ABSTRACT
For the Russian peasant, fear of “spoiling,” the damage inflicted by malevolent sorcerers and witches, was ever-present. Just as he sensed that the atmosphere he breathed was saturated with invisible spirits, both good and evil, so too the peasant felt he was surrounded by persons who had special linkages with the unseen world and might be responsible for the failures and sorrows in his life. And, when he thought he was the victim of a “spoiling,” the peasant turned inevitably to another practitioner, either magic healer or sorcerer, for relief. The peasant believed that the harmful results of sorcery could affect his own and his family’s health, the well-being of his livestock, the productivity of his land—in short, every aspect of his life. Like his ancestors centuries earlier, he continued to blame sorcerers and witches for epidemics, cattle plagues, and poor harvests as well as for numerous individual illnesses.
