Folklorists! Please help!

[Mark Yoffe]

Dear colleagues,
This is a questions related to ancient Slavic mythology.
I am finishing a monograph on Slavic god Perun, the Thunderbearer.
In process of my research I stumbled upon a mysterious fairy tale,
included in 1973 publication of A.N. Afanas'ev's Russian Fairy Tales
under the title The Vampire (or VURDALAK in Russian version).
In this skazka a young maiden called Marusia is pursued and tormented by
a mysterious stranger who at first offers to marry her. At night when
she stealthily fallows the stranger to the church she sees him devouring
a corps in there. terrified she does not tell anybody what she has seen
that night.
Next time she sees her stranger he asks Marusia: "Did you see what I was
doing in the church?" A question which she refuses to answer three times
with the most horrible consequences for herself: her parents die one by
one and finaly she dies herself.
My questions is: why Marusia refuses to tell the stranger what she saw
in the church that night? Why is she ready to die but not to utter the
horrible truth?
I remember that I red somewhere that her refusal has to do with some
ancient tabus. I am sure there is some very serious theory behind her
behaviour and I am certain it has been addressed by scholars in the
past.
Can anyone shed some light onto this enigma or at least provide me with
some leads?
Thanks in advance.
Mark Yoffe
--
Mark Yoffe, Ph.D. Curator, International Counterculture Archive
Slavic Librarian, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
HTTP://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~yoffe
E-mail: yoffe at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu   Phone: 202 994-6303