On the White Sea coast, women tried to call a fair wind home for the men returning from seasonal work on the Murman coast. They prayed at coastal crosses, struck a weathercock with a log, counted twenty-seven bald men, and then shouted toward the east:

“Time to draw the eastern wind and the midday wind! Time to abandon the west and the mischievous wind!”

If that did not work, they set a cockroach on a woodchip afloat and asked it to raise the north wind.

Read full article: Wind in Russian Folk Belief →