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Words for the Dead: A Russian Folk Incantation
To take a hair from the head of the one they wish to harm, and place it in an uncooked egg; then seal the opening through which the hair is put with sulfur. Then take forty rye grains and grind them counter to the sun....
Places of Those Who Died an Untimely Death
Anyone who has ever been out of town has seen gravemarkers raised here and there along highways—memorials to those killed in car crashes. Sometimes you can find something similar in cities too: wreaths and flowers tied...
Peshtor: A Sacred Place of the Oyat Veps
In the lands of the Middle Veps, in the chambers of the Vepsian Forest, one kilometre from the bank of the beautiful Oyat River and 300 kilometres from Saint Petersburg, there is an unusual place called Peshtor—which t...
Lake Vodlozero
During the very first cast of the seine net each year, the artel fishermen would take off their caps and bow low to the lake, while the headman dropped a silver rouble into the kneyá (the net’s pocket) as an offering t...
The dead Bridegroom: Scary stories of Russian folklore
This happened before the Revolution, during the time of the first war. I know about it from my parents, and villagers spoke of it long before that.