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In the district of
Kostroma the burial of Yarilo was celebrated on the twenty-ninth or
thirtieth of June. The people chose an old man and gave him a small
coffin containing a Priapus-like figure representing Yarilo. This he
carried out of the town, followed by women chanting dirges and
expressing by their gestures grief and despair. In the open fields a
grave was dug, and into it the figure was lowered amid weeping and
wailing, after which games and dances were begun, "calling to mind
the funeral games celebrated in old times by the pagan Slavonians."
In Little Russia the figure of Yarilo was laid in a coffin and
carried through the streets after sunset surrounded by drunken
women, who kept repeating mournfully, "He is dead! he is dead!" The
men lifted and shook the figure as if they were trying to recall the
dead man to life. Then they said to the women, "Women, weep not. I
know what is sweeter than honey." But the women continued to lament
and chant, as they do at funerals. "Of what was he guilty? He was so
good. He will arise no more.


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