page_title: Zduhać
section_title: Dragon man
hierarchical_section_title: Zduhać / Dragon man
caption_attribution_description: English: Zamenis longissimus on a tree. Photographed in Mödling (Lower Austria). Deutsch: Äskulapnatter (Zamenis longissimus) auf einem Baum am Eichkogel in Mödling (Niederösterreich)
context_page_description: A zduhać and vetrovnjak in Serbian tradition, and a dragon man in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian traditions, were men believed to have an inborn supernatural ability to protect their estate, village, or region against destructive weather conditions, such as storms, hail, or torrential rains. It was believed that the souls of these men could leave their bodies in sleep, to intercept and fight with demonic beings imagined as bringers of bad weather. Having defeated the demons and taken away the stormy clouds they brought, the protectors would return into their bodies and wake up tired.
  Notions associated with the zduhać, vetrovnjak, and dragon man, respectively, are not identical. The dragon man fought against female demons called ala, which led hail clouds over fields to destroy crops, and consumed the fertility of the fields. The zduhaći of an area usually fought together against the attacking zduhaći of another area who were bringing a storm and hail clouds above their fields. The victorious zduhaći would loot the yield of all agricultural produce from the territory of their defeated foes, and take it to their own region.
context_section_description: The men who defended their village from bad weather were referred to as dragons in eastern and southern Serbia, western Bulgaria, and Macedonia. In Serbia, they were also called zmajevit "having a dragon's properties", from zmaj "dragon". The mythological dragon was imagined as a fiery creature with wings, usually having a snake-like shape; he could also take the form of an eagle or a man. Each dragon had his own territory, within which he dwelt by a forest spring or stream, in the hollow trunk of a beech tree, or in a mountain cave. He was benevolent toward the humans, and he took care that his territory received the right amount of rain at the right time, for good growth of the crops. His arch-enemy was a female demon named ala (plural: ale), whose main activity was to lead storm and hail clouds over fields to destroy crops. The ale also consumed the fertility of the fields. Whenever he noticed an ala approaching, the dragon would fly up into the clouds to fight against the demon and chase her away. He shot fiery arrows and stones at her, which produced lightning and thunder. In the regions where people believed in the zduhaći, the dragon was a highly regarded mythological being, but he was not associated with the crops and their protection from demons. Similar was the case in other than western regions of Bulgaria.
  The dragon man was believed to act similar to the mythological dragon: as soon as he saw bad weather approaching, which he knew was brought by an ala, he would leave whatever he was doing, and fly up to confront the demon. This he did by falling into a deep sleep, or entering a state similar to death, usually at the very spot where he happened to be at that time. His soul then left his body in the form of a snake or a lizard, and soared skywards. It was claimed that he was not breathing as long as his soul was absent from his body. The battle could last for a whole day, or even for several days, during which time the man lay unconscious, sweating profusely from the exertion of the fight. There was a danger that, during the course of the battle, the ala might approach the man's body and harm him, which could be prevented by someone swinging a blade above him, or by sticking the blade at the lying man's head. He should not be pushed or moved while in this state: if he was not in the same position as when he fell asleep, his soul would not be able to return into his body, and he would die. When he woke up after the battle with the ala, he was very tired. Apart from these characteristics, the dragon man was seen as an ordinary human.
  There is a story about a dragon man from the village of Pečenjevce, eastern Serbia, who saw an ala in a cloud while he was scything. He said to scythemen beside him, "I am going to sleep, and you swing a scythe above me," before he lay down and fell asleep. A man who swung the scythe, however, inadvertently grazed him with the tip of the blade. When the dragon woke up, he told that he had been wounded by the ala he fought with, and lost a lot of blood. A dragon from the village of Bogojevac always kept with him a piece of a scythe blade or a knife. As soon as he perceived the imminent approach of bad weather, he would lie down on the ground and stick the blade above his head. It was thought that his spirit then soared into the clouds to deal with the ala. When he was drafted into the army, he fell asleep without a blade during a thunderstorm, and died. At a village near Tran in western Bulgaria, a man reputed to be a dragon would swoon when it started to thunder. After he came to, he would say, "How tired I am!" This was thought to refer to the strenuous battle he fought in the clouds.
  In Banat and some areas of eastern Serbia, the dragon men were referred to as alovit. This adjective is derived from the noun ala, and means "having supernatural or demonic properties". It could be applied not only to humans, but also to dragons, snakes, horses, trees, armies, and rivers. An ala could be seen as a good creature in some regions, such as Banat, Mount Kopaonik in south Serbia, and the a
caption: Aesculapian snakes defended the fields and vineyards they inhabited from hail. These snakes could become dragons if they attained a certain age.
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