MARITAL JEALOUSY 191 



A Russian monk, Pamphil, in the sixteenth century 

 reports that in the state of Novgorod similar festivals 

 were held on the banks of rivers, resembling in that 

 particular, as Professor Kovalevsky points out, the 

 annual festivals mentioned by Nestor. " Not later," 

 the professor says, " than the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century they were complained of by the clergy 

 of the State of Pscov. It was at that time that 

 Pamphil drew up his letter to the Governor of the 

 State, admonishing him to put an end to these annual 

 gatherings, since their only result was the corruption 

 of the young women and girls. According to the 

 author just cited the meetings took place as a rule the 

 day before the festival of St. John the Baptist, which 

 in pagan times was that of a divinity known by the 

 name of Jarilo, corresponding to the Priapus of the 

 Greeks. Half a century later the new ecclesiastical 

 code compiled by an assembly of divines convened 

 in Moscow by the Czar Ivan the Terrible, took effec- 

 tual measures for abolishing every vestige of paganism, 

 amongst them the yearly festivals held on Christmas 

 Day, on the day of the Baptism of our Lord, and on 

 St. John the Baptist, commonly called Midsummer 

 Day. A general feature of all these festivals, ac- 

 cording to the code, was the prevalence of the 

 promiscuous intercourse of the sexes." That the 

 code did not succeed in abolishing these periodical 

 meetings is clear, since they are still held from time to 

 time, though perhaps not so regularly. But it does 

 seem to have been effective in purifying them from 

 most of the sexual corruption. This at all events 

 is indicated by Professor Kovalevsky 's own experience 

 of such midsummer meetings. But documents pre- 



