If you are looking for a holiday far from the madding crowds of the Meditteranean, there are few places to match the remoter regions of Russia. Bob Greenall visits Mari El, one of the country's last preserves of virgin forest and pagan culture.
Deep in the forests of central Russia, an elderly babushka mutters a prayer to the Sun-God Kugu Yumo for her family. As she clutches a white goose to her breast, her daughters, standing beside her, briskly make the sign of the cross.
A few hours later the bird has been beheaded, plucked and boiled, and is ready to serve, as the family prepares to share a feast with its gods.
It is a simple affair - a forest clearing where small clusters of people partake of the traditional wheat gruel, beer and bread, or just relax on benches. The main action is in the centre, where the bird is prepared for the waiting blackened, steaming cauldrons. Nearby, in a little makeshift hut lit by candles, offerings are made to the gods.
Finally, the goose is ready. It is passed round to the participants, who take bites first out of the liver, then from the main body of the bird.
This is a typical family sacrifice in the sacred grove at Shereganovo, in the Republic of Mari El, just west of Tatarstan. Distant relatives of the Finns and Hungarians, the Mari people are one of several tribes who remained on the Vilga when others moved west to settle in Europe proper. Eking out a modest existance on the area's sparse soil for centuries, they remain one of the Russian Federation's poorest and most rural nations.
Their greatest asset is their virgin forest, huge swathes of oxygen-rich birch and pine : they worship their trees, literally, praying in clearings in many sacred groves throughout the region.
In fact, Chimari Yula, as they call their religion, is pre-Christian, a form of paganism. The Mari believe in drawing energy from their ancestors. They have many gods - as well as trees like the vengeful Keremet-Tumo (oak tree), there is Kugu-Yumo, the all-powerful Sun god, and Chumbylat On, a great warrior king and defender of the Mari.
Prayers range from domestic worship or family outings like the one described above to mass sessions held during the sowing (May-June) and harvesting (September-October) seasons every year. These are led by a kart, or elected holy man, who chants prayers aloud, often including his own thoughts and opinions, rather like a priest reading a sermon.
While neighbouring tribes became assimillated into the Christian world, the Maris' remoteness was a natural barrier which preserved the original character of their nation intact. When the Russians came in the 16th century, as Ivan the Terrible swept east in his crusade against the Tatars, the Mari, who had lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours, found their pagan faith threatened first by military subjugation, then by missionaries offering incentives to convert to Christianity.
The Russians built fortresses in areas occupied by the Mari, eventually bringing some industry to the region. Chimari Yula began to adopt some superficial features of Christianity, such as making the sign of the cross and adding "Chistos Yumo" to their list of gods. Worship continued simultaneously in chirch and in the groves, without any apparent contradiction.
After the revolution, paganism in Mari El suffered as much as other religions. In two instances, the Soviet authorities began campaignes to chop down the sacred groves, although in both cases the initiators of these campaignes met untimely deaths shortly afrewards. In this, Chimari Yula demonstrated its darker side - the presence of witch doctors and curses.
Today, with the disappearance of former central control, there is no one to persecute the Mari for their beliefs, although in its wake, missionaries have come from the West to spread the word of God - with considerable success. The greatest resistance which they meet, paradoxically, comes from the local Orthodox church.
The Mari have a measure of autonomy, with their own president, parliament and national flag. But as in most autonomous republics, Russians dominate in the capital, Yoshkar-Ola, and some rural areas. As Mari El is so remote, though, even these Russian parts have an interest to those who know the rest of rural Russia well.
Yurino, for instance, is an isolated village in the Volga valley, its greatest landmark an eccentric 19th century castle, built in hotchpotch of early Russian and Gothic styles by the noble Sheremetyev family. Turned into a sanatorium after the revolution, most of its treasures were dispersed to nearby art museums. Now it is a magnificent, but empty, monument to its creators, and site of a second rate pansion.
Yurino is as impoverished as the Mari areas of the republic, and occasional western visitors cruising the river on the route to Astrakhan are intrigued by the barefoot children, the piglets carried in sacks to market, and peasant women shouldering heavy loads on their yokes. If you come here as a tourist, you will be treated to a view of genuine rural Russian life, rather than any more conventional diet of monasteries and churches.
Downriver from Yurino, Kosmodemiansk is a run-down little town renowned for its exquisitely carved wooden window-frames. The executors of this beautiful and intricate craft extend hundreds of kilometers up the Volga, indeed throughout central Russia - but whereas elsewhere it is purely a means of decorating windows, in Kosmodemiansk the patterns seem to spread and multiply, making each house a work of art in its own right.
Kosmodemiansk is also the centre of the tiny "Highland Mari" nation, so called because they occupy the high south banks of the Volga. They have their own distinctive national costumes and traditions, and even their own language, recently recognised as the republic's third official language (after Russian and Lowland Mari).
High above the town, a pretty but lifeless open air museum presents a pleasing collection of wooden farmhouses, windmills and other buildings. For a museum, it's unusual : rather than displaying the past, what you see here is very much a part of present-day life in the surrounding villages.
And that is the charm of Mari El : virgin forest, transparent rivers and lakes, ancient customs and religious rites - all of them not so much preserved, as still untouched. However, with much already lost, the attractions of this magical region seem all the more precious for their vulnerability.
Matour, a highly enterprising and imaginative local tourist firm, can organize homestays in Yoshkar-Ola or a Mari village, or reasonably priced luxury accomodation in the Mari government's resort complex on Lake Karas, as well as cycling, skiing, horseriding tours, visits to traditional Mari banyas and the Shereganovo sacred grove. Call Galina Maslyakova (speaks English) in Yoshkar-Ola on (8362) 116271 for further details or send .
You can reach Yoshkar-Ola by plane, or by daily trains from the Kazansky Vokzal (17 hours).