There is a legend in the northern regions that once upon a time an unusual people lived here - "the white-eyed chud." They seemed to have lived richly, had many treasures … But then, for some unknown reason, they went underground. True, there is a belief that when the happy time returns, people will come from Belovodye, and a chud will return from the earth with its treasures and people will receive "great science."
Inhabitants of the "pechish"
In the documents of the middle of the 17th century, associated with Zaonezhie, it is said: “We were looking for, sir, on the river on Andanga, on the suzem, on the black forest of the Chud pechisha, and the forest, sir, those Chud pechisha were overgrown with a large, a clip of a tree one and a half, and two, and more. " At that time, a one-yard village where a large family lived was called a stove; subsequently, they began to call any village in Zaonezhie and the Arkhangelsk province. However, the old huts, abandoned in the northern dense forests, allegedly belonging to the "white-eyed chud", were called black stoves.
They tried not to tell outsiders about these strange dwellings; it was a great sin to show them the path. After all, according to legend, northern dwarf sorcerers used to return to their huts, abandoned many years ago. And having met a person there, they could have done him bad things.
Until now, in the remote forests of Karelia, as well as the Leningrad, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, people secretly visit these mysterious black stoves. But even hermits-Robinsons do not risk staying in them for the night. Tiny, half-decayed log huts have little space for standing. Better to pitch a tent nearby.
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A superficial examination shows that these non-residential buildings are perhaps more than two centuries old. But the traces of "northern dwarfs" are not found anywhere. In size, the houses resemble fabulous huts on children's playgrounds. An adult cannot be straightened in them to their full height.
Until recently, in mountainous areas, people, believing in the existence of dwarfs, put pots of food in special places for them …
Chud "real" and "mysterious"
Legends about Chudi are widespread throughout the White Sea, Ladoga and even in the Urals. There you can be shown the places where the fortresses, fortified settlements, burial places of the mysterious people are located. Although sometimes the Finnish tribes who lived in these places before the arrival of the Russians are sometimes called Chud, careful research has long established that Chud is a common concept for all foreign aborigines of various ethnic origins. In some legends, the Chud personifies the strong and heroic tribes, in others - the weak and poorly adapted to life. In the stories of the local Russian inhabitants of Karelia about the strength and power of the ancient inhabitants of the North, echoes of the ancient Chud-Finnish beliefs and legends are guessed.
G. Kulikovsky in the "Dictionary of the Regional Onega dialect" writes about "real chud" and "mysterious chud". According to the legends, the latter came from somewhere in the north. But when the Russian colonization began, "the chud went into the ground, disappeared under the ground." And it happened, according to eyewitnesses, as follows. They dug a hole, put pillars in the corners, made a roof over the recess, covered it with earth and stones from above, then went into the pits with all their property and valuables and, having chopped off the stands, perished.
But no treasure or material evidence was found in the excavated pits. Perhaps the canopy simply protected the people who took shelter from the weather and made the entrance to the underground being constructed invisible. And having filled up the roof, the chud went into the underground labyrinths with all its treasures.
Meanwhile, in Karelia there are burial mounds that are associated with Chudyu. Mysterious phenomena are often observed near them. In the night they sometimes glow with a blue flame, a strange hum, screams and howls can be heard from under the ground …
Some legends say that the chud went underground through passages in the sandy ground, when Christianity began to spread: “they were afraid and fled into the impenetrable forests”. In any case, this is how the struggle of Orthodoxy with paganism was reflected in folklore.
And why, I wonder, what was called "white-eyed"? Perhaps the whites of the eyes were too large for this people; or they had no pupils; or in the underworld without sunshine, the colors disappear and everything takes on a whitish hue?
True, one of the Pomor legends tells about the Chudi as a “red-skinned people” who crossed “beyond the Breathing Sea”, where he still lives, remaining invisible.
Little people supposedly live not only underground, but also in rocks. They avoid people, trying to "go into stone" or turn into a beast when a person approaches. Although sometimes they can come to the rescue by giving a person wise advice or by performing some kind of magic … So, in Russian folk tales, an old forest man gives Ivan Tsarevich a magic ball, helping to find the way to the beauty stolen by Koshchey the Immortal, gives him an invisible hat and immediately disappears underground…
"Pans" and "Hyperboreans"
The roots of the legends about the Karelian Chud go back to the era when the first Slavic tribes who settled here met people of a different faith. It is the pre-Slavic population of this region that Russian folklore sources usually mean by Chud. But in the Vepsian-Karelian and Meryan cultures, there is another name - "pans". Both "chud" and "pans" are the designation of the ancient aborigines, foreigners. Probably, the memories of the Chudi were mixed with the historical legends about the Polish "masters" of the Time of Troubles; quite often their images coincide and personify unkind people and even robbers. According to legend, the "lords" went underground together with the Chud …
In some sources, the mysterious northern country of Hyperborea was inhabited by mythical pygmy dwarfs. About eight thousand years ago, the Hyperboreans "went into the land" of Arctida. Maybe it was the "white-eyed chud"?