Kikimora

In Russian and Belarusian mythology, a character, predominantly female, inhabiting a human dwelling and other buildings, bringing harm and trouble to the household and people.

The creature was obtained from the restless spirit of the deceased by "wrong death" or could be magically sent to the house by ill-wishers (by placing a magical object in it, more often a doll, which then came to life).

According to descriptions, a kikimora can be very small and thin, with a large head, long arms, short legs, it has bulging eyes, shaggy paws, horns, a tail, it is covered with feathers or fur. She could also appear in the form of an animal, although most often completely invisible. The creature can communicate with people with human speech and by knocking.

Usually it interferes with sleep and scares with various sounds, annoys small children, pounces and suffocates at night, throws various objects, drops and breaks things, pulls out or cuts people's hair in a dream (wool from cattle, feathers from poultry).

In historical and literary monuments, kikimores have been mentioned since the beginning of the XVII century. The earliest of them is in the case The discharge order of 1635-1636 on the charges of the peasant Mitroshka (Nikifor) the Lame from the Galician county, who died after the third torture during the investigation, without giving any evidence against himself. The case says that this "poor witch" sent an unclean spirit on people, who did "many dirty tricks" in the house, ruined horses and scared away the cow herd, "and the unclean spirit is saying according to their witchy dreams of a kikimora."

The only mention of the kikimora in ancient Russian literature is contained in the "Story of the soulful elder Nikodim Solovetsky monastery about a certain monk" (1640s-1650s), the action of which is dated to 1638.

It is also possible that the "predecessor" of the kikimora was the "dirty" kachitsa, mentioned in the "Word of St. Basil about Fasting" from the "Golden Chain" (XV century) and correlated, based on Northern Russian conspiracies, with the midnight-night.

Also, some demons from the lives of saints, for example, the ancient "Life of Theodosius of the Caves", have a typical behavior for Kikimora.