· SPIRITS OF THE DEAD ·
RITUAL
You can banish Nichnytsya by smoking the house with leaves
SECRET of midnight flowers, putting thistle and a comb for flax under a
If Nichnytsia has sneaked into the house, she cannot pillow, and hanging a motanka* on the window. Motanka is an
be driven out by force. To make her leave the house, essential protective amulet of a baby’s cradle. Nichnytsia thinks
one must open the door at dawn and go outside. the doll is a child and tries vainly to enter its dreams.
Nichnytsias are very emotional, so one should try to There is a wicked way to pass Nichnytsia to another child.
lure her out with flattery or insults. One should talk To do this, the sick child’s mother has to beat it with a birch
to the Nichnytsia until the first rays of the sun enter from a broom and then stick it into the roof of another house
the house through the opened door. Then she will with a small child.
dissolve like the morning mist. *motanka - is a type of rag doll made in Ukraine used for entertaining
kids and has a sacral protective function.
EXAMPLES OF CONFLICTS
⯁ In the village of Strakholissia, a local girl
Odarka out of jealousy, killed her sister Marichka, who
was dating a local boy, and later married him. The
couple’s newborn child hardly sleeps
- nightmares constantly torment
her, and in the morning, she has a thick
yellowish liquid on her lips (the poisonous
milk of Nichnytsia).
⯁ In the village of Staryi Bykiv, Tetiana, the wife
of the miller Hryts, lost her baby a few days after
birth to illness. Tetiana was unable to handle this
grief, fell ill and died. Now all newborns in Staryi
Bykiv are haunted by nightmares.
⯁ In the village of Orane, the local
witch Marta Horytsvit has made a pact with
Nichnytsia: she first helps the spirit enter
people’s homes and then charges them
a lot of money to banish her. The local
priest, Father Marko, suspects Marta
of conspiring with the devil, but he
needs proof.
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