218
birds, the souls of
unbaptized children sit on
willow trees along water, waiting to be shaken
off their trees and thus redeemed. Bewitched
souls may be saved by prayer, pilgrimage, fast-
ing, fulfilling their plea, providing a correct
answer to their lament, for example “Peace
be with you!”, etc. Also helpful are the use of
blessed water; prayer; and settling an injustice.
By casting a spell over them, the pope allegedly
bewitched such ghosts into rocky masses. (See
also: brezglavljek, movje, preklesa).
Blagodéj, a giant supernatural being that helps
those discriminated against. Living in the
mountains situated between Bohinj and the
Vipava valley, he was claimed to appear in vari-
ous forms. It was believed that Blagodej helped
the poor who had been wronged by the rich.
Loggers from Idrija, who had been cheated by
a wealthy skinflint
received payment in wood
split by Blagodej. A similar legend, Kako je
Libercun drvaril (Libercun Logging), was
published by Fran Levstik in 1875. The lore of
Blagodej originates from notions about super-
natural beings inhabiting nature (see giants).
Lit.: A. von Mailly:
Leggende del Friuli e delle Alpi Giulie.
Edizione critica a cura di M. Matičetov, Gorizia 1989.
Blagonič, see goblin
Bog, see God
Bóžič, see Svarog
Bóžja déklica,
see washerwoman
Brbúč,
a supernatural being with which
adults in Dolenjska frightened children away
from reservoirs, wells, and brooks to prevent
them from drowning. In Uršna Sela and in
Laze by Novo Mesto people used to say that
springs and wells are the abode of the brbuč
who can pull disobedient children into water.
Lit.: A. Hudoklin,
O frlinkah in Brbučih z Radohe (On the
Water Caves and the
Brbuči of Radoha). Bilten Jamarskega
kluba Novo mesto 1991, 19–20.
Brézec,
see devil
Brezglávec, see achephalos
Brezglávljek (head-less), in Prekmurje, this
was the term for a deceased or stillborn child
who had not yet been baptized. These souls
were believed to appear as lights floating
above the ground at nighttime or in dusk,
generally near graveyards. Crying, they flew
very high and sometimes extremely rapidly,
and were headless. They could be chased
away by cursing, but were attracted to pray-
ing people since prayer could accelerate their
redemption (see movje).
Lit.: D. Rešek,
Brezglavjeki (The Brezglavljeki), Ljubljana
(Zbirka Glasovi) 1995.
Brgánt, see Kresnik
Budekić, in Resia, this
was the general term
for children who
had not been baptized prior
to their death (see movje).
Centaur, (polkonj), a supernatural being with
the torso of a human and the lower part of
the body of a horse. Centaurs allegedly lived
in groups by water or in hills frequently
flooded by water. Reports on centaurs have
been preserved in Štajerska, Gorenjska, and
Slavia Veneta. The Slovenian lore about these
beings shares the same origin as the ancient
lore on the centaurs whose name, according
to Kretschmer, denotes “to whip water.” The
half-horses personified the churning, froth-
ing water, and thus the wild, untamed forces
of nature, particularly of water. According to
the
later lore from Slavia Veneta, the centaurs
were persecuting Christians much like the
cynocephals.
Lit.: M. Grošelj:
Konj iz vode in ime Kentavrov (The Horse
from the Water and the Name Centaur), Slovenski etno-
graf 5, 1952; M. Matičetov:
Ime Kentavrov in konji v robiški
pravljici (The Name Centaur and Horses in a Tale from
Robedišče). Slovenski etnograf 6-7, 1953-1954.
219
Changeling, podmenek, premenk, obran’s
child. A creature of unusual appearance, for
instance with an enlarged head, black and
screaming; with a hearty, impossible-to-
satisfy appetite. The podmenek is customar-
ily a substitute for a human child taken by
a supernatural being, in Slovenian folklore
customarily the devil, the wild woman, the
škopnik, or the water sprite. The exchange can
be
caused by a curse, by incorrect behaviour
of the godparents who were taking the baby
to baptism, particularly if they neglected to
cross the child at a crossroads, etc. This motif
appears in the folk song “The Child changed
in the Crib” (SLP I, no. 35) and in the legends
“The Devil Takes Away St. Lawrence”. The
latter originated from the apocryphal legend
in which the infant St. Lawrence (sometimes
also St. Benedict or St. Stephen) was replaced
by the devil. According to lore, the child is
returned to his or her parents if the change-
ling is exposed; given a cup of porridge
and a spoon too large for the cup; or beaten
with hazel switches
until the human child
is thrown back. Spread throughout Europe
where the substitute is known as Wechselbalg,
changeling, bytting or odmenik, the lore
about the podmenek is also known outside
Europe. Its origins are in the belief in an evil
spirit that settles among humans; in exor-
cism; and in folk explanations of the birth of
handicapped children who were believed to
be the children of supernatural beings.
Lit.: L. Röhrich:
Die Wechselbalg-Ballade. Festschrift
zum 65. Geburtstag Bruno Schiers, Göttingen 1967; M.
Matičetov:
Il bimbo rapito dalla culla e sostituito con
uno spurio. Demologia e folklore, Studi in memoria di
Giuseppe Cocchiara, Palermo 1974.
Cyclops, (kiklop), in Greek mythology, the
cyclops are one-eyed giants who are the sons
of Uranus and Gaia. A section of Homer’s
Odyssey, which tells of Odysseus sailing to
Sicily where the cyclops lived, has become
a part of folklore. A cyclops by the name of
Polyphemus devoured
six of the crew while
the rest managed to save themselves. After
blinding him with a red-hot pole, Odysseus
bound each of his sailors to the underbelly
of a sheep that was then put to pasture by
Polyphemus, and they managed to get out of
the cave and onto their ship safely. In Slove-
nia, the cyclops was generally equated with
the cynocephals. The one-eyed cynocephalus
allegedly living in a mountain near Rogatec
had a human torso and was hairy below
the waist. He subsisted on people until four
out of seven travellers pushed him onto an
open jack knife that put his eye out. As late
as 1967, M. Matičetov wrote down in Črni
Vrh above Idrija a story about a boy who
went to a forest. Caught by a cyclops with
an eye
in the middle of his forehead, the boy
was taken to a cave and fed nuts every day
while other cynocephali kept coming by to
see if he had gained any weight yet. The boy
finally blinded the cyclops with a sharpened
stake and escaped across a stream which the
cynocephali were not able to cross.
Lit.: G. Krek:
Polyfem v narodnej tradiciji slovanskej. Kres 2,
Celovec 1882; M. Matičetov:
La fiaba di Polifemo a Resia.
Festschrift für Robert Wildhaber, Basel 1973.
Cynocephalus, see pasjeglavec
Čarostrélec, see Jarnik
Čarovnica, see witch
Čaróvnik, see wizard
Čas, see time
Častitka,
see fairy
Čatež, a mythical creature in human form
above the waist and as a male goat below it,
complete with horns and beard. According
to the tradition from east and west Slovenia,
it lives in mountains, forests, and marshy
areas. Able to alter its size, the čatež brings
clear water to loggers, picks berries and cuts
switches
for shepherds, etc. Sources of drink-