely, a depu- 

 tation of peasants waited upon their parson, stating that they had 



