Myth and folktales

212
caul or as a tenth or twelfth brother, or were born with the mark of a horseshoe and 
other signs. (See the chapter on Kresnik).
The opponent of a kresnik was the vedomec, or bedanec, or benandant. They too 
could be recognized at birth by body features such as hairiness, connected eyebrows, 
an extra tooth in their mouths etc. Vedomci supposedly came to get their appren-
tice when the latter reached seven years of age, and they set out together to fight at 
crossroads and under trees. 
Students of black magic, sorcerer’s apprentices, pupils in the eighth level of magical 
school called also grabancijaš dijaki (students from the word necromantes=conjurer), 
supposedly learned their skills in a school called the black school, the thirteenth school 
or the Babylonian school, directly from the devil or from Šembilja, as in the stories 
of the students of Black Magic. The apprentice sorcerer traditionally sold his soul to 
the devil. They knew how to drive away snakes and dragons, which they searched 
for in ponds, to stop them causing harm. Apprentice sorcerers rode dragons, and the 
dragons as guardians of treasures, obeyed them. When there was severe thunder and 
lightning, people said that the apprentice sorcerers were riding their dragons; when 
storms or tornadoes occurred they were supposedly “lifting the lintvern” (“lintvern” 
being a word for a dragon).
Many stories and fairy tales tell of witches and wizards meeting secretly at night. 
According to popular narrative, witches rode to the kingdom of the night or of death 
on brooms, humans, or animals. They held witches’ feasts, celebrations and dances. 
For instance, in the story about a witch with horseshoes on her feet, which is also 
preserved in verse form (SLP I/1970: no. 30), a witch rides to the nightly meetings 
upon her husband’s back. On these occasions, she always changed him into a horse, 
until one day he was too quick for her and changed her into a mare, took her to the 
blacksmith and had her shod. Stories about witches with horseshoes are known in 
the Celtic, Germanic, Romanic and Slavic worlds.
People believed that witches and wizards flew on Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath), 
the days connected with lunar changes, and that they met on a hill called Klek, which 
became known as the gathering place of witches. The flight of witches can be inter-
preted as the “travelling of the spirit”, which like an “alter ego” can leave the body 
in the form of an insect or a mouse, travel through other worlds and communicate 
with spirits of the deceased, while the body remains in a trance.
In numerous stories, spirits or devils helped witches and wizards. They took 
the form of black cats, crows, goats or goblins. Some supposedly kept their helping 
spirit at home, stored in a jar or a bottle. They knew how to summon them, usually at 
midnight in their home, or at a crossroads, under a tree, or from a circle which they 
drew and then stepped into. When summoning their spirits, they sometimes used 
books of black magic called Kolomonov žegen (Kolomon’s Blessing), named after St. 

---

213
Kolomon (Grafenauer 1907; id. 1943a). They gave the spirits names such as Crnagel, 
Prokvas, Mozrl, Gabrijam etc. According to popular belief, witches and wizards knew 
about treasures and how to access or unlock them.
People also believed that wizards and witches cast weather spells and created hail, 
storms, winds and rain. It was said that witches danced in whirlwinds and that the 
wind carried them in the clouds. Sometimes the wind could drop one into a nearby 
stream. People tried to protect themselves from such weather disturbances by ring-
ing bells and firing cannons. Often people tried to drive the storm away themselves 
using sacred objects, such as a blessed bell or holy water.
There was a widespread belief that wizards could prevent cows from giving milk, 
the earth from bearing crops, and that they could create illnesses in people and ani-
mals. They could take the milk from a cow by stealing a rope from a shepherd and 
“milking” it by pulling both ends while murmuring strange words. Alternatively, 
they stuck a stick in a tree or into the soil to make the milk flow.
There would also be no crop yield in fields where witches had buried an object. 
They damaged vineyards by burying quicksilver in the soil. Witches also knew how 
to move a crop to their own fields by, for example, collecting the morning dew.
Some days in the year were considered especially suitable for witchcraft, and 
on those days witches and wizards supposedly had special powers. These times 
included Christmas, the twelve nights around the New Year, the eve of St. George’s 
Day, Easter, the night of the First of May, the summer solstice, Pentecost, the feast 
days of St. Thomas, St. Urban, St. Bartholomew, St. Margaret, the time following the 
first Sunday after the new moon, and on Quarter Days. The days related to witchcraft 
were Thursday, Friday and Saturday. People lit bonfires on Midsummer’s Eve and on 
St. George’s Eve which supposedly had great magical powers. It was believed that on 
the summer solstice witches fought with kresniks and people fired mortars to protect 
themselves against them. The people from around the town of Pivka believed that on 
Christmas Eve Sentjanzevci fought with Vedavci, who drink human blood (Valvasor 
1689, XI: 456). On St. George’s Day, housewives blew horns at the crack of dawn to 
chase away bajanci, so they would not cause cows to lose milk or harm the crops. 
Servants from across the River Mura cracked their whips for the same purpose. If 
the night before Whit Sunday was dewy, witches wrapped in sheets would roam in 
wheat fields and wring the wet sheet over their own field, thereby transferring the 
wheat to themselves. Likewise, on Sundays after the new moon they would drag sheets 
over hedges and pastures before the sunrise, acquiring in that way the property of 
others. They also knew about treasures and could unearth money where “a treasure 
bloomed”, as they said.
People usually believed that the person who had caused illness, poor crops, bad 
weather and similar troubles was one of their neighbours; even one of their relatives or 

---