Myth and folktales

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troubled child over them, each time repeating “I am burning Dusk.” The child was 
then carried to bed and the chips thrown into fire.
Until the mother went to church for the first time after giving birth, no man 
was allowed to enter the house with an uncovered head, so as not to afflict the infant 
with dusk. A person entering the house at dusk could likewise be Mrak. Janez Trdina 
preserved the tradition that allegedly originated on the island of Krk, whose inhabit-
ants believed that Mrak was a terrifying monster that wages war with the sun. The 
sun is winning during the day and Mrak at night.
INCUBUS (MORA)
The Incubus, referred to as Mora,  Truta,  Trota-mora,  Šnjava,  Skišnjava, 
Kripijavka, or Chalchut in Friuli
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, is the most recognizable and well-known creature 
among personified troubles.
The Incubus was believed to be a mythical being in human, animal, or super-
natural form that could change its form at will. As a piece of straw, it was even able 
to crawl through a keyhole or a crack in the door to oppress, smother, or suck on a 
sleeping human or animal.
People interpreted the Incubus to be a person whose soul escapes at night, also 
believing that like the vedomci and the werewolves, a child born at the wrong time 
or at an inauspicious moment shall turn into an incubus. According to notions 
widespread throughout Europe, the seventh daughter
 
or the seventh son, born after 
siblings of the same sex, may become an incubus. The Incubus was occasionally 
perceived as the cursed spirit of sinful deceased people, particularly of women who 
murdered their child or caused their infertility by artificial means. 
The Incubus was also interpreted as an evil spirit creeping at night as an old 
woman with long talons and fiery eyes; a dishevelled woman with bloody eyes and 
broad feet; a shrivelled old man resembling an elf; a five-legged cat; or a dog, cow, 
chicken, or black shadow, that crawls to the sleeping person and oppresses or smoth-
ers him or her, or else suck on that person until his or her breasts swell or until milk 
starts to drip from them in the morning. For this reason as well as for its nightly visits 
the Incubus, like the vampire, was also attributed sexual harassment.
It was difficult to identify the Incubus. It was generally recognized as a woman 
who seemingly had magical abilities. The first person who comes to borrow some-
thing to a house that had been visited by the incubus the previous night was also 
recognized as the Incubus. The Incubus was additionally identified by its urine that 
allegedly punctured stones. Such rocks were then used to drive it away.
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Mailly, Matičetov 1989: 66, no. 16.

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Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan presents the Incubus in the following manner:
A tormentor in different forms, especially that of a cat, which tortures 
people, mostly children. This bugbear is driven away if the oppressed is called 
by name or if a piece of cloth is thrown over him. A means of defending 
against the Incubus is the paw of the Incubus, the signium Pythagoricum, 
which is also called “the Incubus” and should be drawn on bedsteads and 
cradles. The urine of the Incubus can pierce stones that can then be used 
as to ward it off.
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There were many methods to drive away the Incubus. A knife was placed in bed 
or stuck through a keyhole, or a knife or a fork could be stuck in the door. It was 
believed that the injuries inflicted by these objects should be visible the following 
day on the person who has come to the house at night. In Slavia Veneta, an uncorked 
empty bottle was placed in the room for the Incubus to be captured in, after which 
the bottle was swiftly closed.
On the door of the bedroom or a side of the bed or cradle of the child whose 
chest was swollen, and who had milk dripping from his nipples, a sign was drawn 
that wards off the Incubus and evil spirits. It was called the sign or the paw of the 
Incubus, the burning arm, or Solomon’s Cross. The sign was in the form of a pen-
tagram, a five-pointed star drawn in an interrupted line, and also in the form of a 
six-pointed star or the cross of St. Andrew. In the hills around Škofja Loka, five St. 
Andrew’s crosses were carved on the doorposts of entrances to pigpens (XXXXX). 
Three such signs were usually drawn on doors in Porabje.
If the Incubus sign was drawn on the door and the window, and leaning against 
the bed was a broom with which the Incubus had to be hit thrice, the Incubus would 
leap into its drawing and collapse on the floor, dead. Another method was to lean a 
sheaf of straw and a club against the bed, and if the Incubus came at night the club 
was used to thrash the straw. It would also help if a person lying in bed crossed his 
or her arms and legs.
A sack filled with the bracken fern was placed underneath the child who was 
repeatedly oppressed by the Incubus. Children could also receive amulets that were 
placed around their necks; their shirts were blessed; they were given bread that had 
been blessed; etc. In Porabje, a safety pin, a pipe, or a cigarette was placed in chil-
dren’s cradles.
To keep the Incubus away from the cattle, a mirror was stuck to the trough, and 
when the Incubus beheld itself in the mirror it fled. Sows’ teats were smeared with 
mud or switched. Another form of protection was an incantation or charm.
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Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan, manuscript, NUK: MS 483, XI, no. 5.

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Folk beliefs about the Nightmare or Incubus are wide spread all over Europe 
as well as in other continents. A nightmare in the Slovenian narrative tradition was 
referred to by the names, mahr, mahrt, marra, zmora, trut and drud. It was influ-
enced by Germanic folk beliefs where it was called the Alp, as well as by the Italian 
and French, who named it cauchemar. The belief in the Incubus is one of the most 
widespread religious concepts of humankind and as such has an important place in 
the creation of myths. Since antiquity, nightmares have been interpreted by physi-
cians as physiologically conditioned, while psychoanalysts believed that they were 
also caused by psychological factors.
PREGLAVICA – THE BOTHER
It is interesting that even bother or worry was personified. People would say: 
“Whoever is very happy one day but has a misfortune the following day obviously 
encountered the Bother.” It was imagined as a mythical being or as a white headless 
woman who appears to people on the road and fields, and leads them astray.
Represented also as a black headless woman appearing at midday, the Bother was 
thus reminiscent of the cursed souls of sinners. Those who avoided it were spared but 
those who neared her, or crossed her path, would be blinded, had their arms broken, 
or would be led astray (Kelemina 1930: 195).
People also believed that the Bother could predict death in seven years’ time. 
Davorin Trstenjak wrote that in Štajersko, people told of the Bother riding around in 
grey mist and bringing the plague (Pajek 1884: 174; Kelemina 1930: no. 195).
KRIVDA – THE GUILT
The supernatural being Krivda (Guilt) is walking behind the godfathers who 
have not given right answers at the baptism of the child. This folk belief has been 
preserved in the Alpine town of Bovec in Primorska.
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NETEK
In the folklore of Slovenia, the Netek, Natek, or Matek, either a small man 
or a man of immense stature with an old-looking face, or even a creature that is 
neither human nor animal, was presented as an insatiable creature that roamed 
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Collected by Barbara Ivančič Kutin, preserved in the Archives of ISN ZRC SAZU.

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