… Kolyan let out a roar reminiscent of the roar of a bear awakened in a cozy den in the middle of winter hibernation. Weakness covered his eyes with a gray mist of unconsciousness, but suddenly he burst into a constellation of interjections, and then shouted at the top of his throat, dry and rough like sandpaper:
- Oh, you damned! Again came to my soul!
It seemed that consciousness began to drift away from him, that he could not distinguish where reality ends and where delirium begins. Grabbing the scythe he had stored up ahead of time, he began to swing it frantically, trying to hit some invisible enemy. And at the same time he yelled:
- Here's to you, Likhomanka! Here's to you, shaggy! Here's to you, obscene!
Hearing this noise, or rather, an unimaginable roar and these screams, his wife and daughter rushed to the owner's aid, armed with rolling pins. They, too, began to loot the shaggy darkness of the old village hut with all their might …
Taiga edge
Promotional video:
Tonshaevsky district is one of the most forested in the Nizhny Novgorod region. And one of the most swampy. There are places where you can get without a helicopter or a powerful army all-terrain vehicle, except perhaps only in winter, when the ground is freezing. It is here that the scene of our story will unfold. In a village where there are only three dozen yards, where there are a lot of cows, and cats are even lazy to meow, where houses are built so that the windows face three sides of the world. The belief is that then the sun scares away the forest evil, And this evil, as they say, is apparently invisible.
Terrible, unwashed mug …
Kolyan - everyone has a nickname in the village - died soon after his midnight blowing. I met with his widow. Black handkerchief, mournful folds at the mouth, eyes sore from insomnia.
“She has been with us for a long time,” the woman said sadly. - He comes at night, lies down next to him, and the next morning Kolyan is not himself. The language is like from a roofing iron, I don't understand what it says. Then he leaves - he complains: it hurts, another, But the man was earlier healthier than a bear.
- Who is she? I asked. - Who came at night?
The widow looked around and whispered:
- It is known who - Likhomanka. I myself have seen her more than once. A terrible, old, unwashed face, and the smell from it is like from a swamp. She ruined mine.
- And now it does not appear?
- No, I calmed down. She took a good soul, now she is approaching a new one. She's not us, women, she needs men.
I asked if her husband had consulted a doctor. Maybe he had some kind of illness.
- What for? - the woman was sincerely surprised. - We knew that the disease had nothing to do with it. It's all her fault.
As it turned out, Kolyan was a decent man, with a merry man. I drank in moderation - mostly only on holidays, I played on the accordion when I was hunting. He had an apiary, overlaid the old house with logs, cut down a new bathhouse. And he could boast of his farm: a cow, chickens, goats … Now everything is in desolation.
Sister Lichomaniac
Anna Ivanovna has authority in the village, she is the same as an atamanite here, but she does not take kindly, with severity, and therefore everyone respects her - from young to old, often they go to her for advice. And then just like that - on the "kalyakalki".
- Soul-man, - so described her neighbor, Prokofievna. - As Vasya buried her, although her relatives called her, I did not go to the city. She explained to her daughter: who, then, will look after the grave? And now everything strives to do something good for people.
Anna Ivanovna already knew that there was a guest in the village. She sat me down at the table, boiling water gurgled in the samovar. She treated me to jam, but so outlandish that I had never heard of it: an assortment of seven different berries.
I asked her about Likhomanka.
“No wonder,” she said. - We have such misfortunes here often. It is what it is. For example, about three years ago I put a woman on the line, she often came to visit me, but now she’s gone. I usually baked shangi for her visits. And she was all complaining. Previously, my husband and I lived in good health, but now he is ill, bad for him. Once I went to the bathhouse to take a steam bath, and there, under the regiment, Obderikha - as we call the bathhouse, the bathhouse deputy. The old woman is shaggy, scary, naked. I almost worn him to death. And now he appears almost every night. And not in a dream, but in reality. And that's all, the peasant came down, and before, not a single disease adhered. It has become, like a barren flower, a bit of a sowing. All dried up.
Most importantly, we saw the old woman-bannitsa together. Once I came to them, this woman asks: "Do you not believe in Obderich?" I, like, not yes. no no. In general, we looked into the bathhouse, and she was right there. So ugly, shaggy that I almost fainted. They began to drive her away, and she strives to bite - her teeth are oro-go, like a dog. But we did not succeed, and then she hid under the shelves, and from there she cannot be reached. They tried to smoke it with smoke - it's useless … And the man died, like Kolyan, - this naked bath woman brought him, as they say, to the handle.
- And the bathhouse where this same Obderikha lived still exists? I asked.
- Is it worth what will become of her? As soon as she is empty, Katerina left. They nailed her with boards. They wanted to burn it, but I didn't give it. What if the fire spreads to the houses?
And I have matured the decision to inspect the place myself, where something unusual was noticed. Anna Ivanovna did not mind.
“Only I won't go there, I've had enough,” she said. - I saw her again.
And she told me this story:
- It was on Easter. Our men got busy, began to fry kebabs. They shout in bad voices, and it's too late. My sister and I went out to shame them. We look: and from the ravine she appears - Obderikha. Old, shaggy, naked - only her hair down to her toes. And how frightened our men were - only their heels sparkled. And Obderikha - diving into the well and disappeared. Then we filled up the well all together, we had to dig a new one … And there is no doubt that she continues to live in the bathhouse. Whether it will seem to you is another question. But look, they don't take money for a look. I'll unload my neighbor Kuzka with you, he'll take the gun. And if you go back - come in and tell me.
Leshaki steal fish
Kuzka works in a smithy, that's why he has such a nickname. When I knocked on his gate, he shouted to me that it was open. He himself was cleaning the fish - he just caught it. A dog of some incomprehensible color at first barked, and then turned away indifferently and began to gnaw at an impressive bone - this activity was clearly more interesting to him.
Kuzka was somewhat drunk.
- This Obderikha is there, she has not gone anywhere, - he said categorically. - You just need to wait for the evening to look out for her, and for nothing she will not seem, she needs a drink. One hundred grams - and everything is a table. And if you do not pour it, it will be angry, it will not stick out its old nose, no matter how you ask it.
I realized that Kuzka was hinting that I should take the bottle. I had to follow his lead. After drinking, Kuzka softened, became even more talkative.
“You know,” he said, “we don't have chickens pecking this scum. Take, suppose, leshakov, goblin, therefore. Many times they were met in the forest. Especially in winter when the snow will fall. Goes - healthy, strong, dressed in a mutton sheepskin coat, with eyes without eyebrows and eyelashes, and his hair is green and the eyes are the same. He lives in the roots and hollows of trees, and in the fields too. He steals fish from the nets. For example, today I poked my head around, and the scoundrels were gone. Who took it? Our men are not capable of this. It means that he, the leshak, is cheating.
Tramp who smokes
And here is another Kuz'kina story. Once he and his wife walked through the forest. Suddenly the weather turned bad, the sun hid behind the clouds, and the rain is about to pour down. And they got lost, they could not get out of the overgrown clearing in any way. The rain spattered here.
What to do? They built something like a hut of green paws, and then the rain turned sour, and the evening was approaching. We hurried home - we still found familiar landmarks. Suddenly they look - traces of her barefoot like a man, but so huge that this giant is two and a half meters tall. Who was that? Goblin? Or the notorious Bigfoot?
Moreover, some kind of incomprehensible blue smoke was smoking over the tracks and smelled like gunpowder or strong tobacco. Does the goblin still smoke?
This bathhouse is so dark …
It was getting dark. We set off in a dim semi-darkness, half-light. Here is Katerinina's bathhouse. Kuzka tore off the boards with a nail puller, and the door opened by itself, as if inviting us to enter inside, into the damp darkness. The air was so stagnant that it resembled jelly - it could be cut into chunks.
A lantern illuminated a shelf, a tub, where what had once been a birch broom exuded a disgusting scent of mold. There was something unpleasant and sticky about this dark-woven room. As if something was decomposing. As if not the air here, but the purest nitrogen dioxide. In places like this, people almost physically feel their presence of mind leaving them.
But Kuzka was calm. He took out the vodka bottle he had stored and placed it under the shelf.
“Now let's go away,” he said. - Let's not disturb her.
We went to the door. I did not notice anything unusual. Only Kuzka's heavy breathing was heard, but a wave of fumes came from him. Although not quite so: it began to seem to me that this breath seemed to be obscured by something that came from the outside, alien and strange.
I focused my vision on a white spot under the shelf. I had the impression that I had noticed him before, only did not pay attention. But this white spot, hitting the strip of light, began to acquire some rather clear and real outlines. It was incredible: I saw something that vaguely resembled the image of Obderikha. Or was it a visual image of what I myself wanted to see?
That which could not be did not disappear from my eyes. I felt as if during a hot shower I had turned on a tap with cold water. And I realized that this place was too unsuitable to stay here long.
But at the same second the stain disappeared, dissolved, as if sucked into the surrounding space. I touched Kuzka's sleeve. Asked:
- What was it?
Kuzka stood like a monument that had grown into the ground, erected in the days of Ancient Rome. Then, not saying a word, he slammed the door to the bathhouse and began to fit the boards back into place. And only after finishing the work, he finally said:
- You know, she seemed to hypnotize me. I wanted to shoot at her, the gun is loaded, just pull the trigger, but I can't. What a bitch!
Gatherings with Anna Ivanovna
Together with Kuzka, on the way back, we dropped in to see Anna Ivanovna. She has a whole company. We drank tea with her signature jam. We listened to our story with interest. And they began to remember all sorts of unusual cases.
“It was about ten years ago,” said a pensioner with many years of experience, whom everyone called Pavel Semenovich. - Thief-leshak got into the habit of hauling fish to me. I can’t do anything with him, no matter how guard is, he will deceive me all the same. And Kiryan - he was still in good health then, the kingdom of heaven to him - take and advise. He says: if you have your father's sandals, hang them in the woods, over the path, and put a dead mouse in them. I hung it. And he hid himself, waiting. I hear steps. And suddenly, such laughter that filled my ears. As if someone grabbed the stomach and rolled on the ground. And that's it, no more theft.
- Well, now, when no one weaves bast shoes, there is no board for the woods? - asked Kuzka.
- And you hang up your old sneakers, - advised Pavel Semenovich to the laughter of those present.
- Maybe then the leshak will burst from laughter at all …
What was it?
What is going on in this remote taiga village? Have its inhabitants encountered some reality unknown to science, or are they subjected to massive visual hallucinations? I asked the psychotherapist Viktor Antonov to answer these questions.
“Hallucinations occur in a variety of mental illnesses,” he said. - Sometimes it seems to the patient that his brain is being pulled out, his stomach is cut out, that planes are flying through the keyhole of his door. But massive identical hallucinations are difficult to explain. Medicine cannot yet answer what is the mechanism of their formation. Perhaps there is some kind of connection between the brains of people who think in the same direction. The impulses of some, especially if they suffer from mental disorders, are probably transmitted to others and then the same visual images appear. Or maybe there is a whole complex of very different circumstances, for example, the state of the atmosphere at the moment, flares on the Sun, and finally, hallucinogenic plant fumes, and there are many such plants in our Nizhny Novgorod forests.
As for Likhomanok and Obderich, here we are talking about the fact that close people can experience the same phobias, the same fears. In this case, we are talking about the most severe forms of phobias, which, in addition to everything, are multiplied by the syndrome of isolation, isolation from the world. But all of these fears are treatable.
Sergey STEPANOV
