Slavs

The early Slavonic races passed down an extensive demon-ology embedded in a polytheistic religious system. It included reference to spirits of nature. According to folklorist F. S. Krauss:

"In the vile, also known as Samovile, Samodivi, and Vilivrjaci, we have near relations to the forest and field spirits or the wood and moss-folk of Middle Germany, France and Bavaria, the 'wild people' of Hesse, Eifel, Salzburg and the Tyrol, the wood-women and woodmen of Bohemia, the Tyrolese Fanggen, Fanken, Norkel and Happy Ladies, the Roumanish Orken, Euguane, and Dialen, the Danish Ellekoner, the Swedish Skogsnufvaz, and the Russian Ljesje, while in certain respects they have affinity with the Teutonic Valkyries."

The vila were, however, more like divine beings, constantly watching over and controlling the destiny of mortals. They were prayed to or exorcised on all occasions. In short, their origin was shamanistic.

Nineteenth-century American writer and folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland remarked of this unseen spirit world, "We can still find the vila as set forth in old ballads, the incarnation of beauty and power, the benevolent friend of sufferers, the geniuses of heroes, the dwellers by rock and river and greenwood tree. But they are implacable in their wrath to all who deceive them, or who break a promise. Nay, they inflict terrible punishment even on those who disturb their rings, or the dances which they make by midsummer moonlight. Hence the proverb applied to any man who suddenly fell ill, 'he stepped on a fairy ring.' "

There were three varieties of nature spirits among the southern Slavs: the Zracne vile, or aerial spirits, which were evilly disposed to human beings and inflicted serious injuries upon them; will-'o-the-wisps, which led people astray by night; the pozemne vile, companionable spirits who gave sage counsel to humankind and dwelled in the earth; and the podovne vile, or water spirits, kindly to people on shore but somewhat treacherous in their own element.

Another water spirit was the likho, the Slavonic Polyphemus, a dreaded and terrible monster. The leshy was a wood demon, Norka was the frightful lord of the lower world, and Koschei was a kind of ogre whose specialty was the abduction of princesses.

Witchcraft

The witch was frequently mentioned in Slavonic folktales, especially among the southern Slavs. She was called vjestica (masculine viestae), meaning originally "the knowing one" or "the well-informed one." In Dalmatia and elsewhere among the southern Slavs the witch was called krstaca, "the crossed," in allusion to the idea that she was of the horned race of hell. It was said that it enraged the witches so much to be called by this word that when they heard that anyone had used it they went to his house by night and tore him into four pieces, which they cast to the four winds of heaven, and drove away all his cattle and stock. Therefore, the shrewd farmers of the country called the witch hmana zena, or "common woman."

There were many forms of Slavonic witches, however, and the vjestica differed from the macionica and the latter from the zlokobnica, or "evil-meeter," whom it was unlucky to encounter in the morning and who possessed the evil eye.

One Serbian authority related that he had often heard that "every female Wallach [Slav] as soon as she is forty years old, abandons the 'God be with us,' and becomes a witch (vjestica) or at least a zlokobnica or macionica. A real witch has the mark of a cross under her nose, a zlokobnica has some hairs of a beard, and a macionica may be known by a forehead full of dark folds with blood-spots in her face."

In southern Slavonian countries on St. George's Day, the peasants adorned the horns of the cattle with garlands to protect them from witches. They attached great importance to a seventh or a twelfth child, believing that children born in that order were the great protectors of the world against witchcraft. But children of that order were thought to be in great danger on St. John's Eve, for then the witches, having the most power, attacked them with stakes or the stumps of saplings, which is why the peasantry carefully removed everything of the kind from the ground in the autumn.

The Slavs believed that on St. George's Day the witches climbed into the steeples of churches to get the grease from the axle of the bell, which, for some reason, they greatly prized.

The krstnik, or wizards, notoriously attracted female vila, who in most instances desired to be their mistresses, just as female salamanders desired to mate with men. (See the Curiosa of Heinrich Kornmann, 1666.) The man who gained the love of a vila was supposed to be extremely lucky.

Transformation stories were also fairly common in Slavonic folklore, which indicates that this was a form of magic practiced by the witches of those countries.

(See also Seventh Son)