Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/303

 11 8. VI. SEPT. 28, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

247

the most efficient means of freeing them from lichen, &c., was to dry-scour them with a piece of broken brick of very hard, over- fired cellular consistency, and, after brushing pff the litter, to ruddle the surface of the stone with a softer brick, spreading the colour smoothly with the palm. The inscrip- tions are thus much more distinctly revealed than when an attempt is made to clear out the moss or earth from the sunken letters, and the danger of chipping them is avoided, as is also the confusion presented to the eye when the surface is scraped in parts by a knife or sharp slate, raising a white powder.

It is, further, a good plan to revisit the spot at different times of the day, to take advantage of different effects of light and shade. ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

" RTTSSAI,KY " LOBE. Readers of Push- kin, Turgeniev, and earlier Russian authors generally know the uncanny russalky, broadly classed with the Greek nymphs and sirens, the fatal Lorelei, Balkan samovilas, and the gumblesse of the West Indian negro. These dangerous creatures usually inhabit rivers like undines, and sometimes trees. When Ruslan sets forth on Ms quest for his lost Ludmila russalky beckon him from trees to pause and dally ; but, like Galahad, he sternly rides by. Often the russalka is the heroine of an irregular amour, and with her russalka infant contrives the drowning of the faithless swain.

To the Zhivaya Starina of the Russian Imperial Academy Mr. D. Zelenin has recently contributed an interesting study of russalky lore with definite conclusions. The russalky as a rule are young women, occa- sionally men, and rarely old women, who have taken their own lives and are con- demned to haunt the earth until the time of their natural death arrives. They are evil agents, and work harm to crops and cattle if disturbed or offended. As their earthly raiment must fade, they need linen and thread, which they will beg or steal from villagers, who charitably leave clothing in the forests. Unbaptized infants are among the munber, and these entreat way- farers to baptize them : by giving it a name and making a rough cross the unfortunate spirit is freed to pass to the better land. The bodies of suicides are rejected by " mat sira zemlia " (mother damp earth), so that if buried in consecrated ground, climatic disturbances will result. The horse, a noble emblem, is terrifying to russalky, and

forms the central figure in games of " chasing the russalky " from villages. One cere- monial is burial of a russalka, for which a crude doll does duty. The daughters of Pharaoh, " drowned with their father," or of Herod presumably the massacrer of the Innocents were said to be the first russalky, and responsible for disseminating fevers and other diseases. The cholera is a female spectre with dishevelled hair.

Mr. Zelenin has collected numerous in- stances of Russian, Finnish, and Tartar superstition and worship of the mischievous departed and russalky, and it is tempting to enlarge. He records a Little Russian legend that one day our Lord and His Apostles were walking, and entered into the devil's hut. He entertained them with gorilka (corn brandy), hitherto unknown. Saints Peter and Paul (sic) were pleased, and after two cups the latter desired a third, for which the host asked payment. None of the company had money, so the devil took St. Paul's hat. Then the Master promised that if he would restore the hat he should be allowed all the souls who came to ruin through gorilka. Western Christians, systematically brought up on enlightened Bible study, may well wonder how the mind of the intensely devout Eastern Christian can assimilate such tales as these. FRANCIS P. MABCHANT.

Streatham Common.

PASSPORTS TO PARADISE. (See 10 S. x. 405.) When mentioning Joanna South- cott's Passport to Paradise, which I had come across, I was not aware that she was a plagiarist in this matter, and that these things go back much beyond her day, as the following interesting specimen shows :

" Marcarius, by the Grace of God, Archbishop of Kieff, of Halice and all Russia, to our lord ami friend St. Peter, doorkeeper of God Omnipotent. We notify the death this day of a servant of God, called Prince Theodore Vladimirsk ; we pray that he be introduced immediately, and without any hindrance or delay, into the Kingdom of Go'd. We have absolved him of all his sins, and granted him our benediction. Wherefore nothing stands in the way but that thou let him pass, and in order that it should be so we have left him this receipt of absolution at our Monastery of Kieff, the thirteenth day of July, 1341. Marcarius, Archbishop of Kieff, of Halice, and all Russia." Translated from the Italian, as given in the Anino of Rome, 17 March, 1912, p. 5, by Signer Giovanni Thomas.

The original exists in the British Museum.

D. J.