"… Having arrived on an unknown planet, aliens from other star systems had to take care of their safety. The easiest way to do this was by surrounding the aircraft with devices that automatically turn on the lighting when any large living creatures approached. Therefore, the hut-planetary spacecraft is surrounded by a fence on which they stick out human skulls with eyes. "Night came. But the darkness did not last long. All the skulls on the fence lit up the eyes, and the clearing became bright as day."
In many Ukrainian and Russian fairy tales there is this strange hunchbacked old woman flying in a mortar and why However, behind her ugly appearance, malice and deceit, no, no, and completely different features not inherent in the negative character will be visible. This can be explained by one - the image of Baba Yaga is composite.
I'm not a woman, I'm a man
A researcher of Ukrainian and Russian folklore A. Podyapolsky finds Baba Yaga in India. To explain such an unexpected place of her dwelling, he, first of all, examines the features of the hut on chicken legs, in which Baba Yaga lives. In his opinion, it is simply impossible to survive cold ima in such a dwelling. A plank floor raised high above the ground will not protect the house from frost. No matter how you heat the stove, the cold winds will cool off all the heat. Consequently, such a dwelling arrangement came from a different climate: warm and damp. For example, from the forests of India. There, the house, set on stilts, will not be flooded when the rivers overflow its banks, and the owners will not be bothered by poisonous snakes. And a house blown by the winds is preserved in a hot, humid climate longer than standing on the ground.
The researcher also draws attention to the fact that in fairy tales they often come to Baba Yaga for advice, and she never refuses it, even if the passer-by is completely unfamiliar to her. “Who do strangers go to for advice? - asks A. Podyapolsky. "Of course, to a teacher, mentor, sage." If the action takes place in India, then such mentors are respectfully called "baba", and the most developed philosophical teaching was yoga. And today we say "baba-yaga", although, according to A. Podyapolsky, it is necessary to say "baba-yoga", which means teacher-yogi in Sanskrit.
Cannibal from Africa
But what the writer G. Klimov thinks about the origin of Baba Yaga. In his book "My Name is Legion", published in almost all European countries and immediately becoming a bestseller, he casually touches on the origin of this Russian old woman.
It turns out that the Baba Yaga from Russian fairy tales did not live in Russia at all, but … in Central Africa. She was the queen of the yagga cannibal tribe Therefore, they began to call her Queen Yagga. Later, already in our homeland, she turned into a cannibal Baba Yaga. This transformation happened like this. In the 17th century, Capuchin missionaries came to Central Africa along with Portuguese troops. The Portuguese colony of Angola appeared in the Congo Basin. It was in it that there was a small native kingdom ruled by the brave warrior Ngola Mbanka. His beloved younger sister Nzinga lived with him. But the little sister also wanted to reign. She poisoned her brother and declared herself queen. As a lucky amulet of power, the loving sister carried her brother's bones around with her in her bag. Hence, apparently,in the Russian fairy tale, the incomprehensible expression "Baba Yaga is a bone leg" appears.
Two Capuchins, brother of Antonio de Gaeta and brother of Jivanni. de Monte Cuggo, wrote a whole book about Queen Yagta, in which they described not only the way she came to power, but also her acceptance of Christianity in her old age. This book came to Russia, and here, from the story of the black man-eater, the tale of the Russian Baba Yaga turned out.
Allow me to land
According to the scientist Yu. Roscius, the tales of Baba Yaga are evidence of the arrival of spacecraft on Earth in the distant past.
Let's start with the stupa on which this old woman flies. The usual stupa is wooden. It is a cylindrical body that remarkably resembles the contours of a modern rocket. This similarity is enhanced by the composition of the material from which Baba Yaga's stupa is made - it is metal. The flight of Baba Yaga is accompanied by characteristic phenomena similar to those that occur during the flight of rockets and powerful jet planes:
"Suddenly Ivanushka hears an exorbitant storm and strong wind, the trees began to bend down to the very ground, which were twisted and broken."
Finds its place in the explanation of the scientist and the pestle with which the stupa is driven, and the pomelo, which sweeps the trail. They evoke associations associated with the operation of jet engines. The pestles hitting the metal body of the stupa generated a roar similar to the one that people who live near large airfields suffer today. Confirmation of the movement of the stupa with the help of jet engines is also a broom in the hands of Baba Yaga. Behind the stupa, like a jet plane, there was a gradually dissipating white trail "as if it had been swept in the sky with a broom."
In all fairy tales, Baba Yaga's dwelling is described in the same way: "There is a hut on chicken legs", "This hut has no windows or doors", "Baba Yaga lies in it, resting her legs from corner to corner." A ship crossing interstellar space should have very decent dimensions and super-powerful engines. It is clearly not suitable for landing on an inhabited planet. Here, small, but highly maneuverable metal vehicles the size of the last stages of our space rockets are much more convenient. It is this variant of combining interstellar and planetary ships that the famous Polish writer Stanislaw Lem offers in his fantastic story "The Magellanic Cloud". Then it is easy to explain the cramped hut, and the absence of the usual windows and doors in it, and chicken legs. An openwork takeoff and landing device is guessed in them.
Having arrived on an unknown planet, aliens from other star systems had to take care of their safety. The easiest way to do this was by surrounding the aircraft with devices that automatically turn on lighting when any large living creatures approached. Therefore, the hut-planetary flight is surrounded by a fence on which human skulls with eyes stick out. “Night has come. But the darkness did not last long. The eyes of all the skulls on the fence lit up, and the clearing became as bright as day."
This is a description of Baba Yaga's dwelling from the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Wise". One of the versions of the tale tells about what else the skulls guarding the hut can serve. Vasilisa comes to Baba Yaga for fire. She gives her a skull with fiery eyes. Vasilisa returns home. And here the incredible happens from the point of view of people who lived many centuries ago - the eyes of the skull flare up with a bright light, burning rays come out of them, which turn the evil stepmother and her daughters to ashes. Our contemporary has nothing to explain that the girl received a laser weapon as a gift from an alien from outer space, the inept handling of which led to a tragedy. By the way, the skull is not only a receptacle for brains. Previously, this word meant a shell or a thin, strong shell of some rounded object.
Alien kinnapping
The frightening appearance of Baba Yaga is also quite explainable. This intelligent creature flew in from another star, and it is difficult to imagine that its head, body and limbs will be similar to those of humans. Therefore, Baba Yaga's nose is too long, horns stick out in the forehead, the legs are thin, and there is a hump on the back. Now let us consider how the contact of Baba Yaga with people is described in fairy tales. Here we can clearly distinguish two very different types of contacts. Despite the frightening appearance, Baba Yaga is often asked for help. This indicates that the aliens got along quite peacefully with the earthlings and tried to help them.
For example, they could give a self-propelled means indicating the way - a ball. Today, not science fiction writers, but engineers, write about such a technical device, which works at the expense of information obtained from the satellite and is easily installed on a car.
The cultural influence of one race on another goes much faster directly through children. This is probably why tales often feature the second type of contact - the abduction of a child, and, as a rule, a boy. This is easily distinguished by the social difference in the functions of men and women. The first was the development of technical means, the management of individual groups of people, the second was the birth of children and their care.
M. Taranov “Interesting newspaper. Mysteries of Civilization"