Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1891 — RUSSIAN PEASANT SUPERSTITIONS. [ARTICLE]

RUSSIAN PEASANT SUPERSTITIONS.

How Small-Hox Is Propagated Among the Poor and Ignorant People. Last October small-pox broke out in the Poodozhskiy and Povienetskiy districts of the Government of Olonetzk, on the coast of Lake Ladoga. Since then the plague has spread throughout the region, and is still unabated. In the villages and towns where the scourge has appeared 10 per cent, of all the children up to the age of 12 years have died, mostly such as had not been vaccinated. A large percentage of adults have also died. The medical and the administrative authorities are doing all in their power to resist the evil, but the prejudices of the common people are against them. These prejudices are very curious. The people of Olonetzk regard small-pox (Ospa) as a divinity to be propitiated and not angered. They call it “Ospa Ivanovna,” or “Matooshka (little mother) Ospa”— appellations which imply profound respect. Since vaccination is a means to oppose it, they believe that it would be a sin to be vaccinated, and try to avoid the operation by all possible means. As soon as a person gets stricken with the disease all the children of the village are dressed as nicely as their parents can afford and taken to his house to pay their respects to Ospa Ivanovna. They take cakes and fruit to the house of the invalid, which they deposit on a table placed by his bedside for the purpose. Then they kiss the sick person on the mouth and sit around him for some time talking and partaking of the food they had brought with them, or of the other victuals which the host provides. Sometimes children are brought from a distance of twenty versts (seven versts are five miles) to salute Little Mother Ospa in this wise. As long as there is smallpox in the house the rooms must not be cleaned, and the inmates may not wash themselves or change their garments. No rough expression or curse may be pronounced in a house where there is a small-pox patient. If such an expression escapes involuntarily from the lips, the offender must forthwith kiss the invalid by way of propitiating Ospa Ivanovna. No medicine is given to the patient, but he must be bathed in hot water twelve times during his illness. The presents which the children bring must be left on the table by his bedside for visitors to partake of. These superstitions are deeply rooted among the peasants of the entire region, and serve to propagate the disease despite all efforts made by the more cultivated.