The God Peroon
Of Peroon, the Russian God of Thunder, by whom the Russian pagans used to swear in their treaties and conventions concluded with the Byzantines during the tenth century, only a few insignificant traces remain. There is a village named ‘Peroon’ near Spalato; a small number of persons in Montenegro bear the name;[2] and it is preserved also in the name of a plant, ‘Peroonika’ (iris), which is dedicated to the god. There is hardly a cottage-garden in the Serbian villages where one does not see the iris growing by the side of the house-leek (Tchuvar-Koutchye). The Serbians say that the god lives still in the person of St. Elias (Elijah), and Serbian peasants believe that this saint possesses the power of controlling lightning and thunder. They also believe that St. Elias has a sister ‘Ognyena Maria’ (Mary the Fiery One), who frequently acts as his counsellor.