Baba Yaga bone leg. Baba Yaga - Bone Leg. Yaga - pan-Indo-European goddess

Baba Yaga is one of the most mysterious characters of Russian folklore. Her image practically defies interpretation. It is clear that she is somehow connected with the forces of darkness, but why does she live in a hut on chicken legs, try to fry small children, give gifts to a stranger and fly in a mortar? It is difficult to understand what the authors of fairy tales with the participation of Baba Yaga wanted to tell the people. This misunderstanding sometimes leads to the most incredible assumptions. For example, that this ancient old woman built a certain engine with jet thrust, a mortar in which she flies higher than a standing forest. What meanings are hidden in the image of Baba Yaga? The ancient knowledge set forth in the texts of the Rig Veda will help you understand this. Why Rig Veda? P. A. Lavrovsky believed that the word “yaga” could come from the Sanskrit word “aha,” which means “to go, to move.” Moreover, the common European root “ag” (“to act, to set in motion”) is discernible in the witch’s name. The root “ag” sounds in the name of the Aryan god of fire Agni, to whom the largest number of hymns of the Rigveda are dedicated. Agni had a certain paramount importance in the worldview of the Aryans.

The plot of a Russian fairy tale

Characters like Baba Yaga are known to many peoples of the world. Detailed information about them is presented in the book by V.Ya. Propp "Historical roots of the fairy tale." But we will look more closely at what is remarkable about our Russian Baba Yaga. This is an old blind ugly woman. Her name is often accompanied by the nickname "Bone Leg". Sometimes she is called the mistress of the universe, sometimes the mistress of animals and birds. She lives in a hut on chicken legs, which has no windows or doors. The hut stands in the middle of a dark, dense, impenetrable forest. She is surrounded by a palisade of human bones. On each stake there is a skull with glowing eye sockets. The hut can rotate, that is, rotate around its own axis. There is a gate in the stockade, and a narrow path leads to it from the hut. The old woman spends most of her time in her house, where she sleeps, lying on the floor. Either the hut is too small, or the old woman is so big, but it occupies almost the entire interior space, excluding, of course, the place where the stove is located. At the same time, her nose rests on the ceiling, i.e. she cannot even move. But this does not prevent her from sometimes flying out of the hut, sitting in a mortar, on an eagle or on a winged horse. When Baba Yaga flies in the mortar, she waves a broom, and violent winds rush under the mortar. Various animals live together with Baba Yaga - snakes, lizards, frogs, an owl and the cat Bayun. The Yagi brothers - the wind, the month and the sun.

A kind fellow always comes to the old lady. But she is not at all averse to kidnapping small children. As a rule, the young man sets off on a journey in an indefinite direction with an indefinite goal - somewhere distant to the thirtieth kingdom. On this journey he cannot avoid the hut. Moreover, he simply needs to be the uninvited guests of her inhabitant. And although the young man comes across Yaga’s home by accident, he always knows how to behave and what to say. First of all, he blows on the hut and asks it to turn “its back towards the forest, and its front towards me.” And the hut obeys him. Where there is in front, there is an entrance. A door appears that opens to the spoken word. Sometimes the hero sprinkles water on the door. The old woman recognizes the guest by his smell: “wow, it smells like the Russian spirit,” but she treats him quite kindly and strives to talk with him. But our hero, seeing that the old woman has forgotten the ritual, reminds her: “first feed and drink, heat the bathhouse, and only then ask questions.” Yaga does everything unquestioningly. The tale ends with one of two outcomes: the old woman tries to burn the young man in the oven, but burns herself in it, or she gives him gifts - a horse, an eagle, a flying carpet, samogud harps, and running boots. From her he also receives some knowledge, for example, he learns the language of birds and animals.

The plot of the tale is short, simple and yet incomprehensible. However, all the images are not given by chance; in fact, each one has hidden meanings. They can be revealed if you understand how the Aryans perceived the world.

Dark forest and hut on chicken legs

The dark forest is the personification of darkness in general. This darkness occupies a certain limited space - a forest. The word “bor” comes from the chain of words “par-por-pur”, where “par” is the expansion of space, “por” is its limitation (“time”), and “pur” is its narrowing into a line (“blizzard”, "path"). That is why the combination “drill” is found in the words “storm” and “buran” - they reflect the properties of linear movement, i.e. the properties of the wind. As we know from a Russian fairy tale, the wind is Yaga’s brother, and when she flies in her mortar, she raises a storm in the forest. Perhaps the Aryans perceived their midnight country as a limited space inhabited by people, animals and forested. That is why the country was called Borea.

In this forest-pine forest, somewhere in an indefinite place, there is a house-hut. Nobody knows where this place is. The uncertainty of the beginning in esoteric literature is characterized by the expression “neither place, nor volume.” In the fairy tale about Baba Yaga, the hut has volume, but does not have a specific place. A good fellow comes across her by chance (“go there, I don’t know where”). In the fairy tale about Thumb, the hero tries to notice the way to this place by throwing pieces of bread along the way. But birds and animals take away the bread, and the direction to the house is lost. The house has neither windows nor doors and looks like a stone dolmen box or a wooden house box in which the dead were buried. Placing the deceased in a small space of darkness was considered a necessary condition for his resurrection, that is, for a new birth. Indeed, death follows birth, that is, birth is certainly a consequence of death. The birth of a new life occurs in the darkness of the womb, which is the smallest dark space. And death is a departure into darkness. So, the moon goes into the darkness of the night sky. It is not for nothing that this period of darkness is called the new moon, because it is in it that the new moon is born.

The hut stands on chicken legs. So the dark box is the bird's womb. In a Russian fairy tale, this bird is a hen that does not fly or swim, that is, it is not connected with either air or water. She cannot get off the ground, the chicken is an earthly creature. According to more archaic views, everything new is born in the darkness of the waters. The sky was perceived by the Aryans as a water surface on which the moon and sun floated in a boat. The bird lays an egg (also a small, dark, hidden place), in which the embryo of a new life is hidden. The world arises from the egg of a water bird - a goose, a swan, a duck, a heron, etc. However, the Russian fairy tale was more closely connected with the idea of ​​earthly darkness. This means that the people who came up with this fairy tale lived far from the ocean, sea or lake, there was only a dense forest around (“slumber-dream-darkness”).

The hut stands in the center of a circle, the circumference of which is marked by a palisade of human bones. Bones, like trees in the forest, have one common property - they grow, so in ancient times bones were always identified with plants and trees. Skulls with glowing eye sockets are strung on stakes. The Aryans believed that the eyes were like the sun: they emit light that allows them to see surrounding objects. The ability to see arises only with the appearance of light. In the darkness, only sounds and smells spread. The existence of such a belief is confirmed by materials from excavations of burial mounds in the Black Sea region carried out by the Ukrainian archaeologist Yu. Shilov. He discovered skulls in the excavations with coals inserted into their eye sockets. The hut is separated from the palisade by the space of a circle; light radiates from the circumference of this circle. A thin path runs from the hut to the rim of the circle. This is an invisible ray that is emitted by the house, the radius of the circle in the center of which the hut stands. Along this radius, the circle can expand, as indicated by the gate, i.e., a gap in the palisade.

The luminous circle suggests that the circle marked in the darkness of the forest is like the moon, and the forest itself is like the night sky. In the disk of the moon, its central point is invisible - the moon has a luminous surface, but its interior is dark. The moon emits a cold light. It spontaneously divides into two semicircles - crescents. This means that an invisible vertical line is drawn inside the disk, the presence of which can only be guessed at. A vertical line divides the circle into two halves - left and right. The disk of the moon can be divided into two more equal opposite parts - top and bottom. Thus, the circle is also divided in half by a horizontal line. There are four directions in flat space. The vertical and horizontal lines are the axis of mirror and rotational symmetry; together they form a cross. Lines allow you to “see” an invisible central point in a circle; they divide it into four equal parts. In this case, rotational (radial) symmetry appears more clearly. An invisible axis of rotation passes through the central point, which denotes two more opposite directions in space; the circle becomes a wheel, but 6 directions give the idea of ​​a sphere. That's why the hut turns around itself on its chicken legs. Chicken legs mean the very fact of movement (leg = movement). But the moon is also a symbol of the idea of ​​a point (a hut) that expands into a circle. The symbol of expansion here is the bone (lengthening radius and circle), the symbol of movement is the leg. Thus, in the center of the circle, in the hut, is the source of movement. A circle has a limit to its expansion - the circumference. The area of ​​the circle is darkness, but the circle emits light.

The cross allows you to see the invisible - the central point, the source of movement. The manifestation of the invisible with the help of the cross was introduced into the ritual use of Christianity much later. The sign of the cross means the exorcism of “evil spirits,” when a hitherto hidden dark force becomes visible. The name “evil spirits” was given to those invisible components of the circle that are present in it, hidden from light (light itself is a product of darkness), and indeed all the “inhabitants” of darkness. You can learn about their existence not by vision, but by knowledge, that is, knowledge obtained not from the senses, but by reflection. The knowledge hidden from the eyes is that very secret knowledge that was available only to the initiates. Acquiring secret knowledge was possible by plunging into darkness. This descent into darkness is like death, and the neophyte is like being born again. The old woman, who lived in a hut on chicken legs, knew something, for which the daring good fellow went into the dark forest. To gain knowledge, he had to immerse himself in the womb. The young man set out on a journey for some higher knowledge, as he reached the center of the circle. And the hut is the womb in which the universe is born (an expanding circle). The young man, apparently, needed to gain knowledge about the birth of the universe.

Wise old lady

Baba Yaga is an old woman. The female gender indicates that Yaga has the potential to produce new life. She has a dark womb in which the seed is laid that gives rise to life. But childbearing potential is not realized; old age prevents this. Birth in this case implies the receipt of secret knowledge. In more distant times, the rite of initiation into the secret required that the neophyte spend some time in the womb of a fish or other sea animal, for example a whale (“miracle-yudo fish-whale”), i.e., to be associated with water. A fish stomach is an analogue of a hut and a woman’s womb, and the abyss of water is akin to a dark forest. The mother's womb, or more broadly, the feminine principle, has always been associated with darkness. The word “darkness” itself (signs “T”, “M”, “A”) is “mother” (signs “M”, “A”, “T”). If the hut standing in the middle of the illuminated circle symbolizes an invisible point hidden in the disk of the moon, then Yaga herself may be the oldest symbol of the moon. Indeed, her brother is the month, and the month and the moon form a male-female pair. The month scatters seed-stars across the sky (“mes-sem”), and the moon collects them into its bosom (“moon = bosom”). Yaga is blind. Not because vision atrophies when living in darkness, but because it generally appears only in the light, when an object is illuminated. An object in the dark has no image. That is why Yaga is ugly, that is, devoid of image (without an image). Baba Yaga is a witch. The word “witch” is a derivative of the word “witch,” i.e., possessing knowledge. And knowledge is the ability to see with invisible eyes, that is, to know not only what is hidden from the light, but also what is generally inaccessible to perception by the senses, including hearing, smell, and touch.

Baba Yaga's number is four. The cross divides the circle into exactly that many equal parts. It also denotes the axis of rotation in the circle - the crosshair. Together, the four parts and the axis of rotation form the number five, but the old woman does not accept it. In the European fairy tale about the gingerbread house, similar in many ways to the Russian fairy tale about Baba Yaga, one of the main ones is the episode with the little finger of a little boy, whom the witch put in a cage. The boy eats and drinks and from time to time, on the orders of the mistress of the house, he lets her feel his little finger, by which she determines the “readiness” of the victim intended for burning in the oven. The little finger is the fifth finger on the hand, it is “extra”. In other similar stories, the little finger is completely cut off. Often a ring is put on a severed finger - this is the prototype of a circle, through the center of which the axis of rotation passes. Baba Yaga is connected to the center of the circle, her hut rotates and turns, but the axis of rotation itself, which becomes the “world axis,” has nothing to do with the image of Yaga: it has other meanings. The axis of rotation is a stake that transforms flat space into volumetric space (two-dimensional into three-dimensional). Baba Yaga is associated only with the concept of the expansion of space, but not with its transformations.

Most of the time, Baba Yaga sleeps, occupying all the free internal space of the hut. According to the ideas of the Aryans, a sleeping person differs from a waking person in that he does not speak, and from a deceased person in that he breathes and retains heat. This means that Yaga breathes, her body is warm, and when she wakes up, she can talk. Breathing is an oscillatory movement in which the womb is alternately filled with air and then emptied. It looks like a slight movement of the wind “back and forth”, or “inhale-exhale” (“walk-doh”). The model of oscillatory motion is a pendulum, which can be graphically represented as a segment. In a segment, oscillations occur near a fixed midpoint. If the segment is a diameter, then the midpoint is the center of the circle. Baba Yaga sleeps in this center, producing a weak oscillatory movement with her breath. When she awakens, she flies out of the hut in a self-propelled mortar. Centrifugal movement begins when Yaga awakens. It is driven by a “third force,” which is the resultant of two opposing forces that cause the movement of the pendulum. This third force is like a ray emanating from the center and is indicated by a path running from the hut to the periphery of the circle. A similar idea of ​​the trinity, or “third force,” is reflected in the traditional hairstyle of Russian women. The head is a circle, the crown is the central point, the hair, combed in the middle, is two opposite directions (two forces), the braid is the third force. The braid was woven from two or three lashes, reflecting the meanings of binary and trinity. In Rus', hair was considered sacred. Yaga flies in a mortar, waving a broom. The broom is a symbol of the winter winds covering their tracks. In Rus', the custom of giving a broom to women made of snow (snowmen) into their “hands” has been preserved. The broom indicates the origin of Baba Yaga - the northern winter forest. Thus, the notes scattered on the way to the hut disappear, and the traces leading from it are covered up. This hides the location of the point from which the universe arises. With the maximum expansion of the circle, the point actually disappears along with the knowledge about it. And yet, no matter what direction the good fellow goes, having entered the area of ​​the circle-pine forest, he will certainly find himself near the hut.

Animals of certain species live in the hut along with Yaga. They are attributes of Baba Yaga, that is, they reflect her inherent properties. So, an owl is a bird that sees in the dark. And since it is impossible to see in the darkness, the owl is a witch, or a symbol of secret knowledge and wisdom. The symbolism of Kot Bayun is multi-valued. Firstly, the cat's eyes are remarkable. They change their shape - sometimes a circle, sometimes a vertical line. The vertical line dividing the circle of the moon is invisible. This means that the cat knows secret signs. Secondly, the cat talks (“bait = talk”), speech is available to him, he is capable of producing modified sounds. Thirdly, the purring of a cat has a hypnotic effect, inducing sleep. In the darkness of sleep, invisible shadow images appear to a person, that is, the secret of darkness again manifests itself.

Daring good fellow

Well done, for some unknown reason, he goes to the distant kingdom (3x3x3) to the thirtieth kingdom (3x10). Such a number of triplets in the saying may indicate the purpose of the journey - he wants to know what a third force is. To gain secret knowledge, he must plunge into darkness. This is why he enters the forest. Wandering in the darkness of the forest, he accidentally comes across a hut. But the hut along with its inhabitant is not a surprise for the young man: he is clearly prepared to meet them. His mother taught him what to do and what to say. The feminine principle has always been associated with darkness and secret knowledge. The reason for this is the same female womb, giving birth to new life. Traditionally, a woman in Rus' was considered the keeper of knowledge, which she passed on to children. In strict accordance with the instructions given to him, the young man blows on the hut, initiating its movement, and demands that it turn towards him. And the hut turns. In order for the door invisible in the darkness to take on an image and open, you need to pronounce its name - the word. When a thing is named, it manifests itself, since each thing has its own name - no name, no thing. The door always hides something, it has this function. Naming a door also defines its function, so the door opens. The word thus becomes a key (“key word”), revealing that secret that was hidden. Sometimes the door is additionally sprinkled with water. In this case, such a custom is a rudiment, since initially the darkness of the waters was considered the womb. But the good fellow is also familiar with the legends of antiquity.

Well done enters the hut. Baba Yaga greets the uninvited guest quite cordially; she recognizes his presence by smell. She can't wait to ask him about this and that. However, our hero strictly observes the custom. He reminds the old woman that he must first be fed, watered, washed in the bathhouse, and only then have a conversation. The stomach is also a dark womb. Food is “laid” into it, which burns in it, producing heat, breathing and speech. Death is hunger, or lack of food. The sounds of speech come out of the womb through the tube-larynx (“hot - hot”) along with exhalation. As a drink, the guest is offered honey beer, or an intoxicating drink - mead. Intoxication allows you to forget about caution and blurt out secrets (“what’s on a sober person’s mind is on the drunken person’s tongue”), illuminating the dark corners of the soul. People in Rus' treated a drunken person with sympathy. It was believed that a person deprived of consciousness under the narcotic effect of alcohol becomes involved in the secret. Washing the body with water is necessary not only to wash away the “Russian spirit” and become “invisible” to the witch. Water introduces you to the mystery, giving new knowledge - a new birth, a new life. It was believed that water has the property of separating (“dead water”) and connecting (“living water”), i.e., “hot-cold” transitions occur in it. The separation of the body with hot water is a brew, the connection with cold water is the appearance of a form, for example ice. The rite of passage, understood as a new birth, could be accompanied by the cutting of the body, the pieces of which were then fused when sprinkled with water.

When the neophyte was fully prepared, the sorceress had to teach him the language of animals and birds. No wonder she was their mistress. Baba Yaga mastered this language just as she mastered sound in general. In Slavic fairy tales, the words “yaga” sound like “edzhi”, “ezi”, which is very reminiscent of the word “language”. The tongue, as an organ of speech, contributes to the production of consonant sounds, that is, it modifies the sound wave emanating from the larynx. The result is a variety of sounds. The tongue is the most mobile part of the speech apparatus. And Baba Yaga, as we tried to show above, is very closely connected with all kinds of movement. That's why she got the nickname "Bone Leg" - the bone grows, but the leg walks. The sorceress gives the guest what she can. What are these gifts? The horse is the fastest animal. The speed of his running was compared to the speed of thought. Therefore, the daughter of the Aryan creator god Tvashtar, Saranyu, who personified thought, was depicted as a horse. To give the horse greater speed, wings were attached. The walking boots speak for themselves. Wings could also be attached to the boots. The Greek god Hermes, who wore winged sandals, patronized merchants and travelers. The flying carpet, together with the Yagi stupa, joins the list of self-propelled objects. Finally, the gusli-samoguda, i.e. a musical instrument that produces its own sound. In the gusli, the sound is modified by a string. The presence of the harp among the gifts confirms Baba Yaga’s connection with sound and speech.

Baba Yaga and Agni

Baba Yaga and the god Agni are similar in that they are both associated with movement. Moreover, they are the movement as such, in all its forms. Agni is “the navel of everything: moving and solid,” written in the tenth mandala of the Rigveda. The opposites “rest-movement” are manifested in it. The rest of Agni is not absolute, it resembles sleep, since the oscillatory movement “back and forth”, similar to breathing, does not stop. Thanks to breathing, God becomes immortal; he does not die, but moves from a state of sleep to a state of wakefulness. So is Yaga. She sleeps in her hut, and when she awakens, she flies out of it, accompanied by the wind, her eternal companion. Movement is not only movement over long distances, but also the growth of an object, for example a plant or the body of an animal (“solid”), and in general any creation or gathering. But movement can also be destructive when the whole is disunited. Therefore, Agni is both creator and destroyer, his nature is binary. Another hypostasis of Agni is Rudra, who was credited with destructive properties. Destructive forces are evil, creative forces are good. Evil is insidious and unexpected, it is associated with the forces of darkness, and Yaga lives in darkness. Therefore, the image of Yaga was subsequently demonized, whereas initially it had the same dual nature as the image of Agni. Agni's dual nature means that he is the "firstborn of law." Law is determinism, which manifests itself as an alternation of opposites, for example, night-day, good-evil, creation-destruction, etc. Two opposites are two horns connected by a common source of movement - a head-point; together they form an angle. Growth means the addition of matter, and any movement can be considered as an increase in the number of elements, such as angles. Angles connected in a line resemble a wave, and if we mark the beginning of a zigzag wave, we get the end of a snake’s tail. Snakes, lizards and frogs inhabit Yaga's hut. Snakes are like a wave and are associated with water, a lizard has legs and moves on the ground, a frog, as an amphibian, connects water and land. In Russian folklore, Yaga is no longer associated with water, she is a resident of the forest, and her hut has the legs of a completely earthly bird.

The dual nature of Agni is reflected in his epithets - he is “bull and cow,” that is, a two-horned animal. The bull grew up in the bosom of the waters, “from the waters they went to look for him and found him on the head of a cow.” But the cow is the moon, and the bull is the sun, the son of the moon. The myth of the “golden embryo” is associated with Agni. It is generated by the two halves of the universe, heaven and earth, to which the egg shell corresponds. Fire is hidden in the egg and is associated with the yolk. The egg and water are linked together in waterfowl symbolism. The egg is in the womb of the bird. Agni is hidden in the depths of darkness. Yaga's hut resembles the womb of a bird, and the stove resembles a fire hidden in the womb. Agni “emerged as a golden embryo, having been born, he became the only master of the universe,” “he created three worlds - heaven, earth and air space.” Baba Yaga is also the mistress of the universe - an expanding circle. In his actions, for example in the creation of the universe, binary Agni manifests itself as a trinity, he has a third force. His hypostasis is Trita Aptya, “the third water one.”

Agni is born “for the power of action.” But before the embryo is born, “the two halves of the universe, wrapped in a blanket, were fortified with fat and honey dishes.” Fat is food for fire, it is flammable. Honey has a golden color, the color of solar fire. In addition, honey is produced by the bee, its second product is wax, which, when burned, releases heat, like fat. Honey gives strength. Perhaps the mysterious drink Soma was a type of eggnog. In addition to plant juice, it contained egg, honey and milk. Yaga’s evil nature is manifested in her desire to fry or eat someone, that is, to give food to fire, because fire “grows from food.” The witch who lives in the gingerbread house fattens the children and checks by touch whether the boy's little finger is fat enough. Heat is directly related to movement. When ice melts, its motionless block turns into flowing water. Wind occurs when two fronts - hot and cold air - come into contact. The cold moon flares into the hot sun. That's why the sun is Baba Yaga's third brother.

Movement is inherent in thought and speech (“speech-river-flow”). The priests appeal to Agni: “Breathe into us a happy thought,” since he is the “stimulator of thoughts,” “with the tongue of Agni he brings inspiration.” The flames are as varied as the sounds of speech. It is not for nothing that tongues of flame and tongues of speech are called the same word. Agni lives in darkness, but his existence is determined by the fact that he has a name: “his highest name is secret, located in the third kingdom.” It seems that this is the answer to the question why the good fellow went to the thirtieth kingdom. His goal is to find out the supreme name of God. As a reward for diligence, Yaga-Agni bestows gifts on the young man. “Agni distributes treasures. Create for us a portion full of goodness.”

In the central myth of the Rig Veda, Indra splits a mountain into two parts, heaven and earth, releasing the fire hidden in it. The images of the mountain and the “golden embryo” are identical. Baba Yaga's gifts, such as a horse and an eagle, are associated with the mountain. The eagle flies high, reaching the sky and the top of Mount Meru. The winged horse ascends to Mount Parnassus, and since the horse is associated with thought, the horse Pegasus is associated with poetic inspiration. Baba Yaga gives the young man a fire-breathing horse. This directly shows its connection with fire. The smoke rising from the flames of the fire reaches the heavens, and Yaga, on her flying objects, strives to rise above the standing forest. And from behind the forest a flaming ball of the sun rises.

E.V. Tereshina, Baba Yaga bone leg // “Academy of Trinitarianism”, M., El No. 77-6567, pub. 15431, 07.26.2009

Since childhood, I could not understand Pushkin’s phrase: “There the stupa with Baba Yaga walks - it wanders by itself.” It is quite simple to imagine a flying stupa. If you wish, you can admit that it moved in spurts, that is, skipping, but it is very difficult to imagine the wandering motion of this vehicle, at least for me.

Let me remind you that the Slavs perceived the stupa as an object that had healing properties and performed a significant ritual role, including in the celebration of such important events as weddings and funerals. We've already talked about weddings. As for funerals, the Poles, in particular, believed that after the death of a person, the stupa cannot be used for three days for its main economic purpose, that is, to grind grain in it, etc., since it is in it that the person’s soul is found during this time period.

The use of a mortar (as well as a pestle) at other times was also accompanied by a number of instructions. In particular, it was not allowed to leave it with the pestle inside overnight, so as not to allow the evil spirits to crush it; it was forbidden to leave it open, since this promised the gloomy prospect of not closing the mouth before death.

Why is the stupa so tightly connected with the image of Baba Yaga? Frankly, I share the point of view according to which initially this character was for our ancestors not a shaggy monster with a bone leg, a nose that had grown into the ceiling and other unpleasant signs of appearance, but a being of divine origin, the Great Mother, associated with fate, life and death , the rebirth of the soul and its guide from the world of the living to the world of the dead. She was also credited with the status of mistress of wild forest animals, which was also the function of the Mother Goddess.

And the stupa in this case is a rather serious argument, since it was an attribute of the goddess Mokosh. In addition, in many fairy tales, Baba Yaga appears as a spinner or weaver - and these professions were characteristic of goddesses of fate. In addition, she is the owner of a mortar, which personified the feminine principle, and a pestle - symbolizing the masculine - that is, the idea of ​​​​fertility, as well as a broom, akin to a broom, which could be both an attribute of evil spirits and protection from it: “rides in a mortar, with a pestle drives you forward, sweeps the road forward with a broom”; “she rides in a mortar, pushes herself with a pestle, beats herself with a broom, whips herself from behind in order to run faster.”

In addition, the stupa was an accessory to the mill farm, and the mill, as is known, in popular beliefs, on the one hand, was also associated with devilry, but on the other hand, it was a place for the production of flour as the basis of bread, the relationship to which was sacred, that is, sacred.

In ancient times, elemental spirits were also associated with the mortar and pestle. In particular, thunderclouds were likened to a mortar, and lightning was likened to a pestle striking it. By the way, in Rus', Baba Yaga was also considered involved in thunderstorm phenomena - was she not the predecessor of the thunderstorm Perun in a female form?

Finally, the terrible gastronomic preferences of the old woman, who allegedly kidnapped, fried in the oven and ate children, also contain echoes of an ancient ritual “baking” a child for medicinal purposes, and this indicates that Baba Yaga belongs to folk medicine. And since horror stories, the Russians have called the eldest woman in the family, as well as a healer, a doctor, and a midwife, a woman. There was even the word “womanize”, which meant “to give birth, to heal, to cast a spell.”

Here's grandma for you. Where would one be without a stupa - a sacred object of Slavic economy! However, after the Christianization of Rus', from about the 12th century, the dead began to be buried not in wooden frames on chicken legs, but in dugout oak logs, which resembled stupas, and therefore received the same name.

We owe the expression “to give an oak tree” to precisely this custom, which survived until Peter I issued a decree declaring the death penalty for cutting down oak groves. After that, they began to knock together coffins from boards. But over the six centuries of the existence of stupa decks, Baba Yaga’s fame has taken root that she moves in a coffin deck. And this could not but contribute to the transformation of the image of the forest mistress in a negative direction. Like this.

Baba Yaga's hut: where did she get chicken legs and a turning device?

The remarkable features of the home of the famous hero of folk tales, located in the wilderness of the forest, are known to everyone: firstly, it stood on chicken legs, and secondly, it was capable of turning at least 180 degrees. Were there real prototypes of these characteristics in the architectural structures of our ancestors? Let's figure it out.

Chicken legs

For any modern person, chicken legs mean chicken feet. This is how the grandmother’s abode is depicted in all children’s fairy tale books. But just imagine what size and endurance they must have been, even taking into account that the old woman lived not in a mansion or even in a hut, but in a hut, that is, a small building: wow, and that’s all!

However, in a fairy tale everything is possible. However, there is a version according to which these coasters turned into kuryas by transforming the concept of kurians - that is, fumigated with special ritual compositions. And this is what they really did at one time in funeral rituals: when they burned the dead, they placed their ashes in strong buildings, which were installed on high supports, at the base of which they burned herbs appropriate for the occasion, etc.

In this way, the passage of the deceased into the world of the dead was ensured, since it was possible to get there only from inside the hut (and Baba Yaga was also a “border guard”, a guard and a guide to the other world). That is why the fairy-tale hero, finding himself in a clearing in front of her quaint house, discovered that there was no entrance to it: this is because it was located on the other side, from the side of the forest, symbolizing the other world.

To be fair, it is worth mentioning that not only were the grave houses placed on high supports, but since, according to almost universally accepted opinion, our grandmother guarded the border between the worlds, then the most likely option is one associated with a funeral ritual. In addition, remembering Pushkin’s words: “The hut there on chicken legs stands without windows, without doors, let us note that these were precisely grave huts.

The writer A. Ivanov, a historian by training, puts forward another version, referring to the traditions of the Ural-Finnish people, who had a sacred somyakh building in a secret clearing in the forest, installed on chopped stumps so that a lynx, wolverine or bear would not climb there.

Inside was a wooden ittarma doll - the receptacle of the ancestor's soul - in national attire, which included, among other things, a fur coat-yaga. A palisade was erected around the clearing with the skulls of sacrificial animals hung on it. According to the author of the concept, the image of Baba Yaga in Russian fairy tales is an example of the merging of cultures.

But let's return to the fairy-tale hero. As is known, he knew how to negotiate with the magical building, since it was capable of rotating at least half a circle. And the formula of the agreement was always the same: “Hut, hut, turn your front to me, your back to the forest.” Is it only a miracle that can explain this?

Swivel mechanism

It turns out that rotating structures were also known to our ancestors, and not just known, but built not so rarely. We are talking about... windmills, the variety of designs of which can be divided into two main types: pillars (northern version) and tents (in the middle zone).

Without going into engineering details, let's note the main thing. The pillars, under the influence of the wind, rotated on a pillar dug into the ground, in addition to which there were additional supports - the same pillars, a pyramid-shaped cage or a frame. The lower part of the tents remained motionless, and only the upper part turned. As you can see, the first type is more similar to Baba Yaga’s home.

So it turns out that prototypes of Baba Yaga’s wonderful properties existed in real life. Maybe the invisibility cap will be found? Walking boots? Can you find the running boots? Or a self-assembled tablecloth? Just kidding, of course. But one more question remains: is there a contradiction in the combination of the structural properties of the burial house and the mill?

I think no. Firstly, everything is possible in a fairy tale: there is a different reality, a different space and a different time. Secondly, people have always associated millers and millerwomen with special qualities associated with magic. Grandma’s cat is also associated with the animal population of mills... In any case, Baba Yaga’s home is very interesting.

Why does Baba Yaga have a bone leg?

I have been convinced more than once that many people think that the bone leg is attributed to Baba Yaga solely to create a more terrifying image. However, there are also many people who know that this old woman is the guardian of the border between the worlds of the living and the dead, between Reality and Navy. Being a symbol of connection with both death and life, she is both alive and dead precisely because of the borderland.

From this it is easy to conclude that grandma, as they say, has one foot here and the other there. Since modern man associates the skeleton with death, a bone limb, that is, a limb not clothed with flesh, is a sign of the dead. In fact, everything is somewhat more complicated, that is, this position is both correct and erroneous. In general, complete dualisms...

Let's turn to the traditions of different peoples. In many Siberian tribes, for example, a deceased shaman or shaman was buried several times: first, they were laid on a high platform or tied head up to the trunk of the upper part of a tree, and after three years the bones were collected and buried in a mound (less often, burned). It is still considered very important for shamans that the burial is carried out without flesh, and that changes are made to the skeletal part, for example, adding a lens to the spine or a special bone.

The corpses of ordinary members of the tribe, after rotting in the open air, were transferred either to where they lived before, or to a small bark building nearby, and after some time they were buried in a common grave. It is curious that a similar custom existed among the American Iroquois.

The Nganasans buried children and teenagers wrapped in skins or placed in a wooden box, placed on top of a human-height pillar. In some areas of Japan, a deceased person was buried in ancient times and, after a certain period of time, exhumed to rebury the bones. In distant Australia, buildings were built similar to the burial houses of the Russians.

A number of Mongolian tribes had a special natural area where they laid the dead... to be devoured by predators, and then they collected the bones and performed a funeral ritual. Zoroastrians also placed the death bed in such a way that the flesh of the deceased was eaten by birds and the funeral rite was performed exclusively with the parts of the skeleton remaining after the bird's meal.

In the Russian North, several years ago, archaeologists discovered a mound in which the skeletal remains of a person were located inside, so to speak, in the womb of a wooden female figure of a very large size, about 4 meters long, burnt to charcoal. Why?

This may seem crazy to us today, but we shouldn’t rush to conclusions. Such actions had their own philosophy and ideology. In ancient times, people perceived differently the concepts of the frailty of existence and its antipode - eternity. Flesh was a temporary shell, and bone, in contrast, was associated with the concepts of resurrection and rebirth of the soul.

Thus, Baba Yaga’s bone leg is nothing more than a demonstration of involvement in the eternal, and not just the opposite of life and death, because our ancestors deeply believed in posthumous existence, otherwise the legends about the rivers Styx and Currant would not have been so tenacious.

And, by the way, not often, but still there are fairy tales in which the forest grandmother’s leg is golden. It must be said that according to the ancient beliefs of the Indo-Europeans, the living soul of a person was located in the foot, more precisely, in a special small bone located there and hidden under the flesh. The absence of flesh on the leg indicated that the owner of such a limb was not a person, but a spirit.

Affairs and lives of non-living persons
Remembering Tales

Russian folk tale in verse. In eight chapters

Chapter first
Kidnapping

A noisy alarm woke up
With the dawn of a joyful day...
Standing at the royal palace
Four fiery horses.
Fire sparks from stone
Stallions move their hoofs,
They snore and thrash; stirrups
They are held tightly by the reins.
Showing off in lush attire,
Burning with silver and gold,
Eagerly waiting
A crowd of the king's courtiers,
His employees are dashing
In feasts, hunting and war,
Still cutting edge in everything
They stand on the right side.
To the left is the queen's light staff:
The beautiful floor in all its glory;
In the clothes of a festive girl
In a closed long strip
Lined up in a beautiful chain
And, lighting up his eyes with a smile,
Like a sky with a watery steppe in a storm,
They speak with a nasty tone...
Here's the army! the ford of Chernobog
The light can safely swear,
That there are many who are defeated by her,
But she has no winner!

The king comes out. He's being let down
His favorite horse
His wife and son follow him,
And the daughter is clearer than a young day;
Sweet as young Zimtserla,
She gives everyone a smile -
And a row of teeth, whiter than pearl,
It bewitches the eyes and souls.
She puts her foot in the stirrup -
Not daring to take a breath,
Men are an envious tribe
The eyes are happy to eat the leg;
He strokes the horse with his dexterous hand -
Everyone sees a pen in a dream;
Jokingly nods his head to someone -
And everyone's eyes are in that direction;
Looks at someone sternly -
He is both sad and gloomy;
Will he blink his eyebrow and say the word -
The mind itself will be baffled.

And our grandfathers knew a lot
Appreciating poetry truthfully:
Plenira had a whole regiment
Slaves of lovers - and no wonder!..
According to legend, it has come to us,
Passing from grandfather to grandson,
That the one plunged into torment by contempt,
The whole century suffered; that one was burned
One supportive smile;
He, the restless talker,
I was speechless from amazement,
When I looked into her eyes...

Where are the king and queen going?
And the white-faced Tsar-Maiden?
Where should men and women go?
Are you planning to accompany them?..

The king, tired of the victorious glory,
He loved to wage war with animals,
And like hunting in the old days
It was also a woman's pastime,
Sometimes the queen is with him too
Share the baiting in the departing field
Loved it. This is where I make my point.
Come to the field with me...

Diverse crowds
Village of warriors and wives,
With whips, spears, arrows,
The fields are full of noise and ringing!
There are snares all around,
Diligent pursuit of animals
Everyone was tired, like work;
But catching, baiting and shooting
They are going successfully: they have already defeated
Fox, wolf and ferret,
In addition, they lured into the net
Short-sighted groundhog
And a couple of birds were hunted down.
The king is pleased. With your own hand
He strokes the soft fluff of the fox;
He stopped and waited for the queen.
She came running like an arrow.
Then from your tired horses
They went down to rest;
Having forgotten the hunt, they came to them
Crowds of daring riders
And they brought me honey in cups.
The ladle is filled with effervescent moisture,
And a beneficial stream,
I'm thirsty for drinking them,
Gives them strength and courage.
Meanwhile, there is serious talk going on
Between the courtiers: who is the wolf
Were you defeated? who's on the fox
Raised your timid hand?
Who drove the little marmot
A snare placed in him?
Crown of victory over the fox
Was assigned to the king and queen,
And their faithful hand
Slayed a wolf and a ferret.
Having heard their general opinion,
The queen came in admiration,
The Tsar's sovereign brow
A clear smile blossomed;
A toast was offered to the successful fishing,
And now there’s a foamy vial
He filled the cups to the brim,
And now they’re drinking...

Suddenly a dark cloud
The heavenly face is clouded,
Like a demon, with fury and whistling
The wind blew through the clear field,
The camping tent was carried away,
There are no more buckets in my hands,
The hats of the courtiers were torn off...
Suddenly a scream, and a whistle, and a noise in the distance,
And the sound of hooves on the chest of the earth
They heard - why
Are they surprised here? in forests
After all, there is no shortage of foxes:
Then, the noble princess blows the trumpets
And with a host of hounds and maidens
Chasing foxes through the forest.
But for some reason the queen
Suddenly fear attacked, the smart king himself,
Although I was never a coward in old times,
Here, out of fear, a mitten
From trembling hands he dropped...
Suddenly he turned his horse,
He waved his hand and galloped off
There, where the knocking and screaming rushed,
Behind him is the queen and the whole court
They rushed, they drove: dark forest
Before them a slender giant
Appeared as an obstacle on the way
And, stirred by a hurricane,
As if whispering to them: “Don’t go!”
They enter the forest: in a close crowd
There are timid maidens standing there,
They are looking intently at something;
Between them the princess has a heavenly face
The king saw: some kind of fear
He was noticeable in her eyes.
He was amazed. “Something is bad!” -
Shouts to his wife - and with an arrow
A young man flies to the princess,
He flies and flies and sees a miracle:
Thick smoke billows in the distance,
In a cap made of toads, in a snake fur coat,
Not on horseback - in a huge mortar,
Like a bluish-white veil
Entwined in a smoke network,
A terrible witch is flying;
It was only a day before the full moon, -
And at this time, everyone knew
That the witches' holiday was coming.
I drove with an iron pestle
The sorceress steps like a horse,
She hummed something through her teeth,
Ringing sharp fangs.
There are quarter wrinkles on the forehead,
And the mouth is torn to the ears,
The ears are huge, half an arshin,
Chest-length hair from the nostrils,
There are large holes where the eyes should be,
The back of the head is hunched, legs are straight,
There are huge horns on the forehead -
Everything at that moment convinced them,
That Baba is old Yaga
For some reason, Bor visited them.
And, in fear, everyone was dumbfounded,
The warriors set off faster
To a crowd of discouraged maidens.
But it’s too late - no matter how much we rush,
Their horses betrayed them,
Even though they forced them...
The witch swooped down
To the army of weak, timid wives,
Having examined them from all sides,
Looked into the princess's eyes,
flew over her like a raven,
She pressed her hand into her chest,
With the other hand she grabbed the waist,
She sat me on the mortar with me
And faster than my thoughts I ran away...
First of all, the young brother of the princess
He sent an arrow after the predator,
Then the king himself, sad, angry,
Sent another one. Darkness and darkness
The sea of ​​light changed again.
She was visible in the distance,
Dressed in cloudy fog,
And with her the unfortunate princess.
The pursuit was terrible
Following the villainess, just a little
Bulat's arrow did not hit
Her traitorous breasts
But the terrible iron pestle (in) the mortar
He saved the sorceress from the very depths.
She will knock them harder -
And miraculously, the stupa will run,
Like a deer that hears a dog barking;
She will strike more often -
And the stupa will fly in the summer
Through the hills and gullies...
We spent the whole day chasing her,
Everyone was lagging far, far behind
And finally they fell completely behind.
The princess is gone!.. The princess is with her!
The king is sad. Herself
The queen blamed for that misfortune:
“Loving hunting passionately,
Was it not I who taught my daughter to use it?
Wasn't it me who gave it to her first?
Do you understand what is a horse and what is an arrow? -
This is how the sad queen cries.
“Where is the daughter, where is the sun, the Tsar-Maiden?
Where is the kingdom's best star,
Favorite pearl, where, where
Has she been missing for so long?
She's gone! She was stolen
A creature sent from hell! -
So the sad king calls.
And in unfeigned contrition
They cry day and night
There is no hope of seeing my daughter,
There is no hope for her salvation!..
Instant royal misfortune
The news spread across the capital,
Tear of hot fate
Has disappeared from the eyes of good subjects,
They all truly loved
The king and the royal family,
They lived peacefully under their rule,
Blessing your life,
Pleased with their wise rule,
And they were more painful than their own
Royal misfortunes for them.
Fun with common devastation
Changed everywhere; high-spirited laughter
And the meek world left everyone.
But who was the most wrecked,
In whose chest is everyone deeper and stronger
An unexpected blow stuck
And left a terrible mark on her?
Bulat grieved the most,
Brother of the kidnapped princess.
That same evening he got ready to go,
I solemnly swore to the king
Don't be home until then
While the kidnapped sister
From the hands of a witch he will not steal
And he will not take revenge for the shame;
Heaven sees the holy oath,
And if someone cheats on her,
Let it execute him...
He has two companions by fate
In distant wanderings given:
Willingly brave heroes,
Svetan and Serp are tired
The monotony of a courtier's life,
Direct the way to an overseas country
They agreed with him, the king's daughter
Find the zeal of grief,
Compete with the heroes
To look at the maidens of a foreign land,
To be crowned with a resounding victory
Or die just as loudly...
One with determination and strength
I already proved that I was not a coward,
His beard and mustache
The gray hair has been turning silver for a long time.
Another - on the morning of better years,
But already familiar with military combat,
Not jokingly called a hero,
Handsome, the kingdom is in lush color.

Chapter two
About the origin of Yaga and other things

The clear day is ready to set;
Three brave knights on horseback
They jump across the field - the dust swirls,
And amber sparks splash.
Nature is dormant. In the dark distance
The forest is turning black. They come to him
But here, a mystery to the mind,
Three crossroads presented themselves to them.
Which way leads there,
Where their princess was imprisoned,
Who will guess, who will understand?
After thinking this way they decided:
“There are three of us, there are three roads here
They lead to three different countries, -
So let's hug, say goodbye,
We will each choose the path,
And we’ll rush to different countries,
Maybe we’ll find the princess!..”
Three brave knights embraced,
They swore friendship and parted...
Bulat chose the middle path.
The moon is not visible, there are clouds in the sky,
There is a dense forest around Bulat;
Bulat is sad, his chest aches, -
Alone!.. But our hero
The next morning the fun of battle awaits,
And it’s better for us to have sadness and night
Get him off the stage quickly.
It's morning. People, wake up
It's time for you to act, it's time!
The knight rode without stopping
The dense forest until the morning;
The forest has passed; there is a plain in front of him
Lying there, luxurious as a painting,
Luxuriously decorated with flowers,
Fragrances of delicate amber,
Like the Garden of Eden, watered.
Involuntarily to the serene thought
Hearts customize view
Nature young and blooming, -
Bulat fell asleep under the lush bush.
But then he stood up, invigorating the horse
And he jumps again! Sees: in the field
Two horses are grazing in the wild,
From under the saddle, like from a pipe,
Pillars of smoke emerge.
He goes further. Sees: Virgo
Holding hands tightly by the tree
Stands tied; moaning,
As if calling for help,
Cursing someone in grief,
He calls him his villain.
Damask steel valley in amazement
Looked from end to end
And I finally understood clearly
The reason for the strange phenomenon...
With all the fury of enemies,
Reconciled only behind the door of the coffin,
Two knights fought; their words
Only anger could comprehend the meaning.
But it was clear that at a cost
Victory weeping maiden...
Filled with righteous anger
With sympathy for the young victim,
So sad, inconsolable,
Young Bulat flies hastily
To the site of the fatal battle.
“Leave your diarrhea fight,
Do not dare to dishonor swords,
Taste the fruit of crime
Don't delude yourself with dreams!
You must ask for forgiveness
From the maiden you offended,
Or my sword is unshameable
Her villains will be revenged!” -
The knight exclaimed, exposing
Bloody Sword; between themselves
Enemies, forgetting the battle,
They rushed towards Bulat like an arrow.
One on two Bulat comes out
Where his duty dictates it,
And in honor he finds strength,
Perun himself strikes for him.
They got along. Successful strike
He threw one to the ground,
He choked on the dark blood.
Now one on one...
Both are not cowards, dexterous, stately,
The damask swords are sharpened,
Who will fall, who will live,
Who should bury whom?
Who will be the genius of this battle,
In the colors of a victorious crown,
And for whose soul should I send prayers?
To the throne of the eternal creator?

Have you seen when two clouds
Striving in the cloudy skies
One to the other? It's just a step
They are divided; a mighty thunder struck,
Collided tightly chest to chest:
One dissipated, the other
Spreading your wings freely,
A proudly controversial path passes...

Pieces of their armor are flying,
Sparks rain down from steel,
Ferocious like tigers
And everyone is stronger than themselves,
With insane courage both
Fight; stained with blood
And disgusting as evil
Bulatov is an enemy; he's already wounded
But his sword sparkles terribly.
Guarded by strong armor,
Our Bulat is not wounded yet,
But it penetrates deeper into the armor
He is wearing the enemy's swashbuckling sword.
In battle, a minute is precious,
You will pay with your life for your mistake.
At that moment, as if with a joyful smile
Bulatov's enemy raises his sword,
To instantly cut his head,
Damask steel to the exposed neck
Stabs a sharp sword into the villain.
The defeated enemy fell headlong:
"My winner deserves to be
The princess’s young ruler!” -
He whispered - and stopped living...

Although, according to the rule, Bulat
There's no need to leave it here
And just talk about him,
But it should stop for an hour
Here's our story about him:
Desire motivates us
See you for an hour or two
With Baba the evil Yaga...
She's meaner than any devil
Any kind you want.
This is the how and why
It’s not clear to my mind
But truly true.
Only, you see, this is the miracle:
The devil cooked twelve women
(You see, he had a weak heart,
He was head over heels in love with them,
Yes, they cheated you, evil souls!);
The water was boiling with boiling water,
White foam rushed upward,
And the witches don't care
The devil is teased with his tongue,
They smile, they laugh,
Damn honest people are defamed,
Throw foam at Satan
Yes, and they will hide to the bottom...
Satan was mad as hell
No matter how he scolded,
A little out of anger the guard
Didn't shout. Suddenly he yawned
Yes, he coughed: sulfur flame,
Copper, iron, clay, stone -
Everything is for the women, to spite them all,
It fell and poured.
Instantly the old women fell silent.
“What kind of bullshit are you talking about!” -
Satan screamed here
And he got the old women from the bottom.
He began to look at them silently:
“Fi! Yes, how much bile is this,
Anger, various nice things,
Really, just get out of hand!..
What compares to their anger?
Evil is fused with every bone,
It's just the first grade
By the way, what an honest devil! -
Finally he said quietly... -
I will deal with them valiantly;
Well, now the whole world trembles,
We will have an eternal feast here,
We will disturb you more often...
I know how to multiply evil here:
So that the creature is angrier,
All twelve of these mugs
I'm combining them into one
And I’m composing something like this
Evil woman that she is
There will be the same Satan
That is, me, my special one!”
Here he is boiled down with anger
Began to fill the body
Yes, whisper something over him.
A woman came out and looked back,
Mira smiled evilly
And, just for an hour
I saw the damn horn
Just grab the devil in the face.
Joy began to boil within the line;
"Be my big sister,
You, as I see, are kind... -
Satan said and on the cheek
Smack the beauty of the red eye... -
Be you Baba Yaga,
Walk with a bone foot,
I'll get you in right away
Don't give people peace
Yes, you will lead some astray,
Keep them accountable...
How close will you get to hell?
I will give you a reward for everyone!”
Then suddenly Satan disappeared...
Now, I am tea, clear
You're the reason why
Neither with the sloth nor with the glutton,
She's not with the robber
Can't be compared.
Yaga surpassed everyone,
She has all the devil's power
Was in one...
The days flew by in succession.
By damn order,
Without wasting an hour,
She did evil to everyone
Sometimes for something
I was getting closer to hell,
I received an award there
And do evil again
Then she was released into the world.
Once by chance, for fun,
She climbed in for a day
To Tikhomir in the kingdom, - there
There is no account for her affairs
Both shameful and shameless,
Offensive to humanity.
There's a princess there by chance,
Just to grab some tea
From Satan she stole
I kept it with myself,
Didn't let me go anywhere
Locked the gate
To the castle, as she left;
And the princess was still sad,
I cried all night and day
And she was pale as a shadow...
I suffered alone,
She didn’t know how to leave:
Five-headed scary snake
I always watched her...
The witch's house was so scary
There are twelve towers at the corners,
There is a ditch all around, and there is no bridge...
The whole outskirts are empty,
There is no housing to be seen anywhere...
But at least it’s a shame to live as a stranger,
And that's all there is to dying,
It's better to wait a little
Will the hour of salvation come?
Or maybe regret
Yaga will suddenly attack
And she will tear it down
Will return you to your native kingdom...
And the witch's deceit
Everything grew. All night long
She flew away
She returned with the spoils.
And this is her custom:
Please her the more
The more she gets angrier and angrier!
The serpent served her diligently,
People destroyed mercilessly,
Bringing bodies home
And the witch took them,
Turned into different creatures
Or cooked and ate...

Chapter Three
Princess Lyubana and Prince Spiridon

Soon the tale will be told
It won't happen soon,
What does it say...
Having defeated the heroes,
Our Bulat approached the tree,
Untied the young maiden
He lowered his embarrassed gaze
And started a conversation with her...
"I'm not a simple girl
(So, looking at Bulat,
She began: my family,
Rules the kingdom and lives
And rich and happy,
All the roundabout kingdoms are amazing.
I am the daughter of Tsar Lyubana,
It's too early for me
Trouble struck.
I am carefree, young,
Lived carefree
But fate would have it
Punish me: villain -
Neighboring Tsar Fedosei -
Once he saw me
Suddenly he fell in love and kidnapped him.
He was my enemy with my father,
I had no hope
Having been the poorest in the area,
Get me as your wife
Yes, and I didn’t like him either,
Because I'm very stupid...
He galloped non-stop
Didn't give the horse any skill,
Maybe today I'll meet you
King Varlam was caught here.
He, as I knew, a long time ago
He was in love with me a little...
He only saw me
I became terribly furious,
He shouted, slammed his sword,
The horse stamped under him terribly,
He immediately left him,
Started a conversation with the enemy,
He had a fight with him about me.
However, he was not afraid,
Get off your tired horse
Tied me up quickly
And they had fun,
But I wasn't laughing:
Restless and sad
Full of painful thoughts,
I stood there, barely breathing,
Death called for help,
To escape from trouble,
Suddenly, knight, you appeared..."
And she's giving thanks
For unexpected salvation
Here Bulatu pays back...
But Bulat won’t know
Himself in admiration
And some kind of embarrassment
The look of his eyes is passionate,
The meaning of his speeches is strange...
But I won’t torment you:
He falls in love with Lyubana
Simple and easy for her
Explained quickly
Without further jokes,
As reason instilled in him.
Here Lyubana blushed,
Looked at Bulat
And I fell in love myself
Just saying, crazy.
It was decided: consent
For their mutual happiness
Ask your parents...
It's hot to love each other
They swore to the grave
And they both set off,
To find the princess
And feast more calmly
After the wedding. Varlam's horse
Not angry, although stubborn,
Was taken by the young princess,
Bulat planted it;
He told the bride
Why wouldn't it be bad to go together?
Yes, bashful and modest,
She became stubborn...

For the third day they have been galloping,
They hope and they cry
About the young princess,
What was stolen by Yaga,
They are waiting any hour to meet her,
And there’s only talk about her
They lead among themselves,
Or they sing songs
About love passion for each other
Yes, about a boring separation...
The day was already approaching evening, -
Bulat's horse stumbled, -
There is no forest, no housing,
The earth is getting sandier.
They are waiting to see if they will go out into the field,
Where to let the horses go at will
And take a rest yourself:
They were tired of the long journey,
Yes, it is known that hunger
No matter how young you are here,
Everything is not auntie, but rather
The fierce stepmother is fierce,
And they haven’t eaten for a long time:
There's not even a spruce on the way,
And not just a tree,
A little standing from the fruits,
As it happened before...
They move on, in hope
To pass the sandy steppe,
See the blooming meadow
But the wait is in vain...
The sun dims its radiance,
The dark evening is coming
The horse further forward,
The sand gets deeper and deeper...
“Oh, sorry, creator! stupid
I wish I could go back!” -
Bulat thinks this way.
And Lyubana is motionless,
Like some kind of vision
He sits on his horse,
Does not say anything.
Her strength has long since weakened,
And she lowered the bridle
My hand is tired...
They are greatly oppressed by melancholy,
Cold, hunger and fatigue:
A stone would take pity here!
But Bulat is not for himself
I cried, loving with all my soul
Black-eyed Lyubana,
He would have endured the wound more painfully,
If only there was only her
Saved from harm...

The horses could hardly walk,
Constantly raised
Up the sand pillars...
Do not escape, you know, from fate!
The night is all around, what should you decide on?
"We'd better stop
Wait until dawn
So as not to lose horses,” -
Bulat says to Lyubane,
Without noticing in the fog,
That Lyubana is barely alive -
There is no answer to the words.
He was terribly scared
And the princess became unhappy
Call out loudly and plaintively...
It began to get light in the sky,
He used the remains of the infusion
He poured into her face, howling loudly,
And, sad and pale,
Suddenly she came to her senses;
They began to think about salvation,
Here I saw in the distance
The lush Bulat field,
I galloped, heartily glad,
He is there with the sick Lyubana.
Suddenly, oh horror! as if drunk
He staggered in fear,
Like struck by thunder:
On him, in a snake fur coat,
On his huge stupa,
With the wild fury of the enemy,
Baba rushed Yaga...

Before sunset
Having said goodbye to Bulat,
The sickle went east.
The month flowed across the sky,
The stars in the sky sparkled,
He kept driving further and further away,
We live in hope
We are tormented by despair.
I thought angrily about the witch,
I thought I would meet the princess,
Take it away from the enemy,
Jump to the kingdom with her
And ask her as a reward.
He forgot mercy for the horse,
I drove him away without memory,
Without knowing why.
Three days have passed now,
He began to feel sad, jokes aside,
Without meeting anyone:
Boredom tormented him.
We are tormented by secret anxiety,
He was driving along the road.
Suddenly one day at the river
Sees the city in the distance -
In the vast space
He, in elegant majesty,
Showed off, flourished,
I was struck by something wonderful...
“What a wonder, what a miracle!
It would not be bad to visit it,
To get some rest,
And then on the road again,”
The sickle thought and rushed off...
The horse was panting from the heat,
He drove him more and more
And he galloped away in a minute.
The city is as magnificent as the capital,
Festive faces are everywhere.
“What is this, a holiday or something?” -
The beauty has a young
The prankster asked casually
And I found out that it was definitely a holiday:
The king had a son,
So today is christening day...
Sickle didn't know what to do:
Should we wait or should we hit the road?
And finally deciding
He galloped to the palace.
There he got along with the courtiers,
Got busy talking
Was well treated
And then brought to the king.
The king was glad to see him sincerely
And with the queen and princess
Well, ask him:
Why did he come to them?
He said that it was by chance
And then he revealed the secret,
That the princess is young,
What was stolen by Yaga,
He seeks with slavish zeal
And he stalks the world for her.
"Get some rest, brother.
I'm guilty though
I’m glad to put it for you,
I'm too busy today:
You see, I have a miracle,
Until now I lived happily
Both in dreams and in reality,
But I’ll live happier:
The son of the third year was born,
And today I was praying
At my own christenings,
Here, brother, we’re making some!
This still wouldn't be a miracle,
Yes, he is growing very quickly,
Not by days, but by hours,
Look, brother, at least for yourself -
That’s right, you’ll say: just darling!”
Then he ordered the nurse
She brought the child to him.
Serp thought he was joking
The king started talking about him,
And I was quite surprised
When I saw that it
It is said not in jest:
Suddenly a child ran into the peace
And they began to bow,
Started talking about something
It became a rod to whip a cat.
Sickle didn’t believe the little one
It was only three days
He said that it's been five years
He deigns to live
But, having been with him for half a day,
I became sure, jokes aside,
Because suddenly with him
He became half as big...
The strength in him was great,
He ran like a wild hare,
He was smart beyond his years,
It was called Spiridon.

Chapter Four
The transformations of Lyubava and the love passion of Baba Yaga

A-ta-ta, yes a-ta-ta!
As in our light
Wonderful things are happening:
Snakes are boiled in cast iron,
The goblin walks through the forests,
Doesn't give us peace
Witches ride on the hook,
The devils are riding on a shovel,
From dawn to dawn
The battle is fought by the heroes,
Roosters among themselves
They are also very prone to fighting:
Between everything that only lives,
The eternal fight is on!
The fish searches where it is deeper,
Man - where is the best place to live?
And in the usual sequence
Everything goes under the moon...
A-ta-ta, yes a-ta-ta!
I’ll continue the story...

As Bulat came to his senses,
So he became heartily glad,
That I met Yaga.
"Finally I got there
Before you, demonic daughter,
I won’t leave without my sister!
I'll give you a ringing bell
The light will tremble with moaning,
So I’ll beat you up!” -
He thought and to the sword
He rushed, and the witch
(Know she was a talker)
He talks incessantly
In some way everything reproaches him
And he asks him for something...
Here Bulat raises his sword,
Hit the witch on the head
The sorceress does not take the sword!..
Ha, ha, ha! yes hee, hee, hee!
And burst into laughter!..
Having laughed your fill,
She screamed: “At least there’s insult
I get a beating from you,
But I forgive, loving,
All the blame is on you, as a brother!
(The eyes were made by Bulatu
Here she is and her mouth is scary
She twisted it like a freak!)
You won't destroy me
And you'll only worry yourself:
Better submit to need
And marry me, Bulat!
Although I am ugly,
But I am in the world - a miracle,
You won't find another like it;
Fascinated by you
I'm all on fire, I'm all on fire,
I only dream about you,
About you both night and day
I'm sad, wandering like a shadow!
I remember I saw in my life
For the first time you are in your homeland,
You were in the field on horseback
And it came to my liking!
Oh! don't be my tyrant!
And to my heart wounds
Have compassion!”
She's even dumber here
I looked at Bulat...
“For nothing I don’t need you,
What are you, old Yaga!
Is life not dear to me?
Get the hell out for a visit
Yes, beat him out of anger,
Yes, give me your sister quickly,
Otherwise, I’ll grind you into dust!”
- “No, you don’t have a sister!
I didn’t want to love Yagitsy,
This will not be the case forever love
Warm your blood from now on!
You're driving me into grief
I will give a vacation to Milovzor, ​​-
Just stay with me
My tyrant, my lord!
What, do not you want? Okay, okay
It will be difficult for you...
A! his rival
Here I will find out up close!
No, I won’t give it to you, the tyrant,
Kiss your Lyubana! -
And throws an arrow
A witch to a young maiden...
And Lyubana is in the distance
Was in thought
And I watched in the distance
The sky is close to the earth.
The witch flew up to her,
I saw all of Lyubana,
Yes, and well, whisper over her,
Wave the black club!
I just touched her
She smiled with an evil gaze,
I looked into her face -
And Lyubana in the tree
Turned in a minute
Moreover, to a great miracle,
Immediately it grew into the ground here
And it started to swing...
The branches fluttered luxuriantly,
We rose, we bent down -
Everything went as usual:
Witchcraft has taken over!
Bulat went into battle with Yaga,
But no matter how brave he was,
The witch simply - nothing,
It’s just too expensive for him...
Moreover, he was tired:
Without eating, without sleeping,
He traveled for three days,
Unwillingly not strong...
“It’s boring for me to live alone,
Submit to cruel fate,
Hey, listen! submit,
Hurry up and marry me
I'm not always ugly
I can be beautiful:
There are days like this in the year
They are already coming.
I'd better dress up
Yes, blush, turn white,
So, believe me, I will bewitch you
And I’ll put a spell on you!” -
So Yaga told him,
And he howled with all his strength,
Over the unfortunate tree
Turning your face to him.
The branches bent with caress
And it was as if they were smiling,
It's like crying and moaning
He suddenly heard from him...

The day was already approaching evening,
He did not say goodbye to the tree,
Still sitting above him,
He kept looking at him.
I admired the flexible figure,
I marveled at the transformation
And he was full of sad thoughts.
Suddenly he hears a noise above,
Looked back: winged serpent,
All dressed in steel armor,
And with many heads
Exciting a terrible roar,
Flew on it. Bulatu
He's a messenger from hell
He would show up if he
Wasn't born brave...
Bulat keeps his sword
And he thinks about the battle,
Suddenly with a terrible cry of the Snake
He flapped his wing harder,
Spread it wider
And, although he was completely drowned in fat,
The mouth opened so wide,
What did Bulat eat at once?
Swallowed him like a fly
And he set off as fast as he could, -
Flew to the witch's house
And he sat down on the ground...
“Come out, my Yagitsa,
Chubby, white-faced!
I carried out your order:
Bulat is now with us!..”
Dressed up like a girl,
Yagitsa came running here,
Your hand with joy
She gave the Snake a kiss.
And yet he is from the womb,
Not without joy and anger,
Suddenly Bulat returned.
“How gentle he is! How sweet he is!
Would you like to whiten yourself?
(Yagitsa screamed here);
However, it doesn't matter
If only there was beauty!
And give him a peck on the lips.
Slightly Damask steel with vexed teeth
I didn’t break the witch here!..
“So that the devil loves you
(He shouted) I won't
I love one Lyubana!”
- “Ha, ha, ha, yes hee, hee, hee! -
And she burst into laughter! -
That's enough, my dear friend,
My beautiful little life,
Why am I bad for you?
Where is the best beauty?
The mouth is a little wide
The nose is quite large,
There are horns on the top of the head,
One leg is like a bone
Yes, the ear is a little long, -
But then, I’m innocent!
That’s the main thing, my friend!” -
And again Bulat smacks!..
Bulat almost howled with anger.
“Well, I was a good guest
(He spoke to himself)…
Damn you, Yaga!..”
And Yaga, burning with passion,
And caresses, and power,
And the lures of love
To your desires
seeks to bow him down,
But in vain he gets excited -
Our Bulat is all “no and no!”
He says back to her.
So days and nights pass,
Bulat is out of breath
To live with an old witch,
To endure the caresses of the devil,
To be in terrible confinement, -
And really painful
Life is so stupid to live
It’s simply better not to live!
Sad and pale
He cries for his poor sister,
She knows for sure that she
Near him is enclosed,
And he can’t see her,
Together I am indulging in grief,
Wait for the end of troubles together.
“If only I could get word from my father
How to send, he would probably soon
He stopped his filial grief;
To free the children
He would send an army, maybe,” -
This is how unfortunate Bulat dreamed.
Meanwhile, in the passionate witch
The heat of love did not go out,
And more and more arrived.
Finally one day she
All full of love thirst,
Announced that Bulat
He won't be happy with himself
If love rejects her,
What will throw him into prison,
He will be sarcastic in every possible way,
Do not give anything to eat or drink,
That she will torment him
May he teach himself to love himself!
Bulat did not listen.
In strong anger, from the chambers,
Take him to the dungeon
Yagitsa gave orders here.
And Bulat was taken away,
Planted in a stinking cellar,
Locked tightly with padlocks.
Crying bitter tears,
He didn’t know what to start, -
Day after day went by like this...
And Yaga became more angry,
Everything was blushing, turning white,
Curled my hair
But none of her beauty
That’s why I didn’t rise up
And still remains
Baba the evil Yaga
Ugly as a hag...

Chapter Five
Spiridonov's heroic feats and other things

Strong, strong Spiridon,
At three weeks he grew up,
In three weeks he became stronger,
I have become accustomed to a life of abuse;
He grew in an hour to half an inch,
To the old man's surprise,
Your own father,
And all honesty to the people...
There was a rumor about him in the kingdom,
What is a head
He has, what hitherto
They had no kingdom at all:
In the kingdom of all heroes
He won like children;
Strong like King Samson
Prince Spiridon,
There is nothing stopping him,
Will not give mercy to anyone, -
What to straighten a horseshoe,
What to bend a pin -
It's the same thing for him;
He was the most handsome in the kingdom,
Loved red girls
He drank not with a ladle, but with a bucket,
To prove to everyone my courage,
And wine and various mash...
Everyone marveled at him
He didn't let anyone down
The first was in a fist fight,
And in smoking tobacco,
And in such pranks,
The mischief maker is such that fear:
Having nailed everyone in the kingdom,
Having disgraced, having won,
Who was famous for his daring,
It became like thunder for everyone,
Everyone began to fear him
And how can you leave...
Spiridon suddenly became bored:
He didn't like being idle
Spend not even half an hour -
Behind leprosy leprosy
And behind the hot battle there is a battle
He respected with all his heart...
He came to his father one day:
“Will you soon give me freedom,
Hey you! my parent!
I'm tormented by sadness
It’s not convenient for me to live here,
Living with nothing to do is somehow boring,
There is no space for the mind
Not my daring.
Give me a horse, give me freedom -
I will scour the field,
Give me a shield and a sharp sword -
I'll flog their heads!
I will become a heroic force
Boasters make friends with the grave,
Maybe sometimes I’ll find
I can handle myself -
This is where I amuse myself:
I'll cut your throat at once
To the unyielding enemy,
He'll shut up, no matter what!
I will visit different kingdoms,
I'll see all the wonders
I'll look for a wife
Yes, I'll go home and sneak away
For your blessing..." -
He said to his father with respect.
His father caressed him
Finally shed a tear
He said, wiping away tears:
“Okay, brother, I’ll let you go,
Just don’t hurt,
Behave smarter:
Don't fight with just anyone
Really, it won't be of much use,
We can't escape from trouble,
You'll get excited if you
If every villain
You will expose your neck
If, for the sake of daring,
You will be bold with your words.
The servant is uneven -
He will give you such a gift,
That you can't collect bones,
You'll come home without a leg..."
He's blessed here
He gives for departure,
And brave Spiridon,
I'm completely delighted with that,
He blows his hands with joy,
Hands out pennies to passers-by,
Sings a merry song
And he drinks wine by the bucketload...
“That child was born,
I would always fight and have fun -
He is daring for all pranks;
If only we had more of these,
So it would be true, our kingdom
It turned into an ordeal.
However, what? Nothing!
The foolishness will go away for him,
He’ll be a hundred times smarter!” -
The king thought it was more fun
Became, and son
I drank the tincture like kvass,
I ate myself a kochen
And he was very, very happy
Without special balusters
Just know that he started dancing.
The fight started for the last time:
Knocked out the neighbors' windows
Summoned the heroes
Beat them like children
And so that they remember longer,
Gave them more scars
On the back and on the arms,
On the sides and legs.
Having feasted until the morning
And after sleeping for an hour or two,
He began to get ready for the journey.
The father fell on his chest
And again he gave orders,
I didn’t indulge in mischief,
So that you don't fight uselessly
Or how I didn’t get drunk!
Otherwise, ask the pepper
Promised him as a shmertz.
Spiridon mounted his horse,
His armor is like fire,
The huge sword in his hands shines,
He trembles with joy,
With impatience of grief,
He kisses the king,
The distressed queen
And the beauty of the Tsar Maiden,
Then kicks the horse
And is carried away by an arrow...

It's been a day, and it's already been two days,
He raves about glorious victories,
Looking forward to meeting you,
Who besides will not pass -
Throws a mitten in the face
And he will ask you to fight him.
“That’s right, you’re a coward, bat!” -
The hero speaks menacingly
And again it goes further and further
Yes, he's raving about various battles.
Once he sees: on horseback,
In forged armor, in armor,
The knight is riding... What a joy!
Youth whispers to Spiridon:
“Run quickly and into battle,
Where can he fight with you!”
Spiridon flies like an arrow,
Preparing for battle;
The knight looks, surprised.
“What are you looking at? (Spiridon
Shouted to him arrogantly.)
Or am I a miracle?
Stand up, stand up
Don't be lazy to defend yourself,
There will be work for you here!” -
- “Really, there’s no desire to fight
(Said the knight) - such a heat,
Why fight even naked,
So you'll be tired until you drop;
Give me your hand, like a brother.”
Spiridon sings his own:
“Apparently, fear is taking over you,
You're afraid to smoke your face.
If so, I'll leave you,
That’s right, you’re a big coward, brother!”
(He says.) - “I’m fighting!” -
The knight answers threateningly,
And a serious battle began...
They fought for a long time; Spiridon
Twice as strong
But I haven't gotten used to the battle yet,
He waved his sword like a razor,
But the blow was wrong.
And the other one was already old,
That experience helped him
What was gained in frequent battles,
He didn’t mess with him at all,
He reflected all the blows.
Finally, tired of fighting,
Well, heroes hug.
“We are both equally brave,
We have only one daring,
We'll be better friends
Enjoy fighting together
Let's become, wandering everywhere
(Spyridon said). And where
You live? What did you go after?
On the road, how long have you had fun,
And when to go home again
Will you go, hero? -
- “I came from the kingdom a long time ago:
Due to some cunning
Evil Baba Yaga
The pearl was stolen on the way,
For our sins are great,
Daughter of our lord,
I was sent to find her
And punish the villain."
- "Indeed? This is wonderful!
It's not difficult for us to find it:
I will ride with you;
I'll just meet Yaga,
So I'll mutilate her
I will wear out, cripple,
That he will forget to steal,
He’ll lick our feet!”
And Svetan and Spiridon
We exchanged bows,
It's like brothers hugging each other
We swore eternal friendship
We talked for another hour,
They grieved among themselves,
About the young princess
And we decided with Yaga
How to get together as quickly as possible
It's bloodier to fight,
Solve it all together
And return the princess.
With that they set off on their way,
We were flattered only by that hope,
That Yaga will just be found
And they will lead her to the grave.

Chapter Six
TSAREVICH BULAT'S DATE WITH HIS SISTER AND ABOUT OTHER THINGS

Time flows like a river,
In life, a person is like a candle:
It will flash and burn out,
It will only spread the stench.
Happiness in the world is fragile,
Only evil lives
And it grows fat and blooms;
The weak torment the strong,
A stupid person interferes with a smart one
Everything goes the other way around
The devil is bothering honest people.
Yes, to the great misfortune of the people,
Apart from any freak
To do dirty tricks
And finally ruin everyone,
Even though people are so weak,
Yagi-Babas have started
And there is no end to witches,
Really, it’s a pity to look at the light!..
He cursed while sitting in prison,
Not seeing God's light,
The witch, our poor Bulat
In my own special way...
He sent her curses -
I won't repeat them
Because I'll make you laugh
If I tell them all.
Being in great ferocity,
He began to think about escape,
Out of frustration he began to dig the walls
Yes, break the windows;
There was little use in that,
Yes, hope was deceiving
And sometimes with hope
Instead of vodka, you drink kvass.
One day, tired,
Having broken through the wall for a long time,
He folded his hands on his chest,
Lay down to rest a bit.
As soon as he fell asleep, there were visions before him
Appeared instantly:
Leaning towards him,
Everyone whispers something to him
In a language I don’t understand,
But about something pleasant;
Suddenly disappeared, only one
Left with him. It
Stared intently for a long time
It turned red and then turned pale
And finally he said:
“You are a model of patience,
And for that you are rewarded
I will give you help and mercy.
Bear with everything patiently,
Don't ask in vain
Yaga has forgiveness for herself -
The day of salvation is near, near:
Everything happened for good
Soon you will find your sister,
Your good disposition pleases me,
Soon you will be free.
Don't rush, just wait
Don't go astray!
And so that I burn with pleasure
It was, think about salvation.
I'll give you this case:
You will see your sister, -
Here's the key: in your dungeon
There is a way to your sister -
There's a door in the wall to the right,
Open it now
See her a little
Look, he's been punished severely
You will if it's too much
Stay too long, joker."
Then the vision suddenly disappeared...
“What kind of miracle dream is this?
(Bulat spoke to himself.)
Wouldn't fate like it
Should I laugh at you?" -
I was so amazed, and then
He began to fumble with the key in the wall,
Through the darkness of midnight
He found the lock slot:
Turned the key once -
A light suddenly flashed across the threshold,
The door opened by itself,
And his sister appeared before him.
Not myself with delight,
He kisses his sister
And they had a conversation,
Lasted a long time, until dawn, -
About your misfortune,
About living your life
Milovzora told
And trembled with happiness,
What, her beloved brother,
Bulat saw her.
“And we would like to leave here
(Bulat says) not bad,
I would like to return to my father,
It's time for the troubles to end,
We suffered a lot, a lot,
Is that really going to have to happen?
How long will we have to endure
And have no joy?
But it’s time for me to go to my cabin!”
- “Wait just a minute,
Stay until dawn
Yes, talk to me.
There is no witch at home, it seems,
We can sit longer,”
She tells him...
Suddenly, as if Satan
The witch burst into the door:
“Hey-hey! what animals!
If only we had a great time
We found the key to the door!
The masters, apparently, are groping!
And they deign to gibber!
Okay - I'll punish you.
I will prove my power
Over your pathetic fate!
Here with your magic stick
She touched them: instantly
In their place, instead of them,
Two statues appeared
Yes, motionless and remained,
Firmly rooted in the ground,
You can't pull it off the ground!
“Stay here, you dumbasses!”
Here to smooth out wrinkles
The witch stood on her forehead,
And then on the broom,
Sneaking through the roof,
I went fishing again...

A cloud is running across the sky,
The moon is burning in the sky
A nightingale whistles in the grove,
The stream speaks to the grass,
Flying around the cemetery,
A greedy raven is looking for food
Through the valley on horseback
A traveler gallops under the moon...
Who are you, lonely traveler,
Are you going close or far?
From the chambers you, or your home
Doesn't it shine silver?
Why are you in the middle of the night?
You drive the horse as hard as you can -
Or, tired from the journey,
Do you want to find shelter quickly?
“I am coming from distant lands,
From the king's lofty chambers,
And I drive day and night
To find the queen's daughter,
Break the witch's bones -
That's why I'm going to visit her,
I am the king sent by Sickle:
My coat of arms is burning on the shield,
The sword in my hand is wide..."

Sickle is traveling along the road,
He looks into the foggy distance,
Everything is still sad:
He would love to fight
Yes, no one came across
The poor man's boredom has taken over
And it weighed on my soul.
“If only I could catch a devil,
I would have fought with him too!” -
He spoke to himself
And he beat the horse out of anger...
In the midst of your sad thoughts
Suddenly, in the distance, he hears a noise,
The noise gets louder
The sickle is more cheerful and cheerful.
“That’s it,” he thinks, “I’ll fight,
I'll pay for all the boredom!
Whoever is here, even the devil,
Even if he floated through the air,
At least I could ride a horse,
Even if he were all on fire,
I won't give in to anything,
I’d rather lie dead right there!”
The noise is even louder, louder,
Suddenly he sees: a terrible Serpent
Aims straight at him,
The mouth is huge, like a pit,
He's already dissolved.
The sickle is frightened, amazed,
But he doesn’t forget the sword,
He's thinking about battle.
The kite flies, flies, flies -
He swooped in - and that’s it!
Swallowed Serpa like a fly
And he ran as fast as he could.

Chapter seven.
ABOUT WHAT THE TREE TOLD SPIRIDON AND HOW HE FOUND YAGA

Both expensive and weeds
Spiridon rode with Svetan,
I wanted to get on the trail,
But there is still no trace.
Where is the road to Yaga Baba?
After all, there are many roads in the world -
Like a holiday bazaar
The entire globe is dotted!..
But without losing hope,
Thinking about the princess,
Spiridon was driving further away.
Every day he became stronger,
Every day he became stronger
More dexterous, more beautiful and bolder, -
Svetan was mentally happy,
What was given to him by fate
The companion is so excellent in everything...
Everything went as usual;
Once, having interrupted the path a little,
Spiridon lay down to rest,
And Svetan lay down too.
The next morning - what?
No Svetan, no, no,
There was no trace of him.
The horse is still grazing
On the aspen tree the shield is shaking,
The sword is stuck in the ground,
Everything is still there
But Svetan is not here!
He stood, without being afraid at all,
Spiridon look for him
Yes, wait with hope,
But Svetan did not return.
Spiridon marveled here,
I couldn’t stand not to sigh,
And one set off on his way.
Riding, hanging his head
And almost no fooling around,
Duma thinks in secret,
Looking around.
The forest passed. There is a valley in front of him,
Multi-colored, like a painting,
There is a chain of trees on it in a row,
And behind it is a sandy steppe.
“Go further, or return,
Or should I stagger to the side? -
Spiridon thought silently.
Finally he decided:
Through the steppe, no matter what,
Move at random -
And I put it on my own
At least he’s tired with his horse.
Here he enters the valley,
Hurry up and get off his horse,
Looks around.
“It’s like I’m friends with someone,
I hear someone's sad voice,
Who would it be? - I do not see!" -
Spiridon thinks.
Here he is again in the valley
Overlooked and in the middle
Tree in that valley
A lonely sight.
He sat down to rest under it...
Suddenly he hears a certain whisper
And some sad murmur
Right above your ear, -
He began to listen, motionless:
“Knight, be generous,
Obedient to virtue,
Save me from troubles!
I don't like daylight here!
I'm not a tree, I'm a girl
Baba old Yagitsa
Mutilated me
And I was free:
And enjoyed the peace
And I was seduced by love,
Bulat was my groom.
You will be my friend and brother,
If you spare me
You will force yourself to love, -
Defeat Yaga quickly!
I can't live any longer
In this painful captivity,
My strength is no longer enough.
How will you defeat Yaga,
Don’t repeat it here, look:
She has a magic wand
He doesn't look great,
But such is the strength in him,
That I will be alive again
If you touch me with it.
You will first encounter the Serpent,
Fight him with all your might,
He's getting frail
And even though it kills a lot of people,
And he doesn’t like Yagi himself.”
Here the tree fell silent.
Spiridonov's face
She beamed with complete happiness:
The hunt was already taking over
Quickly get along with the Serpent
And then with Yagitsya.
Suddenly the Serpent himself flies,
The stormy wind is faster;
Spiridon grabs his sword,
Turns against the Serpent,
Besides the kite flew by,
The side only touched him,
The snake looked back fiercely
And he immediately returned.
Here a hot battle began:
Spiridon with one hand
Reflects all blows
And with the other he protects
From the blows he himself.
The snake, wheezing fiercely,
Just know he’s beating him up.
The battle has been going on for a long time
Both were wounded a long time ago
The blood mixed into one,
But the end is not near yet
Spyridon is low before the Serpent:
The snake will strike back
He flies away, adversary!
Finally, by chance, the Snake
Spiridon grabbed the neck,
Holds on tightly, and the Serpent
Getting stronger and stronger
He fights back - but in vain!
Victorious laurel to Spyridon
He began to smile;
The serpent collected the last spirit,
Got up and in a minute
It flew, to a great miracle!
Spiridon sits on it,
Hit him on the head,
Doesn't give him peace
He keeps flying, howling loudly,
Finally he arrived
And he sat down on Yaga’s roof;
Well, scream here in a loud voice,
Different from always,
So my throat hurts,
Spiridon keeps beating him...
And Yaga to the voice of the Serpent
I got ready quickly
He flies to help him.
"That's bad! - speaks
Spiridon to himself, - after all, with them
I can't handle two
After all, perhaps, a scratch!
I'm already weak
We need to send this away
And then get along with the witch!”
Then he began to snake
Pound from all sides:
Then he will stab him with a sword,
Then he deigns to tear with his teeth,
And meanwhile he keeps looking,
Soon the Serpent's mouth will dissolve.
He waited - and the sword swung,
Without sadness and without fear,
I put a snake in the throat,
There he turned it.
The serpent gnaws iron with its teeth,
But, in his stupid ferocity,
Doesn't find anything
For your own salvation.
What does it matter to Spiridon
Until his funny moan -
He was no less angry
The snake began to cut -
Cut his throat
I finished off the vodka that was in the flask
And he began to climb off the roof,
Then he saw Yaga,
I'm flying towards him with all my might,
I can’t see the ground beneath me,
“Well (he thought), still
Things will be hot
There will be a lot of work for me,
Fortunately there is a lot of hunting!”
Pricking your horns,
Old Yaga rushes:
I first caught up with the roof,
Rose after higher
And she came into great fear:
Dead Snake in her eyes.
“Oh, you, my Serpent Zmeulanych,
Dear Ivan Ivanovich!
Who misrepresented you like that?
Did you break the violent heads?
My soul's immeasurable friend,
My servant is unfeigned,
My breadwinner, you are my brother,
Who mocked you? -
So the witch was sorry
And she wanted to sit on the roof;
Spiridon grabbed her
He hit him savagely in the side.
Yagitsa looked back,
I started screaming and getting angry,
I took a long club,
Started to beat the hero:
Hit once - to the hero
There was no time for a fight at all,
I almost fell as fast as I could;
But he overcame himself
I began to fight with renewed vigor
And what a long time to chill,
It's easy to say -
He began to defeat Yaga.
Here Yaga howled fiercely,
She asked to spare her.
"No, I will not give mercy,
I'll send you to hell!"
Yaga got even more angry here,
Spun, spun
And she cried out in anger:
"I may not live anymore,
May you ruin my life
You can’t redeem the princess with that!” -
I shook my head here
And she died out of anger.
Spiridon suddenly realized:
He was angry with himself,
What I didn’t find out about
Before the witch's end
Where did she hide the princess?
He remembered what he said
A tree in that valley
Where he and the Serpent entered into battle;
Having found that rod from Yaga
And taking him with you,
He went afterwards
Search the witch's house.

There lived a grandfather and a woman; Grandfather became a widower and married another wife, and he still had a girl from his first wife. The evil stepmother did not like her, beat her and thought about how to completely destroy her.

Since the father has gone somewhere, the stepmother says to the girl:

Go to your aunt, my sister, ask her for a needle and thread - to sew you a shirt.

And this aunt was Baba Yaga bone leg.

The girl wasn’t stupid, but she went to see her own aunt first.

Hello, auntie!

Hello, darling! Why did you come?

Mother sent to her sister to ask for a needle and thread to sew a shirt for me. She teaches her:

There, niece, a birch tree will whip you in the eyes - you tie it with a ribbon; there the gates will creak and slam for you - you pour oil under their heels; there the dogs will tear you apart - you throw them some bread; There the cat will scratch your eyes - give him some ham. The girl went; here she comes, she comes and she has come. There is a hut, and Baba Yaga sits in it with a bone leg and weaves.

Hello, auntie!

Hello, darling!

My mother sent me to ask you for a needle and thread to sew me a shirt.

Okay: sit down while you weave.

So the girl sat down at the crown, and Baba Yaga came out and said to her worker:

Go, heat the bathhouse and wash your niece, and look, it’s good; I want to have breakfast with her.

The girl sits neither alive nor dead, all frightened, and she asks the worker:

My dear! You don’t so much set fire to the wood as fill it with water, carry the water with a sieve,” and she gave her a handkerchief.

Baba Yaga is waiting; she went to the window and asked:

Weave, auntie, weave, dear!

Baba Yaga walked away, and the girl gave the cat some ham and asked:

Is there any way to get away from here?

Here’s a comb and a towel for you,” says the cat, “take them and run away; Baba Yaga will be chasing you, you put your ear to the ground and, when you hear that she is close, first throw in a towel - a wide, wide river will become; If Baba Yaga crosses the river and begins to catch up with you, you will again lay your ear to the ground and, when you hear that she is close, throw a comb - it will become a dense, dense forest, she will no longer get through it!

The girl took a towel and a comb and ran; the dogs wanted to tear her apart - she threw them some bread, and they let her through; the gate wanted to slam shut - she poured butter under their heels, and they let her through;

Birch wanted to quilt her eyes - she tied it with a ribbon, and she let her through. And the cat sat down at the cross and weaved; I didn’t so much mess up as I messed up. Baba Yaga came to the window and asked:

Are you weaving, niece, are you weaving, dear?

Weave, auntie, weave, dear! - the cat answers rudely. Baba Yaga rushed into the hut, saw that the girl had left, and let’s beat the cat and scold him, why didn’t he scratch out the girl’s eyes?

“I’ve been serving you for as long as I’ve served you,” says the cat, “you didn’t give me a bone, but she gave me a ham.”

Baba Yaga attacked the dogs, the gate, the birch tree and the worker, let’s scold and beat everyone. The dogs tell her:

As long as we serve you, you didn’t throw us a burnt crust, but she gave us some bread. Gate says:

As long as we serve you, you didn’t pour water under our heels, but she poured oil on us. Berezka says:

As long as I serve you, you didn’t tie me up with a thread, but she tied me up with a ribbon. The worker says:

As long as I serve you, you didn’t give me a rag, but she gave me a handkerchief.

Baba Yaga's bone leg quickly sat down on the mortar, pushed with a pusher, covered the trail with a broom, and set off in pursuit of the girl. So the girl bowed her ear to the ground and heard that Baba Yaga was chasing, and was already close, she took and threw in the towel; the river became so wide, so wide! Baba Yaga came to the river and gnashed her teeth in anger; she returned home, took her oxen and drove them to the river; the bulls drank the whole river. clean.

Baba Yaga set off in pursuit again. The girl lowered her ear to the ground and heard that Baba Yaga was close and threw her comb; The forest became so dense and scary! Baba Yaga began to gnaw at it, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not gnaw through it and turned back.

And the grandfather has already arrived home and asks:

Where is my daughter?

“She went to her aunt,” says the stepmother. A little later the girl came running home.

Where have you been? - asks the father.

Ah, father! - she says. - So and so - my mother sent me to my aunt to ask for a needle and thread - to sew a shirt for me, and my aunt, Baba Yaga, wanted to eat me.

How did you leave, daughter?

“So and so,” says the girl.

When the grandfather found out all this, he became angry with his wife and shot her; and he and his daughter began to live and live and make good things, and I was there, drinking mead and beer; It flowed down my mustache but didn’t get into my mouth.

"Baba Yaga bone leg."

At the edge of a huge forest, Yaroslav the Sage lived in a small hut. People called him that because he knew as much about herbs and roots as any of the famous learned doctors of the Forest Country of King Myron. More than once people turned to Yaroslav for help - either the king would fall ill, or some kind of illness would attack the people, and Yaroslav helped them all, without demanding rewards for their efforts. He was a kind old man. He had seen a lot in his time, but the problem was that he had neither a wife nor children, and had no one to pass on his knowledge to.

So he lived, waiting for his imminent death in solitude, when one night someone knocked very, very hard on the strong oak door of his house. Thunder rumbled outside, lightning flashed, and heavy rain poured down.

-Save me, Yaroslav! I beg you! – a weak voice was heard.

Yaroslav opened the door and saw a wounded doe on the threshold.

-Save me, Yaroslav! The evil Baba Yaga will destroy me! – the doe moaned and fell exhausted.

-Poor doe! – Yaroslav shook his head sadly.

He brought her into the house, closed the door tightly, and began to lubricate the wound with healing ointment.

But a few moments passed when a strong knock was heard again.

-Open it, Yaroslav! Don't recognize me? It's me - Baba Yaga! – a hoarse voice thundered.

Yaroslav put the ointment aside.

-Oh, it’s you, nasty witch! What do you need at a time like this?

-Give me the doe! She's my prey! – Baba Yaga looked through the window. - Give it back, Yaroslav, otherwise you will regret it!

“You don’t have to scare me,” Yaroslav answered calmly.

-Well, look! – the terrible old woman shook her finger at him and disappeared immediately.

“Thank you, Yaroslav, for not giving me to Baba Yaga,” the doe spoke. “I’m not just a doe, but a fairy of the forest.” You have healed my wound, now ask for whatever you want! Whether it’s silver or gold, I can give it to everyone!

Yaroslav bowed to her and answered:

-I don’t need either gold or silver. But I have neither a wife nor children. Soon my life will be over, and there will be no one to bury me. Send me a beautiful daughter, comfort my old age.

The doe thought.

- Well, Yaroslav, I will fulfill your request, but look out - take care of your daughter more than your own eyes. For three days and three nights, do not let her leave the house, otherwise Baba Yaga will keep her evil word.

That's what they decided, and in the morning the doe went back into the forest, and Yaroslav saw a maiden in his upper room, so beautiful that it was impossible to take his eyes off.

-Who are you, beauty? – Yaroslav asked the girl.

And she answers him:

“I’m your daughter, father, and my name is Katenka.”

Yaroslav was delighted here, rushed to his daughter, began to hug her, and in his joy he forgot about the words of the doe: “For three days and three nights, do not let him leave the house!”

Meanwhile, in the very thicket of the forest, Baba Yaga was boiling an elderberry infusion in a huge cauldron, and could not find a place for herself, thinking about how to annoy Yaroslav more strongly.

-Hey, you, my owls, gray owls, you all fly here, you all hurry to me! – she waved her hands.

Owls and eagle owls from all over the forest flocked to her hut overgrown with moss. And there were countless of them.

- Fly to Yaroslav’s house and watch him, don’t take your eyes off him, report everything to me right away! I will destroy him - I have become painfully brave and arrogant!

The owls and eagle owls flew away, and Baba Yaga drove a black cloud from the sky to the ground and dipped it into a cauldron of boiling elderberry juice.

-I will destroy you, Yaroslav! People will be more afraid of me than ever! – she was happy.

A hairy owl flew to the hut.

“It has appeared,” he says. - Yaroslav's daughter, a beauty - a maiden.

-Great! – the old hag jumped up and down. “I’ll ruin his daughter, and he himself will die of melancholy.” There are no herbs that can cure melancholy! People will know how angry I am!

And she sent a black cloud with elderberry juice to the edge of the forest, to where Yaroslav lived.

But Yaroslav could not get enough of his daughter and forgot about his old age, he became younger in heart. Katya will bring water, pick berries, and help make medicinal potions. And it was only the second day.

Katenka went out of the house to get water, but a black cloud came over. It darkened in Yaroslav’s eyes - he remembered the doe’s order: “For three days and three nights, do not let your daughter leave the house!” He rushed into the street, but it was too late - the red rain had already poured down. Katenka is nowhere to be found, only a white birch tree stands by the window, itself slender, its leaves thinner than air. Yaroslav realized then what had happened, and fell to the ground in grief and began to sob.

-Why didn’t you listen to my words, Yaroslav? - The doe approached Yaroslav. - I didn’t save my daughter.

“Apparently, this is my fate,” Yaroslav answered dully, without wiping his tears.

-There is a way to save my daughter. Baba Yaga hid a spring of living water. Now, if you find it and sprinkle that water on Katenka’s birch tree, she would become a girl again.

“I’m old, I’m beyond my strength,” Yaroslav answered sadly.

And the doe left, and he lay down and never got up...

Baba Yaga became angry - she sent a hundred damages, a thousand diseases to the villages and cities of the Forest Country, people began to get sick. And no one could treat those diseases. Everyone went to Yaroslav. Embassy after embassy: “Help, Yaroslav, we are dying from damage!” But Yaroslav remained silent, turning completely into a shadow from the overwhelming melancholy. I was expecting my death from day to day.

And the embassies left. The night of destruction descended on the cities and villages.

The terrible news reached the capital Mironova. The king summoned all the warriors and heroes and began a mournful speech:

-The native land is dying, and there is nowhere to escape the damage that Baba Yaga sent to us. Which of you will dare to go in search of the old hag in order to defeat her, the accursed one?

But the heroes and warriors were silent - they all knew that they could not control Baba Yaga with a sword and a pike.

Three times the king called, and three times he was answered with silence. Then Miron became sad and was about to leave, when suddenly the warrior Semyon came forward from the crowd.

-I will go and fight with Baba Yaga, Father Tsar, and save our land from ruin and destruction!

Everyone here shouted in joy. And the next morning Semyon set off on his journey.

He traveled from village to village for a long time, asking people:

-How to get to the old hag, the unclean Yaga?

But no one knew... And in one village they advised him: go to the edge of the forest, there the old sorcerer Yaroslav lies dying in his hut, he knows the way to Baba Yaga.

Semyon went to the edge of the forest. He sees a hut leaning on its side with a rotten roof and closed shutters. And a birch tree grows in front of the hut, so white and beautiful that melancholy envelops the heart.

Semyon got off his horse and went inside the hut.

-What do you need, good fellow? – he heard an old man’s voice.

He sees a gray-haired old man lying in the corner, unable to move.

Semyon bent over him and brought him water to drink.

-I'm Semyon, I'm looking for Baba Yaga! She has sent damage to villages and cities and wants to destroy the people. Show me the way to her lair, Elder Yaroslav.

“I would show you, but I don’t have the strength.” Grief laid me down, melancholy tormented me. Baba Yaga bewitched my daughter Katenka and turned her into a white birch tree. Only living water can save her, and Baba Yaga has that water. Pick a leaf from a birch tree and throw it. He will lead you to Baba Yaga. Then you yourself will understand what to do,” Yaroslav said and fell silent. There was no longer any strength to speak further.

Semyon bowed to him, left the hut, picked a leaf from a birch tree, threw it into the wind, and rode after him.

How long, how short, but he drove out onto the road leading to the town of Berestov. And that road was completely littered with tree trunks and snags. Horses cannot get through. And the leaf calls further. It was a pity for Semyon to leave his horse, he decided to clear the road. But as soon as he lifted one tree, clouds of ravens rose up and, cawing loudly, flew to the city of Berestov.

“There’s trouble in Berestovo!” Semyon realized.

And in the town of Berestovo there was a huge feast - Baba Yaga, the old witch, treated her guest, a distant relative - the Swamp Ghoul, treated her to frogs and heady water from puddles. They destroyed the houses abandoned by people, and now boasted of their power to each other.

-And I can! - shouted the Ghoul. - I can make it so that not hail, but stones fall from the sky!

 

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• Sergey Shnurov: about love and the present in women;
• Baba Yaga - Bone Leg;
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• Professions Dictionary of professions from A to Z;
• Leisure time dedicated to introducing the profession “Ecologist”;
• Card index on the world around us on the topic: Card index of didactic games “All professions are needed, all professions are important!;
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