SERF, RUSSIA.
The religion of the ancient Slaves, like that of the Teutonic nations, seems to have been, in many of its features at least, a kind of nature-worship; not, however, without the idea of a One supreme power, to whom the other agencies were subordinate. From this some authorities infer that the system was originally a monotheism which in process of time had become obscured and confused by.the infusion of foreign elements, and thus degenerated into polytheism, and finally pantheism. The chief deity, whose worship seems to have been common to all the Slavic tribes, was Swiatowit, with whom were associated on a nearer footing of equality than the other gods, Perun and Radegast—if, indeed, these three names do not merely denote different personationor manifestations of the same power. In this Swiatowit is considered as most analogous to Mars and Zeus, Peruu to Jupiter and Thor, and Radegast to Mercury and Odin. Of the numerous gods of an inferior order we may name Prowe, god of justice; Prija (= Freya), Venus; Bjelbog, the white god, and Cernobog, the black god;, together with multitudes of demons and spirits, good and bad. The images of the Slavic divinities (a
stone statue-6f Swiatowit was in recent times discovered in eastern Galicia) had a strik ing resemblance to those of India. Swiatowit had four heads, Rugewit (the god of war) had seven faces, and Peruu four, and so on. The Slaves seem to have been not without some crude notion of existence and retribution after death. Worship was performed in groves and temples, cattle and fruits being offered by the priests, whose office must have been originally performed by the head of the family or chieftain, as the common name for priest and prince (kniez) shows.—The eastern Slaves received Christianity from Byzantium in the 9th c. through the instrumentality of Cyril (q.v.) and Methodeus; the western, from Rome and Germany.—See Sehafarik, Saw. Altertkitmer (Ger. translation, Leip. 1843).