n in Russia proper, he still remains, under his
new title, the patron of the husbandman, as he was in heathen times. In
the epic songs of the Vladimir cycle, as well as in the semi-religious
and religious ballads, he figures as the strongest and most popular
hero, under the name of "Ilya Murometz (Ilya of Murom), the Old Kazak,"
and his characteristic feats, as well as those attributed to his "heroic
steed, Cloud-fall," are supposed, by the school of Russian writers who
regard all these poems as cosmic myths, rather than as historical poems,
to preserve the hero's mythological significance as the Thunder-god
Perun.

He plays a similar part in the very numerous religious ballads on the
Last Judgment. St. Michael acts as the judge. Some "sinful souls" commit
the gross error of attempting to bribe him: whereupon, Michael shouts,
"Ilya the Prophet! Anakh! Take ye guns with great thunder! Move ye the
Pharaoh mountains of stone! Let me not hear from these sinners, neither
a whine nor a whimper!"

In Lithuania the Thunder-god's ancient name is still extant in its
original form of Perkun; the Virgin Mary is called, "Lady Mary
Perkunatele" (or "The Mother of Thunder"), according to a Polish
tradition; and in the Russian government of Vilna, the 2d of February is
dedicated to "All-Holy Mary the Thunderer." It is evidently in this
character that she plays a part similar to that of St. Michael and Ilya
the Prophet combined, as above mentioned, in another ballad of the Last
Judgment. She appears in this ballad to be the sole inhabitant of
heaven, judge and executioner. With her "thundering voice" she condemns
to outer darkness all who have not paid her proper respect, promising to
bury them under "damp mother earth and burning stones." To the just,
that is, to those who have paid her due homage, she says: "Come, take
the thrones, the golden crowns, the imperishable robes which I have
prepared for you; and if this seem little to you, ye shall work your
will in heaven."

St. Yegory the Brave--our St. George--possesses many of the attributes
of Perun. He is, however, a purely mythical character, and the extremely
ancient religious poems relating to him present the most amusing mixture
of Christianity and Greek mythology, as in the following example:

In the year 8008 (the old Russian reckoning, like the Jewish, began with
the creation of the world), the kingdoms of Sodom, Komor (Gomorrah), and
Arabia met their doom. Sodom dropped t