Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/438

 CHAPTER IV ČERNOBOG HE evidence of Helmold shows  $23$ that at banquets the Slavs were wont to offer prayer to a divinity of good and evil; and being convinced that happiness comes from the god of good, while misfortune is dispensed by the deity of evil, they called the latter Černobog or Zcernoboch ("Black God").

The conception of Černobog as the god of evil in contrast to the god of good is probably due to the influence of Christianity. The western Slavs, becoming familiar, through the instrumentality of the clergy, with the ideas of the new faith and with its conception of the devil, transferred to the latter many features of the pagan deities, worshipping him as a being who was very powerful compared even with the god of good. He was regarded as the cause of all calamities, and the prayers to him at banquets were in reality intended to avert misfortunes.