Whoever inhabited our land in ancient times! What extraordinary secrets were revealed to our distant ancestors! One of them is associated with the heroines of numerous legends and scary stories - mermaids. The week from Monday of the Trinity week to Monday of the next week, Spirit of the Day, has long been called by the people "Russian".
It was believed that until this time mermaids lived quietly in the water and did not leave their homes unnecessarily.
Mermaids come from very ancient, pagan times. It can be assumed that in those days they were something like local river goddesses, similar to the Greek nymphs. According to the ideas of our pagan ancestors, these were the souls of deceased relatives: then it was customary to bury the dead not only in mounds, but also at crossroads, in forests, and also to lower them into the water. In order to appease the mermaid souls, they went to the forest, where on the Spirits' day they arranged feasts, feasts, sacrificed to mermaid souls …
The most ancient tradition says that mermaids were born at the moment of Satan's fall from heaven. Some of his like-minded people, who were expelled with him, fell into the water, from where they began to create all kinds of intrigues against humanity. In pagan times, mermaids were considered not only river goddesses, to whom numerous sacrifices were made, but also treasure owners and enchantresses. Even in the 17th century, belief in these representatives of the ancient form of life was officially called magic and charm. Dargomyzhsky's splendid opera "Mermaid", based on the subject of Pushkin's poem of the same name, was dedicated to them.
The word "mermaid" is derived from two sources - from the word "channel" or from the word "fair-haired", denoting the color of their hair. Mermaids have beautiful blond hair, long and thick. These hairs fall in magnificent waves from the shoulders, covering the entire body, usually completely naked. In the West (probably more decorous), mermaids were often gracefully dressed in fishing nets. There is an assumption that the hair of mermaids is still green, but that's how anyone sees it. The Dnieper mermaids are especially popular (there were a lot of them in Ukraine at one time). They even have their own grove of Mermaids over the Dnieper.
Mermaids prefer to live in the water, but on Semik, before Petrov's day, they come to the banks of their rivers, choosing old, branchy trees, mostly oaks for their temporary habitation. Here they sway on the branches, unwinding the yarn stolen from women who go to bed without prayer.
The mermaid squad is constantly growing. They are all infant girls who were born dead or died without baptism, as well as drowned suicides. In the old days, everyone who swam without a cross became mermaids. Now, presumably, this method of replenishing the ranks of mermaids will have to be abandoned - it is very difficult to find a lady bathing with a cross.
But even now many frivolous persons would certainly want to join this unclean brotherhood. After all, mermaids have the gift of eternal youth and extraordinary beauty. They live in crystal palaces built at the bottom of reservoirs and rivers. They are commanded by a queen, who was appointed (of the mermaids) the king of water. Sometimes she is also his wife. There is an assumption that ordinary mermaids, without the instruction of their boss, can neither destroy nor even frighten a person.
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On the eve of Trinity Day, mermaids run through the rye, of course, without any signs of clothing, clap their hands and shout: “Boo, boo! Straw spirit! Mother gave birth to me, and laid it unbaptized. It is said that the yield of agricultural land from this kind of athletics exercise is dramatically improved, even simple grass begins to grow better.
Mermaids have another attractive property. They have the ability to sing excellently, so much so that the listeners can listen to them for several years, without noticing the passage of time.
However, mermaids also have useful uses. Since wormwood-grass helps against their attack, as well as a cross drawn on the ground, some practical men do this. A circle is drawn around the cross, they stand in it and thereby escape from the very annoying harassment of charming ladies. If you manage to grab one of them by the hand, put on a pectoral cross and bring it home, the mermaid will do all kinds of housework, eating almost exclusively on steam. But she lives like this for no more than a year; the next week the mermaid gets freedom and hides at the bottom of the river.
Family life with a mermaid is also quite real. There are many legends that say that for this, the mermaid must tickle her future husband to death, take him to the bottom, to his house, where he safely comes to life and spends the rest of his days in amazing luxury. Mermaid weddings happen on sparrow nights.
Unbaptized babies who turn into mermaids, it turns out, can be forgiven. When they are seven years old, they are blown away and ask for baptism three times. If anyone hears this, he 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 the request, then the forces are impure …
It would seem that all the legends and legends about mermaids are a tribute to Russian antiquity. But in the almanac "Phenomenon", issue 3, we find a very curious article by D. Vinogradova "Mermaids - who are they"? It describes very numerous cases of recent meetings with excellent representatives and representatives of the underwater kingdom. “On August 25, 1974, at midnight, a resident of the village, Alexander Kataev, walked along the bank of the Chusovaya River. The moon was shining. I heard: someone was floundering in the water, I thought it was a big fish. But when a strange murmur came to him, he crept closer to the shore, lay down in the bushes. About five meters away he saw a man and a woman. But he immediately realized that these were not people. Both are gray, only the pregnant female has hair on her head entirely in red curls. The "man" took out a box of twisted birch bark from the bushes and handed it to his friend. They ate somethingpossibly berries. At the same time, they cheerfully waved their hands, jerked their legs, the female laughed shrilly in an unnatural metallic voice. They knocked stone on stone, sparks flew, but no fire was struck. We talked with sounds like "ky-ky", "well, well". Then we went into the water and swam silently, only heads were visible. We crossed the river and quickly climbed up the steep cliff. Then they disappeared into the darkness.
In their region, Kataev later recounted, there is a story that in the fifties, that is, thirty years ago, a devil covered in wool fell into the net of fishermen. They pulled him out of the nets, but he squealed, roared and bit so wildly that he was released. He immediately fled into the river. Residents seem to have seen mermaids sitting on the dam near the lake. And near this village there is an area called Devil's Log, where you cannot go - there somehow the hunter disappeared with the dog. They gathered the people, combed the forest - they found nothing. But the dogs did not go in search of them, they were afraid of something …"
The author gives quite a lot of examples of this kind, but the main thing is that based on the analysis of folk legends, proverbs, sayings, on the indication of the alleged habitats of mermaids and creatures like them, he makes a very interesting conclusion. Its general meaning is that in deep karst caves, underground cavities, which can only be entered through water barriers (swamps, rivers, lakes, reservoirs) or through caves, crevices, some amphibious mammals with black-yellow-brown fur live …
Author: A. Butorov