Boginki

Lore

Boginki are most often depicted as several hideous women—tall, thin, with sagging breasts, swollen bellies, and long, disheveled hair. Often, they have the legs of geese, chickens, or dogs; teeth like pig tusks; a hooked nose; and long arms with three claw-like crooked fingers. Occasionally, Boginki appear as beautiful young maidens. They can assume almost any form: mist, cats, dogs, frogs.

Frequently, they are women who, for various reasons, died during childbirth. Children kidnapped by these beings from their parents turn into Boginki. Women who have committed suicide, as well as mothers who have killed their own children, often become these evil spirits.

Boginki are believed to inhabit rivers, swamps, and ponds; they often live in forests or deep ravines near human settlements. From spring to autumn (like mermaids), Boginki dwell in coastal thickets, and in winter, they go underwater. Their peak activity times are considered to be at noon and after sunset.

During these hours, they can be seen on the banks of bodies of water, where they comb their hair or do laundry, beating clothes with golden beetles (laundry paddles). Boginki do not like being watched and kill the curious with their paddles. Sitting on the shores, they also spin yarn, sing, screech, clap their hands, and dance. During their active times, these spirits use songs, dances, persuasion, and gifts to try to lure a pregnant or recently delivered woman out of her home. If they succeed, they torment her in the most cruel ways: dragging her through fields and swamps, rolling her in mud, beating her with paddles, twisting her arms. Boginki can steal an unborn child from a pregnant woman and raise it into a monster, and they might drown the woman.

Boginki also steal newborn infants born out of wedlock or left unattended. Such children are turned into evil spirits by the Boginki, forced to serve them.