292 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



In some districts remedial measures are periodically 

 taken against a visitation of the murrain. The cattle 

 are all driven into the village, and a big circle is made 

 around it with a plow, which is dragged by the 

 oldest woman in the community. All the female 

 villagers follow in procession behind the plow, carry- 

 ing ikons, chanting weird incantations, and beating tin 

 pans and cooking vessels. One old woman bestrides a 

 broom a la witch, and a widow, wearing nothing but 

 a horse-collar around her neck, keeps pace with the 

 one who is dragging the plow. If a dog or a cat, 

 frightened by the noise, rushes out, it is immediately 

 seized and killed, on the supposition that it is the 

 cattle plague in disguise, trying to escape. 



In other districts casting a black cock alive into a 

 bonfire at the end of certain ceremonies is believed to 

 be efficacious in warding off many contagious diseases. 

 Bonfires are built in the village, and young women in 

 night-dresses drag a plow and carry a holy picture, 

 with much unearthly screeching, after which the un- 

 fortunate rooster is cast into the flames. In some 

 villages, when a visit of the cattle plague is to be 

 dreaded, if a stray cow happens to be found among the 

 herd, it is burned alive, as the peasants believe that the 

 " cattle death ' has thus assumed the form of a cow 

 to escape detection. 



One of the most curious and widespread beliefs of 

 the peasants is that every house contains a domovoi 

 or house-spirit. Russian peasants catch glimpses of 

 the domovoi about as often as Americans see ghosts, 

 but they all believe in his existence. The domovoi is 

 described as a little old man, no bigger than a five- 



