Many of us, when we hear the word "brownie", imagine a kind of angry old man from Russian fairy tales, go dear shaggy Kuzya from a Soviet cartoon. However, according to the old legends, confirmed by eyewitness accounts, the otherworldly owner of our apartments and houses is not such a fantastic entity. And this “grandfather-host” even has his own name day and a “professional” holiday - the day of appeasement, which our ancestors celebrated on February 10.
Throw out the trash
Surprisingly, in our age of high technologies, where, it would seem, there is no room for superstition, faith in brownies lives and grows, just like centuries ago. Moreover, many contemporaries can tell about meetings with them today, and at the same time share the useful experience gained during such contacts.
In Vladimir, they still remember the "lucky woman" - a student who rented an apartment from a lonely pensioner. Before renting out the living space, the old woman, who decided to move to her country house, strictly ordered the girl to maintain order in the square meters entrusted to her. But, since the hostess rarely visited the city apartment, soon all her instructions were completely erased from the head of the careless student. The tenant was not embarrassed by the pile of unwashed dishes, the dust on the shelves, or the garbage that fell out of the bucket - young people have many other important things to do besides cleaning the rooms.
And then one day, when the girl opened the cabinet door under the sink to shove another batch of household waste into an overflowing bucket, she suddenly saw a strange animal sitting next to the long-suffering container. The creature resembled an overfed smoky cat, although its muzzle was elongated like a fox's, and its eyes gleamed with a reddish color. Since cats and other animals had not been observed in the apartment before, the student stared at the newcomer in surprise. And suddenly I heard a strange, muffled voice: “Throw away the trash, you fool! Clean the stove, wash the dishes! Otherwise you won't live here!"
Shocked, the girl grabbed the bucket and rushed to the garbage chute, and when she returned, the "cat" had already disappeared. Later, the student discussed the strange incident with her friends, and the girls came to the conclusion that it was a brownie, tired of the mess in the apartment. The student did not want to attack how to lose inexpensive and comfortable housing, even with such a "neighbor", since then she kept order in the house until she received her diploma.
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Sinner or ancestral spirit
Ancient legends say that from time immemorial, brownies, like the "cat" from the apartment of a sloppy student, always cared (with rare exceptions) about the housing where they "lodged". Perhaps such zeal did not arise from scratch, it is explained by the legends about the origin of brownies.
One of them tells that the future "housewives", the adherents of Lucifer, who rebelled against God, were cast down with him from heaven. Once they got to the people, they turned into house scum, doomed to take care of the well-being of the inhabitants of the houses as a punishment for their disgusting behavior.
But still Slavic mythology says that the guardian spirits of the human roof and the property under it were known in time immemorial, long before the emergence of Christianity, and this role was assigned to the deceased ancestors of the owners of the house. However, a few centuries ago, another version appeared, which calls the souls of sinners, who “work off” under the roof of a person, their unseemly transgressions committed during their lifetime.
Whatever it was, but the main duty of the "grandfather" is considered to be the protection of his abode and the people living in it from the invasion of evil spirits, taking care of the order in the house and, from time to time, instructing the owners on the right path.
Image is nothing
There are also different opinions about what a brownie looks like. Some eyewitnesses call him an old man of short stature with a long beard and claws on his hands, while others claim that this is a tall creature, overgrown with wool from head to toe.
But one friend of the author of the article said that in childhood, when she came to visit her grandmother, she often saw a cat with a thick mustache and tiny ears in her room, which was peeping out from under the bed. At the same time, the kitty smiled like the famous Cheshire cat from the fairy tale about Alice. At first, the girl thought it was a neighbor's little animal, who ran into the “light”: her grandmother did not have her cat. Perhaps, in her youth, the girl was not at all embarrassed by the strange appearance of the animal. Only after growing up, the author's acquaintance realized that the creature watching her had nothing to do with the pets we know.
Researchers of paranormal phenomena argue that people cannot see the true appearance of the brownie, and therefore, showing himself for any reason to his owners, he turns either into a bearded old man, or into a small animal, and sometimes even into a close relative of a person.
Also, our ancestors believed that the name of the brownie should in no case be mentioned in vain, all the more to insert it into ornate curses, otherwise the keeper of the shelter may be offended and annoy the owners. That is why they invented various nicknames for him, such as "grandfather", "near", "well-wisher" "kindly". And to address the patron saint of the house should have been kind, with affection in his voice.
From time immemorial, people cherished the brownie, because if he left the roof of a person, his place could be taken by an evil otherworldly entity, which would exhaust the whole family in a matter of months. And if the housekeeper is happy with everything and does not take offense at the owners, he will save their health and pamper them with money.
An example of this is the following case. Once a petty thief, who lived in one of the villages of the Tver region, decided to "enclose" the house of a wealthy (by local standards) urban summer resident. After waiting for him to leave with an overnight stay in the regional center, the thief crept up to the victim's dwelling at dusk and saw that the owner was walking around his yard as if nothing had happened. For some time, the attacker watched as the urban "bourgeois" slowly bypassed their possessions, looking first into the barn, then into the garage, and, in the end, left with nothing. In such a rather simple way, the "well-wisher", assuming the appearance of the owner, saved his property, which was left unattended.
However, you will not envy those people who cannot find a common language with the brownie. He begins to annoy such owners with all available means. "Susedko" frightens them with unexpected knocks, strangles and stings at night, breaks household appliances, clogs up the sewer system, nullifies good luck in business. To avoid such unhappy prospects, our ancestors sacredly honored the main holiday of the housewife - Coaxing Day - and each time they carefully prepared for it.
Kitten as a gift
The most important moment in the process of appeasing the brownie has always been the treat. He should have been left on the evening of February 9, going to bed, under the stove, or in the "black" corner of the dwelling - opposite to the red one, where the icons were. Treats could be very different: sweets, a crust of bread, and sometimes a glass of vodka. And our great-grandmothers on the eve of the holiday cooked a special porridge for the housekeeper from three cereals, since it was believed that he was a great hunter before her. In the morning, the treat left in the evening had to be thrown out as quickly as possible.
According to esotericists, the rite of appeasing the brownie was born for a reason. "Susedko", like any otherworldly entity, really "feeds" on the gifts left behind, drawing energy from them.
In addition, she loves a brownie and has fun at her leisure, and therefore will never refuse new toys. To make the "grandfather-owner" pleasant, you should take a small but always beautiful shiny box, fill it with bright shreds, coins, small trinkets such as key rings and hide it in a secluded corner of the apartment. It is believed that the brownie is very happy with such an offering and, having received it, will never annoy the inhabitants of the dwelling.
But the most coveted gift for the “neighbor” is a three-color kitten! And if there was no cat in the house for a long time, such a family member will delight him inexpressibly. It is believed that brownies are very respectful of the mustachioed striped, and therefore sometimes try to take their appearance when in contact with people. This attitude towards cats is not accidental: unlike other inhabitants of the apartment, these animals see brownies and willingly play with them.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №6. Author: Elena Muromtseva