And now we consider all their stories as fairy tales, fiction, myths. Probably, we lost the so-called "third eye", the connection with nature, and these creatures became inaccessible to our sight, sensation.
Or maybe they became more cautious, because a man began to consider himself a tamer of nature, and ousted all incomprehensible inhabitants, and many animals into impassable places. Perhaps they themselves moved to the wilderness, where the foot of a man did not step and do not show more to people's eyes, or even disappeared without carrying out the polluted air and poisoned water of rivers and lakes.
Homemade perfume
Homemade ghosts of the house, bannik, yard, kikimora zapeknaya and others live in old village houses and on the farmsteads. The housekeeper lives in the house with the person and is the master of all house spirits, they at it in service, it operates them. It is believed that home spirits are more or less friendly to a person and help him in economic affairs, if the person himself is a diligent owner, caring about his cattle, his house, and outbuildings.
Brownie
In Slavic mythology, a house-spirit is a kind house spirit that lives with a man. A housewife helps a man with his au pair, takes care of domestic cattle, loves horses very much. He protects the house from theft, from fire and from evil forces.
Brownie is a kind, wrinkled old man, shaggy, his whole body is covered with wool. So he was born. Over time, he will be young, and when he looks like an infant, then it will come time for him to die. Sometimes a brownie can take the form of a cat.
A housekeeper does not harm the owners of the house, if he likes the tenants of the house. He cares about the house, can warn about the misfortune, making a knock or slamming the doors. And in special cases, even someone from home can appear.
House loves these hard-working, masters who love and care about their home, about the family. The house loves that the house has order and cleanliness, and helps the owners maintain cleanliness.
But if the householder disliked the family members, or they offended him, then he becomes vindictive, pinching, leaving painful bruises on his body. If there are such bruises on the human body itself, then expect trouble. If the owner of the house does not get along with the brownie and does not reconcile on time, then the brownie will avenge.
Then all households will have a tug, at night there will be no rest, shishigi will make noise, and the coracoirs, turning into black cats, will get under their feet. And all edible supplies can disappear from the house, they will simply eat a fat-lick. And the house from the nearest cemetery crawls the spirits of the dead - ghouls and in the house the evil spirits - the Navians will be got.
Our ancestors were afraid of the brownie, respected him, tried to appease him, live with him in peace, always left him a guest.
The courtyard
Dvorova is an assistant to the housekeeper, he guards the yard, the domestic cattle, and everything that grows in the courtyard and is considered not quite a good spirit, as it does not like a man and many domestic animals, especially white. Can torment these animals, and even able to destroy, lime.
It is friendly to the yard only with cats, dogs and goats. Appearance he has a human, but his legs can be goat, cat and even chicken.
Our ancestors believed that the household lived on trees or in thick bushes and tried to ensure that all plants, trees and flowers were well maintained. And if the yard was neat and tidy, then the courtyard caused the plants and flowers to smell, grow well and give a rich harvest and lure luck to the court.
And if the hosts were lazy, the yard was very angry and brought their yard to complete desolation. It was believed that the courtyard spirit can take the form of animals and so our ancestors never welcomed and tried not to let the animals in the yard get lost. To the yard did not harm people, he was presented with treats, hanging them on iron pitchfork.
Bannik
Bannik lives in the bath. It's a little old man, but powerful. He is naked, with a long shaggy beard, which is all covered with mold.
This is a spiteful spirit that can destroy a person who is washing in a bath, put him to sleep and suffocate with hot air. Can take the shape of a cat, a dog and other small animals, and sometimes pretends to be a bath broom.
He likes to scare people by knocking on the wall, and throwing hot stones from the stove - the heater. Often can burn with boiling water, or evaporate to a pulp if people who come to the bathhouse are in a hurry to wash faster or did not come to their turn. It was believed that you can wash in three turns, and in the fourth turn, the bath itself is washed.
Our ancestors were afraid of a banner, tried to cajole it, after washing, they left him a piece of rye bread with salt. After everyone had washed, the bathhouse was poured clean water into the basin and left a fresh bath broom and good steam so that it would steam. And under the threshold of a new bath, a black hen was buried, sacrificing it.
And yet did not go to the bath late at night and on holiday. It was believed that the banner helps girls at the divine fortune telling to predict what kind of a bridegroom she will have. At midnight the girls got up at the open doors of the bathhouse, lifted up the skirt, and if the broom touches with a hairy hand, then the groom will have a rich girl if the naked hand - the groom will be poor, and if the hand is wet, then the groom will drink.
Kikimora
Kikimora, most often living in a forest or a swamp, but if the house or dacha is next to the forest, she happily changes her residence. She also settles in free houses and bathhouses, where there is no house and a banya.
Kikimora is a small old woman, untidy, in rags, unhealthy, nimble, has the ability to become invisible and move quickly. Sometimes appears in the form of an abandoned child and people, showing compassion, warm the kikimoru, and she jokes at people escapes, disappears.
It was believed that a kikimora could kidnap children. Often she frightens people with an eerie wailing, crying, hindering her sleep, running around the room and loudly stomping, breaking up dishes, throwing things away, and if she gets very angry, she can confuse or cut her hair and even pile on sleeping people and strangle them.
To leave the house the kykimora, in the hall they hung a pot without a bottom or laid out camel wool and incense around the house. Our ancestors believed that kikimora in the house can be populated by sorcerers or bad people, throwing a doll made of rags or chips. And in order to get rid of kikimora and her tricks, you need to find this doll and burn it at the stake.
Perfume of wood and water
Leshy
Leshiy is also considered a good spirit. He lives in the forest and is considered the owner of the forest, he guards the forest, looks after the trees and herbs. Leshy often walks through the forest surrounded by wolves, hares, protects animals and birds from hunters.
Leshy is a shaggy old man, sometimes covered with bark, with goat legs and horned. He can turn into any beasts or birds, can pretend to be a tree or a bush or a mushroom.
Our ancestors were afraid of the devil, they did not make noise in the forest, did not whistle, did not shout, before they went into the woods for mushrooms or berries asked permission from the bream, left on the stumps or paths to him gifts, pancakes, lard wrapped in clean cloth and tied with redthread.
If a person broke trees or killed animals for fun, or destroyed nests of birds, set fire to the forest - the leshy could take revenge. As a rule, the leshy does not ruin people, but punishes them, can fool the head and get them into the thicket, and the person will long stray in the woods, out of strength, and the devil - after punishing the bad person, will rejoice, laugh, clapping.
To get rid of the machinations of a dog, you need to change clothes upside down, or put on the hat backwards or change shoes with the left foot - on the right foot.
But it is worth appeasing him with affectionate words or a gift and ask to bring him to the path he will certainly help, he can also indicate a mushroom place or a clearing where there are many berries. Often the goblin helps people find the missing cow or goat. Shepherds and hunters have always concluded an agreement with the woods and never violated it.
Water
Water is an evil spirit, it is a water king and he lives in river pools, under water mills and at the bottom of lakes.
Waterman is an old man with a big belly, with shaggy hair, a beard and a mustache. Hair and whole body are covered with green mud and mud. He takes care of rivers and lakes, grazing his fish herds, riding a large pike or catfish. It can turn into a large fish or pretend to be a snag or a tree trunk floating in the water.
Water was afraid and before going into the water tried to coax with singing or dancing on the bank of the river or lake, as well as sacrificing fruits or animals.
Millers and fishermen concluded a water contract, and before fishing it was supposed to throw lapot into the water as a gift to the water, so that fishing would be successful. The first fish was always released, as a gift to the water. If the water was angry, then he raised the storm on the water, dispersed the fish, destroyed the dams and even could drag a man to the bottom in his underwater kingdom.
Our ancestors did not bathe in rivers and lakes in Ivanov, Ilin and Petrov day, and at the time when rye blossoms, as well as at night.
Mermaids
Mermaids are the spirits of water, dwell in the underwater realm and serve the water. Mermaids are always young and beautiful girls with long green hair, possessing charming voices. They have pale transparent skin, they are barefoot, and from the clothes of mermaids only a spacious white shirt, and even not at all, many are simply naked.
It was believed that mermaids become girls who drowned or drowned from unrequited, unhappy love, as well as infants who died unbaptized.
Day mermaid sleep on the bottom of the reservoir, and in the evening float to the surface and all night splashing in the water, having fun. When the Little Mermaid Week comes, the mermaids come out of the river waters and make merrymaking on the banks of the reservoirs with songs and dances, they escape into the fields, into the woods, weave wreaths of flowers and grasses, swing on the branches of trees.
Our ancestors believed that in the fields where mermaids ran and drove rounds, there would be a rich harvest of bread.
It's dangerous to meet mermaids. With their charming singing, they lure the traveler to the rivers and whirlpools, tickle him to death and drag him under the water.
In the Little Mermaid week, they did not swim in rivers and lakes, and tried to avoid the banks of reservoirs. They carried wormwood with them - as a guard, it was believed that mermaids could not stand the smell of wormwood, and if a meeting with a mermaid happened, she needed to show wormwood, and she could not enchant with her singing and hurt the traveler. And if girls or women in the field or on the trail met naked mermaids, they must have thrown a handkerchief or a cloth flap, tearing it off their clothes.
Slavic mermaids did not have fish tails, and virgins with fish tails were called pharaohs in our ancestors and lived in sea depths.
Any mysterious and unknown creation exists for a person as much as he believes in him. And if he believes, he can see and hear this being, or can feel his presence.
For some, the existence of brownies, woodpeckers, mermaids is just a fairy tale, but someone sincerely believes and even talks about meetings with them, describes their appearance and habits. Our ancestors sacredly believed in the existence of different spirits and believed that they are the most diverse and live near a person.
And each spirit has its own special place, where it is a full-fledged master. So in the forest dominated by goblin, in the marsh swamp, swamp, in rivers and lakes lived water with a retinue of mermaids who served him. And the house was inhabited by a house, and all courtyard buildings were occupied by certain tenants. Our ancestors talked about meeting with them, describing their appearance and habits, they knew how to appease or deceive them, to avoid trouble from the spirits.
