Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1911 — ODD RAIN-MAKIMG CUSTOMS [ARTICLE]

ODD RAIN-MAKIMG CUSTOMS

How the People at Russia and Rowmania Try to Break the -'Drought Besides the use of bad language as a popular means of procuring rain, there are various other tricks to which members of the human race have recourse In time of drought There is a village in Russia, for instance, where three men used to climb certain fir trees in seasons of drought one of the three having a vessel of water which he would sprinkle all around. One of the other two hammered on a kettle or made some similar noise in the hope of thereby producing thunder, and the third scattered sparks from firebrands as a warning to the lightning to make haste. In Roumanla, Servia and other countries the charm for rain Is more picturesque. Here a troop of girls, the leader of whom is naked save for a covering of leaves, herbs and flowers, goes in procession from house to house through the village, and as they pass singing for rain the householders drench them with buckets of water. The ceremony, says a writer in the London Daily News, regularly takes place all over Roumanla on the third Tuesday after Easter, but it may be expected at any time of drought during the summer. There is yet another wetting Roumanian custom described. Sometimes when rain is needed the Roumanians make a day figure to represent droughL cover it with a pall, and place it in an open coffin. Girls crouch round the coffin and lament, saying: "Drought is dead! Lord, give us rain!" Then the coffin is carried by children in funeral prodession, with a burning wax candle before IL while lamentations fill the air. Finally, they throw the coffin and the candle into a stream or well. In unspoilt parts of Russia the popular methods of influencing the weather are less funereal Sometimes, for Instance, after service in church the priest In his robes has been thrown down on the ground and drenched with water by his parishioners. Ip Kursk, a province qj-southern Russia, when, rain is much wanted the women seize a passing stranger and throw him into the river or souse him from bead to foot •