Mercury has been known in Ancient Russia for a long time, it is not for nothing that its name is among the Proto-Slavic names of the seven basic metals, along with gold, silver and iron. Unaware of its toxicity, the ancient Slavs called it "living silver", thinking that in front of them was a certain "magic" substance. In fact, the modern classification classifies mercury in the I group of toxic substances, it is possible to work with it only under conditions of compliance with safety measures. This metal accumulates in the body, causing severe poisoning, which can result in death. However, neither in ancient times nor in the Middle Ages in Russia did they know about this, and they used mercury for different purposes, not suspecting that they were poisoning each other.
As love talismans and protection from the evil eye
In Western Ukraine, girls wore it on their chests to find mutual love, and peasant women near Vyatka made special amulets, placing mercury inside the goose feather shaft, which they then pinned to their lower shirt in order to keep their husbands at all costs.
It was used as an amulet, sewn into bags and was worn around the neck from the evil eye along with a pectoral cross - in Belarus, such a talisman was equal in strength to a wolf's fang.
In Transcarpathia, mercury was embedded in poplar crosses and it was believed that such a cross was “the strongest and drives the devil away,” writes the scientist B. A. Hasanov in the article "Living Silver" in the Slavic Tradition.
In Zaonezhye, a rag with mercury was sewn into the bride's petticoat. The groom was not ignored either, and three weeks before the wedding they sewed "magic" metal into his belt. In order not to become a victim of the sorcerer at the wedding, the young should have put mercury in their bosoms before going to church.
The most extreme use of mercury was invented by the Pomors - they poured mercury into wedding cakes - "baenniki". These "baenniks" were supposed to "roll" with the young to the church for the wedding, then decorate the wedding table for three days, and then they were to be eaten by the newly made husband and wife!
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Moreover, a walnut filled with mercury was worn as a talisman by pregnant women, and it was hung around the neck of children. Not surprisingly, female and child mortality rates were high before the revolution.
Livestock and home protection
The peasants of the Arkhangelsk province made a conspiracy with mercury to protect domestic animals, then sewed it up in a bag and hung it on the horns of the cattle. In Transcarpathia and Western Belarus, in order to protect a young cow from encroachments on her milk, witches made a hole in one of the horns and poured mercury into the cavity, and the hole was covered with wax - this was supposed to neutralize the witchcraft.
In Ukraine and Eastern Europe, mercury was "buried" in both horns and sometimes a bottle of mercury was sewn into a collar.
If the death of cattle began, then in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, where migrants from the west of the Russian Empire lived, the disease was driven away with the same mercury: it was buried in the horns of the cattle, plugging the hole with an aspen wedge, and then drove the cattle between two fires.
On the border between Latvia and Belarus, a custom was spread, according to which a cow had to be fed a piece of bread with mercury on the eve of Christmas - “so that she had healthy calves”.
If some owner's cattle now and then disappeared: died or disappeared in the forest, then evil spirits were blamed for this. In the stable, two ditches should be dug crosswise, and mercury should be poured into the place of the crosshairs - this supposedly was to force the evil spirits to leave the room.
Mercury was placed under the threshold of the barn to protect against witches and witches. It was believed that a person who knows with evil spirits will never be able to cross such a threshold.
Home protection
In the Novgorod province, they used mercury when laying a dwelling house: coins, bread and salt and … mercury were placed under the "red" corner, "so that the house was clean."
Mercury was used to cleanse the house from bedbugs and cockroaches and for "pickling" - it was put in jars with seeds.
And during the rituals of expelling evil spirits from the house, the head of a ram was laid under the house, and the same "living silver" was poured into its mouth.
Near Arkhangelsk, in Karelia, in Komi and near Pskov, peasants put mercury under the threshold of a bathhouse and even put it in candles, not understanding the full danger of metal and firmly believing that it would "help health."
Mercury was treated
They believed that mercury would help with difficult childbirth, and it was used along with sheep's wool and silver coins.
Mercury was included in the composition of ointments for skin diseases: a glass of butter, a spoonful of vodka and a spool of mercury were stirred and scrofulous ulcers were treated with this ointment. Mercury and oil were used to treat scabies in children, head lice and lubricated the "scabs" in the hair.
They even tried to cure syphilis, using mercury inside or drinking vodka in which suleima was dissolved, and they put more suleims so that the medicine was effective.
Women who wanted to destroy a child in their womb drank mercury or made "poison" from gunpowder.
Knew, but did?
However, it cannot be said that the Russians did not know that mercury is toxic. They knew. There is a well-known custom of builders, according to which they harmed the owners, who underpaid or did not give them enough vodka. In this case, the builders, in order to take revenge, made a "bookmark" of mercury in the house to make the owner sick. And sometimes it was embedded in the base of the furnace "in lead" in order to scare the greedy owners - when heated, the mercury "hooted" in a container of lead, but did not evaporate.
There were beliefs that if a pig's head with mercury was buried in a field, a swamp would appear in this place. Mercury, enclosed in "mosol" or in the skull of an animal, could somehow destroy the mill dam in some incredible way, and if a sorcerer spells over it, it could turn into a demon-zhivak, taking possession of a person.
Author: Maya Novik