that those who gave birth or contributed a 

 freak received a payment for the above mentioned. 

 Two which were brought were described as babies, 

 each with two heads that were attached to their 

 bodies . It is possible that many were born in 

 this condition. The ignorant believed that these 

 monsters were born from the devil's influence, 

 that it was impossible for the single creator 

 of all creatures, God, to be responsible. 

 Actually, the deformity was caused by damage to 

 the interior, by fear or maternal conditions at 

 the time of pregnancy, examples of which were 

 the frightened mother, the mother who was hurt or 

 in pain, etc. 



From the contents of this decree, it is clear that a 

 similar decree had preceded some years earlier, but its 

 text was never found. This revised decree specified payment 

 for every human, animal and avian monster brought to the 

 Commandant in every town. Payment for dead monstrosities 

 included: for the human, ten roubles; for animal, five 

 roubles; and for avian, three roubles. For living monsters, 

 payment for the human was 100 roubles; for animal, 15 

 roubles; and for the avian monster, 7 roubles. But if it 

 was highly unusual higher payment was given, and less if 

 there was little change from the ordinary. In addition, if 

 birth was intentional and because of shame over the monster 

 they did not want to bring it, the Commandant innocuously 

 asked them — whose? By relinquishing the monstrosity, the 

 person received his money and was set free. When the monsters 

 died, they were put in spirits. Or if preservatives were 

 unavailable, then they were placed in strong ordinary wine 

 and closed tightly, in order not to deteriorate. Payment 

 for this wine was made to the pharmacy. 1 



Earlier, January 28,1704, Peter had declared the 

 following nominal decree for Moscow and for the Moscow 

 district of boyar Musiny-Pushkin: 



1. POLNOE SOBRANIE ZAKONOV ROSSIISKOI IMPERII S 1649 

 (The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire 

 from 1649) (1830), v. V, pp. 541 - 542. 



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