Pustrich

Pustrich an ill-shaped Slavonic idol: it is of bronze, and hollow. It represents a small, chubby boy holding one of his hands over his head. The head has two holes, one at the top, the other at the place of the mouth. It is believed that the priests used this figure to terrify the people by the spectacle of an infuriated deity. It was filled with water, and, the holes being stopped, put on a fire: in due time the stoppers were driven out of the holes with considerable noise and tremendous eruption of steam and boiling water. Other more modern investigations would lead to the conclusion that the chubby god was nothing but an instrument of distillery.