Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/459

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VELES, VOLOS, AND STRIBOG
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when driving their flocks to pasture, recite ancient prayers which are expected to secure his protection.40

Stribog, whose idol stood on the hill in Kiev beside that of Perun,41 was most probably the god of cold and frost; and in the Slovo pluku Igorevě42 the winds are called the grandsons of Stribog. The conception of the winds as the result of cold and frost is easily understood.

The chronicler Cosmas testifies43 that the Bohemians worshipped deities similar to Jupiter, Mars, Bellona, Ceres, etc., and that they made idols of them; but the names of these gods have not been preserved, and nothing positive is known concerning their worship. Numerous names of divinities worshipped by the pagan Poles are recorded by the chronicler Długosz,44 but his report, belonging to a later period, seems to be influenced by Classical and Christian thought.