Ovinnik (bean goose, podovinnik, barn, barn priest, king-barn) - in traditional beliefs, the spirit living in a barn, a fenced area of land intended for storing and threshing grain. Ovinnikov, like other inhabitants of the peasant farmstead, people hear more often than they see. But inode you can see a huge black cat with eyes burning like coals, or, for example, a dog, or a dark shaggy bear.
However, most often the barn is seen as a man of ordinary height, but with disheveled "smoky" hair: "he is exactly a man, but with horns and woolly." In many places it was believed that he, like other household spirits, was at the threshing floor with his wife or girlfriend - the barn; when addressing them, they are usually called respectfully: "Father-in-law, Father and Father-in-law, Mother."
These entities live, according to popular belief, in a barn dryer, in the farthest corner of the podlaz, "in the lower part of the buildings where village children bake potatoes during the day." According to legends, they always follow the work and often work in the barn themselves, usually taking on the guise of a peasant (for example, the owner of the house). It was believed that they protect the barn and bread from all misfortune, misfortune and evil spirits; often give good ground; they sweep the threshing floor, thresh the sheaves, blow grain; provide a draft necessary for drying grain, etc.
However, in the opinion of the peasants, if the barn is dissatisfied with the owners, then he harms them in every possible way. So, according to the stories, he can burn the barn, throwing coal between the grates, if he gets angry with the owners for drying the sheaves during strong winds. Maybe he set fire to the barn even if the owners interfered with him or did not show due respect, violated special prohibitions, or even tried to survive him, the barn, from his favorite place by the fire. It was also believed that he really does not like when they try to see him or mention him in vain: in this case, he can scatter all the sheaves, rakes, thresh all over the barn and generally make a terrible mess.
Sometimes the barn may try to harm the owners directly, especially if they did not please him with something. It was said, for example, that when he got angry he would “choke on the side by the fire so that you could almost catch his breath”; can even kill the owner, who annoyed him with something: "stuff it into the oven," burn it along with the barn, etc. sent a serious illness to the peasant, from which he soon died. Here is a typical story: “In the barns live barnmen who look like an old man. Once a peasant from the village of Ostrova came to dry the barn and saw that the barn was sitting by the greenhouse (fire) and baking potatoes! The peasant made a prayer and with a burn (with a stick, which is used to stir the fire in the greenhouse), he took the unclean backhand. Ovinnik ran and said with a threat: "I will remember you!"The next day the barn was burned up."
Ovinny jealously ensures that the building is not drowned on windy, unspecified and holidays, on the eve of major holidays. According to custom, the barns began to be drowned approximately after the day of Thekla Zarevnitsa (October 7): on the night of that day, a “new fire” was kindled, “hammering” began. On Zarevnitsa the days decrease, almost darken, the dawns become crimson; this is the time of launching into the fields of fires; the beginning of the morning fire threshing. As they said, "there is a tedder for the Zarevnitsa of bread, and a pot for the thresher of porridge."
This day - the time of completion of part of the work - as well as the Exaltation (September 27) and Pokrov (October 14) were considered “barn's name days”: the barn “rested”, and the threshers, the barn “owner” or even the barn itself were generously treated - most often with porridge and pies. Sometimes a rooster was brought into the barn. Then they bowed and said: "To stand in the sea, not to see fire, to stand knee-deep - not to see water." Or they raised the flails and said: "Ugly, Lord, for the new year more and longer." In the Novgorod province, the barn was thanked: "Thank you, master-father, for helping to thrash!" And at the beginning of threshing, they asked the "owner" for permission to "drown" the barn: "Master-father, help me thresh it!" Those who violated the established customs were punished by the barn. According to a story from the Kaluga province, he "bent into an arc the strong man who drowned the barn on the day of Thekla Zarevnitsa."
In the Tobolsk province, “barn names” were considered October 26: on that day barns were “to be honored”. “At midnight on Dmitriev's day … the owner of the house - a highway - takes with him freshly baked wheat bread of small size, round in shape; the bread must be well baked; puts a salt shaker on the bread, and then takes with him a bottle of vodka and a glass and with all this goes to the barn. Entering it with his back, the owner says: “Ovinnitsa, I brought you bread and salt so that you don't scare me when I come to the barn. Amen. "Then the owner puts bread and salt in the middle, makes a bow at the waist and says:" Here's to you, father-barn, bread and salt, a wheat loaf. As a loaf is good, so give a good harvest, twenty yourself pecked so that the winds would not blow, so that it would not knock it down with hail, so that it would not be flogged with rain and would not burn with the sun. "After that, the owner (in a cruciform manner, with sentences) walked around the whole building, drinking a glass of vodka in all four corners, and then splashing some of it on the ground with the words: “This is it, father-barn, for you so that you don't catch fire. As wine burns and does not burn, so you, barn, do not burn. Amen. "Or:" Thank you, father-barn, for keeping my bread. Amen, amen, amen."
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Both the barn and its otherworldly "master" in all these beliefs and customs appear as living beings, which should be treated with respect and apprehension. Sheaves were dried and threshed in the barn, the wealth of the family increased, at the same time, fires easily broke out in it, which in many provinces of Russia were attributed to anger or the whims of the same evil spirits.
So the gifts were brought to the barn with the aim of appeasing him, appeasing him, warding off his anger. In some places people, fearing, tried not to drown the barn one by one; even the owners often did not risk spending the night in the barn. Strangers, on the other hand, were not supposed to enter the barn at night, much less sleep in it. According to legends, the barn doesn't like it when strangers come there, and scares them: he barks like a dog, claps his hands, laughs, etc., can kill him with frenzy. But even more he does not like the night lodgers, especially those who "did not ask him", and can even crush a person if he alone spends the night on the territory under his jurisdiction.
However, in some places they believed that if you ask the barn, you can spend the night completely free: he will not touch and even protect a person from evil spirits. So, they said that “he, father, will not give out to a stranger, just pray to him:“Ovine father, take care, watch out for all evil, from every adversary of God's servant.”Sometimes it was believed that he was“the same as the brownie.” There are several stories in which the barn rescues the owner from the heretic dead who is pursuing him: he hides the owner who asked him for help and fights with the dead until morning, not allowing him to approach the person.
Ovinnik, according to popular belief, "often takes to fight." So, it was believed that he does not like the bannik and often fights with him; fights against evil spirits hostile to a person (for example, with ghouls), not letting her into the barn.
Ovinnik “knows the future” and can predict the fate of girls if they are fortune-telling in the barn or nearby at night on some holiday (usually on Christmastide). When divining, they sometimes put their hand in the barn window or went inside, asking the same question as in the bathhouse, and waiting for the touch of the creature.
Village barns are buildings that light up almost every autumn. In each barn there was a stove (or just a pit), since you cannot dry the harvest without fire, and dry sheaves burn easily. But at the same time, the barnmen, whom the owners often blamed for the fire, do not touch the fire, according to popular belief. Thus, it was universally believed that the barn was not afraid of an ordinary fire: he moved to a stove or a charred log and waited for the owners to build a new barn, into which he would then enter. True, he can perish in the fire if the barn is on fire from lightning, and then another barn will never settle in such a place.
The favorite time of the barn is midnight, the period between the second and third roosters; at this time it can be seen. It was believed that one can spy on the barn (as well as the brownie) on Easter, usually through a collar, a collar and a harrow, three harrows, etc. However, one of the most reliable ways to see the barn, like another domestic spirit, was considered this: on the third step of the inner staircase leading to the barn, bend over and look between your legs. Although it was considered undesirable to see evil spirits: they could get angry with peeping owners and burn the barn or somehow harm the household in some other way.
Pernatiev Yuri Sergeevich. Brownies, mermaids and other mysterious creatures
