The "Vodianoy" Under the Russian Mill Dam: Elders Say He Sleeps in Winter and Gets Angry in Spring

In the Russian countryside, wherever there is a river, a mill, and a dam, the elders say that a "Vodianoy" lives under the water.

According to the villagers' descriptions, he looks like an old man, drenched all over, with green hair and beard covered in waterweed, a swollen face, and eyes red as burning coals; he has fish scales on his body, and sometimes a tail. Sometimes he sits on a fallen log combing his hair, sometimes he turns into a big fish, sometimes into a round log floating on the water; whoever reaches out to touch it is dragged under.

His home is in the deepest whirlpool at the bottom of the water, where he has his own palace. It is said that those who drown have their souls taken by him and become his servants. He also has a wife called "Vodianitsa", said to be transformed from drowned women.

His temper depends on the season. In winter, the river surface freezes and he sleeps, with no movement all winter; in spring, when the ice begins to melt, he wakes up, hungry and in a bad temper, smashing the ice piece by piece and washing away things on the shore. So in some places in Russia, during the spring thaw, people dare not go near the riverbank.

Millers fear him the most. The mill dam was built right at his doorstep, equivalent to trespassing on his territory. The elders' rule is: on the first day a new mill opens, a gift must be sent to him, usually a black pig or a black rooster, placed under the dam at night; when fishermen catch their first net of fish, they must throw some into the water; people traveling by boat must throw a pinch of tobacco and a piece of bread into the water to ask him to let them pass.

If this is not done, the villagers say, the dam will break overnight, the millstones will be washed away, and those who go under the water will never come back up.

If at night you hear "slap slap" splashing sounds in the river, like someone bathing, the village elders will tell children to hurry back inside and not look back. Because that is the Vodianoy slapping the water surface.

Even now, in some old villages in Russia, adults still stop children from playing by the dam after dusk.

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