ABSTRACT
In the past two decades many works have been published on ritual folklore. This is no accident; this complicated and diversified stratum of oral folk creativity furnishes valuable material to scholarship. It is important for study of a people's worldview, having scientific and practical significance. Survivals of religion and magic in folk consciousness can be contested only when the sources and forms of existence of such beliefs, their role and functions, are known. Ritual folklore is also important in the reconstruction of the history of folklore in general, as it helps us discern laws of development in oral and poetic productions of folk creativity. a
