Introduction

Abstract

In the summer of 1874 a journalist working for Donskiia Oblastnyia Vedomosti, the official gazette of the Voisko, decided to investigate the claims of a renowned faith healer, Varvara Tikhovna. She lived in Karaitskii Khutor which was part of Sirotinskaia Stanitsa. Tikhovna’s fame as a faith healer had spread for miles around, even coming to the notice of the educated classes in Novocherkassk, the Cossack capital. People came from all over the Don and from beyond its borders to seek her advice about their misfortunes and, hopefully, to receive a cure for them. Two were already there when the journalist arrived. One had come from nearly 50 and the other from 100 miles away. The first Cossack told Tikhovna that his wife had been bedridden for five months. Tikhovna immediately divined that someone had put the ‘evil eye’ on her. The second case concerned an old Cossack, Ivanovich, who had come about his son. To the despair of the old man, his son was completely idle. When Tikhovna had listened to his tale, she asked for the son’s name and set to work.