To touch the mystery, sometimes you do not need to go to distant countries or to the ends of the world. It is enough to drive only 100 km away from Minsk and here you are in an impenetrable forest inhabited by monsters, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are afraid of meeting them. In July, another cryptozoological expedition "Ufokoma" started in search of a certain large lizard in the forests along the banks of the Viliya River.
Of course, scattered folklore recordings can be wrapped in a beautiful wrapper and presented as a tourist attraction, which, for example, is now trying to do with the so-called “Belarusian Tsmok”. Alas, the authors of these projects are often completely unaware of who they really see in our, and not fantasy, forests, as the locals themselves call these unknown animals, and in which parts of the country they can be seen in reality. In 2015, for example, in the bogs of Polesie, we were already looking for a dinner king - reports of which came to Ufokom for more than 10 years and continue to arrive now [1]. But not a single message about Tsmok, in the form in which it is presented for tourists, has been registered in our archive. Or, in the Svetlogorsk district of the Gomel region, we recorded stories about "flying" (or, rather,jumping from branch to branch) snake. Also a possible subject of searches. But the theme of our next reconnaissance trip (№194; I. Butov, E. Shaposhnikov) was a completely new relic for us.
So, it all started with the author's column of Sergei Lesket on the information and news portal "Edge" [4]. The speech in the next article was about several settlements of the Vileika region, but we were most interested in it only one fragment. The author, a native of these places, describes how one of his relatives encountered an incomprehensible creature here:
“True, the modern forest has not lost its beauty and mystery. I happened to hear the story of how my relative went to the forest for mushrooms and met … a large lizard, the size of a dog, basking in the sun. The woman was seized with fear, she began to whip the dog, but she quietly moved back, then, without hesitation, threw the basket and ran home. At home, the relatives were surprised at the quick return and did not believe her words. Only one 90-year-old grandmother quietly remarked: “So it was Haptus! It was necessary to run from there, and not to consider it! " But with these words they only laughed: "The grandmother invented." Where are you and who are you going to ask about that Haptus today? The time has passed."
Having contacted the author, we found out that he himself tried to find out about this mysterious Haptus in the surrounding villages, but, alas, none of the old people were left there. And summer residents deny everything: they have not seen, we do not know anything. This meeting took place in the 2000s, that is, not so long ago. It is interesting that if you look at the satellite images of the observation area, it becomes clear that these places are cut by the Viliya River into conditionally "civilized" and "wild" parts. On the one hand, there are many summer residents, vacationers and mushroom pickers, but the opposite is almost virgin forests with rare endangered villages. It was there that the Ufokoma expedition headed.
Our main goal is to interview the inhabitants of farms in the forest and in the villages for their meetings with a large lizard and to clarify who is called Haptus in this area. Accompanying tasks: fixing previously unknown legends and collecting anomalous folklore. In addition to Vileika, we included the Smorgon region in our route, since in fact most of the forest lies in it.
Sometimes in the literal sense of the word it was necessary to cut the road to the destination. Photo by I. Butov
& hellip; But among the impenetrable forest, neat houses suddenly appear. Photo by E. Shaposhnikov.
Promotional video:
If we consider possible “candidates” for the role of Haptus, then there is almost no one to choose from. There are only three species of lizards in Belarus: the fragile spindle (Anguis fragilis), the quick-moving lizard (Lacerta agilis) and the viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara). The spindle is so outwardly reminiscent of a snake that, most likely, a layman would have been perceived as such; the viviparous lizard reaches only 18 cm, but among the nimble lizards, individuals up to 35 cm can come across. However, there are stories about larger specimens. So, Alexander Karpechenko told us about how in the early 2000s in the area of the village of Gomel (not far from Polotsk) of the Vitebsk region, during a water trip, he encountered a similar large lizard. But maybe a rare or unknown species of lizard or salamander is still found in our forests?
Already the talk of the town has become the story described in the works of several local historians of the 19th century that large lizards were found in Minsk, in the Tatar swamp, the size of the chipped ones reached half a meter. The last of them was caught in 1885, and her stuffed animal was for a long time in the office of the director of a real school [5]. It could be either a quick lizard about 30–35 cm in size (visually, a lizard of 30 cm can be easily mistaken for half a meter) or a salamander. Although the habitat of the salamander runs south of Belarus, it is found in Poland and Ukraine and, according to some reports, in Lithuania and Latvia. Zoologists are of the opinion that the animals noted in the last two countries may represent endangered relict populations. It is also theoretically possible to find such a population in Belarus. But the size of a salamander in very rare cases can reach 30 cm, no more.
Sudden meeting. Photo by E. Shaposhnikov.
We combed one village after another, but no one knew who "Haptus" was and did not see large lizards in the forest. But people many times have met long large snakes as thick as an arm, however, this thickness is not unusual. Zoologists then confirmed to us that such growth anomalies are quite common for our latitudes. And now, unexpectedly, Galina Petrovna Zelenko (born in 1935) from the village of Rudnya, Smorgon District, when asked if she knew who Haptus was, suddenly happily remarked: “I know, I know!”. "So this is the same person who grabs everything for himself!"
Unfortunately, this interpretation is clearly not quite what we expected. Our other informants only shrugged their shoulders - this word was not familiar to them at all. We recorded a large number of incidents about encounters with snakes, vipers, coppers, and even some kind of "snake-viper hybrid" (most likely we are talking about a watery one), which is especially "raging" this year. But there were no stories about lizards. Unless it is worth noting one interesting fact that zoologists paid attention to: in many places in Belarus, until recently, the local population did not distinguish a lizard from a copper snake and considered it extremely poisonous. And this means meeting even with a not very large lizard for some could turn into a whole story.
Let us now consider another possible explanation of what happened from the point of view of folk demonology. In Belarusian mythology, there is such a character - Khapun - a small, wrinkled old man with a long gray beard. He lives behind a dark forest, in the middle of a swamp, in a hole under a writhing, and from time to time kidnaps children, which he puts in his bag. It is invisible and moves through the air. It is interesting that according to the note of the author-compiler of the dictionary “Belarusian Mythology”, Khapun was mentioned in Vileyshchina, and not in some other region of Belarus [3]. As we can see, there is no external similarity between our characters (except for a possible place of residence), and the name does not coincide in letters. However, Haptus was found not in Belarusian, but in Jewish demonology. Actually, among the synonyms for evil spirits and the devil there are such: Khapun, Khaptus, Khaptur [2]. The Jewish Haptus has many similarities with Hapun. He also flies through the air and, as O. Belova writes, “according to the popular beliefs of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Poles, every year on Doomsday (the day of purification, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur), the devil kidnaps a Jew or a Jewish woman from every village or town to in a whirlwind, carry it into a swamp, throw it into the abyss, plant it on a tall pine or aspen tree, tear it to pieces or torture it to death. " At the same time, the researcher writes that in the regions surveyed by her, it was not possible to record a single story about the "grab" from the Jews, but only from the Slavic population. The bearers of the Jewish tradition unanimously denied their acquaintance with this plot. Apparently it was a taboo topic for them [2]. Belarusians and Poles, every year on Doomsday (the day of purification, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur), the devil kidnaps a Jew or a Jewess from every village or town in order to carry him into a swamp in a whirlwind, throw him into the abyss, plant on a tall pine or aspen tree, tear or torture to of death". At the same time, the researcher writes that in the regions surveyed by her, it was not possible to record a single story about the "grab" from the Jews, but only from the Slavic population. Bearers of the Jewish tradition unanimously denied their acquaintance with this plot. Apparently it was a taboo topic for them [2]. Belarusians and Poles, every year on Doomsday (the day of purification, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur), the devil kidnaps a Jew or a Jewess from every village or town in order to whirlwind into a swamp, throw into an abyss, plant on a tall pine or aspen, tear or torture of death". At the same time, the researcher writes that in the regions surveyed by her, it was not possible to record a single story about the "grab" from the Jews, but only from the Slavic population. The bearers of the Jewish tradition unanimously denied their acquaintance with this plot. Apparently it was a taboo topic for them [2]. At the same time, the researcher writes that in the regions surveyed by her, it was not possible to record a single story about the "grab" from the Jews, but only from the Slavic population. The bearers of the Jewish tradition unanimously denied their acquaintance with this plot. Apparently it was a taboo topic for them [2]. At the same time, the researcher writes that in the regions surveyed by her, it was not possible to record a single story about the "grab" from the Jews, but only from the Slavic population. The bearers of the Jewish tradition unanimously denied their acquaintance with this plot. Apparently it was a taboo topic for them [2].
So, we can draw two possible conclusions:
1) A real meeting with a large lizard took place in the forest. When the woman told about this in the village, another woman (possibly a Jewess) who knew the legend about the evil spirits living in the swamps, correlated it with her idea of devilry and replied that it was Haptus (a variant, devil or evil spirits). Then this case may still be the subject of cryptozoologists' consideration.
2) In the forest, a woman "dreamed" or she was "confused", as the people say, by an evil spirit. An elderly woman in the village knew that there was a meeting with the legendary owner of these places - Haptus. Then this testimony will be the next touch to the portrait of the folklore character Khapun or Khaptus.
As it turned out, these places are also rich in all sorts of rumors about ghosts, walking dead, signs, miracles; we brought with us an impressive baggage of evidence of this kind. Two curious stones were also discovered. One in the forest behind the village of Yagodnovo, Smorgon region, possibly an old, buried in the ground, stone cross with a depression in the central part. People no longer remember anything about him. The second - with suspicions of two holes in the area of the village of Trilesina of the same area. The holes are not clearly expressed, so a recheck is necessary. In the same area, a legend has been recorded about a mountain, on which if a person is pulled, he will be cured. It has not yet been possible to establish what kind of mountain it is.
A stone cross that has grown into the ground in the forest.
So, we have so far suffered a complete failure in the search for evidence of encounters with a large lizard. Or maybe this overgrowth existed in only one copy around the turn of the two thousandth and was just met by a woman while sunbathing? After all, there are often cases when a certain exotic animal, for example, an iguana, was released into the wild. However, we do not give up hope of finding traces of the habitation of this large reptile in other parts of the forest along the banks of the Viliya.
Links
1. Butov I. Searches for the "king of snakes" in Polesie / I. Butov // Ufokom [Electronic resource] Access mode: www.ufo-com.net/publications/art-7590-poiski-cara-zmei-na-polesie. html. - Date of publication 02.10.2014.
2. Belova, OV Ethnocultural stereotypes in the Slavic folk tradition / OV Belova. - M.: Indrik, 2005. - S. 231–233, 261.
3. Vasilevich, U. Khapun / U. Vasilevich // Belarusian mythology: Entsyklapedichny sloўnik. 2nd edition - Minsk: Belarus, 2006.-- P. 526.
4. Leskec, S. Leskec / S. Leskec // Edge: information and news portal [Electronic resource] Access mode: kraj.by/belarus/blog/leskiec/vyasnovi-les/. Date of publication: 3.05.2012.
5. Shtykhov, G. Azhyvayuts sivya stagodzi / G. Shtykhov. - Minsk: Narodnaya asveta, 1974.-- P. 153.
Authors: Ilya Butov, Evgeny Shaposhnikov