FOREST AND FIELD MYTHS. 



JG9 



uanian harvest-feast, and of a means of avert- 

 ing pestilence. The first is taken from the origi- 

 nal MS. of the work (edited by Dr. W. Pierson 

 in 1871) on Lithuanian tradition and folk-lore, 

 compiled during the latter half of the seventeenth 

 century, by Matthias Priitorius and other Lutheran 

 clergymen in Prussian Lithuania, and completed, 

 but not published, in 1703. In it Priitorius de- 

 scribes, among other things, the Lithuanian Sam- 

 borios or grain-feast. In the early part of De- 

 cember, he says, when the peasants begin thrash- 

 ing their corn, each husbandman takes nine hand- 

 fuls of every kind of seed-bearing plant which he 

 cultivates — corn, beans, etc. — and divides each 

 handful into three parts. He then collects the 

 twenty-seven small sheaves thus made into one 

 large heap, and, from part of the grain and other 

 seeds thrashed out of it, bakes a small loaf for 

 each member of his household, mixes the rest 

 with the other materials necessary, and therewith 

 brews beer. The first draught of this beer is re- 

 served for himself, his wife, and bis children ; the 

 second for the rest of the household and any 

 stranger who may, though uninvited, accidentally 

 be present. When the beer is ready, the father 

 of the family, at eventide, kneels down before the 

 cask, and utters a prayer, commencing with the 

 words, " fruit-bearing Earth, 1 let our rye and 

 barley and all our grain bear fruit." Then he re- 

 turns, beer-laden, to the room in which his wife 

 and children await him, together with a cock and 

 hen which lie pinioned on the floor. The father 

 kneels down, holding in his hand the beer-can, 

 and prays for a blessing on his farm and home- 

 stead. Then all lift up their hands and say, " 

 God, and thou, Earth, we offer to thee this cock 

 and hen; receive them as freely-offered gifts." 

 Then he kills the fowls with a wooden ladle, and 

 hands them over to a maid to be plucked. The 

 housewife then sends away the servants and labor- 

 ers, and cooks the fowls in an unused pan. When 

 ready, they are placed on a large corn-measure, 

 which is covered with a table-cloth, along with the 

 above-mentioned little cakes, and round this spe- 

 cies of altar kneel all the family. The father then 

 utters the Creed and the Ten Commandments, 

 prays for a blessing on the coming year, and three 

 times empties a cup of beer. Then all the others 

 drink in turn, and the cakes and fowls are eaten. 

 All that is eatable must be consumed. The bones 



1 Zeminele : in Kussian zemlya. " Bless us, O Zem- 

 inele, bless our cornfields, bless the woods and past- 

 ures, too," runs a song, printed for the first time by 

 Dr. Mannhardt, who obtained it from a witness who 

 heard it sung by a peasant in 1866. 



must be gnawed clean by the house-dog before 

 the master's eyes, and afterward reverently buried 

 in the cow-house or stable. During the whole of 

 the day the servants and laborers must be ad- 

 dressed only in kindly terms. 



It was not till the year 1386 that the Lithu- 

 anians accepted Christianity. Until then hea- 

 thenism prevailed all over the country, except in a 

 few towns, such as Wilna, where there were many 

 members of the Greek Church, including the 

 reigning family. But in that year Yagello, 

 Grand - Duke of Lithuania, married Jadwiga, 

 Queen of Poland, passed from the Greek to the 

 Latin Church, and made Christianity the religion 

 of his country. The heathen Lithuanians were 

 baptized in troops, the sacred groves were felled, 

 the holy fires were extinguished, and an end was 

 put to the snakes and lizards which till then 

 had been revered if not worshiped. Heathenism, 

 however, though scotched, was not killed, and in 

 the gloomy recesses of Lithuanian forests it long 

 lived on, and was represented for centuries by 

 such feasts as that of " the Thrice-nine " which 

 has just been mentioned, and by such other rites 

 as the following Lettish ceremony whereby to 

 keep off pestilence. It is described in the work 

 published at Riga, in 1636, by a Lutheran super- 

 intendent named Einhorn, under the title of 

 " Reformatio gentis Letticae in Ducatu Curlan- 

 dias." "When a cattle-plague is dreaded," he 

 says, " the peasants hold a solemn feast, which 

 they call Sobar. Having contributed a coin 

 apiece, they purchase an ox or other horned 

 beast, which they slay and cook. Each man, 

 also, brings a certain amount of grain, from 

 which they bake cakes and brew beer. Then, 

 all having met together, they call upon God to 

 avert the plague from them, and afterward con- 

 sume the victuals and drink. This was done," 

 he goes on to say, "in 1602 and 1625, years of 

 murrain and pestilence. But it had to be done 

 secretly, being strictly prohibited by law. Many 

 men have told me," he adds, "that they were 

 warned in dreams, by the spectres which at such 

 times show themselves, to avert a coming plague 

 by a Sobar." To this day, the Russian peasants 

 in out-of-the-way places attempt by equally hea- 

 thenish rites to keep off the dreaded cattle-plague 

 from their herds. Od an appointed evening the 

 men are all confined to their homes. The wom- 

 en, wearing nothing but smocks, go outside the 

 village, yoke one of their number to a plough, 

 and follow her, singing the wildest of songs, 

 while she draws the plough round the home- 

 steads which are to be secured against pesti- 



