DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0197
i52
RITUAL TRANSPORT OF ASHES: RUSSIAN CUSTOM
Ritual
trans-
portation
ofashes :
Russian
custom.
Snakes
as spirits
of the
house-
hold.
Comparison of Ritual Transportation by Russian Peasants of Ashes
from former Homestead.
It may well be asked what ritual end may have been served by this
repository of ashes, itself resembling a tripod hearth, placed amongst the
other fittings of this snake sanctuary. The connexion of snake and hearth
as already noted, is obvious enough—but why this careful conservation of
extinct embers ?
A natural explanation, however, suggests itself. May not the ashes
so religiously preserved within this hearth-shaped object, have been trans-
ported on the occasion of a family removal from some earlier domicile ?
Here, again, an illuminating commentary may be found in the usages
of the same ethnic area that has already supplied such a useful parallel in
the case of the 'snake table'. When a Russian peasant family is about to
migrate to a new home the eldest woman of the household lights a fire for
the last time in the stove—the recognized dwelling-place of the Domovoy
or domestic Spirit, conceived of in the shape of a snake—after which she
deposits the burning embers in a clean jar, and, turning to the 'stove corner',
says 'Welcome dyeduslika (grandfather) to our new home!' The fire-
containing vessel is then carried to the new dwelling, where it is solemnly
welcomed again in the same manner by the master and mistress, with
offerings of bread and salt to the household Spirit. After this, the embers,
still burning, are emptied into a niche of the new stove, while in this case
the jar itself is broken and buried beneath the ' front corner ' of the house.1
Snakes as Spirits of the Household.
The idea that snakes, to whom the warmth of the domestic hearth was
a natural attraction, represent the Spirits of dead kinsmen and the ancestors
of the household is itself of world-wide extension.2 In Classical times it is
best illustrated by the Snake Genius of the Roman household, and snakes
1 For a full account of these customs see
W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of the Russian
People, as illustrative of Slavonic Mythology
ana1 Russian Social Life, pp. 137, 138. Some
? This belief, for instance, is general in
India and extends from the Arab population
of Egypt and their kinsmen of Malta through-
out the African Continent to the Zulu Caffres.
analogy to this is presented by the old Cf. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris {GoldenBough,
English custom (also Serbian) of preserving ed. 3,vol. i), p. 82 seqq. These beliefs extend
part of the Christmas log to light that of the to America. The Delaware, Ojibway, and other
succeeding year. Cf. Herrick, Ceremonies for Indians regard the snake as their grandfather.
Christmasse, 1648 ed., p. 278 : (See Frazer, Spirits of the Corn-.and of the
• With the last yeere's brand Wild: Golden Bough, vol. ii, pp. 21s. 2I9-)
Light the new block.'
RITUAL TRANSPORT OF ASHES: RUSSIAN CUSTOM
Ritual
trans-
portation
ofashes :
Russian
custom.
Snakes
as spirits
of the
house-
hold.
Comparison of Ritual Transportation by Russian Peasants of Ashes
from former Homestead.
It may well be asked what ritual end may have been served by this
repository of ashes, itself resembling a tripod hearth, placed amongst the
other fittings of this snake sanctuary. The connexion of snake and hearth
as already noted, is obvious enough—but why this careful conservation of
extinct embers ?
A natural explanation, however, suggests itself. May not the ashes
so religiously preserved within this hearth-shaped object, have been trans-
ported on the occasion of a family removal from some earlier domicile ?
Here, again, an illuminating commentary may be found in the usages
of the same ethnic area that has already supplied such a useful parallel in
the case of the 'snake table'. When a Russian peasant family is about to
migrate to a new home the eldest woman of the household lights a fire for
the last time in the stove—the recognized dwelling-place of the Domovoy
or domestic Spirit, conceived of in the shape of a snake—after which she
deposits the burning embers in a clean jar, and, turning to the 'stove corner',
says 'Welcome dyeduslika (grandfather) to our new home!' The fire-
containing vessel is then carried to the new dwelling, where it is solemnly
welcomed again in the same manner by the master and mistress, with
offerings of bread and salt to the household Spirit. After this, the embers,
still burning, are emptied into a niche of the new stove, while in this case
the jar itself is broken and buried beneath the ' front corner ' of the house.1
Snakes as Spirits of the Household.
The idea that snakes, to whom the warmth of the domestic hearth was
a natural attraction, represent the Spirits of dead kinsmen and the ancestors
of the household is itself of world-wide extension.2 In Classical times it is
best illustrated by the Snake Genius of the Roman household, and snakes
1 For a full account of these customs see
W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of the Russian
People, as illustrative of Slavonic Mythology
ana1 Russian Social Life, pp. 137, 138. Some
? This belief, for instance, is general in
India and extends from the Arab population
of Egypt and their kinsmen of Malta through-
out the African Continent to the Zulu Caffres.
analogy to this is presented by the old Cf. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris {GoldenBough,
English custom (also Serbian) of preserving ed. 3,vol. i), p. 82 seqq. These beliefs extend
part of the Christmas log to light that of the to America. The Delaware, Ojibway, and other
succeeding year. Cf. Herrick, Ceremonies for Indians regard the snake as their grandfather.
Christmasse, 1648 ed., p. 278 : (See Frazer, Spirits of the Corn-.and of the
• With the last yeere's brand Wild: Golden Bough, vol. ii, pp. 21s. 2I9-)
Light the new block.'