SACRIFICIAL SPRING

Earlier the Finno-Ugric tribes occupied an area from the Baltic Sea to the Ural. The Maris are descendants of an ancient population in the Middle-Volga. They are divided into 3 groups: the Meadow, the Mountain and the Eastern Maris. The Meadow Maris are located on the left side of the Volga and the Mountain Maris on the right side of the river, between the forests and oak-groves. The Eastern Maris separated from the Meadow Maris in the 15-th century and travelled to the east, behind the river Kama. The emigration of Maris to the north-east was caused by the forcible conversion to Russian Orthodox faith and setting of the Russian taxation system. Some of the Eastern Maris, the Ural Maris, moved to the south-western part of Sverdlovsk and the south-eastern part of Perm. At present, the folk traditions of the Ural Maris have been best preserved in the village Izi Tavra in Sverdlovsk region. Not far from the village is a sacred grove, where a sacrificial spring flows to the ground. Film shootings took plac