Myth and folktales

200
As indicated by Valentin Vodnik, oral tradition linked the vedomci with the 
incubus (nightmare) and other scourges. According to popular belief, they crawled 
from house to house at night, making themselves invisible and throwing children 
out of their beds, or else smother a sleeping baby in its crib. In death, such children 
turned completely black. As the incubus, the vedomci oppressed people at night. 
In the morning, the family members of such a person recognized the traces of the 
incubus in the bites and swellings on the victim’s body. The vedomci were also able 
to bewitch a person with their gaze; put a curse on the cows’ milk, on foals, and on 
piglets; and were believed to strangle animals. 
Yet they could be redeemed as well. The child vedomec was passed, feet forward, 
through a window or through the crotch of a vine (the vine had to dry up afterwards). 
It also helped if the party returning home after their baby’s baptismal ceremony took 
a different route, keeping silent throughout the journey; if the baby, or the animals 
that have been afflicted by the vedomec, were briefly placed in the baker’s oven in 
which bread was baking; or if a strangely-growing tooth was pulled from the child’s 
mouth; or if his peers, when they first came to fetch him, were told he was not there. 
A vedomec could also be “returned” if he was addressed by those who met him on his 
way to a gathering with his peers, or if he was thrice stricken at the gathering place 
with a rosary or with year-old hazel switches. 
People tried to protect themselves from the vedomci in various ways. They 
hung garlic in their rooms, poured garlic water after them, spread salt, or sprinkled 
holy water around them. A magic circle drawn in front of the house compelled the 
vedomec to keep running in circles. Iron nails or knives were placed in bed, or else a 
long knife was hidden under the head of the bed. A long knife was put through the 
bedroom door keyhole or thrust into the door. A pentagram was drawn on a side of 
the bed or cradle. It would also help if the one oppressed by the vedomec made the 
sign of the cross across his or her chest, or shouted: “Return tomorrow for the salt!” 
The person who first came to the house the following day to borrow something was 
believed to be the oppressor. 
According to popular belief, the vedomci remain alive after death like the vam-
pires and consequently could be done away with by the same apotropaic deeds.

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201
PasjeGlaveC – CynoCePhalus
Reports of dog-headed beings (cynocephali) appeared in the texts of ancient 
writers. They were mentioned by Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Ktesias, all of whom 
used this term to describe various peoples alien to them. Representations of cynoce-
phalic beings are known from Egypt and Mesopotamia. In Christian iconography, 
St. Christopheros is sometimes depicted with a dog’s head.
155
 According to Slovenian 
tradition, St. Hieronymus had a dog’s head which was, according to folktales, due to 
his beauty.
156
 People sometimes believed that the cynocephali were mythical crea-
tures, and the giant Christopheros, depicted on clay icons from the 6
th
 century that 
have been preserved in Vinica, Macedonia, is represented with the head of a dog. 
The possible connection between the lore of the cynocephalic beings with the myth 
of the totemistic wolf ancestor was closely examined by Milko Matičetov (1949). 
The tradition of these dog-headed creatures shares some elements with the mythical 
tradition of the people of Gog and Magog as well as the Apocrypha about the end 
of the world.
157
 
The cynocephalus of the Slovenian lore is often referred to as pasjeglavec, pesjan, 
pesoglav, pesoglavec, or pasjedlan. People depicted him as a degenerate human being 
with a dog’s head; with eyes turned toward the floor or with one eye in the front of 
his head and the other on the back; with only one leg and a single eye in the middle 
of the forehead; a creature with the upper body of a human and the lower of a dog; 
or as a creature with a dog’s head, human torso, and goat legs. Like the cyclops, the 
cynocephali were believed to be bloodthirsty persecutors of Christians.
There is very likely a link between the tradition on the cynocephali and the 
tradition of werewolves. This is also reflected in the Slovene folk narrative where 
folktales about the werewolves often intertwine with the lore on the cynocephali 
and use similar motifs.
The bloodthirsty character of the cynocephals is reflected in numerous Slovene 
folktales that describe how the cynocephals destroyed the heathen (ajdi) and killed 
Christians. People believed that they killed and devoured people. 
According to Jakob Kelemina, the memory about the pečenegs and besenjaks is 
preserved in the tales about escaped prisoners that flee their pursuers (Kelemina 1930: 
28–29), for example in the story about a girl who cuts off the heads of her pursuers 
in her father’s cabin (ATU 956); like in the novel Mlinarjeva Jerica (Miller’s Jerica) 
written by Josip Jurčič.
155 
More about this see: Kretzenbacher 1968.
156 
More about this see: Glonar 1914.
157 
More about this see: Šmitek 1992.

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202
Even more numerous are stories that describe the Huns as cynocephali. 
Particularly fearsome was their commander Attila, the terror of all European nations. 
In Slovenian lore, Attila is represented as the commander of the cynocephalic people. 
The tradition of Attila’s birth is linked with the Italian tradition of Pulican who was 
born from the union between a Cappadocian woman and a dog; this motif was later 
transferred to the Slovene lore on the dog-headed creatures.
158
The lore about the cynocephali became contaminated with the lore about Marko 
the Dog, also referred to as Marko Pes or Prince Marko the Dog. Linking this character 
with the lion (St. Mark of Venice), which was perceived also as a dog, is reported from 
the coastal Slovenian region and from Slavia Veneta. Like Attila the Hun or Attila 
the king of the cynocephals, Marko the Dog was believed to be the child of a king’s 
daughter whose father permitted only a dog to keep her company in her castle tower. 
The offspring was named Prince Marko the Dog. When he grew up he fled his home 
and later returned to his native land as the leader of the cynocephals, and devastated 
it.
159
 His astrological and mythological origin is allegedly confirmed by the popular 
term kuzljak that refers to the star Sirius, the Dog Star, or the hunter dog of Orion. 
When looking for a parallel in history, Sergej Vilfan found the most likely candidate 
in Marx Sittich von Ems, a hired commander of Austrian archduke Maximilian’s 
army, who fought against the Venetians at the end of the 15
th
 and the beginning of the 
16
th
 centuries. However, Vilfan (1955) also allowed for the possibility of the origin of 
the popular antihero Marko the Dog in Marko Klis. Mentioned in historic sources, 
Klis was killed in Brežice in 1515 during a peasant revolt.
158 
More about this see: Vilfan 1955 and Šašel Kos 2012.
159 
More about this see: Šašel Kos 2012.
The girl and the dog-heads, Hinko Smrekar, 1905 (Dobida 1957)

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