Meeting a mermaid promised untold riches or turned into misfortune
We bring to your attention a letter from the reader about meetings with mermaids in the Kabansky district of Buryatia
- Since childhood, I have heard superstitions from old people that mermaids and rusals are those who died prematurely, before becoming an adult, or died voluntarily. They said that during the Russian week, mermaids can be seen near rivers, on flowering fields, in groves, at crossroads and cemeteries, - Nikolai Agapov begins his story.
“I didn't believe it until I found my fishing nets tangled and tattered. Grandpa explained that it was the mermaids who were playing around so much. My grandfather was a visitor from the Chita region. And he loved to tell the stories of those places. Imagine my surprise when, as a student in Novosibirsk, I bought a book by ethnographer Valery Zinoviev. In it I discovered the stories of my grandfather.
“The meadow is large here, and collective farmers have always mowed hay here. They put up a tent, and slept in it. Once they noticed that someone was stealing bread from them. We decided to watch in turn. The next morning everyone left for the mowing, leaving young Vanka in the camp. He looked at the river: a mermaid comes out of the pool and goes to the tent. She came up and pulled her hands into the passage. Her arms are getting longer, longer … she took the bread and left. And Vanka sits neither alive nor dead.
When everyone gathered, he began to tell about everything. They did not believe him: what such a mermaid! And then another sat down to watch. And the rest also decided to look. And they saw … The mermaid came out, noticed that she was being watched, and chased after them. They are in the village. We dropped into the club (there used to be a church there) - she followed them. And then everyone saw how she got up, she could not take a step. And suddenly her head disappeared. It turned out to be headless and completely disappeared from my eyes …”, - wrote Zinoviev from the words of the Trans-Baikal gurans.
Dragged to the bottom
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On one of my visits to the homeland of my ancestors, I invited my friends to swim on the Selenga. The girls weren't with us. A purely male company, we drank a lot of alcohol, since swimming in the river made us quickly sober up. It was beginning to get dark, and we heard girlish laughter and splashes as if on the other bank of the Selenga or on one of its islets.
How do single men react to alluring female laughter and songs? As the most sober and best swimmer, I rushed into the water with the desire to invite the girls to our fire. A drunken sea is knee-deep, and I have not calculated my strength and the course of the river. Sailed from the coast so far that he did not see friends. But I did not find the girls, whose laughter and songs I heard quite recently. It got completely dark when I began to swim back. And suddenly with horror he felt that he was tightening his legs. Added to this was the eerie feeling that someone was pulling my legs to the bottom!
Out of fear, I started kicking and resisting. But it only got worse, they began to drag me to the bottom harder. Sometimes I found myself under water. When I managed to surface, I shouted with all my might to my friends on the shore. But no one heard me because of the loud music …
I already thought I was going to die. Fortunately, my friend finally noticed that I was swimming strangely: I dive abruptly, without surfacing for a long time, then I try to scream. Friends swam up to me on a boat and pulled me out. It shook me for a long time. Not from cold, but from terror. The drunk vodka did not help either. And drunk friends did not believe and laughed at me when I drew a cross on the ground in front of the tent. I drew a circle around it, like the hero of the horror movie Viy. Only after that, offended by the laughter of friends, I fell asleep. At night in the dark, I did not notice any bruises on my legs. Only in the morning my friends gasped: bruises on my legs - prints from huge hands.
Already in the city, a doctor I knew was skeptical that my case could be explained by a hallucination from a lack of oxygen.
- You drowned, surfaced, also drank well before that, smoked. Typical brain starvation. So everyone imagined, - the doctor laughed at me.
But I believed more in mysticism when I learned that I was swimming with friends on the eve of Trinity Day. It turned out to be the most pleasant time in the life of mermaids on earth. They run through the rye, clap their hands and shout loudly: “Boo, boo! Straw spirit! Mother gave birth to me, laid unbaptized me! At this time, mermaids most often attack people.
What people say about mermaids
Many old Russian books very often describe the behavior of these mysterious creatures, their appearance and habits, habitat and contact with humans. Even such famous poets and writers as Pushkin, Turgenev, Lermontov and Gogol mention mermaids in their works.
An interesting incident happened with Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev in his youth. Once, while swimming in the river, he happened to see a mermaid who began to chase him in the water, and then in the field. She lagged behind him only when Turgenev asked for help from the shepherd, who drove her away with a whip. Subsequently, the writer told this story to his colleagues Flaubert and Maupassant, making a very strong impression on them. Maupassant even wrote a short story entitled "Horror" in which he described this meeting.
According to popular beliefs, once a year there was a so-called Russian week, when people did not swim in the river and did not fish. It began immediately after Trinity. Many eyewitnesses to encounters with mermaids said that they can steal combs from village baths in order to comb their long hair. Mermaids were to be feared by girls, as well as children. It was believed that mermaids could take a child into their round dance, tickle or dance to death. Therefore, during the Russian week, children and girls were strictly forbidden to go out into the field or meadow.
If during the Russian week (the week after Trinity already during Christianity) children died or died, they said that they were taken by mermaids. To protect yourself from the love spell of mermaids, you had to carry sharp-smelling plants with you: wormwood, horseradish and garlic.
Mermaids were considered river goddesses who demanded sacrifices, and the owners of treasures, enchantresses. Their community was replenished by drowned women and suicides, as well as girls who were born dead or died without baptism.
Unbaptized babies who become mermaids can be forgiven. When they are seven years old, they are carried away from the water into the air and ask for baptism three times. Whoever hears this must say: "I baptize you, Ivan and Marya, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Then the angels will take the child's soul, and if no one hears her call, then the evil spirits.
Become mermaids and ladies who had the habit of swimming without a cross. They are forever young, beautiful and live in crystal palaces at the bottom of water bodies. They are commanded by the queen, appointed by the Vodyaniy (she often becomes his wife). It is believed that without her instructions, mermaids have no right to destroy or frighten a person. They also sing superbly. By the way, one of them can be grabbed by the hand, put on a pectoral cross and brought home. Mermaids are very willing to do all kinds of woman's housework, while they do not grumble and feed exclusively on steam. True, they live in the house for only a year, and the next week of Russes they get freedom and hide at the bottom of the river.
With a mermaid, family life is also quite real. To do this, she must tickle her chosen one to death, take him to the bottom of her own house, where the spouse will come to life and happily spend the rest of her days in extraordinary luxury. Mermaid weddings are arranged only on the shortest nights. A week after Trinity, a mermaid seeing off was arranged. For this, a whole procession was equipped.
In different places, the mermaid was buried in her own way - in the form of a doll or a girl in one shirt. The last time the mermaids were allowed to appear on earth was on the night of Ivan Kupala, after which they calmed down until next year.