Witches in Rus'. Details from the life of Russian witches

There have been a lot of witches in Rus' since ancient times. In their practical activities they used different forms of witchcraft. One of the most dangerous forms is choosing a footprint from under your feet and throwing dust into the wind. What was this witchcraft? The witch took dust from the trail of the person she wanted to destroy. She put this dust on her palm and pronounced a curse. Then she walked past the house of the intended victim and blew away the charmed dust at the threshold or at the gate. After this, the death of a person was inevitable.

The main role in magic was given to conspiracy or enchantment. That is, magical power was attributed not to things or objects, but to words. It was they who imbued various objects with power. This meant that magic came from the human soul and not from nature.

Even treatment or poisoning with the help of herbs was attributed not to the harmful or healing properties of plants, but to the sorcerer, who endowed them with various properties through his will. Therefore, the Orthodox Church had a negative attitude towards herbal treatment and called it greenery. It was assumed that an absolutely harmless plant could kill if endowed with magical powers.

In 1632, when the Muscovite kingdom was at war with Lithuania, a state decree prohibited the import of hops into the territory of Rus'. And such a decree was born on the basis of a denunciation from spies. They reported that some witch was slandering drunkenness. And when such hops get into Muscovy, a pestilence will begin.

In the 15th-19th centuries, people were especially afraid of a decoction of the “underground root”. Allegedly, the witches of Rus' found him in caves and abandoned wells and pronounced a curse over him. After this, poison was prepared and sold in finished form. But none of the ordinary people have seen the mysterious root itself. The witches living in Zamoskvorechye of the Mother Throne were especially famous for their ability to make poisons from a mysterious plant.

In the first half of the 17th century, such famous witches of Rus' as Feklitsa, Ulka, Mashka Kozlikha, Naska Chernigovka, Dunka lived there. In 1638, a case arose about the damage sent to Queen Evdokia. And all the Zamoskvoretsky enchantresses were interrogated, since they practiced services by slandering certain things.

This is how women suffering from beatings from their husbands turned to the sorceress Naska Chernigovka. The sorceress “laundered the hearts and jealousy of husbands.” She talked about salt, whitewash, soap and ordered women to wash themselves with soap and whiten themselves with whitewash, and to add salt to their husbands’ food.

The witch Feklitsa from Zamoskvorechye was considered one of the most popular in Moscow. It was rumored that she was friends with ghosts and easily communicated with Satan himself. This woman lived not far from the Serpukhov Gate of Skorodom. It must be said that there were many settlements in Zamoskvorechye at that time. There lived taxing people who carried all kinds of cargo, interpreters, foreign, Pskov, and Novgorod merchants. Healers, fortune tellers, sorceresses and witches have long flourished in this area.

And Feklitsa, communicating with spirits, constantly intimidated the people. She frightened those who tried to dig a well or build a basement without her knowledge. People tried not to quarrel with her. After all, she could poison the water in a well, sink a house into the ground, and unleash all sorts of evil spirits. Satan himself helped her punish people. For this purpose, Feklitsa scratched a special sign on the frame of an abandoned well. And the ruler of evil forces immediately appeared at her call.

It should be noted that the attitude towards witches in Rus' was twofold. They were afraid of them, but at the same time they called for help in difficult times, asked to tell fortunes, cast a spell, and remove damage. And it happened that they beat me, put me in a dungeon, tortured me, drowned me, and burned me at the stake. Bloody reprisals against sorceresses were practiced extremely widely on Russian soil. But they differed from the Court of the Holy Inquisition in that witches were killed by ordinary citizens, and the state authorities practiced this from case to case.

And the famous Feklitsa was touched by popular anger. In the end, the inhabitants of the capital city dealt with her. The cause was a fire in Zamoskvorechye. He destroyed many houses, and not all the owners were able to rebuild their homes. Several sites remained abandoned. And the children began to play on these ashes. Somehow they discovered a cellar and climbed into it. They saw a hole going into the ground there, decided to check where it went, and disappeared.

The relatives of the missing children became alarmed, and rumors spread that it was Feklitsa who killed them. She brought innocent children's souls as a gift to those ghosts with whom she constantly knew. Then she was reminded of all the sins accumulated over many years.

Enraged men and women burst into Feklitsa’s hut. They beat her and dragged her by the hair to an abandoned well, where she carved signs on the log house. The witch was thrown into this well. To be sure, they also threw stones. But Feklitsa managed to shout curses at her executioners.

It just so happened from ancient times that the witches of Rus' never forgave their offenders. In this case, too, the missing children did not return, and troubles befell the participants in the execution. Some were stabbed to death by robbers, some died from illness, and some were left without home and property after another fire. And before trouble came to someone’s family, signs appeared at the home where she lived. Exactly the same as on the log house of an abandoned well.

For many years, rumors about Feklitsa haunted ordinary people. Meanwhile, the old witches of Rus' were replaced by new ones. And gradually other legends and rumors were born.

By what criteria in Rus' were they determined whether a witch was in front of them or an ordinary woman.

In different years and in different parts of Rus', completely different women were considered witches. In the South, beautiful young widows were often accused of witchcraft, whose mere appearance encouraged men (including married ones) to commit reckless acts. In the northern provinces, when asked what a real witch looks like, you would be told that it is a dry, hunched and necessarily shaggy old woman. If you asked this question in the middle zone of the country, then the portrait would be like this - fat, dirty and definitely with a thorn in the eye.

Everyone agreed that they had a small tail, invisible to ordinary people. To make sure their suspicions were correct, the village women invited the “victim” to the bathhouse with them. The refusal was regarded as confirmation of their suspicions. Would a real witch dare to show her tail... And another evidence that there is a witch in front of you is when a woman turns her back to the iconostasis in church, does not pray and does not cross herself.

Why witches always tried to be alone

While some went to a withered, shaggy woman or a fat old woman with a thorn in her eye for help, others accused her of all conceivable and unimaginable sins, from crop failure to the loss of livestock, drought and torrential rains. So, it turned out that for some troubles and troubles that happen in life, a person always seeks to blame someone else, and not himself and his environment. To protect themselves, hermits settled on the edge of the village or in the forest so that in case of any unrest or discontent on the part of the villagers, they could hide in the deep and impassable thicket of the forest. Unfortunately, they were not always able to avoid lynching.

How they fought witches in Rus'

Suspected of the troubles of the entire village or its individual residents, they were often interrogated with partiality. She was tortured, and the rack was often used... Naturally, many confessed to sins they had not committed. A fire and an aspen stake are the main means of fighting witches in Rus'. They were impaled alive and burned in their own huts or at the stake.

History has preserved the most brutal execution - in 1489, thirteen witches were burned in Pskov, accusing them of sending a pestilence to the townspeople. In addition, it preserved history and information about other executions. For example, the old woman Olena, who admitted to casting spells on villagers, was burned in her own hut near Moscow in 1670. Men were also injured. One of those accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake was the peasant Ogloedov. He was executed near Smolensk, this happened in 1678. He was accused of inducing hiccups on people...

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The Western “Witch Hunt” did not spread to Orthodox Rus'. Nevertheless, witches were persecuted in our country.

Already in the “Tale of Bygone Years” we come across lines worthy of inclusion in “The Witches’ Hammer”: “Most of all, demonic sorcery occurs through wives, for from time immemorial the demon deceived a woman, who is also a man, and therefore in our days many women engage in sorcery, and poison, and other demonic intrigues" (1071).

The witch is thrown into the hole

The church charter of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (the final version was formed at the beginning of the 12th century) lists among the crimes subject to church court: not only “heretics”, but also “witchcraft”, and “knots [spell knots for driving away diseases, slander]”.

The charter was in force until the 17th century inclusive - in the letter of Archbishop Cyprian of Tobolsk to the royal governors (1623), with reference to the decrees of the tsar and the patriarch, “witchcraft ... that’s all, gentlemen, our spiritual affairs” (History of Siberia. Primary sources. IV issue - Novosibirsk , 1994. - pp. 255-256).

The charter on the church courts of Yaroslav (the church code of law, developed in the 13-14 centuries) provided for a mild punishment: “If the wife is a sorceress, a learner, or a sorcerer, or a herbalist, the husband will incriminate. will punish her, but will not divorce her.” In this case, the church left the punishment of the witch to the husband, and the severity of the punishment depended on the latter’s attitude towards his wife.

The epic about Dobrynya Nikitich tells how he “taught” his wife, the sorceress, “heretic” and “atheist” Marina Ignatievna: “I cut off her head and her tongue completely / And this tongue is not needed, / He knew heretical deeds” - but Such punishment, of course, was not usual.

There was a practice of burning witches. Actually, the ritual burning of the Magi existed even among the pagans. Suzdal Bishop Serapion preached in the 70s. 13th century:

“You still adhere to the pagan custom of sorcery, believe and burn innocent people. In what books, in what writings have you heard that famines occur on earth due to sorcery? If you believe this, then why are you burning the Magi? Do you beg, honor them, bring them gifts so that they don’t cause pestilence, let in rain, bring warmth, order the earth to be fruitful?

Sorcerers and sorceresses act with demonic power over those who fear them, but who hold firm faith in God, they have no power over those. I grieve for your madness, I beg you, step back from your filthy deeds.” The continuation clearly demonstrated the true price of the bishop's mercy. So: “I beg you, step back from filthy deeds.

If you want to cleanse the city of lawless people, I rejoice in that. Purify, as David, the prophet and king, exterminated in the city of Jerusalem all those who create lawlessness: some by death, others by exile, others by imprisonment, always making the city of the Lord worthy, free from sins” (IV Teachings of St. Serapion // Gromov M., Milkov V . Ideological currents of ancient Russian thought. - St. Petersburg, 2001. - P. 546-547).

A double moral standard common to the Middle Ages - Serapion mercifully opposes the killing of sorcerers for pagan reasons, but immediately demands their execution as enemies of Christianity.

It is not surprising that the burnings did not stop with the establishment of Christianity. In 1411, twelve witches were burned in Pskov on suspicion of having sent a plague to the city. In 1444, the Mozhaisk prince ordered the noblewoman Marya Mamonova to be burned “for magic.” In 1575, Grozny burned 15 witches in Novgorod. Several sorcerers were burned by order of his son Fyodor Ioannovich.

In 1638, the case of the Zamoskvoretsky witches was investigated. One royal goldsmith, in the heat of a quarrel, made a slander against her friend, saying that the sorceress sprinkled ashes on the sovereign's trail.

Under severe torture, witnesses to witchcraft began to testify. The tsar's detectives got to a certain Nastasya, the wife of the Lithuanian Yanko Pavlov. Of course, the sorceress was accused of being a foreign spy. They began to find out whether she had received an order from the Polish and Lithuanian king “to spoil the sovereign and empress.” On the rack, Nastasya admitted that “she ordered the pouring not for a bad deed, but for the moment when the ashes of the sovereign or empress queen pass, and whose petition will be in those days, and that deed will be done.”

Unfortunately for the sorcerers, in 1639 trouble struck the royal family. After an illness, five-year-old Tsarevich Ivan Mikhailovich died, followed by the newborn heir Vasily Mikhailovich. The Emperor issued a personal decree to torture the witches. Nastasya died during the investigation, and the same fate was in store for her friend, blind Ulyana. The rest were sent into exile.

In the 17th century, witchcraft was a state crime in Rus'. According to historians, the first private legalization of the fight against witchcraft took place under Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. In the “Charter on the establishment of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy,” dating back to 1682-1685, it was written:

“This school, established by us as a sovereign, will be a general school, and in it may all blessed sciences from the church be. And from the church of forbidden sciences, especially natural magic. And do not teach such others and do not have such teachers. If such teachers are found anywhere, and they and their students, like sorcerers, without any mercy, let them be burned.”

The death of Fyodor Alekseevich himself was attributed by popular rumor to sorcerers from the German settlement. The rebel archers broke into the Kremlin. They were looking for the doctor Daniel van Gaden. The protection of Princess Sophia did not help the foreign doctor. The doctor was recognized as a sorcerer, since the archers discovered a multi-legged sea animal in his house. The octopus preserved in alcohol became the final proof of the “regicide’s” guilt. The doctor was brutally tortured and chopped into pieces.

Everything that happened during these years is very reminiscent of the political repressions of the Stalin years. All the same slander, unjust accusations. Many in those days settled scores with enemies. Testimony was obtained under torture and no acquittals were found.

Loud processes shook entire regions. The royal entourage was not spared either, because just one accusation was enough to set the investigative machine in motion, grinding down everyone who came across it. The kings were terribly afraid of witchcraft and easily parted with those who were suspected of them.

During the troubled time of confrontation between Sophia and Peter, sorcerers took an active part. The head of the Streltsy order, okolnichy Fyodor Shaklovity, sent a warlock to Preobrazhenskoye to harass Peter. The sorcerer Vasily Ikonnik demanded five thousand rubles from Sophia for inflicting mortal damage on the sovereign.

But Sophia’s accomplices were not the only ones who were so cunning. Tsar Peter's bed-keeper, who later became chancellor, Gavrila Golovkin, in great secrecy, brought the Tatar Murza Ibrahim Dolotkozin and the Tatar Kodorolei to the king.

The sorcerers cast spells from books and predicted victory in the political struggle for Peter.

A ruble of money, a quarter of rye flour, half an octam of wheat flour, an octagon of peas, half an octine of cereal, half a carcass of meat and half a bucket of wine—that’s how much the steward Andrei Bezobrazov valued the services of the sorcerer Dorofey Prokofiev. He instructed the sorcerer to charm Tsar Peter I so that he would not send him, the old one, as a commander to the Terek.

The sorcerer fulfilled the request. He cast a spell in the wind. However, they gave him away. The centurion was executed on Red Square, and on Bolotnaya Square on the same day, the sorcerer Prokofiev himself and his assistants were demonstrably burned in a log house “for their theft and for their state’s health for their evil, magical and divine intent.”

The rulers do not forgive attempts by supernatural force to influence their decisions. In the “Military Articles”, published in 1716 under Peter I, various types of witchcraft are prohibited under pain of severe punishment. There, for the first time, a clause was introduced about the punishment of not only sorcerers, but also their customers: “Whoever bribes a sorcerer, or persuades him to cause harm to someone else, will be punished in the same way as the sorcerer himself.”

The autocrat persecuted sorcerers, but there is an assumption that he himself, through his adviser Bruce, together with his associates, was engaged in magic, alchemy and astrology. Legends? True story? This will happen to our kings.

The official persecution of witchcraft in Russia ceased in the 19th century. The authorities declared witchcraft ignorance. But little has changed. In the villages, witches were burned from time to time, and newfangled occult rituals were used in noble circles. Attempts to magically influence rulers apparently never stopped.

“Our ancient ancestors buried witches and sorcerers face down so that after death they would not turn into ghouls and interfere with people’s lives.

- Why did they put an aspen stake in the coffin?

— In Rus', aspen was considered a special tree that is capable of absorbing all negative energy. By the way, this tree was not used in the construction of houses. Legends say that aspen absorbs the life force of its residents, and people in such houses can get sick endlessly. But the bathhouse, on the contrary, was customary to build only from aspen! After all, people go to the bathhouse not only to wash themselves, but also to wash away all the evil from themselves; it was believed that this particular tree helps best to get rid of all evil spirits. And in each hut they kept an aspen stump, on which the sick were seated so that “the disease could be taken away.”

— It turns out that the witch is a negative character?

- Not always…

The tour guides and founders of the Museum of Superstitions of the Russian People, spouses Daria and Alexander, tell the story. They set up a museum right on their site in a two-story wooden hut in the city of Uglich.

Details from the life of Russian witches

In Rus', witches lived as hermits far, far away in the forest. They collected various herbs, roots, berries and mushrooms. They treated people and livestock. In other words, in Rus' she did only good. In folk tales she is called Baba Yaga. The word "Aga" is a Turkic word that is translated into Russian as elder. That is, Baba Yaga is the oldest grandmother in the area, both in age and knowledge.

— And you yourself have had mystical incidents in your life.

- Not with us, but with one of our relatives - yes. That story, by the way, was the reason why we decided to build this museum.

A story about a witch

A girl named Maria could not find peace; her beloved was getting married. But not on her, but on another. And then Masha decided to turn to the local witch for help.

The girl regularly visited her grandmother-fortune teller, strictly followed all her orders, read some spells and drank teas from magic herbs. And, oddly enough, Stanislav began calling Masha and even inviting her on dates.

“Every time we met,” says Masha, “he complained about Oksana, about her bad character and his difficult situation. The wedding day was constantly postponed. And I was just tired, I wanted to quit this love spell business. But the grandmother insisted that we should go to the very end.”

Meanwhile, the situation began to gain momentum. Friends turned their backs on Masha, all as one excused themselves by being too busy. Relations with parents also deteriorated. Due to nervous breakdowns, the girl developed neuralgia. And due to her frequent absence, Masha was expelled from the university.

“I wondered why so much trouble had befallen me,” says Maria, “the answer came quickly: I’m doing harm to Oksana. And this evil, like a boomerang, comes back to me. However, I achieved my goal, Stanislav married me. And later, I accidentally found out that Oksana had an abortion.

It turns out that Oksana killed her child because of me... How scared I am to constantly think about this! Yes, Stanislav and I love each other, but the situation in our house is very tense, we constantly quarrel...”

Museum visitors ask Alexander and Daria:

— You said that the witch is not a negative character? However, this story says otherwise.

- The witch did good to Masha and evil to Oksana. Every witch who knows her business says that when you decide to do something like this, you need to sacrifice something.

Folk legends place the sorcerer and the witch in very close and undoubted kinship with those mythical creatures with which fantasy has populated the airy regions since ancient times. But there is also a significant difference between them: all elemental spirits are more or less removed from man, more or less appear to him in mysterious inaccessibility; on the contrary, sorcerers and witches live among people and in appearance are no different from ordinary mortals, except for a small, carefully hidden tail.

Sage and witch (witch, thing) - from the root of the Vedas, things - mean prophetic people endowed with the spirit of foresight and prophecy, the gift of poetry and the art of healing diseases. These names are completely identical with the words: healer and healer - indicating the same higher knowledge. Regional dialects, chronicles and other ancient monuments offer several synonyms for the designation of sorcerers and sorceresses; they are called sorcerers, sorcerers, sorcerers and wise men, prophetic wives, sorceresses, enchantresses, sorcerers and sorcerers. Charms are those superstitious, mysterious rituals that are performed, on the one hand, to ward off various misfortunes, to exorcise evil spirits, heal illnesses, establish family happiness and contentment, and on the other hand, to send all sorts of troubles and misfortunes to one’s enemies. betray them to the power of evil, tormenting demons. A charmer, a sorcerer is one who knows how to perform such rituals, who knows and has access to spells, the properties of herbs, roots and various potions; enchanted - sworn, bewitched, who has become a victim of magical spells.

The word "sorcerer" in its fundamental meaning still remains unclear. According to Sreznevsky, a sorcerer (Slavic root klad-kold or kald-klud-kud) in the old days was the name of the one who made sacrificial offerings; in the Khorutan dialect kaldovati - to make a sacrifice, kaldovanets - priest, koldovnitsa and kaldovishe - altar. In Dahl's dictionary, conjuring is interpreted as: to cast a spell, to tell fortunes, to cast spells (“what does he conjure with? potions, slander”). Finally, the sorcerer is a name known from ancient manuscripts and has survived to this day in popular folk tales and regional dialects.

So, a review of the names assigned to sorcerers and witches leads us to the concepts of: higher, supernatural wisdom, foresight, poetic creativity, knowledge of sacred spells, sacrificial and cleansing rituals, the ability to perform fortune telling, give prophecies and heal ailments. All the calculated gifts have been recognized since ancient times as essential, necessary signs of divine and demonic beings who controlled rain clouds, winds and thunderstorms. As the igniter of lightning flames, as the organizer of the family hearth, the thunder god was revered by the high priest. The spirits and nymphs accompanying him were supposed to have the same priestly character. As owners of heavenly springs, these spirits and nymphs drank “living water” and in it acquired the power of poetic inspiration, wisdom, prophecy and healing - in a word, they became prophetic - sorcerers and witches. But the same nicknames were also appropriate for people gifted with special talents and knowledge in the matter of doctrine and worship; These are the servants of the gods, fortune-tellers, sorcerers, doctors, healers and poets, as guardians of mythical legends. In the distant era of paganism, knowledge was understood as a miraculous gift sent to a person from above; it primarily consisted in the ability to understand the mysterious language of deified nature, to observe and interpret its phenomena and signs, to pray and conjure its elemental figures; all the knowledge available to a pagan was based on religious sanctification: the ancient court, medicine, and poetry - all this belonged to religion and together with it formed a single whole. “Wolves and heretics and Bogomerian women-wizards and other multitudes of magic,” notes one ancient manuscript, enumerating various superstitions. Sorcerers and sorceresses, healers and healers still practice healing in villages and villages. The disease is considered by the people as an evil spirit, which, after purification by fire and water, leaves its prey and hurries away. Traditional treatment is mainly based on fumigation, spraying and washing, with the casting of terrible spells on the disease. According to the general belief, healers and healers heal wounds, stop bleeding, expel worms, help against snake and rabid dog bites, cure bruises, sprains, broken bones and all sorts of other ailments; they know the properties of both life-saving and harmful (poisonous) herbs and roots, they know how to prepare healing ointments and potions... In herbs, according to popular belief, lies a powerful force, known only to sorcerers; Herbs and flowers can speak, but only healers can understand them, to whom they reveal what they are suitable for and against what diseases they have healing properties. Sorcerers and witches wander through fields and forests, collect herbs, dig roots and then consume them partly for medicine, partly for other purposes; some potions help them in searching for treasures, others give them the ability of foresight, others are necessary for performing magic spells. The collection of herbs and roots is mainly carried out in the middle of summer, on Midsummer night, when their healing and poisonous properties invisibly ripen. Certificate of Hegumen Pamphilus * 1505 rebels against this custom in the following expressions: “Obivnitsy, men and wives-enchanters, go out through meadows and swamps, on the way and into oak groves, looking for mortal herbs and greetings of the gluttonous potion, to the destruction of humanity and cattle; the same and divia they dig up roots for the connivance and madness of their husbands; they do all these things with the actions of the devil.”

* Certificate of Hegumen Pamphilus - a message from the abbot of the Spasovo-Elizarov Monastery to the Pskov governor, a valuable literary monument of the 16th century.

Conspiracies and spells, these fragments of ancient pagan prayer offerings, still constitute the secret science of sorcerers, healers and healers; By the power of the commanded word, they send and drive away diseases, make the body invulnerable to enemy weapons, change the anger of enemies into a meek feeling of love, pacify heartfelt melancholy, jealousy and anger, and vice versa - inflame the most ardent passions - in a word, they take possession of the entire moral world of man. Healing spells are mostly pronounced over a painful whisper, which is why the verb to whisper received the meaning: to conjure; whisperer - sorcerer, slanderer, shoptunya or whisperer - witch; among the southern Slavs, the doctor is called mumlavets from mumlati - to whisper; in some villages in Rus', the word sorcerer is used in the sense of a healer, bewitch - to be treated, bewitch - mysterious spells cast by healers, bewitch - sorcerer, healer.

In folk medicine and magic spells, sciences, knots, and bindings - amulets - play a significant role.

The healers who were engaged in imposing such amulets were given the names nauznik and prisoner. Nauzs consisted of various bindings worn around the neck: for the most part these were herbs, roots and other drugs (coal, salt, sulfur, dried bat wing, snake heads, snake or snake skin, etc.), to which superstition attributed the healing power of one or another disease; Depending on the type of infirmity, the drugs themselves could change. Sometimes, instead of any healing agents, a piece of paper with a spell written on it was sewn into a piece of paper and hung on a neck cross. Among the Germanic tribes, runes (secret writings) were tied to the neck, arm or other part of the body to cure illness and counteract evil witchcraft... In the Christian era, the use of incense in the sciences (which became especially important because it was burned in temples) before it intensified that all the bindings began to be called incense - even when there was no incense in them. In the 17th century, the peasant Ignashka was brought to the official hut and punished by batogs for having with him “a small root and a little grass tied in knots at the (neck) cross.” By hanging medicinal potions or oaths and spells on themselves, by the power of which the unclean spirits of disease are driven away, our ancestors were convinced that in these sciences they found a protective talisman against the evil eye, damage and the influence of demons, and thereby tied and attached health to themselves. With similar teachings, the maidens of fate tied gifts of happiness to newborn babies - physical and mental perfection, health, longevity, life's joys, etc. Folk tales confuse maidens of fate with prophetic sorceresses and assign the same responsibilities to both. Thus, the Scandinavian volvas are identified with the norns: they are present and help during childbirth and predict. the future fate of the baby. Prophetic wives and sorcerers played the same role among the Slavs; This is indicated by: on the one hand, the custom of bringing children to the magicians, who imposed teachings on them, and on the other hand, a regional dictionary in which the midwife, an assistant during childbirth, is called babka, and the verb babkat means: to whisper, to cast a spell.

But the explanation we have given does not exhaust all the reasons and motivations that guided the imposition of laws in the old days. The sayings to bind, to make knots, to entangle can serve to indicate various shades of thought and, depending on their application, receive a variety of meanings in folk legends and rituals. In conspiracies against enemy weapons, these expressions mean the same thing as locking and hammering enemy guns and tools so that they cannot harm the warrior: “I will tie (name) five knots to every non-peaceful, infidel archer, on arquebuses, bows and all military weapons You, knots, block all the paths and roads for the archers, close all the arquebuses, entangle all the bows, tie up all the military weapons; in my knots the mighty serpentine power is hidden - from the twelve-headed serpent." Due to the similarity of a creeping, wriggling snake and a snake with a rope and a belt, the similarity reflected in the language (the snake is a rope, a tug and a snake; in a folk riddle, the belt is metaphorically called a snake), the magical knots of the conspiracy are given the same powerful power that is attributed to the mythical multi-headed snake . In the old days they believed that some of the military men knew how to “tie” other people’s weapons so that neither sabers, nor arrows, nor bullets could take them. This was the opinion that contemporaries had about Stenka Razin.

Prophetic men and women are called upon to calm the angry brownie, kikimora and various hostile spirits that have taken possession of a person’s home; they wash the doorways from fevers, go around the fields with special rituals to cleanse them of harmful insects and reptiles. When a worm attacks the grain plants, a specially invited healer goes out into the field at three dawns, whispers spells and makes knots on the ears at the ends of the folds: this is called “breaking the worms,” that is, blocking their path to the green fields. The sorcerer is a necessary person at weddings; he is entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the young couple and all the “travelers” from damage. In Perm province. There is always a healer with the bride, and a healer with the groom. This latter walks ahead of the wedding train with a preoccupied face, looking around and whispering: according to the popular explanation, he then fights with the evil spirits that follow the newlyweds and intrigue them. In general, in difficult circumstances of life: whether a torment attacks the heart, whether a theft or other misfortune occurs in the house, whether a horse has lost its way, whether the enemy is threatening revenge, etc. - in all these cases, peasants resort to sorcerers and witches and ask for their help and advice... Sorcerers and witches immediately expose the thief and find the lost item. They have the ability to penetrate into other people's thoughts, they know everything past, present and future; for them it is enough to look into a person’s eyes or listen to his voice in order to immediately take possession of his secret. From ancient times to the present day, they are considered to be called upon to perform fortune-telling, cast spells and give prophecies. Prince Oleg turned to the Magi with a question: what kind of death is destined for him? and received in response: “Prince! You will die from your beloved horse.” Having told how this prophecy came true, the chronicler adds: “It is wonderful, as if by sorcery it comes true through sorcery.”

By endowing prophetic wives and husbands with the same epithets and names that were used to designate cloud spirits, assigning identical characteristics to both, it was natural to make them related and mix them up: the former were recognized as having elemental properties, and the latter were brought down to earth and placed in the conditions of human life. Most of the popular beliefs about sorcerers and witches represent such bright, significant features of the most ancient views on nature that do not leave the slightest doubt that initially they could only relate to the demons of the cloud world. These are the beliefs:

A) about the sending of thunderclouds, stormy whirlwinds and hail by sorcerers and witches,

b) about their concealment of dew, rain and heavenly bodies,

V) about their flights in airspaces,

G) about gatherings on the "bald mountain", frantic dancing and unholy orgies,

d) about witches milking cows,

e) about the influence of witchcraft on earthly fertility and, finally,

and) about the magical power of werewolf.

The Slavic “Kormchaya” (according to the list of 1282) and “Domostroy” call sorcerers cloud chasers. Metropolitan Daniel* advises to impose a ban on “verbal cloud chasers and enchanters and magicians and wizards.” In Western Europe there is a deeply rooted belief that sorcerers and witches can fly in clouds, produce thunderstorms, create storms, rain showers and hail. This belief comes from distant antiquity.

* Metropolitan Daniel (1492-1547) is the author of numerous works ("Conciliar", "Teachings of Metropolitan Daniel of All Rus'", etc.), in which he exposed the vices of nobles, clergy and other social classes. His works give a colorful picture of the life and customs of that time.

The Scandinavian saga talks about two half-goddesses, half-sorceresses Irpa and Thorgerda, who produced bad weather, storms and hail. From the legends preserved by the Germanic tribes, we learn that sorcerers and witches use mugs or bowls for this. Just as the ancient gods and goddesses shed rain and dew from the urns of heaven, so so the sorcerers and witches, carried into the heights of the air, send from their tankards a destructive storm; knocking over one mug, they create thunder and lightning, from another they release hail and snowstorms, from a third - severe winds and downpours. In the poetic tales of antiquity, clouds and clouds containing rain, hail and snow in their depths were represented as vessels, cauldrons and barrels in which a magic drink was prepared and stored, or as heavenly springs and wells. Many popular beliefs are based on these long-forgotten metaphors. Thus, they say about witches that by immersing pots in water and shaking it, they cause bad weather. For the same purpose, they shake the cauldron or raise dust against the sunset. Moreover, in their cauldrons and pots they cook (cook) bad weather, heavy rains and hail; They also say that witches cast blue lights on the water, throw flint stones into the air (i.e., light lightning in rain springs and throw “thunder arrows”) and roll barrels, the rupture of which produces a thunderstorm and storm.

In Southern Russia there is a curious story about a healer who, at his own request, could command both rain and hail. It happened that during the harvest a rain cloud would move into the sky; everyone will rush to stack the sheaves, begin to go home, but he doesn’t even have enough grief! "It won't rain!" - he will say - and the cloud will pass by. Once a terrible thunderstorm gathered, the whole sky turned black. But the healer announced that there would be no rain, and continued to work in his field. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black man on a black horse gallops towards him: “Let him go!” - he begs the healer. “No, I won’t let you in!” he replies. “It’s impossible to collect so richly!” The black rider disappeared, the clouds grew grayer and paler, and the men began to expect hail. Another rider rushes towards the healer - all white and on a white horse: “Let me go, do me a favor!” - “I won’t let you in!” - “Hey, let me go, I can’t stand it!” The healer raised his head and said: “Well, go now, but only that one has a bayrak beyond the cornfield.” And after that the hail rustled across the bayrak.

In Rus' there is a belief that when spring blows, the devils ventilate the sorcerers and, for this purpose, lift them into the air and hold them with their heads down. From the Little Russians you can hear the following legend: a man was working in the field, and lo and behold, a whirlwind was flying straight at him. The man grabbed an ax from his belt and threw it into the very middle of the swirling column of dust. The whirlwind rushed further and took with it the ax, which stuck into it as if into a tree. Soon this man happened to stop for the night in a village. It was late when he entered the hut, in which the fire was still glowing. There was a sick man lying in the hut, and in response to the stranger’s question, the family said: “Our dad crippled himself with an axe!” While getting ready to sleep, the man inadvertently looked under the bench and saw his own ax there. He immediately learned that he had wounded the sorcerer, and in fear, so as not to catch his eye, he hurried out of the hut. Thus, the sorcerer, carried away by a violent wind, is struck by an ax - just as the shot of a hunter strikes a witch rushing in a stormy cloud. About the spinning whirlwind, our peasants think that it is an unclean spirit spinning, that it is a wedding dance, which he indulges in together with the witch. The Czechs express the same phenomenon: witches enchant - they raise a whirlwind. To frighten travelers, witches often turn into a pillar of dust and rush towards them with uncontrollable speed. According to popular belief, if you throw a sharp knife into a column of dust raised by a whirlwind, you can injure a devil or a witch, and the knife will fall to the ground covered in blood. Chancellor Radziwill * , describing in his memoirs a terrible storm that took place on May 5, 1643, claims that it was caused by witches. The precepts of antiquity penetrated so deeply into the people's beliefs that even the most educated people of the 17th century did not lose confidence in them.

* The Radziwills are an ancient Lithuanian princely family. Radziwill Albert Stanislaw (1595-1666) - Polish historian.

From this it becomes clear the sign according to which not a single woman should be present when fishermen set off to sea. They especially try so that she doesn’t see how fishing and seafaring gear is taken and put into the boat: otherwise, expect big trouble! This sign arose from the fear of a sea storm, which a secret witch could send if she knew about the departure of the fishermen. Wanting to cause a drought, the witch - as soon as a rain cloud appears - waves her apron at it, and the cloud moves away from the horizon. With the help of "thunder arrows" sorceresses can bring down lightning from the sky, set houses on fire and strike people; Slovenian Veshti, like pitchforks, wield destructive arrows.

In Little Russia they say that witches steal rain and dew from the sky, carrying them away in tied jars or bags (in cloud vessels and furs) and hiding them in their huts and closets (storerooms). In the old days, a witch stole the rain, and not a single drop fell all summer. Once she went into the field, and left the hired woman at home and strictly ordered her not to touch the pot that was under the cover. Tormented by curiosity, the hired woman took out a pot, untied it, looked: nothing could be seen inside, only an unknown voice could be heard coming from there: “It will rain! Here it will rain!” The frightened hired woman jumped out into the hallway, and the rain was already pouring - as if from a bucket! The hostess soon came running, rushed to the pot, covered it - and the rain stopped. After that, she began to scold the hired woman: “If the pot had remained uncovered a little longer,” she said, “the whole village would have been flooded!” This story is told with some changes: the witch forbade the hired woman to enter one of her storerooms, where there were tied tubs; she violated the ban, untied the tubs and found toads, snakes, frogs and other reptiles in them; the bastards made a terrible noise and scattered in different directions. And what? It was clear, quiet, cloudless, but here’s where it came from! - a black, black cloud moved in, the winds blew, and the rain poured down. The witch quickly went home, collected the reptiles, put them in tubs, tied them up, and had just done this when the rain stopped falling. Mistaking rain-bearing clouds for heavenly springs, lakes and rivers, the fantasy of ancient man populated them with the same reptiles that live in the waters of the low-lying world: toads, frogs and snakes. If we remember that the lightning flashing in the clouds was likened to snakes and snakes, that the clouds themselves were personified by demonic snakes (hydras, dragons) and that from ancient times these ideas were extended to other water reptiles, then it will be clear to us why snakes, snakes, frogs and toads were recognized as the creation of evil spirits, concealers and conductors of rain, and their hissing and croaking were a sign of heavenly thunder... That is why sorcerers and witches try to surround themselves with all the countless reptiles and use them as necessary tools when performing their spells. Baba Yaga and witches boil toads, snakes and lizards in cauldrons or roast on fire (i.e. in thunderstorm flames), prepare magical compounds from them and feed on their meat themselves; they deliberately come to the springs, call the reptiles and feed them cottage cheese.

In stormy thunderstorms, ancient tribes recognized the battles of cloud spirits, and therefore, just as Valkyries and pitchforks help fighting heroes, and the Vedogons of one country fight with the Vedogons of neighboring lands, so the witches (according to the Little Russian legend) flock to the border and fight one against the other. Armed with small swords, they strike each other, and at the same time they say: “Whatever I push, I won’t bend!” - so that the blows of the sword are not fatal. Thus, the witches, after each defeat, rise again to battle, like the warring heroes of Valhalla, who, even if they fall as lifeless corpses, are resurrected each time for new exploits. On the night before the spirit of the day, witches steal wooden swords with which villagers rub hemp, stick them in their belts and, flocking to Bald Mountain or border places, cut them down like sabers... Witches do not remain indifferent to folk battles; helping the side that resorted to their magical help, they unleash crushing whirlwinds and blizzards on the enemy army.

In the 16th century, there was a rumor that during the siege of Kazan (in 1552), Tatar sorcerers and witches, standing on the city walls, waved their clothes at the Russian army and sent violent winds and torrential rains at them: “When the sun begins to rise, the hail will rise , to all of us who behold, their aged men and women will begin to cry out satanic words, waving their clothes at our army and spinning around in an indecent manner. and the dry places will turn into blight and the wetness will be filled; and this was just above the army, but not on the sides.” With their sacred words, sorcerers and witches can give victorious strength and unfailing accuracy to a weapon of war and, on the contrary, they can charm it so that its blows and shots become completely harmless: the original meaning of this belief was that sorcerers and witches, raising thunderstorms, send striking lightning, and by stealing rain and producing drought, they tie the bow and arrows of the thunder god.

Obedient to magical spells, the clouds thicken, cover the heavenly bodies, and turn a clear day into a dark night. Hence the belief arose that sorcerers and witches steal the sun, moon and stars, and that their noisy gatherings and aerial flights usually take place at night.

In Rus' there is a belief that witches, stealing the month and stars from the sky, put them in pots and jugs and hide them in deep cellars or lower them into springs, that is, they hide (bury, bury) them behind rain clouds. Whether an eclipse occurs, or thick clouds unexpectedly obscure the heavenly bodies, the villagers, with a naive, childish, but firm conviction, accuse sorcerers, witches and evil spirits of kidnapping them, who find it more convenient to do godless deeds in the darkness and trap Christians in their nets. In Little Russia they say about falling stars that a witch carries them away and hides them in jugs. With particular zeal, witches are engaged in hiding the month and stars on the holidays of Kolyada and Kupala, when there are the main witches' gatherings and the evil spirits indulge in the wildest revelry.

We have the following lament:

The red maiden walked through the forest, spoke of pain, collected herbs, pulled out roots, stole the moon, ate the sun. Keep away from her witch, keep away from her witch!

Here the witch, like the serpent and the giants, appears to be eating the sun, i.e., plunging this luminary into the clouds, she thereby, as a cloud wife, takes it into her own bowels - swallows it.

By controlling the elemental phenomena of nature, moving along with thunderclouds, sorcerers and witches can be transported from place to place with the speed of a winged wind. The performance of witchcraft is everywhere inseparable from flights and trains through the air, over mountains and valleys. The usual tools for aerial flights of sorcerers and witches, according to German, Lithuanian and Slavic stories, are: a broom (broom, broom), poker, grip, shovel, rake and just a stick (crutch) or rod. Riding on a broom or rake, a witch flies across the sky: this is nothing more than a poetic picture of the wind carrying a cloudy sorceress on its wings. The wind seemed like a broom, because it sweeps away fogs and clouds and clears the sky; seemed like a rake, because it twists the clouds - rakes them into thick, dark masses: images taken from the life of the agricultural people. Among various mythical representations of lightning, it was likened to a punishing stick, vine or twig; the cloud itself, sparkling with lightning, was depicted in the imagination of infant tribes as a heavenly oven, a hearth on which the highest lord of fire and high priest (thunder god) kindles his pure flame. At the same time, the thunder club acquired the meaning of a kitchen tool:

A) a poker with which the heat is stirred and burning brands are broken,

b) grips and shovels, with the help of which cooked dishes are placed in the oven.

In regional dialects, a poker is called a burn (ozhig), and a stove shovel is called a peklo. That is why, about witches, whose night flight is accompanied by brilliant lightning lights, folk legends claim that they, sitting on a poker, grip, shovel or broom, fly out into the chimney, therefore, in the same way as fiery snakes and unclean spirits, flying in the form of birds, i.e. thunder demons.

According to Russian belief, the witch always keeps water boiled along with the ashes of the Kupala fire. When she wants to fly, she sprays herself with this water - and immediately rises into the air and rushes wherever she pleases. For the same purpose, the witch tries to get the herb ti(e)rlich, boils its root in a pot and smears the prepared potion under her armpits and knees and then with the speed of lightning is carried into the chimney. Tirlich juice is credited with the miraculous property of making a person a werewolf and giving him the power of flight: apparently, the memory of Perun’s grass (lightning) is hidden here; the magical potion (ointment) is the living water of rain, which is boiled by witches in cloudy cauldrons and vessels with the help of thunderstorm flames.

Russian witches and Baba Yaga rush through the air in an iron mortar (cauldron-cloud), driving them with a pestle or stick (thunder club) and sweeping their tracks with a broom, while the earth groans, the winds whistle, and unclean spirits emit wild screams. When they gather on Bald Mountain, the fires are bright and the cauldrons are boiling. Thus, rain moisture is boiled in a thunderstorm flame, and, sprayed with it, the witches make their aerial flights and send destructive storms to the fields and forests, with hail, downpours and blizzards. Sorcerers and witches also have other fabulous wonders that once served to poetically designate a flying cloud: according to fairy tales, they store living and dead water, fly on flying carpets and wear walking boots.

Like the lords of whirlwinds, sorcerers and witches can send damage to their haters and rivals in the wind, lift them into the air and circle there with terrible, unstoppable speed. Thus, there is a story that one sorcerer, out of jealousy towards a young guy, forced him to rush around in a rapid whirlwind for months. An unknown force picked him up into the air, spun him around and carried him higher and higher. Tormented by hunger and thirst, he flew - not knowing where. His desperate complaints did not reach people, no one saw his burning tears, the unfortunate man was dried up to the bones and did not expect salvation for himself. When the violent whirlwind finally left him, the guy descended to the ground. Trying to take revenge on his enemy, he found a cunning sorceress and resorted to her help. The sorceress burned the potion in the stove - and in the middle of a clear, cloudless day, the wind suddenly howled, grabbed the sorcerer and carried him high above the ground. From that time on, he circled through the air in a frantic dance, and flocks of noisy crows and jackdaws rushed behind him. When the witch wishes to summon someone from the far side, she boils the root of the tirlich, and as soon as the water boils, at that very moment the summoned one “takes his breath and flies like a bird.” In his air flight he is thirsty and continuously repeats the exclamation: “Drink, drink!” Most often, sorceresses use this remedy to call their lovers. While brewing the potion, they say: “Terlich, terlich! Call my dear one.” The stronger the potion boils, the higher and faster it rushes: “If it’s too much to boil (they say the Little Russians) - it’s a mile to fly over the top of a tree; but if it’s not too much - about half a tree” - and in this last case you can easily run into a tree trunk and hurt yourself to death.

According to Russian belief, during the Kupala gathering, witches come to Bald Mountain not only on brooms, but also on greyhounds, tireless horses; in fairy tales they endow heroes with wonderful flying horses. Riding on wolves or horses bridled and scourged by snakes, witches, in fact, fly on rapidly rushing clouds and chase them with lightning. Over time, when people's memory forgot the primary foundations and the real meaning of zoomorphism, legends about celestial animals were transferred to their earthly twins. The witches began to be credited with riding on ordinary wolves, horses and cats; they began to be surrounded by flocks of forest animals and creeping snakes, condemned to grovel on the ground, and not soar through the skies. According to the Russian common people, a wolf's heart, the claws of a black cat and a snake constitute a necessary accessory for magical compositions prepared by sorcerers and witches. The personification of clouds and winds by light-winged birds, common in folk poetry, also did not remain without influence on superstitious ideas about witchcraft. However, legends more often talk about the transformation of sorcerers and witches into various birds than about flights on these airy pages.

The rooster, as we know, was given particularly important meaning in paganism. As a representative of the thunderous flame of the sacrificial hearth, he is still considered a necessary companion of prophetic husbands and wives. The Germans know about the witches' air rides on the black rooster. The Czechs talk about a sorcerer who rode in a small carriage drawn by roosters. And Russian villagers are convinced that a witch always has a black rooster and a black cat with her. Note that in the old days, witches condemned to death were buried in the ground along with a rooster, cat and snake. Sorcerers are usually presented as old men with long gray beards and sparkling eyes. They say about witches that they are ugly old women of immemorial years or young beauties. This opinion, on the one hand, is consistent with the actual life of infant tribes, for in ancient times all the highest, sacred “knowledge” was kept by the elders in clans and families; and on the other hand, it coincides with the mythical representation of the elemental forces of nature.

Clouds and clouds (as has been pointed out more than once) were depicted in the imagination of our ancestors both in the male personification of bearded demons, and in female images - either young, beautiful and full-breasted nymphs, bringing rain and fertility to the earth, or old, enemy women, blowing cold and devastating storms. At night, witches let their braids fall over their shoulders and, stripping naked, throw on themselves long white and unbelted shirts (or shrouds), then sit on brooms, brew a magic potion in pots and, together with the swirling vapors, fly into chimneys to create damage and evil deeds or walking on Bald Mountain. According to the stories of villagers, when a witch collects dew, milks other people's cows, or makes creases in the fields, she is always in a white shirt and with her hair down.. With their flowing braids and white shirts (poetic designations of cloudy strands and covers), witches become close to mermaids, pitchforks and elves. Along with these mythical creatures, they are recognized as celestial spinners who produce cloud fabrics.

Both sorcerers and witches love to turn into a ball of yarn and, in this form, roll around courtyards and roads with elusive speed. Sometimes it happens: suddenly there is a terrible stomp in the stable, the horses begin to rage and break from their leash, and all because a werewolf ball is rolling around the stalls and mangers, which appears as suddenly as it disappears. In Slavic fairy tales, the witch or Baba Yaga gives the wandering hero a ball; thrown to the ground, this ball rolls ahead of the wanderer and shows him the way to a distant, unknown kingdom. The Little Russians accuse the witches of stealing the shells used to tinder flax.

Likening clouds to clothes, shirts, and fabrics, the fantasy of ancient man began to depict a thunderstorm in a poetic picture of washing clothes: heavenly washerwomen-witches strike with thunder rollers and rinse their cloud covers in rainwater. These and other ideas of the elemental forces of nature, ideas borrowed from the work assigned to women since ancient times (such as yarn, weaving, washing clothes, milking cows and preparing dishes), served as the basis why wives and maidens were predominantly accused of witchcraft and why Witches play a more prominent and more significant role in folk legends than sorcerers and healers. Nestor expresses his general, contemporary view of women in the following words: “Moreover, there are wives of demonic sorcery; from time immemorial, the demon deceives the wife, and seduces the husband; so in this day and age there are many wives who enchant wives with sorcery and poison and other demonic intrigues?”

Bald Mountain, where sorcerers and witches gather together with Baba Yaga and unclean spirits, is a bright, cloudless sky. Serbian things fly to the “threshing floor”: since thunderclaps were likened by our ancestors to the sound of threshing flails, and whirlwinds carrying clouds were likened to brooms, then at the same time the firmament should have been represented as a threshing floor or current. The expression: “Witches fly to Bald Mountain” - originally referred to mythical wives driving dark, thunderclouds into the high sky. Later, when the meaning of these metaphors was lost, the people associated witches' flights with the mountains that rose in the regions they inhabited. Thus, the Little Russians talk about collectors of witches on Bald Mountain, lying on the left side of the Dnieper, near Kyiv, this main city of Ancient Rus', where idols once stood and there was a center of pagan cult. From this, the witch herself is given the epithet of Kyiv. The name “Bald Mountain” is also found in other Slavic lands... Flights of witches to Bald Mountain usually take place on dark, stormy and stormy nights, popularly known as “sparrow nights”. But their main gatherings on this mountain happen three times a year: on Kolyada, at the meeting of spring and on the night of Ivan Kupala. On these holidays, peasants take special care to protect their horses so that witches and unclean spirits do not capture and torture them on a fast train. The time of witches' gatherings, coinciding with the beginning of spring and with two solar turns, suggests that the activities of witches are directly dependent on the changes that are noticeable in the annual life of nature. The spirits of stormy thunderstorms, dying out for the winter, awaken with the birth of the sun, and in the middle of summer they reach their greatest strength and indulge in the most frantic revelry. The ancient myths combined the birth of the sun with its winter turn - on the holiday of Kolyada, and with its blessed enlightenment in the spring.

If you grab hold of the witch at the moment when she wants to fly to Bald Mountain, then you can make an aerial journey: whoever decides to do this, she takes him to the gathering place. In Ukraine there is a story about a soldier’s flight to a witches’ sabbath. At night, on the eve of Midsummer's Day, he managed to spy how his mistress flew into the chimney; the soldier decided to repeat what the witch did: he immediately sat down in the mortar, anointed himself under the arms with a magic ointment - and suddenly, together with the mortar, he soared up Bald Mountain: there witches, devils and various monsters play and dance, from all sides their wild cries and songs are heard! Frightened by the unprecedented sight, the soldier stood at a distance - under a shady tree. At that very moment his owner appeared in front of him: “Why are you here?” she said. “Hurry back, if you value your life! As soon as our people see you, they will strangle you! Here’s a nice horse for you, sit down and run away!” The soldier jumped on his horse and rode home like a whirlwind. He arrived, tied the horse to the manger and went to bed. The next morning he woke up, went to the stable, and looked - and instead of a horse, there was a large log tied to the manger.

Flocking to Bald Mountain, the witches indulge in wild revelry and love pleasures with devils, overeat, get drunk, sing and dance to the sounds of discordant music. Satan sits behind an iron table or throne. The Czechs claim that he is present at this festival in the form of a black cat, rooster or dragon. They also say that the eldest of the witches lives on Bald Mountain, and all sorceresses are obliged to come to her at certain times of the year. According to Lithuanian legend, on Mount Shatrier the sorceresses are treated to their main mistress. Songs and dances are a common and favorite activity of witches. If in the summertime villagers notice brightly green or yellowed circles in the meadows, they think that either the owner of the field became a sorcerer in these circles, or the eldest woman in his family committed relations with witches. According to the people, witches gather in the meadows every night, dance in circles and leave traces of their feet on the grass. “To commune with witches” is the same as “to become a sorcerer,” that is, to become a sorceress, to take on this prophetic title. This entry into sorcerers and witches is accompanied by circular dancing. Going to the Sabbath and at the very games, witches sing magical songs that are accessible only to them and no one else. On Bald Mountain they dance with frenzied enthusiasm around boiling cauldrons and the devil’s treasury, that is, near the altar on which offerings are made to demons. Folk tales know skillful, tireless dancers who every night retire to the underground (cloud) kingdom and indulge in frantic dancing with the spirits inhabiting this mysterious country. Since the demons of thunderclouds. since ancient times were personified by dragons, then witches start unchaste haunts and carnally combine not only with devils, but also with mythical snakes. In Rus' there are beliefs that a woman with whom a fiery serpent lives is a witch, that every sorceress is born from an unclean connection between a devil or a serpent and a woman, and that the witches themselves fly to their lovers, turning into fiery serpents. Talking about how the hero Dobrynya taught the sorceress Marina, the lover of the Serpent of Gorynchishch, the song dwells on the following details:

He first taught - he cut off her hand, He himself says: “I don’t need this hand, It ruffled the Snake of Gorynchishcha!” And the second teaching - he cut off her leg: “And I don’t need this leg either, entwined with the Serpent of the Mountain”! And the third lesson - he cut off her lips and walked away with her nose: “And I don’t need these lips either, They kissed the Serpent of Gorynchishch!” The fourth teaching - he cut off her head and took her tongue away: “And this head is useless to me, And this tongue is useless, He knew heretical deeds!”

The ancient story of the demon-possessed Solomonia (17th century) is based on a deeply rooted popular belief in the possibility of fornicating wives mixing with evil spirits: “On the ninth day after her marriage, at sunset, she was in the cage with her husband on the bed, honoring her desires, and suddenly she saw Solomonia the demon, coming to her in a brutal way, furry, with claws, and she lay down on her bed. to come to her, except on great holidays, in five and after the eyes of human beings, like some beautiful young men, and thus I attack her and defile her and depart, but people who have seen nothing of this.” The unclean ones dragged her into the water, and from communication with them she gave birth to several demons. Similar stories are still circulated among our common people.

If you listen to experienced people, the devil often takes on the appearance of a deceased or absent husband (lover) and begins to visit a yearning woman; Since then, she has been drying up and losing weight, “like a candle melting in the fire.”

Under the influence of these mythical ideas, which placed sorcerers and witches in the closest and most related relationship with demonic power, it is natural that they should have been looked at with timid fear and suspected of their constant inclination towards malice and wicked actions. For its part, Christianity finally established these hostile views on witchcraft, sorcerers and sorceresses. According to popular belief, every sorcerer and every witch makes a pact with the devil, sells their sinful souls to him and renounces God and eternal bliss; This agreement is sealed with a receipt, which those who resort to the unclean spirit write with their own blood, and obliges the former to perform spells only to harm people, and the latter to help them in all enterprises. There are many stories in Rus' about when, how and under what circumstances desperate sinners sold their souls to the devil. The names heretic and heretic in various localities are used in the sense of an evil sorcerer, ghoul and witch. Compare: the enemy is a healer and the enemy is the devil. Sorcerers create everything wonderful and terrible with demonic assistance. They are both rulers and slaves of demons: masters because they can command evil spirits; slaves, because this latter requires constant work from them, and if the sorcerer does not find any occupation for her, then she immediately tortures him. To avoid such a danger, sorcerers came up with the idea of ​​forcing devils to twist ropes out of sand and water, that is, according to the original meaning of the legend: so that they would spin columns of dust into whirlwinds and raise waterspouts. When dying, the sorcerer and the witch experience terrible torment: evil spirits enter them, torment their insides and pull their tongue out of their throat by a whole half-arshin. The soul of a sorcerer and witch does not leave their body until they are transferred through the fire and until they pass on their secret knowledge to someone else. All of nature then declares an involuntary trembling: the earth shakes, the animals howl, there is no end to the crows and crows. In the form of these birds, unclean spirits flock, crowd onto the roof and chimney of a house, grab the soul of a deceased sorcerer or witch and, with a terrible croak, noisily flapping their wings, carry it to the next world. According to folk tales and poems about the Last Judgment, sorcerers and witches go after death into the “devilish stench” and are handed over to Satan and his servants for execution. Let us recall that, according to ancient beliefs, the shadows of the deceased ascended to the afterlife in the flight of stormy thunderstorms, pursued and punished by hellish spirits. The shaking of the earth and the howl of animals are metaphorical symbols of thunderclaps and howling storms; Birds of prey are personifications of swift whirlwinds.

Ancient religious games and liturgical rites arose from the imitation of those actions that primitive tribes contemplated in heaven. Because of this, witches’ gatherings (sabbaths, diets) should present features that they have in common with ancient pagan festivals, both in terms of the time of celebration and the very setting of both. And in fact, the flights of sorcerers and witches to Bald Mountain coincide with the main holidays of the meeting of spring, Kolyada and Kupala, on which clans and families once came together to establish social routines and perform public sacrifices, games and feasts. Gatherings took place in places that have been recognized as sacred since ancient times: among shady forests and on high mountains. The seething cauldrons and pots in which witches cook their magical compounds and intoxicating drink, the slaughter, burning and devouring of celestial animals (goat, cow, horse), in which rain clouds were personified, correspond to the sacrificial and feast preparations that actually took place during folk holidays . Witches, according to popular belief, need a knife, skin and blood (symbols of lightning, clouds and rain) for sorcery, therefore - everything without which the ritual of sacrifice is unthinkable; They use a knife and skin for werewolfism; with the help of a knife they milk cloud cows and interrogate the whirlwinds about the future harvest. Sorcerers and witches gather at Bald Mountain for a common meal, fun and love pleasures. All these characteristic features were an indispensable condition of pagan festivals, which were usually accompanied by songs, music, dancing and noisy feasts. Such revelry, with excessive consumption of strong drinks, and the worship of the fertilizing power of Yaril gave these festivities an unchaste character and turned them into orgies, “infamy and shamelessness.” Chroniclers, imbued with the spirit of Christian teaching, looked at them as an extreme manifestation of debauchery and impiety.

It is curious that the same attributes with which sorcerers and witches perform their magic can also be used against themselves, as a protective means against their evil influence. By their demonic nature, sorcerers and witches, like devils and giants, are afraid of the striking arrows of lightning and the stunning sounds of thunder. And therefore, all the tools and rituals that from time immemorial served as a symbolic sign of a heavenly thunderstorm force them to hastily leave. Thus, in some areas they claim that a witch is afraid of knives stuck under the top board of the table, and if you place a poker with the curved (iron) end up at the door, the sorcerer will not leave the hut until this insurmountable obstacle for him is accepted .

When the thunder god milks the cloud cows, he does this to water the thirsty earth with rain and increase the sown fields. On the contrary, witches, in accordance with their demonic character, milk these cows for the same purpose with which mythical snakes suck them, that is, they dry up the clouds, hide dew and rain, and thereby doom the earth to infertility. Both summer droughts and winter lack of rain are attributed to them. Witches milk and suck cows not only in summer, but also in winter. According to Russian belief, a witch, after drinking milk, dies (falls into winter stupor), and in order for her to wake up, it is necessary to set fire to the straw and burn her heels, i.e. it is necessary to light a thunderstorm flame. Throughout the winter, the creative forces of nature, according to the expression of the fairy tale epic, are enchanted. Witches are generous only with untimely and harmful downpours, accompanied by hail, blizzards and devastation. Herds of condensed clouds, pouring out in rain streams, gradually thin out, become paler, more transparent and finally disappear completely. This phenomenon in the ancient poetic language was called the devouring (burning, drying) of heavenly cows by dragons or damaging them by witches. Both dragons and witches are equally represented in folk legends as hungry, greedy creatures who love to drink cow's milk to the point of complete insensibility. Bringing down ancient mythical tales from heavenly heights to earth, our ancestors began to believe that witches milk and suck ordinary cows, which as a result lose their milk, fall from their bodies and soon die - just as the horses that witches ride wither and die to their riotous gatherings. Thus, milking cows by witches was recognized as an unholy act, entailing cattle deaths, drying up of rain sources and widespread crop failure. In a spiritual song, a sinful soul, addressing its body, says: “I will go into eternal, endless torment, into burning fires.” - “Why are you, soul, guessing yourself?” - asks the body. - Therefore, I, a white body, guess myself, That how we lived in the free world - We milked milk from strangers' cows, We took ergot out of bread. In another verse we read:

The fourth soul sinned: In an open field, she called to a cow, took the milk from the cow, poured the earth into the cheese, slaughtered a bitter aspen, dried a bitter aspen...

The evidence given of spiritual songs is very significant. The juxtaposition of the deprivation of milk from cows and ergot from bread sounds like an echo of ancient times, which meant fertile rains by milk. Milking milk is the same as stealing dew or rain or taking ergot from bread, causing crop failures and famine. Such an action must have seemed like the most terrible sin.

In addition to the fruits of the earth, witches can steal other supplies necessary for human well-being. So, they take honey from the hives, drive fish to them and take birds and animals that hunters go hunting for. The concealment of honey is explained by the likening of rain to a honey drink, and the capture of fish, birds and forest animals by mythical representations of thunderstorms by fishing and wild hunting. The following story goes among the Little Russians: once upon a time there lived three brothers who were engaged in fishing and animal hunting; Both in fishing and in hunting, the brothers did not know failure: whether they cast their nets - and they are already full of fish, or take up their guns - the hares themselves run to the shots. The fact is that their mother was a witch. Once the brothers decided to test her: they took a snare and guns, went after the hares, and told their mother that they were going to fish. What? They spread a net - and instead of hares, perches, crucian carp and pike climbed into them! As far back as the 11th century, we have heard interesting chronicle evidence of similar accusations brought against those women who were suspected of being witches. In 1024, says the chronicler, the Magi rebelled in Suzdal, “beating the old child, according to the devil’s teaching and demonization, saying, “To keep the gobino.” There was a great rebellion and famine throughout that country. Having heard Yaroslav... having confiscated the Magi, waste , and others show, and the river says: God brings sin to every land with famine, or pestilence, or a bucket (drought?), or some other execution, but man knows nothing.” Under the year 1071 we find the following news: “When there was a single poverty in the Rostov region, two wise men rose from Yaroslavl, saying, “We know (we know)” - who will keep the abundance. kind) wife, saying, like this is to keep life, and this is honey, and this is fish, and this is quick ( soft junk, animal furs.). And I brought to him his sister, his mother and his wife; In a dream, she cut through her shoulder, grabbed any life, any fish, and killed many wives, taking away their property." Finally, the Magi came to Beloozero; up to three hundred people followed them. At this time, Jan was collecting princely tribute on Beloozero. “The Belozerst told him that the two magicians had already beaten many wives in Volsva and Sheksna.” Yan demanded that they hand over the Magi; but the Belozersts “did not listen to this.” “Why is this man so destructive?” The Magi answered: “How can you keep abundance; Yes, if they beat them, it will be a gobino; If you want, then in front of you I will take out a life, a fish, or something else." Jan said: "In truth, this is a lie!" So, according to the chronicle, the wise men accused the old women of causing famine and stealing abundance ( gobino), i.e., harvests, and made the fishing of the fisherman and hunter unsuccessful. The belief in the possibility and reality of such crimes was so great in the 11th century that relatives themselves handed over their mothers, wives and sisters to be beaten. Residents not only did not want to resist. the Magi, but they followed them in a large crowd. Blaming the “old child” for the misfortunes of the hungry years was fully consistent with the rude and superstitious view of the people of that time on nature, and the Magi (even allowing for deception and selfish calculations on their part) only for this reason acted so openly and boldly. , that they relied on the general conviction of their age. Our ancestors explained to themselves all physical phenomena as the actions of gods or demons, caused by the prayers, spells and spells of prophetic people. Later, after the adoption of Christianity, the same power to dominate and control nature was extended to representatives. new creed. There were examples of people blaming clergy for droughts and other physical disasters. So, in 1228, the Novgorodians, frightened by the fact that “the heat lasts for a long time,” drove away their ruler “like a villain with a kick.” Women suspected of witchcraft and accused of stealing rains and earthly fertility were persecuted in ancient times with cruel executions: they were burned, drowned and buried alive in the ground.

In Ukraine, until later times, witches were recognized by their ability to float on water. When it happened that the rain did not irrigate the fields for a long time, the villagers attributed its delay to evil spells, gathered in peace, seized the suspected women and took them to bathe in a river or pond. They twisted them with ropes, tied heavy stones around their necks and then threw the unfortunate prisoners into deep pools: those innocent of sorcery immediately sank to the bottom, and the real witch floated on top of the water along with the stone. The first ones were pulled out with ropes and released; those who were recognized as witches were beaten to death and drowned by force.

In the middle of the last century, the manager of the estate of Count Tyshkevich, in Lithuania, wrote to him: “The noble sir! With the returning peasants, I inform you that with your permission I burned six enchantresses: three confessed, but the rest did not. Two of them are elderly, the third is also about fifty years old, and besides, they all sat under my vat for eleven days, so they probably bewitched others too. And now the master’s rye is broken in two places. I’m now collecting holy water from ten churches and I’ll cook jelly with it, they say; all the witches will come running to ask for jelly; then there will be work for me! So Mr. Epernethy, following our example, burned the woman and the man... this unfortunate man did not confess to anything, but the woman confessed to everything and went to the next world with great despair.” . The burning of sorcerers and witches is attested to in many ancient monuments. In Georgia, whenever there was a public disaster, suspicious old women were seized, tortured in the presence of princes and clergy, and their consciousness was extorted in imaginary relations with evil spirits. In 1834, during the former corn harvest... in some Georgian villages they threw sorcerers into water or hung them from trees and applied a hot iron to their naked bodies. By doing this, the people not only thought to satisfy their sense of revenge, but were also convinced that these executions were the only means by which drought could be averted and rain and fertility could be brought about. This belief arose from an ancient mythical basis. Cloud wives, who steal dew, rain and harvests, only return these hidden benefits when they burn in the heavenly flames of lightning or bathe and drown in the flood of rain streams. Later, when mortal wives began to be blamed for droughts and infertility of the soil, the people believed that burning and drowning them would certainly return rains and fertility to the earth - just as pouring water on the “dodola” is recognized by the Serbs as the best remedy against summer drought. But on the other hand, since a thunderstorm that burns clouds is often accompanied by a destructive storm and hail, this gave birth to the belief that witches, wanting to produce bad weather, hail and violent whirlwinds, scatter devilish ashes across the fields (the ashes of the demon of a hail cloud).

The destructive influence of sorcerers and witches extends to everything that promises offspring or birth. According to popular beliefs, they make women infertile and take away the groom’s masculine strength; they plant a keel on him, and the bride’s genitals are hidden. At any wedding, special precautions must be taken to protect the newlyweds and bridegrooms from evil charm; in some villages, where a wedding is celebrated, they deliberately close the doors and plug the pipes so that the witch does not fly in. Witches stare at pregnant women and steal their conceived babies. There is a sign: if a magpie is chirping in the yard, then a pregnant woman should not leave the roof of the hut, protected by the sacred flame of the hearth; otherwise the witch who loves to turn into a magpie will steal the child from her womb. The child himself, even before birth, can easily be spoiled by a sorcerer or witch.

By assisting elemental demons, causing crop failures, lack of food and hunger, sorcerers and witches thereby give rise to various ailments and increased mortality between people and animals. As a result of their spell, colds appear along with cold blizzards and prolonged downpours, and along with the sultry breath of summer and widespread drought, harmful fumes rise and a pestilence sets in. In the same seething cauldrons in which witches brew stormy thunderstorms and hail, they also prepare painful illnesses that rush in suffocating vapors in the direction of the winds.

According to Russian villagers, sorcerers and witches cast spells on people and livestock, that is, they torment them, dry them out, and exhaust them with painful seizures. People spoiled by witchcraft are called cliques: these are unfortunate people suffering from epilepsy or other serious illnesses associated with delirium, foam at the mouth and writhing; they utter wild screams and, under the influence of the prevailing superstition among the people, claim that evil enemies have planted demons in them, which are gnawing at their insides. With the power of terrible spells, sorcerers and witches send unclean spirits through the air: the winds obedient to them carry and inflict on people incurable ailments called arrows, hiccups, wind or infection.

The unfortunate person who is overcome by illness carries it with him wherever he goes. This persistence of the disease was expressed in the belief that evil spirits (elves, maras) settle inside the patient (make him possessed) or ride around on his back. Placing a terrible weight on a person, they force him to carry themselves, exhaust him, break him and shake him. The same idea is associated with witches: at night they appear in huts, sit on sleepy people, crush them and force them to carry themselves around the neighborhood. Often a witch wraps a good young man in a horse and rides on this horse through the mountains and valleys until he loses strength and falls from fatigue. They also say that a witch rides at night on the thought of a sleeping person, who, although he is not aware of what is happening to him, nevertheless, waking up the next morning, feels complete exhaustion throughout his body. Sorcerers and witches collect poisonous herbs and roots, prepare a poisonous potion from them and use it to kill people. In regional dialects, “poison” is denoted by the words: damage, portezh, and the sorcerer and the sorceress are called: porchelynik (portzhnik) and porchelynitsa; for all stupefying potions there is a common, collective name besivo. Folk songs talk about virgin enchantresses preparing a poisonous drink: no-edge of the blue sea, through green meadows

Here a beautiful maiden soul walked and walked, And she dug roots - a fierce potion; She washed those roots in the blue sea, And dried the roots in a furnace, Grinded those roots in a silver cup, Diluted those roots with sweet honey, Sprinkled the roots with white sugar And wanted to kill her enemy.

According to the instructions of another song, the sister decided to get rid of her hateful brother:

The beautiful maiden took the shavings, took the shavings, put them on the fire, baked all the snakes, made a potion; I poured the charm ahead of time, and brought it to my dear brother. The potion was terrible: as soon as a drop dripped onto the horse’s mane, the horse’s mane caught fire.

Sorcerers and witches can cause illness by touch, breath, word, look and thought itself; Everything in them is filled with destructive magical power! Under the influence of the ancient metaphorical language, which likened thunder to a prophetic word, the breath of the wind to breathing, the flash of lightning to sparkling eyes, and brought all mental movements closer to the elements, superstitious beliefs arose that made our ancestors feel fear of any manifestation of the human soul. An unkind thought, hidden envy and insincere praise already entail misfortune for the one who arouses them in the sorcerer. An evil wish expressed by a sorcerer is as irresistible as a conspiracy or an oath formula. With his gaze he can put the evil eye on a person, and with his breath he can yawn a person, that is, send damage to him. Just as the heavenly herds lose milk and dry up from lightning strikes, so just as the gaze of a witch causes milk to disappear from a mother’s breasts and her child to wither away, diseases of livestock are also attributed to the evil eye. Just as celestial wolves and snakes (dragons) fear brilliant lightning, so the gaze of a wizard subdues the wolves and snakes that inhabit forests and deserts. That witches were accused of spreading widespread, contagious diseases is evidenced by a letter from Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, which mentions a woman witch who spoke about drunkenness in order to bring a pestilence to the Russian land. The peasants are still convinced that the sorcerer only has to wish for it, and thousands of people will fall victims to death. The Russian fairy tale assigns to the witch the same role that is usually performed by the Pestilence Maiden: in the dead of midnight she appears in white clothes, puts her hand through the window of the hut, sprinkles magic juices and puts the whole family - from old to young - to sleep forever in a mortal sleep. According to the legends that survived in Rus', in the old days, in case of any epidemic disease or bestial death, a woman suspected by the world of evil magic was doomed to death. This woman was tied into a bag along with a dog, a black cat and a rooster and buried in the ground or drowned in a river with the full conviction that after this the pestilence should immediately stop. Until recently, villagers expressed the opinion that if the first person sick with cholera had been buried alive, the said disease would have immediately stopped its destructive effects. In some villages, in the place where the first plague-stricken cattle died, they prepare a hole and bury the carrion in this hole, tying a living dog, cat and rooster to its tail...

Burning, drowning or burying a witch in the ground removes an evil demon (unholy soul) from her and removes him from this world to the afterlife (to the underground kingdom of Death). The rooster, cat and dog, as mythical representatives of thunderstorm flames and whirlwinds, were recognized as necessary companions of the shadow of the deceased, called upon to accompany it to the next world. Since ancient times, the image of a cow has personified a black lightning cloud, and with this latter the ideas of evil spirits and death were inseparable. From the evidence of monuments and folk legends, it is known that in distant pagan antiquity, a cow, a dog and a rooster were burned along with the corpse of the deceased. Subsequently, this funeral rite takes on the character of criminal retribution and is performed only in exceptional cases, in order to increase the shame of the death penalty for especially important crimes. When the vadelotka, the keeper of the sacred fire, lost her virginity, the Lithuanians sewed her into a leather bag with a cat, a dog and a snake, took her on a pair of black cows to the place of execution and buried her in the ground or drowned her in water. In the additional articles to the Code of Law it is said: “Whoever kills his father or mother to death, or who kills even one of his relatives, his son will have torment: to carry him in the trade and tear his body with pincers, and then put a dog on him, smoking and a cat, and then gather everyone together with him and drown him in water. And whoever kills his father’s daughter or mother - and the decree is the same.” The Lithuanian Statute* for this crime stipulates: “Put into a fur with a dog, a smoker, a snake, a cat and sew it up.”

* The Lithuanian Statute is a collection of laws compiled in the Lithuanian-Russian state in the 16th century.