Eliezer ben Nathan on the Slavs

A few interesting ethnographic pieces on the life of the Slavs (or life in Slavic lands) are also found in the work of Eliezer ben Nathan of Mainz (1090–1170).  Here is the entire set from the “Hebrew Sources…” compilation by Franciszek Kupfer/Tadeusz Lewicki with translation of those relevant to the Slavs.

“And so during my stay in the land of Canaan I saw how they they brewed mead to be used in the Pesach.*”

* It’s not clear whether he suggests that this was mead used by local Jews at Passover or whether this was mead used by Slavs.  If by Slavs then the question has to be posed whether this was an element of Christian Easter or of pre-Christian Easter.

“Sibta [is] an evil spirit. When a woman comes from the river or from the privy,* or returns but does not wash hands and then gives her child bread or milk or breastfeeds it, not having washes hands, then an evil spirit comes, which is called sibta and harms children, bends and breaks their backbone. And this disease they call in the language of the foreign nation *t s r n i j d u s i and there is no treatment for it, except perhaps by burning with fire.”

* given the context, presumably by coming “from the river” the author meant someone who went to a stream/river for purposes of urination/defecation.

“But the people of Ruthenia and in the land of Iauan* are surely very pious, for they make heathen signs on their gates and on the doors of their dwellings and on the walls of their dwellings.”

* The editors think this means the Byzantines but that is not at all clear. The custom of leaving protective signs/etchings on the doors or on ceilings/walls was and even today continues to be present in Slavic lands.

“This is also applicable to women wearing broad dresses, for that is the custom of their women, similar to how to this day even the women of the land of Canaan dress up.”

“They were used to drinking in little glasses and each would drink up his glass, just as it is a custom  among the people of Ruthenia.”

“[Shoes] ‘adelarin, which are not forbidden by kela’im, just as they do it in the country of Iauan. In Kiev I saw those that do not have any leather on the top but have [leather] at the sole and some leather also around the toes, with the width [of the leather strap?] of one toe. They also place a felt inside [the shoe], under the sole. And the felt is hard and it is not possible to pull out a thread/fiber from it.”

Itran is a substance which in the language of the Czechs is called d i g t.”