ABSTRACT
The image of a spirit-protector of the house and farmstead was one of the most deep-rooted and long-lasting heritages of Russian paganism. Throughout the nineteenth century collectors noted the steadfastness of folk belief in this personage, usually designated domovoi from the Russian word for “house” (dorn), and they collected numerous accounts of his activities, many from people who claimed to be eyewitnesses.1 A study of a village in Iaroslavl’ Province carried out in the middle of the nineteenth century by the Imperial Russian Geographic Society indicated that there was hardly a peasant who did not claim some firsthand experience of this spirit.2 On the verge of the twentieth century, when a rudimentary education was beginning to penetrate into rural areas and one encountered some skepticism regarding the existence of the devil and nature spirits, most peasants still retained their faith in the obligatory presence around the homestead of one or more spirit-protectors.3
