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Fire serpent in Russia. Fire snakes The original method of protection

“A sensible person has one good dragon worth so much,
for how much the stupid one will give them a whole hundred ... "
J.R.R. Tolkien "Beowulf: monsters and literary scholars"

Fire serpent in Russia

A little evening dew
The grass is crumbling
She combs her hair, washes her neck
Black-browed widow.

And does not reduce at the window
From the sky of dark eyes.
And flies, twisting into rings,
In bright sparks, a long serpent.

And the noise is getting closer, closer,
And over the widow's yard,
Over thatched roof
Disintegrates with fire.

And the window will immediately close
Black-browed widow;
Only heard in the light
Kisses and words.
A. A. Fet, 1847

Let's give the floor to I. Pavlovich, the Samara researcher of the Fire Serpents. “So, for example, the Samara ethnographer K. I. Serebrenitsky suggests that the Fire Snakes are a distorted image dragon. It should be noted that in the beliefs of the Slavic peasants, Fire Serpents were only one of the varieties of the “Wonderful Serpent” - “underground snake”, “snake snake” and “fiery snake”. In the mythology of other, non-Slavic peoples, this image is practically absent! To some extent, a possible analogue of the Fire Serpent can be considered: Latin - vivus ignis ... - Living fire; Japanese “Tengu Lanterns”, also locally known in Europe are such creatures as the Leader in Hungarian mythology, Aitvaras in Lithuanian mythology, Fireman - “money serpent” ".

In Bulgaria, in the village of Zmeyovo, in the vicinity of Stara Zagora, local residents claim that their ancestors were “... people of sazhen height (2.13 m), because in the old days one woman from the village married a Serpent. So they called her - the Serpent. It's funny, the same peasants assured that children born from a woman and a Serpent are much "... stronger, more dexterous, live longer and have more youth in them." It was believed that it was easy to find out when a woman conceived from the Serpent. Then she carries the fetus for much longer than the prescribed 9 months, but 10-11 months!

The name "Zmeyovo" appeared because of a strange hole in the ground near the village, where, as they said, a mysterious creature lives. However, a local enthusiast and skeptic, 70-year-old Nacho Yanakiev, bravely examined the hole and stated that “a fallen meteorite punched a hole in the ground!” .

A. Kolmogortsev adds: “In the beliefs, the snake is depicted either as a monstrous beast, or as a giant, which evokes certain associations with the Greek snake-footed giants. Popular beliefs attribute to the snake demonic properties, heroic strength, knowledge of healing herbs, possession of untold riches and living water, endow it with the ability to change its terrible monstrous image into the captivating beauty of a young man.

“There are shy fellows,” oral tradition says about flying snakes that can pretend to be like a snake and like a human. In one Russian fairy tale, a snake is represented by a man with a snake's head: "in appearance, the snake is a hero, but the head is a snake"; the same idea is known among the Poles.

V. I. Dal in the book “On beliefs, superstitions and prejudices of the Russian people” indicates that this creature does not have a single name. In the Smolensk and Ryazan regions, such a kite was called Lyubak, in the Oryol region - Volokita, in the Tambov province - Lyubostay. According to the beliefs of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, there is Plaque, an evil spirit in the form of a fiery broom "six arshins". He often visits people who yearn for the dead. In the Samara Territory, a belief about Conversing with the Flyers has been preserved.

In the Smolensk province, according to D. N. Ushakov (Ethnographic Review, 1896. 2), there was a legend that once in one village they tried to kill the Fire Serpent. They covered it with earth, but no matter how much they carried it, everything was not enough. They realized - it is necessary to carry not on horseback. They brought it on ... roosters! They threw only a handful, and - the earth grew and the Fire Serpent disappeared.

“Two were returning home, they see a sheaf of fire flying low from the ground into the village, a snake - a thick head, thinner towards the tail, and straight to the house of Ivan Anfimov. The next day, Ivan was threshing on the threshing floor and died overnight. In another house, where the kite flew, a girl of twenty years old died, ”they said in the Vologda province.

In the Vladimir province, the Fire Serpent was called in conspiracies to "dry" the girl. When they washed in the bath, they slandered the water that remained after washing. “Nine spirits come out of me, nine fiery ones, they want to light the blue sea. Do not light the blue sea, but light the heart of such and such (name and place were called).

In fact, it was believed that devils fly in the guise of the Fire Serpent. They fly either to the bewitched, or to the sorcerers who call them. And they wear money. About people who strangely and unexpectedly got rich so hostilely they said: "The name of the couple is money." "Couple" was called - a snake.

It was well known that the Fire Serpent was attracted to the excessive grief of widows.

“Everyone in Russia knows what a marvel is - a fiery serpent,” writes I.P. Sakharov. - Everyone knows why he is flying and where he flies, but no one dares to talk about it out loud. The fire serpent is not his brother, he has no mercy: certain death from one blow. And what to expect from evil spirits! It would seem that he has no reason to fly to the red maidens, but the villagers know why he flies, and they say that if the Fire Serpent falls in love with a girl, then her sweetheart is incurable forever. No one undertakes to scold or dissuade such a sweetheart ... "

The “Dictionary of Pagan Mythology of the Slavs” adds: “Everyone sees how the Fire Serpent flies through the air and burns with unquenchable fire, and not everyone knows that, as soon as he descends into the chimney, he will find himself in a hut young man of inexpressible beauty. Not loving, you will love, not praising, you will praise, - the old women say, - such a fine fellow. He knows how to fool, the villain, the soul of the red maiden with greetings; he, the destroyer, will delight the young young woman with the speech of a swan; he will play, ruthless, with a zealous girlish heart; he, insatiable, will drown the beloved in a combustible embrace; he will melt, barbarian, scarlet lips on honey, on sugar. From his kisses, the red maiden burns with a ruddy dawn; from his greetings, the red maiden blooms with a red sun. Without the Serpent, the red maiden sits in anguish, in the torment; without it, she does not look at God's light; without it, she dries, dries herself! But in fact, the Fire Serpent has a head with a ball, a back with a trough, and a long, long tail - sometimes up to five fathoms. Arriving at its place, it crumbles into sparks that fly out as if from a sieve, and it flies so low that it can be seen from the ground no more than a sazhen. He visits only such women who long and strongly yearn for absent or dead husbands.

The visitor himself is not visible to outsiders, but his voice is heard in the hut; He answers questions and starts talking himself. Moreover, his visits are also noticeable because his beloved begin to grow rich before the eyes of people, although at the same time, every woman to whom the Serpent has become accustomed will certainly begin to lose weight and wither away (they say: “The midnight clerk is let loose”); and another is tormented to the point that she dies or commits suicide (all cases of female suicides are attributed to the Fire Serpent).

There are, however, means to get rid of the visitation of the Serpent. A conscientious and bashful woman will catch on and turn to the sorceresses for advice, and they will tell you how to find out who comes at night: whether the husband is real or he is unclean. To do this, they order, while the chosen one is sitting at the table with the Fire Serpent and treating everything that he brings and puts out, to drop some thing from the table and then, lifting it, bend down and look: if it’s the hooves of the feet, you can’t see between them the tip of the tail? If then it turns out that the arrival is truly unclean, then in order to get rid of him, you need to sit on the threshold, outline yourself in a circle, comb your hair and at the same time eat hemp. When the Serpent asks: "What do you eat?" - it is necessary to answer: “Lice”, and to the snake’s question, is it possible to eat lice, she will answer: “Do snakes live with women?” This is so not to his liking that he will shove in the side or hit, but from then on he will not fly again.

For a girl enchanted by the Serpent, there is a reliable way to get rid of fierce spells. It is necessary to throw prophetic herbs into the cauldron on a moonless night: sheep's gentian, hellebore, iris, sweet clover - and in the morning douse yourself with decoction - and the Serpent will forever forget the way to the house. But it should be remembered: herbs should be collected only in the Russian week, not earlier, not later.

“As in the city of Lukomorye, a snake flew along the coast, the city’s queen was seduced by it, she was killed from longing for the king, she mated with him, with a snake, her whiteness diminished, her heart yearned, she indulged in one consolation - as a snake flies - so she will seduce her. I am not afraid of you snakes, I will worship the Lord God, I will become like St. Mary of Egypt, I will be imprisoned. Just as the dead man does not rise from the earth, so you do not fly to me, do not inflame my womb, and do not flow to my heart. I speak with a conspiracy, I lock myself with an iron lock, I enclose myself with a stone fence, I cool myself with spring water, I cover myself with the veil of the Mother of God. Amen."

Also, wanderers wandering around the villages come running to the aid of women and girls in trouble. They, from all such leprosy of evil spirits in the form of Fire Serpents, write a psalm 40 times on pieces of paper: “May God rise again” - and they order to put it on a cross and wear it without taking it off.

In the “Collection of Tales and Traditions of the Samara Territory”, recorded by D.N. Sadovnikov, we read from the words of A.V. Chegodaev: “When a kite flies, you can stop it; just - say: "Whoa!" Here you can ask him about everything, and he will tell the truth; and when it is necessary to let go, then one should tear the shirt from the collar down on oneself, otherwise it will not fly away and will keep saying: “Let go! Let go!" Who does not know this, the snake will cover it up.

Once over one hut, where the widow lived and grieved for her husband, the serpent crumbled. He entered as he was during his lifetime - with a gun, and brought a hare in his hands. She rejoiced. They began to live; only she still doubts whether this is her husband - she forced him to be baptized. He is baptized baptized, but so soon that you can’t keep track. The Saints gave to read - she reads, only instead of "Theotokos" she reads: "Wonderful", and instead of "Jesus Christ" - "Sus Christ". She guessed that something was wrong, went to the priest. The priest gave her a prayer and the kite disappeared, did not fly anymore.

In the village of Nikolsky, a son was born to a woman from a snake, black, with hooves, and eyes without eyelids, bulging. The men thought, thought, and killed him, and then buried him in the ground.

In some sources, the need is added, before the arrival of the Serpent, to first stick three iron knives into the ground in a certain way. After that, the Serpent fell into some dependence on a person, fulfilled his requests, revealed secrets - the Earth and Sky, the past and the future.

It is curious to note that such beliefs have survived to this day. So researchers in the Yaroslavl region over the past twelve years have recorded 166 stories affecting the image of the Fire Serpent.

Here is how S. Temnyatkin, editor of the newspaper Katskaya Chronicle (Yaroslavl region, Myshkinsky district), tells about this.

“- In the third and fourth grades, I went to the Yuriev school. In the fall, an old woman, Augusta Mikhailovna, let me into the apartment. I remember that in the evenings she walked for a long time, but I'm scared without her ...

And so I go to Yuryevskoye, and grandmother Nadezhda stops:

And you're not afraid?

What is there to be afraid of?

Duck Augusta knows the snakes!

But how!?..

And look, there are pots on her porch. They bring milk to her in krinki. And in the evening she drives them underground; made a nashestok there - they will sit down and sit like a crow!

I came, looked at the porch - and indeed the pots are standing! And I was afraid to look into the underground.

Three centuries ago, a strange epidemic struck the Balkans and Eastern Europe. After the funeral, the ghost of the deceased appeared before relatives, asked for food, and then squeezed them to death (especially children) in his arms. Relatives complained to local magistrates and the church. As a result of long ordeals, desperate people sought permission to exhume the graves and found there "dead" showing signs of life. After they were executed, the uninvited guests no longer appeared. The locals called them ghosts, but later it turned out that the Turks called the same ghosts vampires. Gradually, this word migrated to the languages ​​of Europe. It is curious that the doctors of that era considered vampirism to be a disease and assumed that the infection came to Europe just from the Turkish Sultanate.

The best minds of Europe, on behalf of the sovereigns, dealt with an unexpected misfortune, the most authoritative persons took part in the exhumations of the graves of vampires, sent to verify the authenticity of messages coming to the authorities of Austria-Hungary from various places. Many reports appeared, among them - published in 1749 "Dissertation on the Appearances of Ghosts, Vampires and Ghosts" by Abbot Augustine Calmet, "Medical Report on Vampires", made especially for the Austrian Empress Maria Therese by the head physician of Vienna, Gerard Van Swieten, the work of Pope Benoit XIV Prospero Lambertini "Vampires in the light of science" (1749) and others.

Neither priests nor scientists could explain this terrible phenomenon, which was also accompanied by a poltergeist in the homes of vampire victims. Therefore, officially everything was written off as "native superstitions of the Slavs and Greeks." But vampirism did not disappear, but continued to exist (no longer called vampirism) in various places and was observed even into the 20th century. I collected many such examples in The Book of the Vampires, where I tried for the first time in the last three centuries to investigate the phenomenon by scientific methods.

Dossier DISCOVERY

Poltergeist (from German poltern - make noise and geist - spirit) - this term refers to inexplicable, paranormal phenomena associated with noise and knocks, spontaneous movement of objects, spontaneous combustion, etc. Poltergeist, as a rule, is attached to a person, most often a child. The invasion of a person's life by forces of unknown origin is associated with material damage and psychological trauma. The poltergeist poses an unsolvable question to scientists: where does the energy expended in this phenomenon come from?

THE MIRACLE OF SAINT HARBEL

From the point of view of modern scientific ideas, a vampire is not a dead person (as was believed in the Enlightenment), but a comatose buried by mistake. The second misconception was the myth that the vampire drinks the blood of his victims. In fact, as mentioned in the reports of the 18th century, specific bruises remained on the body of the victim from the embrace of a vampire - but the skin was not damaged. The blood myth arose from the fact that a vampire was found in a coffin half-filled with blood (with whitish, extremely caustic toxic secretions). However, it was the blood of the vampire himself, not his victims.

In the course of research, I came to a surprising conclusion: some imperishable saints are typical vampires. In the book "Unstainable" (1977) by American Joan Carroll Cruz, 102 cases of "miraculous incorruptibility" are described. One of the most impressive cases concerns the "beautifully preserved and bleeding body" of the Lebanese saint Harbel Machouf. This Maronite monk "died" on December 24, 1898, after a stroke of apoplexy. During his life, he observed strict bodily discipline: he wore a sackcloth, slept on the ground, ate once a day (like his other comrades).

According to the traditions of his monastery in Annai, Harbel was buried in his everyday clothes, without a coffin and, of course, not embalmed.

Many admit that they would immediately forget about him, but one very unusual phenomenon happened. For 45 nights after his burial (it is during this period that the complete decomposition of the body usually occurs), a bright glow was observed around the grave. The monastery officials asked for permission from the leaders of the Order to exhume the body. The exhumation was carried out three months later in the presence of a crowd of residents of a nearby village.

However, it is doubtful that the reason for the exhumation was a simple glow over the grave. It has been repeatedly reported in vampirology that a very specific radiance can be seen over the burial of vampires at night, which cannot be confused with any other; that must have aroused suspicion. Moreover, in this region, vampirism in those days, and even now, is quite common. It is also possible that the saint was a vampire (his condition also testified to this) and it was the statement of the people who saw the ghost that became the real reason for the exhumation.

Since the day before there had been long and heavy rains that flooded the cemetery, Saint Harbel (at that time, however, he was not a saint) was found floating in a grave full of dirty water. After the body was washed and changed, witnesses to the exhumation noticed that some kind of liquid was leaking from its pores. It was described as "a mixture of sweat and blood", that is, blood with an unknown impurity gradually left the body through the sweat channels. It had a specific pungent smell, similar to a floral aroma, which is formed during the breakdown of amino acids, which, by the way, is a sign of a living body. The flow of this fluid did not stop, as a result of which Harbel's clothes had to be changed twice a week. Pieces of clothing soaked in it were distributed as holy relics and were considered healing.

This continued until July 1927, when it was decided to place the body in a galvanized wooden coffin, and the latter in a special crypt in the prayer wall, raised on stones in order to protect it from moisture. The miracle of St. Harbel caused worship, streams of people began to arrive in Annaya. And today the pilgrimage does not stop, it has become even more massive, although since 1950 the body of Harbel has not been shown to the public. In February of that year, pilgrims noticed that liquid began to leak through the prayer wall onto the floor. This forced the monks to reopen the grave, and what they saw shocked the audience. The body looked supple, lifelike, and showed absolutely no signs of decay. At the same time, toxic substances turned the zinc coffin and the clothes of the saint into dust. The liquid flowed out in such quantity that, when dried, it formed masses of white powder, which were dismantled as a relic by pilgrims.

FORECECESSORS OF THE MARONITE MONK

And now it's time to look into the archives of vampirology. Abbot Augustine Calmet writes in his treatise: “In the state reports for 1693-1694. talks about ghouls, vampires and ghosts that appear in Poland [the Commonwealth] and - more reports - in Russia. They appear at any time of the day and come to drink the blood of living people and animals - in such large quantities that sometimes it flows back through their mouth, nose and, most often, through their ears, and the corpse floats in a coffin filled with blood ... One of such vampires was buried about three years ago; above his grave, a glow was visible, similar to the light of a lamp, but less bright. The grave was opened and a man was found, intact and seemingly as healthy as any of us present. Then they took him out of the grave; the body was not truly flexible, but it was whole and completely intact; then, with something like a metal spike, round and sharp, they pierced his heart: a whitish liquid with blood flowed from there ... After that, they chopped off his head with an ax, and the same liquid with blood flowed from the body, but more abundantly than from the heart. In the end, they threw him back into the grave and covered him with quicklime to complete the job for sure.

Thus, in both cases, which are separated by 200 years, we see a glow over the grave of a vampire, a body floating in a blood-filled coffin, and a huge amount of an incomprehensible "whitish liquid". The only difference is that one comatose was brutally killed and covered with lime, and the other was made a saint. Both are vampires.

And in other cases where vampirism is clearly involved, modern scholars never use the term. For example, in the famous poltergeist that appeared in the village of Askiz of the Republic of Khakassia in 1994-1995, when several people died from it, no one recognized the typical features of this phenomenon. It was studied by a group of scientists led by Yuri Yaklichkin, with whom I subsequently discussed the vampiric nature of this phenomenon.

Vampirism is almost always accompanied by a poltergeist (including people constantly seeing clothes and things of a vampire that “move by themselves”). From the grave to the house, the vampire moves in the form of the so-called "fiery serpent" - a formation similar to ball lightning, which today many confuse with a UFO. What the vampire eats to maintain strength in his coma is unclear. This is probably some kind of hypothetical "life force" that has not yet been discovered by science. On average, a vampiric coma lasts several years, but sometimes (as in Harbel McHough and others) it lasts decades, after which the coma dies (and its remains, saturated with toxic secretions, do not decompose, but only dry out).

The ghost of a vampire is seen only by those on whom the "focus of his attention" is directed.

Of course, almost everything in this phenomenon looks strange and mysterious. But at the same time, it is the most documented anomalous phenomenon. The words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau are indicative: “If there was a true and proven history in the world, it is the history of vampires. Nothing is missing: official reports, testimonies of titled persons, surgeons, priests, judges - the evidence is complete. The phenomenon has been described in Europe for 900 years: about the ancient epidemic of typical vampirism in England in the 1190s. detailed in the chronicle of William Newburgh "History of England". It seems that in 900 years it would be possible, if not to study, then at least to recognize the existence of this phenomenon. However, not only scientists, but also many researchers of the unknown consider this phenomenon too fabulous, strange, incomprehensible. Here's the paradox...

ON THE TRAIL OF THE FIRE serpent

A little bit of evening dew falls on the grass,

A black-browed widow is combing her hair, washing her neck.

And he does not take his dark eyes from the sky at the window,

And it flies, twisting into rings, in bright sparks of long snakes.

And it makes noise, getting closer, closer, and over the widow's yard,

Over the thatched roof crumbles with fire.

And the black-browed widow will immediately close the window;

Only kisses and words are heard in the room...

These poems by Athanasius Fet are an excellent presentation of the legend of the Fire Serpent or the Flyer, as he was called by the people. It is in this form that he moves from the grave to the house.

It is curious that the Fire Serpent began to appear in the villages of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine only during the spread of the epidemic of vampirism, or rather in the middle of the 17th century. The famous Murom Tale of Peter and Fevronia, which begins with a description of a typical Flyer, can also be attributed to this time. The Fire Serpent began to visit the wife of a certain prince, who, having flown into the house through the chimney, turned into a man and engaged in fornication with the princess.

In all descriptions, the phenomenon looked about the same. Shortly after a person who fell into a vampiric coma was buried, a strange glow was noted over his grave. Eyewitnesses saw a fireball, usually the size of a soccer ball, flying from the side of the cemetery towards the village, leaving behind a many-meter tail of something like a flame. The flight was silent, flowing at a low speed at a height of human height and above, up to three meters above the ground. The ball flew into the chimney of the house where the buried person lived, and there turned into his ghost, visible only to the victim. The ghost of the “dead man” sometimes made love to a widow (or widower), and more often he squeezed his relatives (first of all, children) in his arms, and they began to wither and soon died. All this was usually accompanied by a poltergeist.

Ancient beliefs about the Flyers have existed in Russian villages since the 17th century. and to our days. The peasants believed that the Fire Serpents were "devils that fly and tempt women." In the villages, such a motif of stories was widespread: the Fire Serpent (called in the Yaroslavl region “a fire snake”) flies to girls and women, and, scattering sparks over a chimney, “he (through the chimney) appears in the hut in the guise of a handsome guy or the deceased husband of the hostess Houses". (Mikhail Chulkov, 1786)

Vladimir Dal in the book "On beliefs, superstitions and prejudices of the Russian people" indicates that this creature does not have a single name. In the Smolensk and Ryazan regions, such a snake was called Lyubak, in the Oryol region - Volokita, in the Tambov province - Lyubostay. According to the beliefs of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, there is Plaque, an evil spirit in the form of a fiery broom "six arshins". He often visits people who yearn for the dead.

The fiery serpent appears in the folklore of only those regions where there was an epidemic of vampirism 250-300 years ago, including on the territory of Serbia and its neighboring countries. For example, the Serbian epic about Vuk the Fire Serpent tells about this. By the way, the constant character of our folk tales - the Serpent Gorynych (that is, Burning) - this is the Fire Serpent, the Flyer. Today, artists and animators draw him exactly as a snake, and under the name "Gorynych" they understand his supposed ability to spew flames. In fact, this is not a snake at all, but he got his nickname from a multi-meter fiery tail, which wriggled during the flight (that's where the nickname - the Serpent came from).

In fairy tales, this Serpent strives to climb into the beauty’s room because in reality he visited widows.

There is no doubt that the Serpent Gorynych really annoyed the villagers extremely and entailed death. In this regard, cartoons about epic heroes show a true picture of how the appearance of the Serpent Gorynych caused panic among the peasants. That's just the main thing in them is not - the fact that this Serpent flew in from the cemetery.

From sunset to sunrise

Samara researcher of modern mythology Igor Pavlovich in his work "Fire snakes - who are they?" writes that "similar beliefs have survived to this day." In particular, researchers in the Yaroslavl region over the past twelve years have recorded 166 stories involving the image of the Fire Serpent. “These creatures do not fly quickly, wriggling, sometimes whirling and tumbling with noise. Numerous reports of encounters with these creatures fall on 1910-1919, 1930-1939, 1940-1949,” Pavlovich writes.

And ufologist Dmitry Kazakov collected hundreds of evidence of this strange phenomenon and identified some of its patterns:

1. It always appears after sunset or before sunrise, from somewhere from the side (not from the sky).

2. Always has the same parameters.

3. With rare exceptions, they appear over settlements. They especially gravitate towards the houses of widows, where they scatter sparks or dive into a chimney. In this case, the deceased appears in the hut (many eyewitnesses).

4. They were very common until the 1960s. Now they are extremely rare.

A typical case occurred in the summer of 1945 with a woman who refused to identify herself, who was walking from the village of Melyandy to the village of Chupraki:

“We see with a girlfriend - something similar to a fiery rye sheaf is flying, the size of a meter. He flew smoothly, just above the houses. Not fast and direct. Then he turned to a house. There was a half-withered tall spruce. The "sheaf" touched her and crumbled. And then this spruce completely dried up. And then one woman (a widow) told us that her deceased husband Stepan had “arrived”: “I am walking through the yard, and he is standing, in all white. Then I hooted, and he flew out.

And here is evidence of the return of the snake to the cemetery:

“V.F. Konovalov lived at the Gigant state farm near Kovrov. In the late autumn of 1953, when he was 8 years old, he was on his way to school. The path went past the village cemetery. Suddenly, a pink, dim ball appeared above the forest, which, thanks to its tail, looked like a “flying kite”. The ball flew slowly, and the eyewitness was able to see it well. It was about the size of a soccer ball, even a little smaller. Describing a slow arc, the ball hit the concrete slab of one of the graves. There was a silent explosion with flames in all directions. The boy rushed to the school with all his might...” (Archive of the Commission on anomalous phenomena).

There are many such testimonials. Acquaintance with them makes you take a different look at the fabulous Serpent Gorynych - he no longer seems fabulous ...

Aksinya accompanied her husband Peter to the war. A month has passed, another. There is no news from him. She's worried, she can't sleep. Black thoughts prevail. Aksinya is sitting at the window one night. The moon is so big, full, pouring silver around. And the Cossack woman decided to tell fortunes by the moon, to find out about her husband. She sits and waits to see what she sees.

Suddenly, in the moonlight, she sees a blood-stained brook flowing, but right into her window and spread over the floor in a puddle.

Aksinya groaned: a bad omen. Unknown grief penetrated into the heart. She became bitter. Worse than death! Such grief came over her. The Cossack burst into tears and burst into tears.

Once, at the hayfield, Aksinya was raking the grass with a rake, and she herself thought: “If only Peter would return, and the red sun would shine for me again.” I just thought, raised my head, sees Peter riding a horse from a hill. She waves her hand. Dressed cleanly, in all uniforms. The horse's mane is long, long, spreading along the ground. Aksinya threw down her rake and ran towards him. Peter jumped off his horse. They fell to each other, words from happiness do not find. The horse around them tramples, neighs. Take Aksinya and ask:

Why is this horse's mane so long?

Peter answers:

- And in the war, everyone is like that. Found something to ask.

Aksinya laughed:

“Indeed, it is me. Thank God that he returned alive and well.

Enough - there is no one around: neither Peter nor the horse. She stands in the forest and hugs a tree. You know, she saw everything.

Aksinya was not up to work, she went home. The gate was opened. He sees through the window, Peter is sitting in the hut, drinking tea. How did he get there, thought Aksinya, the door is locked. She unlocked the door, ran into the hut: no one was there. And the dishes are all in place, untouched. I looked here and there: no, no one is there. The Cossack woman sank to the floor exhausted, wept.

In the evening, a cow came from the pasture, mooing, demanding a mistress. Like it or not, get up. The cow needs to be milked.

Aksinya went into the barn, just as she was getting ready to milk the cow, she grabbed her tits, she heard someone walking on top of the hay. She hung the bucket on a nail, took the lantern and climbed up the ladder. He sees boots sticking out of the hay, surely the person is lying.

- Peter, is that you? asks Aksinya. Silence in response.

- Answer, Christ is with you!

The hay rustled, the boots disappeared, and the wind blew open the barn door.

OK. Aksinya's head is on fire, he goes around as if in delirium, but he does not feel fear in his soul. She milked the cow, strained the milk, had supper and went to bed.

At midnight Aksinya hears someone shuffling in the entryway. The door opened: no one was there. Suddenly Aksinya's blanket flew off to the floor, and the bed moved. The Cossack girl got up, the lamp lit up. Peter is standing in front of her.

- Are you alive? asks Aksinya.

“You see, he remained alive,” Peter answers. - Go fix the horse, and I'll figure it out.

She went out into the yard, unsaddled her horse, and put it in the stall.

She returned to the hut, and Peter was already in bed, beckoning to him. Aksinya lay down with him and, as it were, not herself: it seems to be her Peter, but it seems to be not.

And he caresses her. Delights with the speech of a swan. In hot embraces flirts. From his kisses, Aksinya burns with a ruddy dawn. From his greetings, it blooms with a red sun. You will love such a young man without loving.

They lie in bed. She threw her hands into his wild curls, running her fingers over his head.

“Oh, Peter,” he says, “your head is full of bumps, so wavy.

- Me, - answers Peter, - as they took me to the war, so I just washed myself in the bathhouse. We screwed everything up there.

- So let me heat the bath for you.

“Another time,” he says, “this is not leisure time.

Surprisingly, this is Aksinya, but she did not say a word, not half a word.

At dawn, Peter says goodbye to her and says:

- Don't tell anyone about me. I will sneak up on you.

Toward evening, doubts overcome Aksinya: is it her Peter? Before going to bed, she took the ashes and scattered them on the floor.

At midnight Peter came again. Caresses again to Aksinya. Likes. Her doubts melted like last year's snow. Peter left at dawn. In the morning Aksinya looks, there are no traces on the ashes. Is it possible that an unclean spirit visits her? The Cossack woman was spinning, she didn’t know what to do. All day long I have been running around the yard, work is falling out of my hands.

And at night Peter showed up. He approaches her. She is from him. He is back to her. She is from him.

- Are you afraid of me? Peter asks.

"Come on then, I'll follow you." There is nothing for you to suffer here alone.

“Now,” says Aksinya, “I’ll just pack my things.

And she thinks: “Here it is, my death has come.” She is going on the road, and Peter hurries her.

- How long will I wait for you?

- Wait, - says Aksinya, - I can’t find the beads.

She found the beads and imperceptibly broke the thread, scattered the beads on the floor. Aksinya began to collect beads.

“Uh, it's a long song,” says Peter.

- I can’t throw beads, it’s obscene memory.

She collected all the beads, only one bead is missing.

The Kochets then screamed, Peter stamped his foot, scattered sparks and disappeared.

As soon as the dawn blushed, Aksinya ran to her grandmother-healer. Told her everything like it is.

Here the sorceress says to her:

- Yes, this is not your husband at all, but a fiery serpent flies towards you.

Aksinya burst into tears, what a sin! What to do? He asks for advice from a healer.

- You, - says the old woman, - put crosses on the door, set on the windows, and sit yourself, read the prayer. The snake will call you, do not answer.

Aksinya went home. She made crosses on the windows and doors with chalk and did not forget the stove damper, she marked it with a cross. As soon as it was light, Aksinya knelt down and began to pray.

At midnight, a fiery serpent flew in, scattered with sparks. He walks around the house, stomps, asks to come in, speaks affectionate speeches, begs. Aksinya does not listen to him, bows beats.

The fiery serpent got angry, began to bring down the hut. The walls shook, the ceiling cracked, it was about to collapse. Aksinya didn't even flinch.

“Okay, what did you guess,” the fiery serpent says, “otherwise you wouldn’t be alive.”

And flew away. And he didn't show up again.

Aksinya seemed to be on the mend after that. However, no, no, yes, and he will remember Peter and burst into hot tears. Empty in her soul without a husband, there is no life.

She saddled her horse and set off on her way. “Wherever you are,” he thinks, “I will still find you.”

And I really found it. Aksinya sees, a crow is circling over one place. And a warhorse walks nearby, driving away the crows. Came closer. Peter lies lifeless. All wounded.

- You are my dear friend, my love! Bloody sickness, you rolled my heart with a heavy coffin stone. I will dry up without you, my desired one, like a lonely blade of grass! They will bake, my lips will dry up, not kissing you, my beloved! And the longing sucks my heart like a snake! So he would have laid down in the damp earth, so he would have been smashed against a stone in the dumb steppe! I am a bitter cuckoo in a green garden ...

Suddenly Aksinya feels - someone touched her on the shoulder. She turned around and sees through her tears, standing in front of her beggar. Old-old. Hunchbacked freak.

“Can you help such a grief by shouting,” says the beggar.

- I would, - says Aksinya, - give everything, if only my gray-winged falcon was alive and well.

The beggar became interested and tortures Aksinya:

- I would give it, did not think? Will you give up your youth and beauty?

- Why not give up, - says the Cossack, - for the sake of a dear friend. I don't care if I don't live without him.

“Then I’ll help you,” the beggar says.

“But how can I give you youth and beauty?”

- That's my concern, I'll take it myself. So they got along. The beggar climbed into the bag, pulled out two bubbles.

“Here is dead water for you, and this,” he says, “is living water.”

As Aksinya took the vials, she saw that her hands were covered with wrinkles and trembling. And the beggar began to change before our eyes. The Cossack woman looks at her and thinks: “Am I really so stately and beautiful? I never thought so highly of myself."

The beggar asks:

- Well, do you have any regrets?

- Yes, what to regret, - answers Aksinya, - the deed is done.

The beggar got on the horse and rode away.

And Aksinya washed Peter's wounds with dead water. Overgrown wounds, as if they were not. I sprinkled him with living water. The Cossack sighed. Eyes opened.

He sees an old woman sitting in front of him, a terrible ugly woman. Peter restrained himself.

Thank you mother for waking me up.

Jumped up from the ground. He speaks:

- How easy! And laughed.

- It's time to go home. My wife was waiting for me.

He whistled his warhorse. Jumped on him in one fell swoop. He sees the old woman shedding tears.

- Are you, mother, twisted, shedding tears? Maybe something to help?

And she answered:

I don't want anything from this life. I am satisfied with everything. And the tears of old age themselves flow.

“Well, then,” says Peter, “forgive me. Don't remember badly.

“Goodbye,” says Aksinya. And she waved her hand to him, go, they say, with God, it’s not up to you here.

And the Cossack went in one direction, and the old woman went in the other.

fire serpent

The fiery serpent, according to popular belief, is the personification of the devil. The devil assumes this form when he intends to have sexual intercourse with women. Legends about such connections exist among all Slavic peoples, they are also included in our annals.

According to the legend of Peter and Fevronia, the devil entered into a relationship with the princess (wife of Paul, brother of Peter) during the life of her husband, but in most cases he chooses lonely widows or maidens as his victims, who are beyond measure sad and killed for their dead husbands or lovers, and takes the place of the latter. Such unfortunates, completely absorbed in their grief, often forget their duties towards God and their neighbors. They stop praying, stop attending church, grumble at the Lord, doubt His mercy, blaspheme.

These are the circumstances that the devil takes advantage of. Having outlined such a woman, in the dead of night he flies across the sky in the form of a fiery serpent, stops over her hut, scatters sparks and is yearning under the guise of her husband or lover. Of course, such a phenomenon horrifies a woman, but the charm of the devil is so great that she soon gets used to the idea that the person she loves is alive and not dead.

In passionate caresses, the devil spends the night with her and disappears at the first cockcrow. Then visits to his new mistress occur every night.

The love of the fiery serpent dries and exhausts women. They turn pale, grow thin, exhausted. Days are spent in heavy anguish, looking forward to the night, and with it the beloved.

It happens that a woman seduced by the devil speaks to him in the presence of strangers, but the latter do not see or hear the spirit. Sometimes children are born from such connections, but not ordinary ones, but heroes, magicians or kikimors.

There is the following legend about the origin and life of kikimor in the Russian people:

“The unclean soul will love the red maiden, he will burn, accursed, with a fiery serpent, he will illuminate the dense oak trees. He, the villain, flies through the skies with a ball of fire; on the ground it scatters with combustible fire, in the tower of a red maiden it becomes a young fellow of indescribable beauty. It dries, it chills the red girl to languor.

From that unclean power, an unclean offspring is born in a girl. From anguish, from grief, the heart of the father and mother breaks, which was born in the red maiden, the offspring of an ugly one. They curse, they scold the child of a nekosh with a great oath: do not live in this world, do not be like a human being; his century would burn in seething pitch, in unquenchable fire.

With that oath, that cursed child, without time, without time, disappears from the womb. And he, the accursed one, is carried away by the unclean for distant lands to the distant kingdom. And even there, the cursed offspring in exactly seven weeks is called Kikimora.

Lives, grows Kikimora with a magician in the stone mountains; He waters and cares for Kikimora with copper dew, soars in the bath with a silk broom, and scratches his head with a golden comb. From morning to evening, the cat-bayun amuses Kikimora, tells her overseas tales about the entire human race. From evening until midnight, the magician starts up valiant games, amuses Kikimora either with a blind goat, or with blindfolds. From midnight to white light, they rock Kikimora in a crystal cradle.

Exactly seven years later, Kikimora grows up. Thin, black, that Kikimora; and her head is small, a little one from thimble, and her body is unrecognizable with a straw. Far away he sees Kikimora in the skies, rather he runs on damp earth. Kikimora has not been trying for a whole century; without clothes, without shoes, she wanders summer and winter. No one sees Kikimora either in the middle of a white day or in the middle of a dark night. She knows, Kikimora, all the cities with suburbs, all the villages with suburbs; she knows, Kikimora, about the whole human race, about all grave sins. Kikimora is friends with magicians and witches.

She keeps evil on her mind for honest people. As the minutes of the doomed years, when the legal time comes, Kikimora runs out from behind the stone mountains into the white world to the evil magicians into science. And those sorcerers are cunning, spiteful people; they send Kikimora to good people for destruction. Kikimora enters the hut without knowing anyone, she settles behind the stove without knowing anyone. Knocking, thundering Kikimora from morning to evening; from evening until midnight, Kikimora whistles, hisses in all corners and on the counter; from midnight until broad daylight, he spins a hemp tow, twists hemp yarn, warps a silk warp. At the dawn of the morning, she, Kikimora, collects oak tables, puts up maple benches, lays kumak handcuffs for an undressed feast, for uninvited guests. Nothing is to her liking, Kikimore: and that oven is not in place, and that table is not in that corner, and that bench is not along the wall. Kikimora builds the stove in his own way, puts the table in an elegant way, cleans the bench with shidan ties. She survives, Kikimora, the owner himself, she torments, accursed, every human race. And after that, she, crafty, stirs up the baptized world: if a passer-by walks down the street, and here she is a stone under his feet; whether the townsman goes to the auction to trade, and here she is a stone in his head. Since that misfortune, the great houses of the townspeople are empty, the yards are overgrown with grass-ants.

If the relationship with the snake continues for a long time, then the woman goes crazy and often commits suicide.

The only way to get rid of the devil-serpent is to put on him a neck cross. But it is difficult to persuade a charmed woman to resort to such a measure. If, however, she obeys, then at least she did not have time to put the cross on the neck of the unclean, however, after several repetitions of this attempt, the devil leaves her and the patient recovers.

Here is one of the tales that were often told in the villages:

“There was a case in Vetluga. A young woman, having been married for only one year, suddenly lost her husband: he was killed somewhere on the side. Anna shed many tears, she grieved greatly and did not know what to do from longing. Autumn came, and the townspeople saw a flyer: it will appear, illuminate and crumble over the house where the young widow lived. Many warned Anna and said that they themselves saw how a fiery serpent flew towards her, and advised her to turn to God with prayers, but the widow did not want to hear, she rejected the advice of good people. She, not embarrassed, told her family and friends that her husband was not killed, but only hiding from people, because misfortune befell him, and he does not dare to show himself to anyone, except for his wife, whom he often visits. She told me that when her husband spent the night with her, he slept with her, as he had slept before alive, and left around midnight before the cocks crowed. Not for long, however, the fiery serpent flew to the widow. She began to melt quickly, she didn’t eat anything for days, she yearned and lost her mind, and soon she was paralyzed, so she soon died in complete exhaustion and madness.

In addition to the cross, a conspiracy uttered by a healer could save a woman yearning for him from a fiery serpent.

The rite began with sticking a Mordvinnik into the threshold and into all the cracks of the hut, and then the conspiracy itself was already pronounced:

“As in the city of Lukorye, a snake flew along the coast, the queen of the city lapped about it, she was killed from longing for the king, she mated with him, with a snake, her whiteness diminished, her heart yearned, she indulged in one consolation - as the snake flies, so it will seduce her. I'm not afraid of you, snake. I will worship the Lord God, I will become like St. Mary of Egypt, I will be locked up in prison. As the dead do not rise from the earth, so you do not fly to me, do not inflame my womb, and do not grieve my heart. I speak with a conspiracy, I lock myself with an iron lock, I enclose myself with a stone fence, I cool myself with spring water, I cover myself with the veil of the Mother of God; Amen".