# The Mythology of All Races/Volume 3/Slavic/Part 1/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V
NAVKY AND RUSALKY
THE souls of children that have died unbaptized, or are born of mothers who have met a violent death, are personified as Navky, this term being cognate with Old Slavic navĭ, Russian navĭe, Little Russian navk ("dead"), and being found throughout the Slavic languages—Bulgarian Navi, Navjaci; Little Russian Nejky, Mavky, Majky; Slovenian Navje, Mavje; etc.
In the traditions of the Little Russians the Mavky, who are children either drowned by their mothers or unbaptized, have the appearance of small babies, or of young, beautiful girls with curly hair. They are either half-naked or wear only a white shirt; and on moonlit nights they rock on branches of trees, seeking to attract young people either by imitating the crying of infants or by laughing, giggling, and clapping their hands. Whoever follows their enticing voices will be bewitched by their beauty, and at last will be tickled to death and drawn into deep water. They live in woods and on steppes. Very often they may be seen in young corn; and by day they walk along the fields, crying and wailing. In summer they swim in rivers and lakes, beating the water merrily; during the fairy-week they run about fields and meadows, lamenting, "Mother has borne me and left me unbaptized." They are angry at those who allowed them to die unchristened, and whosoever chances to hear their wailing voices should say, "I baptize thee in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." This will set them free; but if for seven years they find no one to take pity on them, they are turned into water-nymphs.
​According to Bulgarian tradition in Macedonia, the Navi and Navjaci are invisible genii soaring in the depths of the firmament, appearing in the shape of birds, and crying like infants. They are the souls of children who have died un-baptized, and in their search for their mothers they attack and trouble women in childbed. They may be set free, however, if the baptismal formula is said over them. The Slovenian Navje, in like manner, are believed to fly about in the form of huge, black birds, who plead to be baptized. If any one is moved to pity by their wailing and baptizes them, he will be their great benefactor; but if he ridicules them or whistles at them, he will rouse their anger. The Poles call such beings Latawci. A child that has died unchristened wanders about the world for seven years and begs for baptism; but if it meets no one to take compassion on it, it will be turned into one of these spirits.
Very similar to the Navky are the Rusalky ("Water-Nymphs"), whose name is derived from the Rusalye, of which more will subsequently be said. Belief in them is most widely spread among the Russians, who hold that they are children who have died unbaptized, or have been drowned or suffocated, or else that they are girls and young wives who have met an unnatural death, or have been cursed by their parents. Sometimes the Rusalky appear as girls seven years old, sometimes as maidens in the full bloom of youth. They cover their beautiful bodies with green leaves, or with a white shirt without a belt; and at Whitsuntide they sit on trees, asking women for a frock and girls for a shirt, whence women hang on the branches strips of linen or little shreds torn from their dresses, this being meant as a sacrifice to propitiate these water-nymphs.
The Rusalky live in woods, meadows, fields, and waters. Generally appearing when the corn begins to ripen in the fields, and concealed amidst it, ready to punish him who wantonly plucks the ears, they dance and make merry, adorned with the many-coloured blossoms of the poppy and ​with their hair flying loose. At Whitsuntide they run about the meadows, or they frolic among the high-standing corn and, rocking upon it, make it wave to and fro. Whole bevies of them live on lonely spots along the streams, or in deep places and under rapids. Sitting in the depths of brooks and rivers, they entangle the fishermen's nets; by breaking the dikes they flood the adjoining fields and wreck the bridges; and they may also cause fatal storms, dangerous rains, and heavy hail. Rising to the surface of the stream on clear summer nights, they bathe, sprinkling the water around them and frolicking in the waves; they like to sit on the mill-wheel, splashing each other, and then they dive deep, crying, "Kuku." In late spring especially they come out of the water, and run about the neighbouring woods and thickets, clapping their hands and turning somersaults upon the grass, while their laughter resounds far and wide in the forests. In the evening they like to rock upon slender branches, enticing unwary wanderers; and if they succeed in leading any one astray, they tickle him to death, or draw him down into the depths of the stream.
The Rusalky are extremely fond of music and singing; and their fine voices lure swimmers to deep places, where they drown. The water-nymphs also divert themselves by dancing in the pale moonlight, and they inveigle shepherds to play with them, the places where they dance being marked by circles in which the grass is particularly luxuriant and green. Fond of spinning, they hang their yarn on trees; and after washing the linen which they weave, they spread it on the banks to dry. If a man treads on such linen, he becomes weak and lame.
It is during Whitsuntide that the Rusalky display their greatest activity, and then, for fear of them, people do not stay outdoors by night more than is necessary, do not bathe in rivers, do not clap their hands, and avoid all work in the fields that might anger the water-nymphs, while on the banks of rivers and brooks lads and lasses place bread, cheese, butter, and other kinds of food for them.
* ↑ Chronicle of Pulkawa, in Fontes rerum Bohemicarum, v. 89, Prague, 1893.
* ↑ See infra, pp. 311–12.