From time immemorial, people did not like swamps. And although they attracted a person with tasty and healing berries, served as a reliable defense of villages from enemies, nevertheless, their insidious swamps seemed to be waiting for a gaping berry lover to suck it forever. In addition, the unsteady quagmire kept a lot of mysteries. No wonder the legends of many peoples "inhabited" the swamps with evil spirits, and people tried to stay away from these places.
The birth of the swamps
Since ancient times, swamps, their treacherous marshes, the smell of rotten water, gray dried trees, loose driftwood caused fear and disgust in humans. It is possible that the unsightly appearance and danger of this place played a role in creating eerie legends about its birth.
So, one of the legends tells that once upon a time the waves of a huge ocean splashed on our planet and there was not a single piece of land. And when God got tired of "watching" the seascape, he decided to create the earth. The devil closely followed the work of the creator, and when God was distracted, the unclean stole a small piece of earth and hid it in his mouth. Having finished creating the earthly firmament, the Almighty decided to decorate his creation, and immediately the land was decorated with herbs, flowers and trees.
Greens began to grow in the devil's mouth, mercilessly tickling his throat, cheeks and palate. From the intolerable itch, the unclean one began to sneeze uncontrollably, and the earth flew out of his mouth in different directions. However, the soil moistened with saliva was contaminated with unclean soil, and where it fell, impassable swamps appeared. Since then, the creator of the swamps took the swamps under his protection and populated them with all kinds of evil spirits.
Another legend tells us that in ancient times there were no swamps on earth at all. On earth's firmament, green forests and meadows alternated with the mirrors of lakes filled with clear, transparent water. In those days, an all-powerful witch with an only son lived in one village. And somehow the sorceress's offspring disappeared. The inconsolable mother searched for him for a long time, until she found the body of her son on the shore of the reservoir.
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It turned out that because of his carelessness the young man drowned in the lake, and it, taking pity on the mother's grief, carried the body of the deceased to the shore. This noble gesture did not temper the witch's anger. Mourning her son, the sorceress in a rage cursed all the lakes that were destroying people, and at the same moment their crystal water became rotten, and the smooth surfaces were covered with viscous ooze.
But the gods, who fulfilled the witch's revenge, punished the grief-stricken mother herself. According to legend, the sorceress turned to stone and was doomed to stand at the edge of the swamp for several centuries, which, being a lake, killed her son.
However, not all peoples viewed the swamps negatively. Thus, the ancient Khanty and Mansi believed that initially the whole earth was a huge fetid swamp - "liquid water". And it was this that gave birth to solid earth, plants, animals and humans.
Be that as it may, but the swamp swamps to this day, inspiring people with fear and disgust, are considered a favorite habitat of evil spirits.
Chur me
If you believe the old legends, then all evil spirits, without exception, treat the swamps with respect. However, some representatives of evil spirits have a "permanent residence" in the quagmire.
The swamp dweller, the full-fledged ruler of the bog, "heads" the host of swamp dwellers. To unfortunate travelers lost in the swamps, he is shown as a naked old man with a swollen face, a huge belly and frog paws. A striking difference between the bog bogeyman and his “colleagues” - the goblin, waterbirds and banniks - is his peculiar “sense of humor”, with the help of which he mocks people who have wandered into his domain.
Often the owner of swamps pretends to be a hummock, substituting his back for a person crossing the swamp. As soon as the traveler steps on this hillock, the seemingly reliable support disappears from under his foot, and the unfortunate person falls into the stinking mud. It is here that the bog bog grabs the victim by the legs and drowns in a viscous quagmire.
Another equally insidious method of entertaining the bog is his passion for reincarnation. In the old days, he went out to people who came to the forest for mushrooms and berries, in the guise of a pious hermit elder, hung with chains. The old man started soul-saving conversations with mushroom pickers and invited accidental fellow travelers to stay in his forest skete.
Here people should have listened carefully to the old man's speech - the boggy man would never be able to pronounce the name of the Lord. Revealing this circumstance, the victim had to shout loudly: "Chur me!", Or squeeze the pectoral cross in his hand, and then the strange monk disappeared into the air without a trace. An inattentive person willingly followed the old man and soon found himself in the very center of the swamps, and instead of a handsome old man, a terrible fanged monster stood next to him and burst into rolling laughter.
Swamp ladies
No less dangerous and insidious is the swamp witch - the first beauty among other evil spirits. I must say that the bog woman - a slender girl with thick blond hair and huge blue eyes - poses a real threat to men who are not indifferent to the female sex. For days on end, a bog woman sits in the middle of the swamps on a huge water lily flower, waiting for a suitable victim and hiding her webbed legs under a long skirt - her only drawback.
For gullible men, the swamp has a lot of tricks in store. She can sing in an insinuating inviting voice, hearing which mushroom pickers and hunters, as if spellbound, go to the inviting call, not noticing the swamps closing around them. The bog woman can pretend to be an unhappy girl, lost among the bog and asking for help from a strong man.
As soon as the victim is in her power, the swamp takes on her true image. In an instant, she turns from a blue-eyed beauty into a bony woman with a huge mouth filled with teeth, sharp as needles. The swamp lady, who has been lured by the spell, examines him critically; if she likes the victim, then the poor fellow will live with the witch in service at the very bottom of the swamp. A witch turns an ordinary-looking peasant into a dry snag, and he is destined to rot for many years, wallowing in the swamp.
From time immemorial, the most famous swamp evil is the kikimora, a puny and arrogant lady with a loud voice. According to legend, girls become kikimors who were cursed by their mothers before birth or who died before baptism. The unclean force carries the unfortunate babies to the swamp, where they receive appropriate education. After some time, young kikimors choose a spouse for themselves.
If the bride is attracted by the housekeeper, then she "moves" to the human house, where she slowly brings her order. Kikimora, who "jumped out" to marry a goblin, remains to live in a swamp. Here she has fun, frightening travelers with a loud cry and demonic laughter, or decorates herself with the fur of animals that have perished in the swamp, moss and algae.
Often, a kikimora lies in wait for a traveler who has lost his way in the forest, sitting on a tall spruce, so that later he can jump onto the unfortunate man's back and ride the frightened wanderer all night long. You can get rid of such an unexpected "gift" if you immediately, without being lost, hold the pectoral cross in your right palm and quickly read any prayer.
Singing and shine
For centuries, the "singing" marshes have caused special fear in people. For a long time, one of these musical quagmires was considered to be a swamp that stretched near the city of Cherepovets. Back in the 19th century, there were many witnesses who were horrified by the heavy drawling sounds coming from the direction of the swamp. Legends say: the swamp "sings" because its spirits "steal" the voices of people who gather peat or berries in the swamp.
The unlucky berry growers said that, walking along the swamp paths, they suddenly could not utter a word, and only after taking a few steps, they regained the gift of speech. Knowledgeable people said that a swamp needs singing in order to lure people into the swamp, attracting them with magical sounds. Whether this is true or not, of course, it is difficult to say, however, according to data, in the 17th-18th centuries on the road laid near the swamp, many merchants disappeared, going to the city to the fair. Moreover, their carts with goods were found right next to the swamp intact.
An interesting fact is that after the 40s of the last century, the Cherepovets bog suddenly fell silent. Perhaps it has lost its evil power, or it simply hid, waiting for a suitable victim.
Swamp lights have long been considered another mystery of bogs. Faded, bluish sparks flickering over the swamp have given rise to many versions of their origin. According to one of them, the souls of unbaptized babies and drowned people who fell under the power of a swamp became the lights. Obeying the order of their master, lights rush over the swamp at night, luring new victims into its depths. Other legends called the swamp fires the souls of slain warriors guarding treasures hidden under a fetid quagmire.
However, all these legends were debunked by scientific progress, which proved that the swamp lights are nothing more than the spontaneous combustion of phosphorous hydrogen, which is spewed out by the corpses of people and animals, decomposing under the swamp bog.
It is possible that over time, retreating before science, the swamps will reveal all their secrets. In the meantime, they make the travelers who have accidentally wandered there freeze in horror. After all, there are still legends about how all kinds of evil spirits love to gather in a bog in order to take a break from the labors of the unrighteous and taste amazingly tasty beer, which only a swamp can brew.
But all these legends about swamp dwellers did not diminish the number of visitors to the swamp expanses. After all, their rich peat deposits, abundant harvests of delicious berries and medicinal herbs have forever made the swamps an ally of man - a true "treasure of the sun".
Elena LYAKINA