Russian Fairy Tales
German
A
spirit which brings rain and hail, making him both a positive force
which provides water for drinking and farming but which can also make
him a negative force associated with floods and dangerous storms.
During a drought girls of the villages would make an effigy of the
German of rags and clay with large genitals. They would take this down
to the river and would bury it or let it float down the river as if
performing burial rights for it. Then some of the girls would pretend
to mourn the passing of the spirit while the others would inquire what
they were mourning, to which they would respond that they were sad that
the German had died in order to make the rain fall. If massive amounts
of rain fell after that the doll of the German would be dug out of the
ground.
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