The character of Leshy is quite nuanced, and it may be one of the widely characterized mythological beasts. The term “leshy” was first used in print in the 17th century, and thus, there must be infinite ways it has been portrayed in that time. Many human interactions with leshy descriptions and diverse places where the Slavic myth was evident can explain such variance. Legends of Leshy’s origins as a cursed human creation are where the monster’s name first emerged. There are also Christian-inspired interpretations in which these beings are conceived of and born of pure evil, either as fallen angels or as products of the Devil.

Visual aspects of Leshy vary. Many myths and legends attribute his divine powers as the forest’s monarch or guardian. Therefore, Leshy can blend in with the forest’s natural environment or remain hidden entirely. He can transform himself into a creature, a tree or even a mushroom, and a blend of a human with an animal or plant. He can be as short and frail as an older man or as towering and powerful as a giant. Some myths explain his ability to adjust the elevation and create a false appearance. Leshy’s size changes depending on his surroundings; he can appear enormous while travelling through the jungle, but in an unpopulated area, he can blend in with the grass and remain unseen. It is also conceivable that nobody sees him because Leshy wanders around the woods like a breeze, generating varied noises and baffling the woodland guests.

He has a reputation for being divisive due to his controversial personality. Leshy is responsible to the forest’s residents in his role as guardian. He watches after animals and guards them against the hunters and the woods — from the fire. He is typically portrayed as an elderly bearded guy who, in fascinating twists of folklore, is willing to part with his animals if he loses them in a card game to a leshy. That is why a cheerful and fun-loving spirit is another of his traits. Leshy could have a family of his own or be a hermit who occupies a cave or a tiny cottage in the woods.

This behemoth has the stars for eyeballs, making the air whip as he walks. His lifeblood is blue. Therefore, his skin also takes on that colour, making him look like a tree with bark for skin. His whistling, laughter, and singing can often be heard from the trees and marshes, despite his seldom appearance. According to some accounts, he has horns and cloven hooves, steps in his shadow, and wears his shoes backwards. When inside the forest, he towers above everything, but when he leaves, he is reduced to the size of a blade of grass. In some, he towers over the landscape from afar, only to shrink to mushroom proportions when approached.

Leshy is also a shape-shifter who can assume the form of any animal, even the wolves and bears, which rely on him for safety. Leshy is known for generously rewarding the people he meets who show kindness to him. In traditional stories, Leshy tends the cattle of impoverished peasants and helps princes meet their true princesses on their travels. Leshy also kidnaps unbaptized infants or kids who wander the woods searching for berries or fish. A forest shaman is known to bring his group of wolves into the woods after stopping at a roadside bar for a drink. It is recommended that anyone who has angered a leshy or becomes lost inside the woods trying to make a leshy laugh. Taking off whatever you’re wearing, re-putting it backwards, and swapping your shoes to the wrong foot usually accomplish the work. Alternatively, you can sprinkle salt on fire or pray and curse at them to scare them away.

Leshy appears in several folk tales because the peasant’s existence was inextricably linked to the woods. The forest provided for the peasant & his family, but he could never claim ownership. That’s why there’s always been a mystery in the woods. Humans were then cautioned to treat Leshy with the utmost deference to avoid potential conflicts. For instance, you need Leshy’s permission to visit the forest, and you can’t cut down trees or go hunting without it. It was also unwise to make a lot of noise or whistle while in the woods. If Leshy feels disrespected, they may send bad luck, harm, or even kill the unfortunate human. If a forest’s relative had previously cursed anybody who entered it, venturing inside was likewise risky. Leshy thought the cursed person belonged to him.

Shepherds might negotiate with Leshy to ensure the safety of their flocks. Leshy tended to his herd & grazed them after the shepherd consented to some unspoken terms. Several restrictions, however, had to be met. These included not entering the forest, not destroying or harming any plants or animals, and not witnessing any births or deaths. Leshy can remove the herd from the shepherd’s care and conceal them deep within the woods, where they will never be found. A careless demeanour guaranteed trouble and corrections. In these tales, Leshy shares his vast palace with his companion Aleshire, a variety of reptiles, and wild animals.

In the winter, the leshiye hibernate, but come spring, entire tribes erupt from their dens, shrieking and screaming as they rape any woman they encounter. They mislead humans but seldom harm them during the summer, becoming more combative and scary during the fall. The leshiye go back into hibernation at the end of each year as the leaves fall from the trees.

Some folk legends link Leshy with the Slavic destructive deity blud, who tried to harm humanity by leading them astray and wandering around familiar locations without knowing how to get back home. Leshy is said to be able to alter standard road indicators or disguise himself as a human to lead a traveller astray before disappearing, leaving them lost and bewildered.

Leshy has been known to lure and abduct the wandering. The reasons may vary. The curses placed on them by their parents and other family members were something he could remove from the lives of the forest people. The abduction of a girl was sometimes planned so that the kidnapper might marry her. Afterwards, he will treat her well and care for her like his wife. Contrarily, Leshy sometimes has the power to make a person into his slave. Christian and pagan practices provided an escape route for the kidnapped.

It was widely believed that a human who had been to Leshy would return to a different person with difficulty reintegrating into society. Alteration in mental conditions brought about strange behaviour and the need to relearn basic communication skills. He was a reclusive creature that occasionally considered going back to the woods. Leshy’s encounters also resulted in the development of mystical skills, including clairvoyance and the ability to converse with the dead.

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The Drekavac has been described in various guises; it’s plausible to transform between them. Baby descriptions include a bird, a dog, a fox, and a skinny newborn with a huge head. One possible explanation is that the Drekavac is associated with bad omens when seen on a human newborn but with bad news about cattle health when seen on a cow or other animal. Various variants kinds suggest that this could explain the discrepancy between regions. It’s above 1-meter height, and terrifying wails are continuous characteristics.

Its wailing is considered a call to baptism and is often heard in cemeteries. While in some regions, if it screams outside a house throughout the night, it will kill one of its lodgers, this is not always the case. According to popular belief, the Drekavac screams in pain whenever it steps on its long fur. Along with its horrible cry, the creature’s other foul deeds include falling on the person and letting its shadow cross that person’s. The victim will become unwell and eventually die in either scenario.

Locals in Serbia and Bosnia believe that Drekavac sightings are strictly coincidental. If this is true, the Drekavac can kill its victim by strangling them while they sleep, albeit it will only go after people who have wronged it in the past. This contradicts the common assumption that a baby Drekavac won’t annoy its human caregivers. It is recommended that a dog be acquired to protect against the Drekavac, as it is well-known that the Drekavac is scared of dogs. A Drekavac’s cry is usually only audible at night or in the fog because the creature hates the sun.

Although the Drekavac is typically considered a solitary species, there have been accounts of packs appearing in the wild. As a result, the wolf pack will make its home in a tunnel or cave. The Drekavac is a figure meant to frighten children into submission in rural Slavic societies. While most people know this technique, some grownups still genuinely believe it and even claim to have the creature’s corpse in their possession.

In its human form, it foretells the death of a loved one, while its animal form denotes disease among cattle. They say the Drekavac is afraid of dogs and bright lights, and if its shadow falls on a human, that person will become sick and die. A group of passionate fishermen cease fishing after hearing what they think to be the Drekavac’s cries from the pond, wherein they usually fish, and this belief leads to a food shortage in the hamlet. The story’s hero, a brave young man from a hamlet named Mita, sets out to solve the mystery and captures the “Drekavac,” which is revealed to be a big bittern, a very uncommon bird in the region. In “Eagles Fly Early,” another opi mentions the same monster. This urban legend was probably made up to keep kids from venturing too far from home.

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Even if a kikimora has a dog’s snout or another animal feature, she will always appear female, whether an elderly lady, a young girl or a maid. These ghosts were blamed for domestic disturbances and were said to have acted out because the householders had failed to maintain the place clean or brought negative energy into the home via their actions. The Kikimora, married to the male family spirit recognized as a domovoi, is generally reasonable. Still, the Kikimora from the everglades, sometimes affiliated with the entity Leshy, is evil and is linked to demonic activity as well as the Slavic witch Baba Yaga because she abducts children and unwitting adults who wander into the wild and also enters homes thru the keyhole to make trouble.

If the Kikimora like how the house is kept, they will pitch inside and help out, causing problems only when humans are too lazy to do things correctly. Women were encouraged to be conscientious housekeepers because of the notion that the best way to get rid of a kikimora was to make the house so clean that she became bored and left. Similarly, youngsters were taught that a commotion attracts Kikimora at night and that they should be calm and go to sleep when told, or the Kikimora would steal their air, give them awful dreams, or take them away. The figure emerged sometime before the 8th to 13th century when Christianity supplanted paganism in the Slavic lands. The Kikimora remained a reality in Slavic families long after Christianity’s acceptance and spread, which devalued as well as dismissed many Slavic paranormal entities because the belief helped keep order and discipline as well as explained an otherwise unexplainable, such as night terrors, lost belongings, the lives lost of women and children, and unusual noises or occurrences.

The Russian name kuku’mopa, which is up for question, may have inspired the English word Kikimora—possibly derived from the Finnish term for “scarecrow” or even the Slavic more again for dead, as suggested by author Rosa Angela. Others have proposed an association with words that mean Devil, death, crookedness, nightmares, tears, or wailing. Among the Kikimora’s many nocturnal activities was the belief that it caused sleep paralysis, a condition in which an individual is awake but immobile; the Kikimora was assumed to be seated on the chest of the victim throughout this time, trying to prevent them from even weeping out and brutalizing them with feelings of dying.

The god of the sky, fire, hearth, or smithing of pre-Christian Slavic religion, Svarog, may have inspired the Kikimora. In this story, Svarog makes heaven a perfect place for all the lovely beings around him, but some get discontented with their ideal home and start demanding change.  The ghosts hatch a plot to topple Svarog, but the god-king is aware of their scheme long before it is implemented. He seizes the plotters and hurls them from on high, where they will remain until he says otherwise. They float from the sky and get stuck in people’s fireplace chimneys. After realizing their error, they make a pact to watch over the homeowners by maintaining a steady fire, protecting the family from harm, and keeping the home’s positive energy flowing.

Many aspects of the ancient Slavic religion were lost as Christianity replaced or suppressed them. Since neither the Kikimora nor this story has any verifiable historical roots in Slavic culture, any suggested link is purely speculative. While the Kikimora is known for its unpredictability when insulted, the home spirits in this tale are not. Thus, there may be no link. However, the Kikimora is nearly always linked with the hearth and is supposed to live beneath the stove. Therefore, it is probable that the idea of the peculiarly Slavic household ghost arose or was inspired by this narrative.

However, according to folklore, their beginnings are not related to the fireplace but rather the terrible loss of a baby or small child, a woman, or a woman lured by a demon. There isn’t just one story about how they came to be; instead, several different things are credited with giving them existence. Death before baptism was also supposed to transform an infant into a kikimora, as with stillborn children and miscarriages. Like matriarchs who grew accustomed to watching over the household and refused to depart upon death, the spirit of a woman who died by suicide was supposed to become a kikimora. Children whose parents had cursed them were also considered prime candidates. The Devil would focus on the child and work his influence until his soul faded into the Kikimora.

Girls were especially vulnerable because the spirit was thought to be female, but it appears that young boys were also affected. It was believed that young women of marrying age were particularly vulnerable to the sinister magic of handsome young men who were demons who seduced people with expensive gifts or, more commonly, left items along trails the woman would indeed walk, so if she brought each home, she granted the devil permission to roam the house. The demon left after impregnating the woman, and the gifts burned to ashes; the baby would be born with malformed, pointy ears and grow up to be a kikimora. After a kikimora infant is switched with a mortal infant, its parents nurture the child as theirs until they begin to exhibit strange behaviour that betrays the child’s actual nature as a kikimora. Aveela gives the example of parents who decide against teaching their child how to read early in his age category out of fear that he will be labelled a kikimora by his peers.

The Kikimora is typically shown as a shrivelled, wrinkled older woman in a headscarf, but she can take on several appearances. She can be a chicken-beaked woman or any other domestic animal, a lovely young woman, a recently deceased relative, or a goat-like figure with luminous eyes and horns. In other accounts, she plays a role in the genesis of witchcraft in the form of the Kikimora.

Some people associate the Kikimora with the notorious witch Baba Yaga, who is said to have hunted for infants to eat by flying through the sky on a mortar powered by a pestle. A kikimora was a child predator with supernatural abilities similar to Baba Yaga’s. This element of the Kikimora seems to only apply to one of the two types of Kikimora, and it seems at variance with her position as a benign guardian and assistant in the home. Like most supernatural beings, the Kikimora’s role was to promote upholding cultural norms. Things were believed that a kikimora would move into a house if the wife did not keep it clean, the husband was harsh and sluggish, and the children were not adequately disciplined. Once inside, as was previously mentioned, the only way to dispose of them was to treat them with dignity, as if they belonged there, and leave them tokens of appreciation and food.

The spirits also explained sad events, such as losing a child, a young woman, an expecting mother, or a healthy matriarch. The evil Kikimora of a swamp was blamed for these occurrences because they could just as readily steal a child from loving parents as they could from parents who cursed their child. They were also blamed for everyday frustrations like misplacing everyday items.

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Its skeleton is often surrounded by rotting flesh, making it look like it came from the deepest parts of the abyss. It is said that Chuma brings pain and death and leaves a feeling of sadness and hopelessness wherever it goes. People think that Chuma has a lot of power over sickness and epidemics and that she could send devastating plagues to whole communities or areas. It is said to roam the land, spreading its evil and making people sick, from fever and plague to diseases that can’t be cured. The touch of Chuma is feared because it brings death and sorrow.

Chuma came about because people used to fear sickness and how fragile life was. Since the Slavic people depended a lot on farming and lived in small, close-knit groups, they knew all too well what a terrible effect an epidemic could have. Chuma became a symbol for all these diseases, and his story serves as a warning and a lesson of how important health and well-being are. In Slavic mythology, different rites and practices were done to keep Chuma from taking over. Some were protective charms, prayers, and gifts meant to calm the evil spirit. Communities often gather to do ceremonies and practices to clean the air and ask good gods to protect them from Chuma’s anger.

Even though Chuma is a scary and sad part of Slavic folklore, he is also a reminder of how strong and brave the Slavic people are when they face problems. In stories and legends about Chuma, there are often heroes and women who bravely fought against the plague and looked for cures and treatments to save their communities from the terrible effects of the disease. Through the stories of Chuma, the Slavic people tried to make sense of the deep secrets of illness and death and find ways to deal with them. The tale of Chuma is a warning story that shows how important it is to take care of your health, practice good hygiene, and help each other in times of trouble.

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In Act 3 of the opera, however, when her loved Prince has spurned her again for Foreign Princess, Rusalka reveals the other side of her historical self by transforming into a bludika. When residing at the bottom of the lake, Rusalka assumes this appearance and only emerges to drag unsuspecting mortals to their doom. Her final moments are just as bleak; she grants her lover’s dying wish to be killed by her kiss and sinks back into the abyss of despair.

The Siren Rusalka has many possible backstories, unlike the pagan water nymph, which appeared spontaneously. All too often, beautiful young women met violent ends. However, murder and suicide are not unheard of either. The women in rusalka tales are frequently the victims of male accomplices. Some rusalki are teenagers who committed suicide by jumping into a body of water after discovering they were carrying an unplanned child. According to alternative mythologies, a rusalka would be any young lady under thirty who dies a virgin. Other legends hold that unbaptized infants who pass away are reborn into water sprites. This interpretation contradicts the myth that unwed mothers were forced to drown their infants. Final tales say anyone who has committed suicide by jumping into a body of water is a Rusalka.

Some Rusalki, legend has it, only live for a limited time, and others must stay until justice is served for their deaths. Anywhere there is water, including lakes, rivers, canals, marshes, and swamps, is a potential haunting ground for Rusalki. Large breasts are a common compliment to their thin figure. They have long, flowing hair which is either golden, light brown, or green, and fair skin. It is stated that rusalkas’ eyes are always green and lack pupils entirely in the case of really evil ones. The women are always dressed in delicate, translucent garments that appear to be composed of mist. Even the evilest Rusalki are revered and feared by the Slavic people because of the universal beauty they represent.

Perhaps ancient pagan myths can be traced back to the fact that a rusalka’s goals change depending on where she resides. The Rusalki are lovely and humorous people living in regions with abundant vegetation and crops, such as Ukraine and the Danube River basin. Wild and nasty. However, the rusalki are only found in the most severe climates. In the dead of night, these evil spirits would emerge from the ocean and ambush humans, usually men, before dragging them alive back into the depths.

Unlike their fishtailed counterparts, Rusalki can walk on land thanks to their legs. They have a penchant for treetop twirling and climbing. Slavic tribes worldwide commemorate Rusalki Week annually in the first week of June to usher in the summer season. At this moment, going near the sea is a surefire way to die. The Rusalki land is said to enjoy the flowing willow and birch tree swings before joining together for moonlit circle dances. Anyone unlucky enough to witness one of these celebrations must participate in the dancing till he dies. At the weekend’s end, communities near the water conduct ritual burials to please the Rusalki or drive them into the sea. These customs persisted until the Soviet Union stepped in and stopped them in the 1930s.

Rusalki are most likely to be found in the forest when dancing, singing, and otherwise having a good time. Since they were so happy, you wouldn’t know they were terrible people. However, those unlucky enough to get too close are drowned or sometimes even tickled to death. These ghosts sometimes used the sound of a baby’s cry to entice passing strangers. People didn’t always have a negative view of them. It is speculated that these beings descended from agricultural spirits that were either good or at least neutral and contributed to the growth of fertile and robust crops. It exemplifies how folklore may develop and grow throughout time. However, Rusalka’s backstory is murky and convoluted because it is a composite of various supernatural beings from multiple worldviews. The word “Rusalka” itself has been used since the 18th century. The Poludnitsa, the Vodyanoy, and perhaps the Beregini are all represented in the creature.

According to local legend, the Devil boiled these creatures in a giant cauldron and turned them into creatures of eternal young beauty. Because of this “composite spirit,” their symbolism changes significantly from place to place. Hags with worse-than-average looks and enormous breasts were a common stereotype of these creatures in northern Russia. Alternatively, Rusalki have been shown as human ladies with a fish tail on the place of legs, mortal women or boys of unusually petite stature, or young guys.

The most prevalent explanations for the existence of the Rusalki were that they were the souls of girls who died and whose spirits were stuck in the water or that they were the souls of unsaved children that took on that shape to haunt the realm of the living. Aside from playing in the water, Rusalki also liked to frolic in the fields of corn.  These monsters posed the most significant threat during Rusal’Naia week, an ancient shamanistic Slavic celebration held annually in the spring. During this time, the Rusalki were thought to emerge from the water, prompting worshippers to tie gifts to trees to appease them.

Smolensk, Russia, is home to a fable about a guy who captured a Rusalka and rendered her helpless with a crucifix. He brought the creature home, made her wash his laundry, and cleaned the house. Rusal’Naia week arrived after a year, and the energy was revived. She escaped from the man’s grasp as soon as she was able. However, there are other accounts of Rusalkas who left voluntarily with their suitors. Some versions have the creature bringing him to an extravagant aquatic palace where they can live happily ever after. Sometimes in legends, the Rusalka marries the man, and they have a happy married life together.

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Baba Yaga is the most commonly known form of the narrative Vasilissa the Beautiful, in which she accidentally frees the main character from the control of her stepmother & stepsisters. She also plays a similar role in well-known stories, like The Frog Princess & Baba Yaga and the Kind-Hearted Girl. Some of her stories are like the Cinderella story in that she plays the role of the Fairy Godmother but with a very dark twist. She doesn’t follow the rules of society and does things her way. Because of this, she has become a modern-day symbol of the power and freedom of women. Books, movies, and TV shows still discuss her this way. Even though she is still scary, she is seen more and more as a source of knowledge and power than an evil personification.

Baba Yaga is usually pictured as a vast, ugly older woman who lives inside a hut on four tall chicken legs that she can move or turn around when she wants to. She is frequently seen stretched out over her cooker or lying down in her hut so that her big nose touches the ceiling. When she departs her house, she gets to ride in a mortar pushed by a pestle to ensure no one sees her. She probably leaves her cottage early and returns in the evening. She oversees a flock of blackbirds that search the sky for children. In the story, Baba Yaga’s Black Geese, Olga and Sergei sneak out of their residence while one‘s mother is in the market, even though she tells them not to leave when the geese are flying. Sergei is caught and taken back to Baba Yaga’s house to be her dinner. Olga uses magical items to save her brother, and both learn that they should have listened to their mother.

She is usually shown this way, even if her actions lead to good things. Disease, illness, tragedy, chill, vicious wood creature, witch, lousy woman, anger, fury, torture, pain, and feeling worried, serpent, snake, uncle’s wife, stepmother, aunt, mother, and mother’s stepdaughter are all possibilities. Johns quotes scholar Brian Cooper, who says the name “suggests a figurative language of suffocating oppression” and says that “despite its mysterious origins, Baba Yaga’s name is well recognized throughout Russia.” Villagers used the word “iaga” in the same way they used the word “witch” to describe “old, squabbling, and ugly women.” Most people think the name means “Grandmother Witch,” even though that’s not the correct equivalent.

Baba Yaga takes children and eats them, and it seems like she hunts for them all day to eat them for dinner, but she also helps things change. She helps the leading lady or hero become more self-aware and finish their quest in several stories. Baba Yaga is the perfect example of the trickster archetype, both in these stories and in the ones where she is the bad guy. The trickster is a part of the legends of various cultures worldwide, but it’s important to remember that these “mythologies” were once seen as real religions, just like any other. The trickster was seen as a god or an aspect of a supreme god who messed with the lives of those other gods, humans, and the natural world, for some reason or no reason, to encourage change. No matter how bad the encounter with the trickster was, it forced you out of your comfort zone and into a new, often more aware, state of yourself and the world.

Baba Yaga’s role as a trickster is best shown in her most well-known story, “Vasilissa the Beautiful.” Vasilissa finds happiness with her father and mom until she is eight. When her mother gets sick, she calls a woman to her deathbed and gives her a mystical doll to assist her through life. She should always keep this same doll with her and keep it a secret from others. Whenever she needs help, she must feed and water the doll. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her dad marries a woman with two daughters. The new wife is jealous of Vasilissa’s beauty and mistreats her, giving her complex jobs while her father is on business trips. Vasilissa can only do these things with the assistance of her doll.

In the story, Baba Yaga and the Kind-Hearted Little Girl, a young girl & her young widow father enjoy their time together until he remarries. His new wife ends their time together and abuses the child without the father knowing. As in the Vasilissa story, the stepmother has sent the girl into the woods so Baba Yaga can kill her. As she goes, the girl is kind to different things in the forest, which helps her get away when she gets to the hut in which Baba Yaga wants to eat her. Once she gets back home and her father makes her tell him where she’s been, the stepmother has been kicked out, and the father and child go back to how they used to live.

Inside The Frog Princess, Baba Yaga and her sisters help Prince Ivan find his runaway princess after he betrayed her trust. In Maria Morevna, it’s indeed Baba Yaga who, against her will, gives Prince Alexei the horse he needs to free his real love, Maria, from captivity. She is never shown to be kind, loving, or welcoming, except when she likes to think she is meeting her dinner, but she always causes the main character or characters’ lives to change and gives them what they need to grow and be free.

Like the other stories, this one shows Baba Yaga as the one who brings about change. Even though Baba Yaga is usually depicted as a figure linked to darkness, evil, human sacrifice, and death, she is a change agent. Her rejection of social norms allows her to act on her desires without thinking about them. As she does this, she alters the lives of those she interacts with. Suppose you agree with Jung’s idea that the trickster is a personification of your shadow. In that case, Baba Yaga represents the parts of yourself that you don’t like, like selfishness, violence, spite, and greed, which can be balanced out by the better parts of yourself, like kindness, forethought, gratitude, and helpfulness, which are usually shown by the main character of the story.

The idea that Baba Yaga lives in a “cabin of chicken legs with no windows and doors” is pure fantasy. In reality, this is just one way of looking at a typical construction used by hunter-gatherer nomads of Siberia from the Uralic Finno-Ugric and Tungusic families to keep food safe from animals while they were away for long periods. A log cabin is made from the middle stump of two to three trees cut down when they were between eight and ten feet tall. The spread-out roots of the stumps make them look like “chicken legs.” A trap door inside the centre of the floor is the only way to get into the cabin.

Pagans in Siberia put statues of their gods in something similar, but smaller, to hold them. A typical picture of Baba Yaga is a bone-carved doll dressed in rags sitting in a small cabin on the pinnacle of a tree stump. This picture is a reminder of the time when the Siberian people were led by their mothers. Baba Yaga barely fits in her house, with her legs inside one corner, her head in another, and her nose growing into the ceiling. There are signs that ancient Slavs used these kinds of huts for funerals where the dead were burned.

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Slavic cultures have a wide range of theories on where Upirs came from. One theory proposes that Upirs are the cursed entities resulting from the actions of those who committed mortal sins or refused to accept Jesus Christ. The Orthodox church barred such individuals from its cemetery because they were “unclean.” This was meant as punishment, as it was thought that the flesh of their corpses would rot more slowly than usual. People of those eras commonly assumed that Upirs served the Devil or were possessed since they did not believe in god. It was thought that these Devil’s minions could become undead and resurrect. b There was also the theory that the Upirs used the corpse of a sick person in their mission to convert people from god. People possessed by spirits were previously presented as usual and went unrecognized.

Upirs were also said to be ladies in Russia who sold their souls to the Devil. They’d rest in cemeteries and abandoned bathhouses throughout the day, then return there to haunt at night. Also, these female Upirs’ objective was to make people stop believing in god. There is a widespread belief in Belarusian folklore that these animals can shapeshift and ride horses. Upirs had a reputation for feasting on the hearts of their victims, and their need for blood was considerably more significant than that of a regular vampire. Aside from consuming it orally, they also showered and dozed off in a bed of fresh blood. The Upirs were also said to prioritize eating the family’s children before moving on to the adults.

Several methods have been suggested in the stories for dispatching these beasts. By driving a consecrated stake through their hearts or plunging them into the holy water, one is staking them to the ground. Some stories suggest that you should only stake them once, as a second time would bring them back to life even more powerful than before. Death by incineration or destruction via fire is another option. It was thought that if you baked bread using vampire blood and ate it, you would be safe from the spirits.

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Vodyanoy can change into various forms, including a fish, a log, and a lovely woman. Also, like the western Merman, he is sometimes shown with a fish’s tail. A Vodyanoy can pass for a human in a hamlet, but his real nature is exposed by the water that oozes from the left side of the coat, and the patch on the ground where he sits becomes wet immediately. The Vodyanoy revealed himself as a fat, chubby old guy. At other times, he’d have a potbelly, swollen cheeks, a reed hat, and a rush belt. His appearance was a green monster with pimples, warts, and slime covering his skin. The Vodyanoy were technically immortal, but they experienced the effects of ageing and tiredness, much like humans.

The Vodyanik rules the ocean but is utterly helpless on dry land despite possessing tremendous strength and power in the sea. The oceans are entirely under his control. He helps fishermen by luring fish into their nets and directing them to safe harbours during storms, but he sends them careening toward perilous shores when he’s in a bad one. If the miller wants to be successful, he should bury a living creature—a calf, a sheep, or a man—in the mill’s foundations and then rip the spike out of the mill wheels, redirect the water, and flood the mill.

Many people also think the Vodyanik kills anyone who bathes at noon or midnight. His daytime routine involves lounging just at the bottom of the deep pond, but at night he can be found sitting on the shore, combing his hair, or engaging in water sports, such as diving with a splash and emerging from the water at a great distance. Occasionally, he will also battle with the wood sprites, the sounds of which can be heard from great lengths. Market visits are a favourite pastime for Vodyanoy while he is on dry land, and his presence is a reliable indicator of the price of corn. If he buys expensively, a poor harvest is on the horizon and vice versa. In the swamps, he enjoys a good ride on a sheatfish or a horse, bull, and cow, which he will ride until it dies. He wants to revel and play cards and is a heavy drinker.

Legend has it that whenever a water mill was constructed, a Vodyanoy would take human life as payment since they preferred the calm of the millpond. Every mill needs at least one Vodyanoy, potentially more if it includes more than one set of wheels. Therefore, millers must have a solid grasp of the occult because disaster will strike without knowing how to appease the water spirits. Before jumping into the water or a bath, millers and peasants would cross themselves in case  Vodianova were angry and attempted to drown them. Vodka, however, was not infallible and might be fooled.

When the initial swarm of the calendar year arrives, it is traditional to place it in a bag and then toss it, stone in hand, into the nearby river as a gift to Vodnik, who is also considered a patron of beekeeping. If you take honey from a colony on St. Zosima’s Day and throw it into a mill stream at midnight, you will succeed as a beekeeper. Not only does he reign supreme in his aquatic domain, but he also wields considerable sway over the fortunes of fishermen and sailors. He helps them out in some cases, but in others, he leads them straight to disaster. Occasionally, he becomes entangled in fishermen’s nets; nevertheless, he quickly rips them apart, releasing every fish inside. The Vodyanoy hibernates during the colder months, but when spring arrives, he becomes angry and hungry and acts out in petty ways.

In some regions, the locals will buy a horse and feed it well for three days to appease him. After that, they’ll tie the animal’s legs together, smear honey on its head, decorate its mane with red ribbons, and hang two millstones around its neck before throwing it into an ice hole or, if the frost has torn up into the centre of a river at midnight. The Vodyanoy has been waiting for his gift for three days, and his impatience is clearly shown by the groans and upheavals of water he is producing. After getting his due, he stops talking.

At the same time every year, fishermen pour oil into the water to appease him, pleading with him to be kind to them, while millers offer up a black pig as an annual sacrifice to ensure a prosperous year. As a thank you for watching the farmer’s ducks and geese over the summer, he is often given a goose about the middle of September. Ukrainians traditionally buried a horse’s head in a dam to make it solid and impenetrable against Vodnik.

Once upon a time, a fisherman pulled a body from the water and brought it aboard. And then, to his surprise, the corpse sprang to life, laughed hysterically, and leapt over the side. That was a practical joke pulled by the Vodyanoy. Once upon a time, a sportsman waded into the river to retrieve a hurt duck, and the Vodyanoy grabbed him even by the neck and nearly dragged him underneath if he hadn’t freed himself with his axe. When he came home, Vodyanoy’s fingers had left blue stains all over his neck. Farmers sign a line on the river with a blade or scythe to scare away the Vodyanoy so their horses don’t get jumped by the monster and drown when crossing a river.

Bathing during the week of the Prophet Ilya feast is especially risky because the Vodyanoy is actively hunting for victims. They say he frequently sits on the coast with a club in his side, from which hold ribbons of various colours: with all these, he allures kids, including those whom he gets a hold of, he drowns. Fishermen in Bohemia are reluctant to help a drowning man out of fear that the Vodyanoy will be affronted and drive the fish away from their nets. Vodyanoy retains his victims’ souls and turns them into servants but lets their corpses wash up on shore. It is believed in Ukraine that these half-human, half-fish “marine people” rise to the sea’s surface during storms to sing.

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Bohemian folklore describes her as an ethereal, white woman or an older woman who haunts men’s homes and roams the meadows at midday. Also, she floats high in the air, surrounded by strong winds, and anyone she comes into contact with will perish suddenly. Sometimes she appears frail and young, like a girl of twelve, with a whip ready to strike anyone who dares to cross her path. She has a penchant for stalking pregnant women and new mothers who venture out during lunchtime. Children who cry are told to stay quiet because a Poludnica will come and take them away if their mothers leave them in the fields during harvest. The Poludnica is depicted as an older woman with a horse’s hoofs, an ugly visage, slanted eyes, and messy hair in Moravian folklore.

In Ukraine, moon maidens, or poludnitsy, were revered for guiding the sun’s rays and keeping crops fertile. According to Polish mythology, the Poludnica is a tall woman wearing a white robe that falls to her feet and holds a sharp sickle. She had a midday ritual of stumping travellers with riddles and then picking off the ones who couldn’t solve them. The Poludnica, in the eyes of the Russians, takes the form of a tall, lovely girl in a white gown. She pulls youngsters into the corn and walks around during harvest time, seizes their heads of anyone she finds working in the fields at noon and twists their necks, causing them excruciating anguish.

She is an older woman having thick, curly and scant clothing in the minds of Siberian Russians; she lives in the reeds or in the deep thickets of nettles, where she kidnaps misbehaving children. She is a protector of fields in several regions of Russia. Like the demon Meridianus, ” the disease that destroyeth at the noonday,” she appears to be most destructive during midday. It’s worth noting that Russian peasants have a particular verb—”His soul in its body scarcely poludnoet”—for describing the moment just before death. During the summer, she spends her time stalking the people that work in the fields and forests. She constantly challenges them with challenging questions; if they can’t come up with satisfactory answers, she brings terrible calamities upon them.

Peasants attribute natural phenomena like the fata morgana to her, and she has been known to appear in their cottages when a storm is raging outside. Women and children were her preferred prey whenever she ventured out of the fields or woodlands with her seven great black dogs. The Pripotdnica is the topic of numerous legends among the Lusatian Serbs, who portray her as a tall, older woman in a white robe and holding a sickle, or as a youthful woman. She stayed in the fields to protect crops while the rest of the workers went to lunch, and if someone went to check on her, she would chatter nonstop and kill them on the spot if they looked away.

In other versions of a Serbian Poludnica, a lady emerges from the forest about lunchtime, surprising anyone who happens to be working nearby; and whoever she happens to meet in the fields at a particular time of day is obligated to chat with her for a full hour about the same issue. She will frequently quiz them on various topics, such as the cultivation of linen and hemp, to punish those who fail to provide satisfactory answers. However, young mothers or pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to her attacks. She watches the cornfields at noon, punishing children who step on the ears of corn or steal from the farmers. She is descended from a long-forgotten plant ghost who watches over the land.

At harvest time, he shrinks to the length of stubble, having grown to approximately the size of a corn stalk. The dwarf with earth-toned skin would occasionally wear an all-white suit, while he would sport a head of grass at other times. The Polevoi was very protective of his property and would assault and maybe kill any drunks or strangers who decided to spend the night in his fields. He flees the reaper’s sickle and takes refuge amid the remaining stalks, only to be captured by the harvester and taken to the barns with the remainder of the ears. Taking a break inside the field between midday and dark when the Polevik emerges is dangerous. The roaming Polevik on horseback will either run over everyone napping there, or bring disease to them. The Belun, an older man with a lengthy white beard and a flowing white robe, is frequently mentioned in the White Russians’ folktales as a benefactor of the harvest workers and a giver of valuable gifts. He will only appear to those lost each day, guiding them back to safety.

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Because the first family member to move into a newly constructed home was expected to die and turn into the Domovoi, the tradition dictated that the eldest child be the one to move in first. The family tradition was to pack up the ashes from the fireplace and take them with them when they relocated from one home to another.  When a house was abandoned, the Domovoi would stay behind even if it was destroyed by fire. Sacrificing a goat, fowl, and lamb, burying it beneath the first rock or log placed, and forgoing a domovoi, would avert the instantaneous death of the eldest family member. He took up the domovoi role after the family patriarch’s death. A domovoi is often a man, but if there are no men inside the house or the female head of the household is in charge, she takes on that role instead.

The standard domovoi appearance was that of a small older man, about the size of a 5-year-old, completely covered in hair. This included the Domovoi’s palms and soles. His entire face is covered in hair except for the area directly surrounding his eyes and nose. There are also accounts of Domovoi with aged features, silvery hair and beard, white moustaches, and bright eyes. Either a blue hooded cape with a pink belt or a red shirt. He appears as a stunning young man donning an all-white ensemble in another narrative. The Domovoi is a grumpy older man who only leaves the house at night to quarrel with no one around. At night he comes to check on the sleeping people and runs his hairy hands over their faces. If your hands are warm and smooth, you’re in luck; bad times are on the horizon if they’re cold and rough.

The Domovoi’s primary role is to safeguard the home by warning its members of impending danger, warding off mischievous woodland spirits, and preventing witches from making off with the cows. The Domovoi is thrifty and hardworking; they can be found late at night riding horses or exploring the farm by candlelight. He may be heard sobbing in the middle of the night after the death of the family patriarch. Before a disaster such as a war, a plague, or a fire strikes, the Domovoi will gather in the meadows to mourn. The Domovoi will make knocking noises, ride the horses until they are fatigued at night, or order the watchdogs to dig holes in the courtyard and howl through the town if they believe bad luck is on the horizon for the family. However, the Domovoi is easily insulted and requires gifts, such as little cloaks, concealed beneath the house floor to provide them with clothing or leftovers from the evening meal. Every year on March 30th, from the crack of dawn till the stroke of midnight, the Domovoi turns evil and must be lured with food.

Multiple versions of house spirits can be found in rural Slavic homes. People fear taking baths at night because a house spirit called a Bannik lurks in bathhouses and could suffocate them if they don’t pray first. The Russian word for “yard dweller” is “domovoi-laska”. They are called ovinnik inside a barn and gumennik outside of one. Vanilla or Bagan is a guardian house ghost who assumes the form of the animals he guards and sleeps in a cradle each night.

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