XXII.
RELIGIOUS BELIEF.
The religious belief of the countrymen of Schamyl formerly partook of the simplicity of their mode of government. Not a century ago they were almost entirely pagan, performing their religious ceremonies not in temples made with hands, but in groves, in the shadow of whose melancholy boughs dwelt many divinities. They believed also in one Great Spirit whose presence filled immensity, and who was likened to no living thing, nor fashion of a man. To him were subject all inferior powers who presided over the seasons of the year, over various localities, over the lives of the lower animals, and over all the doings and destinies of mankind.
Merissa, for example, was the protector of bees; and at her festivals, celebrated at the season of gathering in the sweets of the hive, all the viands and beverages with which the worshippers regaled themselves, were prepared with honey. Still more powerful was Seozeres, who held in subjection the winds and waters, and who being at the same time the guardian of animals, tempered the air to the shorn flock and brought the springs out of the rocks for the supply of the herd. Tliebse had the care of smiths and all the cunning workmanship of forges, and at his fete libations were poured in honor of him upon the hatchet and the ploughshare. Domestic happiness and good-fellowship among neighbors were presided over by the three sisters denominated fates in the mythology of the Greeks, and who besides interfered on the field of battle to throw their invisible shield over the favorite warrior; who sped the traveller on his way; and to whom the father on bringing his family across a new threshold offered sacrifice and invocation.
Most of the religious festivals were celebrated at either seed-time or harvest. In the first instance, when the grain was scattered over the furrows in the hope that the land would yield its increase, the sower supplicated the friendly interposition of the heavenly powers; in the latter, after having laid up in storehouses the winter's supply of corn and wine, the reaper returned thanks to the celestial givers of all good things, and made merry with his friends in feasts. Nor at this season, when the sight of nature's decay dashes with a certain degree of sadness even the hilarity of the ingathering of crops did the pious mountaineers forget their dead, but uniting with the autumn which spreads over the graves the gorgeous pall of its many-colored leaves, they likewise strewed there whatever wild flowers bloomed in the mountains so late in the year. For they, too, believed in the life beyond the tomb, wherein there should be no fana Muscov to infest the mountains of happiness, and where the warrior, laying aside his rifle and his bow, should hear no more of war beyond the home-march at beat of which he would enter within the gates of paradise.
Various attempts have been made to introduce Christianity among these tribes, though with little success. If asked at what period was made the first one, the Circassian replies with an air of indifference, Allah billeer,—God knows! There is an old tradition that the religion of Jesus was first taught here by St. Matthew, an opinion which may have had its origin in the fact that the form of cross which is called by his name is sometimes found in the mountains. Others attribute the first bringing in of the gospel to the crusaders who, having survived the disasters of their expedition to the holy land, fled hither for refuge. For some of the smaller Osetian tribes still wear on their garments the Maltese cross in red cloth, and paint the figure of the same on their iron bucklers. At any rate the Christian cross is well known at the present day, in many parts of the Caucasus, where it is found in stone erected in solitary places, but oftener of metal suspended from the branches of oak trees. In this situation it is found accompanied by numerous votive offerings, and is an object of sincere though blind adoration. In more recent times the Russians have endeavored to impose their form of religion on those tribes who have come under the yoke of their dominion; and since the middle of the sixteenth century the Tartars, in disputing with the Muscovites for the possession of the Caucasus, have likewise taken more or less pains to introduce the doctrines of the Koran. This endeavor has been followed up by the Turks also, whose missionaries have finally succeeded in converting most of the tribes to at least nominal Mahometanism. Indeed the mountaineer was always strongly inclined to accept the fatalistic dogma so generally prevalent in the East, and now sums up his faith in the saying, "Every thing is kismet, destiny; and a man, whatever his inclinations, must bow to fate. Such is the will of Allah."
Still, the new faith has taken stronger hold of the chiefs and magistrates than of the main body of the people, whose heart remains, in no small degree, pagan. The popular sympathies everywhere cling to the old superstitions and the time-hallowed ceremonies. Some of the small tribes on the Caspian, continue to turn with feelings akin to adoration towards the rising and the setting sun, while on the promontory of Apsheron the white-robed priests still maintain the sacred service of their fires. The people like also to keep the merry feasts kept by their fathers before them. They love their mead and the wine forbidden by the prophet. The venerable oaks beneath which they have been accustomed to worship are still looked upon with awe, and in the murmuring of the boughs of the sacred groves the popular imagination still hears the footfalls of the divinities as did Adam those of God when in the cool of the day he walked in the garden of Eden.