If among the forests and fields people could feel relatively free, then the swamps with their bogs and bottomless pools remained mysterious and unpredictable. A person who fell into a swamp was exposed to mortal danger, and this danger did not come from an enemy with whom one could fight, but from an ominous place.
Hence - the fear of bogs, in which, as it was believed, unkind spirits must have settled. Among such spirits are the roaming and bogging people who live in completely impassable places.
Someone thinks that wanderers are spirits of water, someone saw them with their own eyes, and someone considers them to be completely material beings. One way or another, but it is quite clear that the roaming people are "responsible" for the fords, their protection, order and cleanliness. According to ancient legends and fairy tales, they belong to kind beings.
For example, they keep an eye on young children when they are near their property and prevent accidents if the child plays too much and goes too deep into the water. In this case, the roamers will simply scare him away from the dangerous place with a noisy splash of water. They also helped the soldiers, warning them about the approach of the enemy.
Unlike wanderers, bogs and swamps were considered the embodiment of evil spirits, while having a very vague appearance. Therefore, various marsh inhabitants in the ideas of the people often mixed with goblin, water, devils and demons.
According to popular beliefs, the bog bog itself (the spirit of bog swamps) looks like a gray-haired old man with a wide yellowish (like swamp water) face or like a person with long arms, a body covered with gray wool and a long hooked tail (in fact, this is an image of a water demon or devil).
He has a bare belly and frog paws, bulging eyes, a huge mouth and a long beard, on which swamp goo flows down. The bog grows his beard over the years and never unravels or combes, which is why it is usually dirty, rolled into a tangle.
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Often, the bog was described in the same way as the water bog: for example, in some epics he looks like an old man covered with mud, a black man dressed in bog plants, etc. In general, a bog, even more than a water bog, was considered prone to werewolf, believing that he can take the form he wants.
Bolotnik was never credited with good deeds: he, like the devil, was considered a creature uniquely harmful and very dangerous for people who fell into his possession. For example, it was believed that people walking through a swamp are often frightened by a bog bog with harsh sounds: sighs, gurgles, hums and groans in the uterus, blows out air with bubbles, smacks loudly and slaps his palms on the water.
In addition, the bog breeder often sets up traps for uninformed people - he lays green grass or snags on their way, a log under which there is a bottomless swamp or bog. As soon as a traveler steps on a deceptive place, it immediately slips out from under his feet and the man plunges into the water.
Then the bog will laugh, he will be delighted and tug on the leg so that the person sinks into the swamp up to his neck. It is known that the swamp, as they say, has a dead grip - the more you twitch, the deeper you fall!
Another time, long frog arms will grab a lost person and drag him to the bottom. Breaking free from the strong embrace of the bog is very difficult. For this, a person must have remarkable strength, courage and calmness. The bog's red eyes are often filled with anger and hatred for the human race, but outside the swamp, its owner cannot do anything with a person.
At night, the bogs release the souls of children who have drowned unbaptized, and then in the middle of the marshes blue-and-white wandering lights run and wink. In addition, according to some beliefs, they sometimes deliberately lure people to their swamp in order to drown them, or at least make them wander among the bogs. So, in many places it was believed that a bog, in the form of a black man with a lantern in his hands, wanders along the edge of the swamp, illuminating the way for travelers. At the same time, it knocks them off the path and leads them into a pool.
It is known that the bog bog lives in his underground kingdom with his wife and children. As the peasants have long believed, the wife of a swamp is a maiden who drowned in a swamp.
That is why they call her differently - a whirlpool, a swamp, a devil. Like mermaids, bog women were often associated with the dead; it was believed, for example, that a girl carried away by an unclean spirit could turn into a swamp.
However, once the swamp was considered more a spirit, akin to devils and devils: in beliefs, she sometimes appeared as a kind of evil, by its origin having nothing to do with the human race. The appearance of the swamps, like the appearance of mermaids, was diverse, but in general they were ugly demonic creatures, shaggy, black, with large drooping breasts, crooked teeth, sometimes with a tail, horns, claws, etc.
There were also other ideas: as if the swamp is indescribably beautiful. So, in epics and stories, it used to be described as a young pale-faced girl with green or blue eyes, with hair always casually spread over her shoulders and tucked away by sedges and forget-me-nots. In a word, she is unusually beautiful.
As if she usually walks naked, and her body is also pale, "there is not a blood in it", almost transparent, semi-airy and, as it were, luminous, shining, it "shines and shines before the rays of the month." According to popular belief, the beauty of the swamp is spoiled only by the legs, since they are goose, with membranes. Or - according to another version - froglike, like a swamp.
Seeing a person, the bog girl begins to cry bitterly, so everyone wants to comfort her. But it is worth taking at least a step towards her through the swamp, as the insidious villain will immediately attack, strangle her in her arms and drag her into the swamp, into the abyss. And sometimes she begins to call a hunter or a mushroom picker - especially if it's a man - to seduce, promise eternal love or treasures hidden at the bottom.
And this is not a deception: it is believed that the bog and the swamp protect the drowned treasures and treasures from the human eye. The bog moth is also capable of turning into a fish to lure an unwary fisherman or hunter into the bog. At night, the bog and bog bog light up bright lights and are waiting for their numerous relatives to visit.
