Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/454

 CHAPTER V VELES, VOLOS, AND STRIBOG

ELES, the god of flocks, was held in high honour by the Russians, who swore by him as well as by Perun when making a treaty;  $33$ and old Russian texts often mention him in connexion with the more famous divinity. $34$ When Vladimir was baptized in 988, he caused the idols of Veles to be thrown into the river Počayna;  $35$ another stone statue of the same deity, worshipped by the Slavic tribes in the neighbourhood of Finland, was destroyed by Abraham of Rostov, who preached Christianity on the banks of the Volga in the twelfth century;   $36$ and the Slovo pluku Igorevě   $37$ calls the minstrel Boyan "the grandson of Veles."

The memory of Veles still lives among the Russian people. In southern Russia it is customary at harvest-time to tie the last handful of ears into a knot, this being called "plaiting the beard of Veles" or "leaving a handful of ears for Veles's beard"; and in some districts a piece of bread is put among such ears, probably as a reminiscence of the sacrifices offered to Veles.

Veles was well known among the ancient Bohemians likewise, and his name frequently occurs in old Bohemian texts, although its original meaning has so utterly disappeared that the word now signifies simply "the devil." $38$

After the introduction of Christianity the worship of Veles was transferred to St. Blasius, a shepherd and martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia, whom the Byzantines called the guardian of flocks. $39$ In this capacity the saint is still venerated in Russia, Bulgaria, and even in Bohemia; and the shepherds,