The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia by W. F. s> Ryan (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 157 terriblyconfusing, usuallywith fartoo many geographical,demographic, and political detailsthat arenever dealtwith in the text. They are also,with one or two exceptions, very poorly produced; some are nearly illegible. A bibliographicalessaywould have been a usefulway of pointing the interestedreader to further resources on Croatia, but the bibliography here is simply chronological and not annotated. Nearly three-quartersof the entries are in Croatian. This is a good book, but with only a bit more attention, the author and publishercould have made it a genuinelyexcellent one. School ofForeign Service CHARLES KING Georgetown University Ryan W. F. 7heBathhouse atMidnight: AnHistorical Survey ofMagicandDivination in Russia.Magic in History Series. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, I999. viii + 504 pp. Notes. Illustrations.Bibliography.Index. ?5o; f 1499. THEdustcover of thislargetome alluringlyproclaims7The Bathhouse atMidnight. MagicinRussia,and in so doing seems set to attracta largepopularreadership, certain of them with what might be called a dubious interest in the subject. Inside, the addition of the words 'an historical survey', especially the 'an' should frightenaway some. But though the amateur magic buff or part-time witch will find a good deal that is instructiveand entertainingin this account of a huge range of magic and divinatorytexts and practicesin Russia, it is the seriousand scholarlyreaderwho will be delighted by the comprehensiveness of the volume and the erudition of its author. With thirtyyears' experience studying 'scientific' and magic texts in Kievan and Muscovite Russia, Dr Ryan is uniquely qualified for the task, and his authority is stamped on the work, particularlythe sections devoted to Kievan and Muscovite texts, their historyand sources. For this is a compendium of magic and divinatory beliefs, practices and texts, treated, whenever the evidence will allow, historically.It opens with an outline highlighting the historico-culturalcontext as it affectedthe reception of magic texts and the practice of magic in Russia before the end of the eighteenth century. There then follow chapterson the varioustypes of magic and magic practitioners, moving in general terms from the popular to the 'literary', while recognizing that many practices such as dream divination featurein both traditions.The book thus begins with popularmagic, wizards and witches and ends with astrology, before being rounded off by a useful historicalsurveyof the attitudesof the ecclesiasticaland secularauthoritiesto magic and to those who delved in it. Each chapteris divided into subsections dealingwith specificformsof magic, makingforeasy accessto the evidence. The approach is inclusive and apart from historical evolution, openly emphasizesdescriptionand commentary,with particularattentionpaid to the interrelationship between folk and literary sources as well as sources (or parallels)to Russian materialin Classical,Byzantine,Arabic,West European and other traditions of magic and divination. Its emphasis is on the period before I8oo, thus including the westernizingeighteenth century, when magic and divinationwere stilltakenseriously(ifonly negatively)by the authorities. i58 SEER, 79, I, 2001 The oral material is drawn from ethnographic and other sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and there are some brief,wry comments on contemporaryRussianmagic, sorceryand divination. Writtenwith a familiaritywith Westernstudieson magic (hereinstitutional affiliation to the Warburg Institute in the University of London is an advantage), this wider perspective allows for a comparative approach which providesa usefulantidote to the narrowlyRussian or Slav approach of many scholars.Indeed Ryan is ever keen to puncture their speculativeballoons, as when, for the benefit of those convinced that the Russian spell or incantation (zagovor) is unique in its poetics and form, he quotes a spell from Kentucky which would hardly need adaptation if translated into Russian (p. i68). Another of the tenets held dear by many Russian and Soviet scholars is the good/bad binarycontrastbetween folkand literary.By confidentlybestriding the dividingline and treatingboth, Ryan not only givesus comprehensiveness, but is also able to temper assertionsof the distinctivelyRussiannatureof, say, many prognosticationsthroughcarefulanalysisof the manuscripttraditionof written divination. He is cautious in his conclusions, recognizing that coincidence of popular and literary magic does not necessarily mean that popular ones are therefore of literary origin (p. I44). However, where he considers parallels are extremely close, he inclines to accept the idea of borrowing.Forexample, he somewhataudaciouslypostulatesthattheYuletide folksongs (podbliudnyepesni) and accompanying magic practices,so beloved of all classes of Russians before the Revolution, derive from the Greek midsummerdivinationhokledonas because of theirclose similarity(p. 97). He is of course right to note that...