One of the most evil and dangerous spirits, the Slavs considered the bath devil, or bannik. Where did this belief come from?
In this program we will talk about Russian legends associated with a very insidious and dangerous evil spirits - with the bath devil. The Eastern Slavs believed that a particularly evil unclean spirit nests in the bathhouse, which can bring people to death, and therefore the bathhouse, a building built for the sake of cleanliness, was considered an unclean, bad place, where it is bad to declare alone. But first things first.
The bath has always been of great importance for the Slavs and it still has. This is one of the best preserved traditions. Many who have a summer residence or who live outside the city will certainly strive to build a bathhouse in their own country. And in the city without her, too, nowhere. Even though now all apartments have a bath, a shower, but at the same time there are baths in cities, where the townspeople go with pleasure - not so much for washing as for pleasure: steam, the spirit of birch and oak brooms, an ice bath.
The Russian bath has often amazed foreigners. So, in the 17th century, the English diplomat Giles Fletcher wrote: “You will often see how they (to reinforce the body) run out of the baths in soap and, smoking from the heat, like a pig on a spit, throw themselves naked into the river or dip in cold water, even in the most severe frost ". The Englishman was shocked by this custom, but in Russia to this day it is one of the most pleasant and healthy ways to while away leisure. Not for nothing in Russia they said: "The bathhouse soars, the bathhouse rules, the bathhouse will correct everything."
Baths could be subdivided into several subspecies. The first one is a sauna, which is heated in white, more convenient to use. It implies that there is a stone, brick or metal stove with a tank for heating water (often modern individual baths have just such a design). It takes a lot of firewood to heat such a bath.
The most exotic and, perhaps, archaic subspecies of the bath is the bath, which was arranged inside a Russian stove. At first, the stove was heated, and inside they heated the cast iron with water. Then, when the stove was fired, ash was removed from its insides, the vacant space was covered with straw inside, and hot coals, heat, were shoveled into a corner.
Then the man climbed inside and very carefully washed himself so as not to get dirty with soot from the walls of the stove and, God forbid, sit on the coals. Probably because of this strange and unsafe way of washing, the Ukrainian bath got its current name - "lazna" (from the word "climb"). It should be noted that the Slavs did not wash this way often.
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The most common type of baths were those that were heated in black, because they did not require a lot of firewood. The bathhouse consists of the bathhouse itself and the dressing room, where people leave their clothes before washing. The door to the steam room was made very small and with a high threshold so that hot air did not escape. Inside the steam room there was a cauldron of water and an open hearth with hot stones. He gave heat and steam.
The smoke from this hearth partially escaped through a special hole in the ceiling, and the walls in the bath were dark, smoky, which did not look very aesthetically pleasing, but it met the goals of disinfection (after all, they went to the bath not only to wash, but also to be treated). There was little smoke, however, if the bathhouse was heated correctly, for example, with birch wood. First, the bath was heated, then they let it stand a little, splashed a ladle of water on the hot stones and let out the first steam so as not to be poisoned by carbon monoxide. Then you could wash, but observing a number of precautions so as not to offend the bathhouse, the spirit of these walls.
Bannik, as already mentioned, appeared to be a frankly dark, insidious and cruel creature. Outwardly small and inconspicuous, in the guise of a naked old man with a long moldy beard, he could cause many problems for those who came to his domain. For example, he could take and shoot hot stones from the oven and hit the washable. Put a ladle with boiling water instead of a ladle of ice water under the arm of a person who wants to freshen up. He could push and put him on the stove so that the unfortunate man was burned to meat, and a piece of his skin remained on the stove. He could faint and, finally, he could steam to death - poisoned with carbon monoxide.
The bath spirit, however, was not always depicted in the form of an old man. Sometimes it could be an old woman, a shaggy and scary bunny. Sometimes she was called the baeny mother, sometimes she was a rip-off, including because she could also put her on the stove and peel her skin. Bunnyha could be seen not only in the form of an old woman, but also in the form of a black cat. In any case, trouble was expected from her, as well as from the bannik.
Bath spirits were portrayed as extremely dangerous creatures - much more dangerous than the brownie and even the goblin. Perhaps because the Slavs, whose worldview made the whole world around them inhabited by various spirits - kikimors, mermaids, barnmen and others - did not believe that all that dirt and ailments that they wash off from themselves in the bath does not disappear. They believed that the spirits of this place absorb all the impurity, and therefore their character is disgusting. They tried to stay away from the bathhouse - they did not go there unnecessarily, especially on Christmastide, a time when the spirits could be especially mischievous.
The bathhouse was usually built far from the hut, in the far corner of the courtyard, in the outskirts, and, if possible, completely behind the fence. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, visiting the bathhouse was still mandatory, cleanliness had to be strictly observed, and those who did not go to the bathhouse could earn a reputation as an unkind, suspicious person. Therefore, whether you want it or not, you had to negotiate with the bannik, taking into account his whims and requirements.
The requirements could be different. For example, the bathhouse may not like the place where the bathhouse is folded. Then, according to legends, he brought the disease to someone from the family, and, no matter how they fought, the person could not recover until the family thought to move the bath. Then the disease disappeared as if by magic. If the old bathhouse suddenly burned down, it was forbidden to build any premises in its place. The place was considered unclean. There is either a new fire that will set the building on fire, or mice will start up, or bedbugs - in short, there will be no living there.
He also hated the bathhouse when they drink water intended for washing in the bath, even if it is clean. And he couldn't stand people with crosses around their necks, and therefore, if a person went to wash, the cross had to be removed and left in the dressing room, or better at home. This tradition is still observed, but not out of old memory, but thanks to common sense. Metal objects in the bath become very hot and begin to burn the skin, so they are removed first.
Pectoral crosses were often made of metal - silver, gold or copper. Sometimes they were carved out of stone, but the stone in the bath heats up and burns no worse than iron. Also, the bannik does not like if the washers are in a hurry, they urge each other - then expect tricks from him. This belief is also quite rational, if you think about it. After all, if you are in a hurry, in the confusion it is just easy to confuse ice water with boiling water and sit on a hot stove.
There were ways to appease the bannik. The first is to bring him a slice of rye bread for a treat, and pour coarse rock salt on the stove. The second is to take a black chicken and, without plucking its feathers, strangle and bury it under the threshold of the bathhouse. Apparently, this rite is an analogue of sacrifice, which is designed to appease otherworldly forces.
The third way to come to an agreement with the bathhouse is not to wash in the sauna for the third or seventh steam, that is, for the third and seventh furnaces. The real reason was the fear of carbon monoxide that was building up in the room. However, folk fantasy explained the ban differently. On the third or seventh steam bath, the bathhouse washes himself, sometimes with his wife, the bathhouse and with his children, and sometimes he calls all the surrounding evil spirits - both domestic and forest. You cannot interfere with them - they will be angry and will not give rest later. The omen punished, on the contrary, to melt the bathhouse and leave, leaving the spirits a tub of spring water and a new broom to steam.
But both carbon monoxide and burns were a trifle compared to what the bannik could do. The fact is that the bath was periodically used not only as a place for washing and treatment, but also as a delivery room. Childbirth, which was a women's sacrament, could not take place in a common hut, in front of men, and therefore a pregnant woman, ready for childbirth, was taken to the bathhouse. In no case was the cross removed from it (but the bathhouse was not heated like that). The woman in labor was not left alone for a minute, so that she and the child would not fall prey to evil spirits. It was believed that the bannik and the banniha, especially if they are angry with people who violated their prohibitions, can steal a newborn and replace it with their child. This thrown child was called a changeling.
Many European peoples have legends about changelings in one form or another. They say that the spirits - elves, trolls, goblin - steal children and replace them with their cubs or even inanimate objects, which are charmed, forcing those around them to see the child, say, instead of a wooden deck.
The kidnapped child lives with evil spirits and is raised by her as one of them. A changeling could have different destinies. If it was a demonic child, then it could live to adulthood, disguising itself as a person and differing from him only in one thing - the absence of a soul. Or it could wither away after a while. The changeling was distinguished by the fact that he refused to eat, screamed loudly, had congenital genetic defects, or was simply sick a lot.
Historians believe that these stories did not appear without reason. In the Middle Ages, there was a very high infant mortality rate, and, of course, the death of a child lay the burden of guilt on the parents. To ease the pangs of conscience, they reassured themselves that the point was not their bad heredity or neglect of their duties, but simply the spirits had kidnapped their child and slipped them a changeling. The Slavs believed that the spirits that were able to do this were the goblin and the bannik.
Bannik was feared, of course. But this does not mean that they tried not to deal with him. The bathhouse was a place for fortune telling, and girls on special holidays (on the same Christmastide) could run there to tell fortunes on their betrothed. They say that spirits know a lot, including what is hidden, so why not consult? And they consulted, and in a very original way.
On Christmastide at midnight, the girls, sometimes gathering in a small group (so as not to be scared), approached the open doors of the bathhouse, lifted their skirts and waited for the bannik to touch them. If he touched with a shaggy hand, the girl would have a rich groom, if he was naked, he would be poor, and if he was wet, he would be a drunkard. True, it is not clear where there was a guarantee that the hand belonged to the bannik, and not to the hooligan neighbor - this is a mystery, but they believed in fortune-telling.
Today, few people remember about the bathhouse, except in the villages where traditional baths have been preserved - dark, log, standing on the outskirts of the elder and bird cherry thickets. Agree, such an entourage is conducive to the expectation of something supernatural. And the townspeople practically forgot about the bannik. Surgically white tiles and gleaming metal taps somehow do not encourage fantasy to populate the bathroom space with ancient spirits associated with cleanliness and at the same time being on the side of evil spirits. Modern poltergeists are another matter; they can be easily imagined in the bathroom. But more about that some other time.