Kikimora is the name given to the spirit that dwells in houses. She is considered the wife of a brownie. There is also a swamp kikimora. Its name comes from the place of residence. She lives in a swamp and is the wife of a devil. Swamp kikimora looks like its domestic sister. Only skin color and hair length differ.
They believed in kikimora since ancient times. The name comes from the name of the famous goddess Morena. She could also be called Mara or Mora. Then the root "kick" was added to this name, which means hunchback.
Indeed, the kikimora looks really old and ugly. She has a thin body and a small head. The hair is always disheveled, the face is ugly, and instead of clothes there are rags. True, it happens that the kikimora is presented both as a young, beautiful girl with a long braid and as completely naked. They say there are masculine kikimors, but very rarely.
In the deaf Pskov swamps, evil spirits live, with which Vladimir Smelyansky had a chance to meet. Together with his friend Sergei, he came to his relatives to hunt. The city guests were greeted cordially - for several days Grigory Severinich, Sergei's uncle, took the hunters around the local lands.
Although the places in the Pilistovo-Lovatsky bog massif are reserved, hunting is allowed for some birds. When all the nearby lakes and streams had already been examined, the huntsman suggested going to a distant large lake.
They left before dawn, walked for a long time, but the sight was worth it - not every reserve can boast of such an abundance and variety of birds. As the enchanted hunters watched the birds, the weather turned bad and a torrential rain poured down. They had to go back straight, through the Rotten Swamp, which Severinich was very unhappy with: the road through the swampy places is dangerous, and the evil spirits are mischievous.
Friends promised that they would follow the instructions of the guide, and at the expense of evil spirits … in the courtyard of the XXI century. Already in the middle of the way, despite all the precautions, Sergei still fell into the quagmire. While Severinich with the greatest care was pulling the drowning man by the strap of the gun, Vladimir turned to look for a longer stick. It was here that he had to freeze - a strange animal was sitting on a grassy island nearby.
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Grayish green scaled body with very short webbed feet and a thick tail. The head is large and flat, like a fish, and the wide mouth is full of small, sharp teeth.
The hunter's instinct worked ahead of all other thoughts, and Vladimir shot at the monster. The shot did not cause any harm to the monster, but made it retreat - with a splash, the one and a half meter animal plunged into the water.
By this time Sergey and Severinich were already standing on the path. “This is our kikimora,” the huntsman commented. Hunters and local residents have met this monster in these places before, which, according to the description, is most similar to the prehistoric animal ichthyostega.
Ichthyostega
According to scientists, ichthyostegs lived more than 300 million years ago and were a transitional form from aquatic animals to terrestrial ones. The remains of these ancient creatures have been found in what is now eastern Greenland.
Similar finds were also made in Europe, but no one imagined that in the Pskov swamps, under the guise of a kikimora, a living specimen of an ancient monster was hidden. Now, not only folklorists have something to puzzle over here.
There are similar places in many regions of Russia. One of these lakes is in the Smolensk Poozerie, in the Demidov district, near the villages of Protokina Gora and Priestavki. Locals call the lake differently, most often Stretny, although there are two other Stretnye lakes in the area.
I remember that N. M. Przhevalsky wrote in his diary that he was going fishing on Stretnoye. The famous traveler was confused only by the fact that, according to the stories of local residents, only perches are found in the lake, and they are guarded by … the goblin.
However, the goblin is a goblin, and the lake, hidden by a dense forest on one side and with a cranberry swamp on the other side, is a very attractive place for both tourists and fishermen.
Here is what Sergei Prokhorov said:
- Six of my friends and I went to this very lake to fish. There were many people, the way was not short, so they decided to go by car.
On the Stretnoye lake
For some unknown reason, both cars stalled at once. No conceivable or unthinkable manipulation helped. All six, safe and sound, reached their destination in the evening. However, the cars had to be left in the village due to the lack of roads. Walking a few kilometers on foot was not exhausting, so we were soon at the lake.
The camp was set up on a wooded shore, from where a beautiful view of the lake opened up. They made a fire, set the water to boil. The evening fishing was a failure: a couple of perch caught with a rod had to be given freedom, and therefore for dinner we cooked rice and stew.
After a hearty supper, I almost didn't want to sleep. Lying in the tent, we began to recall stories about the Dyatlov pass and other tourist excursions with a tragic end. Our conversation was interrupted by an ominous chuckle from somewhere in the swamp.
"Kikimora swamp" - someone joked. The sounds began to approach. We jumped out of the tent. The confidence that no animal known to us can make such sounds increased. Throwing firewood into the fire, we went to bed, deciding that the six of us would cope with any beast, moreover, the giggling did not indicate the large size of the swamp inhabitant.
Towards morning, it was damp from the shore, and it became cool in the tent. Even the opposite shore of the tiny lake was not visible in the predawn haze. A thick haze hung over the water. Neighbors in the tent did not think to wake up, and I decided to swim alone to the opposite shore to photograph the dawn. The swampy swamp did not stop me: here and there dwarf trees were visible, so the chance to get off the boat was quite real.
I crossed the lake in about ten minutes. Leaving the boat in a small cove, trampled by wild animals that come to drink, I climbed out onto the moss. The moss swayed and rang. Each step was echoed with a wonderful range of seething, grunting, sniffling sounds. I slowly walked about five meters from the shore to look around and photograph the general plan of the lake.
As soon as I moved a little further from the water's edge, it became clear that the way back was lost: a thick fog hid everything around, the traces in the viscous moss disappeared, and the boat was nowhere to be seen. Around - not a sound, only the seething of water under a layer of moss. A strong smell of wild rosemary hit my nose.
Suddenly, strange sounds were heard from the fog, similar to the giggling we heard at night. Someone was laughing at the edge of the swamp, at the edge of the forest. The giggles grew louder. Suddenly, an indistinct strange silhouette began to be seen in the fog: as if some animal was jumping on its hind legs. Approaching, about thirty meters away, the shadow slipped under the moss and disappeared. The boiling water underfoot increased sharply, the marsh soil began to twitch and howl.
Fifteen minutes later the fog disappeared, and I saw a lake in the distance. A not very pleasant surprise awaited on the shore: the boat disappeared. We had to return to the parking lot on foot: first through the marshes, and then on solid ground. The hope that the boat was driven off by the wave somewhere else was negligible: the lake was completely calm.
Back at the parking lot, I told my friends about my adventure. Of course, no one took my story seriously. “So there is your boat, standing on the other side!” - and I could not believe my eyes. Indeed, the boat was parked in the place where I left it in the morning and where it disappeared mysteriously.
The three of us went for the boat, so that if the kikimora, or whoever it was, showed itself again, to make sure that it was not a swamp dope. Apparently, the mysterious inhabitant of the local swamp was frightened of meeting a group of people or simply did not want to be photographed in the absence of fog.
One way or another, we did not see or hear anyone and returned to the parking lot on the boat that was not damaged after the disappearance. And an hour later we were driving in the direction of the house, remembering the local kikimora and taking offense at her for the stolen boat and the unenviable catch.
Andrey Maksimov, associate professor of SmolSU, a specialist in Slavic demonology, comments:
- Kikimora is one of the most mysterious characters in Slavic demonology. Contacts with her in humans occur much less often than with brownies, water, wood goblin. Therefore, researchers have recorded much less stories about this creature than about other spirits. In the Smolensk region, judging by the works of ethnographers of that time, little was known about them already at the end of the 19th century.
Many today are familiar with the image of the kikimora, but in the mass consciousness it has become entrenched under the influence of works of art, cinema, animation, variety art, and not through stories transmitted from generation to generation, from old people to children. And stories about how nowadays people wherever they met kikimora are generally a rarity.