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LE ROY’S NARRATIVE OF FOUR RUSSIAN SAILORS. 603
violently rubbed again{t each other, the latter takes fire. This as well being the mode
in which the Ruffian country people produce fire when they are in the woods, and a
holy ceremony prattifed throughout all the villages wherein there is a church; they
could not confequently be ignorant of. Probably it may not be unacceptable to thofe
who have never heard a defcription of it, my giving an account of this ceremony.
‘The eighteenth of Auguft, old ftile, is called by the Ruffians Frol y Lavior: thefe
are the names of two martyrs inferted in the Romifh calendar, Florus and Laurus; on
the twenty-ninth of the fame month laft year, on which day is kept the faft of the be-
heading of St. John the Baptift.. On this day the Ruffians lead their horfes round the
church of their village, befide which on the foregoing evening they dig a hole with two
mouths. Each horle hasa bridle made of the bark of the linden-tree. The horfes go
through this hole one after the other, oppofite to one of the mouths of which the prieft
ftands with a fprinkler in his hand, with which he fprinkles them. As foon as the
horfes have pafled by their bridles are taken off, and they are made to go between two
fires that they kindle, called by the Ruffians Givoy Agon, that is to fay, living fires, of
which I fhall give an account. I fhall before remark, that the Ruffian peafantry throw
the bridles of their horfes into one of thefe fires to be confumed. This is the manner of
their lighting thefe givoy agon, or living fires. Some men hold the ends of a {tick
made of the plane-tree, very dry, and about a fathom long. ‘This flick they hold firmly
over one of birch, perfectly dry, and rub with violence and quickly again{t the former ;
the birch, which is fomewhat fofter than the plane, in a fhort time inflames, and ferves
them to light both the fires I have defcribed.
To return to our iflanders. It is inconteftible that they were acquainted with the
givoy agon, and of the means for making it ; but why did they not adopt the fame plan?
‘They had no other wood than fir, a moift wood of itfelf, and that moreover furnifhed
them by the fea. What were they to do if once their fire became extinguifhed? One
readily fees a remedy fhould be provided. In walking through the ifland they had re-
marked that in the middle there was fome fat earth or clay. They conceived the idea
of making themfelves a veflel of it, that might ferve fora lamp, which they might fupply
with the fat of the rein-deer they had killed, and with that of thofe they fhould kill in
future. ‘This was certainly the moft reafonable meafure they could adopt. What
could they have done without light during the winter, which in this latitude has one
night of fome months duration? ‘They procured therefore fome clay, and made a fort
of a lamp therewith, this they filled with rein-deer’s fat, and ftuck a piece of twifted
linen in it to ferve as a wick; but they perceived with grief that the fat penetrated the
veffel as foon as it melted, and dropt from it on every fide. They had now to feek a
remedy for this misfortune, arifing from the pores of the veflel being too large. This
they quickly found. ‘They made themifelves for this purpofe a new one, which firft they
fuffered to dry well in the open air, and afterwards heating it red-hot in a glowing fire,
they cooled it in the kettle wherein was a quantity of meal they were about to cook,
fo that it received confiftency from the thin ftarch. As foon as the lamp had cooled,
and they had filled it with melted fat, to their great joy they perceived that it did not
leak ; but for their greater fecurity they dipped fome rags of the linen of their fhirts in
the before-mentioned foddened meal, and placed them round their lamp. From the
fuccels of this eflay, they refolved on being careful of the remainder of their meal. As
they were very fearful left fome unlucky accident might befall their lamp, they had the
forefight to con{truct another, that at no time they fhould be in want from any cafualty
happening.
4H 2 Poflibly
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