Ala (demon)
An ala or hala (plural: ale or hali) is a female
The appearance of an ala is diversely and often vaguely described in folklore. A given ala may look like a black wind, a gigantic creature of indistinct form, a huge-mouthed, humanlike, or snakelike
Origin
While some mythological beings are common to all
Traces of beliefs in that demon are preserved among
Etymology
Singular and plural forms of the demon's name, with pronunciations transcribed in the IPA (see help:IPA): | ||||||
Language | Singular | Plural | ||||
C. | R. | IPA | C. | R. | IPA | |
Serbian | ала | ala | [ˈala] | але | ale | [ˈalɛ̝] |
Bulgarian | хала | hala | [ˈxala] | хали | hali | [ˈxali] |
Macedonian | ала | ala | [ˈala] | али | ali | [ˈali] |
C. – nominative , which is given here.)
|
The demon’s name in the standard
Appearance
Dragon or serpent like demon connected with the wind, and thunderstorm and hail clouds. It was believed in the Gruža region of central Serbia that the ala is invisible, but that she can be heard — her powerful hissing resonated in front of the dark hail clouds.[1]
In Bulgaria, farmers saw a horrible ala with huge wings and sword-like thick tail in the contours of a dark cloud. When an ala–cloud overtook the village, villagers peered into the sky hoping to see an imperial eagle emerging there. They believed that the mighty bird with a cross on its back could banish the ala–cloud from the fields.[9] In eastern Bulgaria, ala appeared not in clouds, but in gales and whirlwinds.[10] In other regions of Bulgaria, the ala was seen either as a "bull with huge horns, a black cloud, dark fog or a snake-like monster with six wings and twelve tails". The ala is thought to inhabit remote mountain areas or caves, in which she keeps bad weather. In Bulgarian tradition, thunderstorms and hail clouds were interpreted as a battle between the good dragon or eagle and the evil ala.[5]
Serbs in
У једна уста носи виле и ветрови, |
By a description recorded in the Boljevac region, the ala is a black and horrible creature in the form of wind. Similarly, in the Homolje region of eastern Serbia, the people imagine the ala as a black wind moving over the land. Wherever she goes, a whirlwind blows, turning like a drill, and those who get exposed to the whirlwind go mad. In Bulgaria too, the ala is a violent wind that sweeps up everything in its way and brings havoc:[13]
Излезнаха до три люти хали, |
|
A belief from the Leskovac region states the ala is a monster with an enormous mouth who holds in her hand a big wooden spoon, with which she grabs and devours everything that gets in her way. One story has it that a man kept such an ala in his barn; she drank thirty liters of milk every day. Another warns that ale in the form of twelve ravens used to take the crops from vineyards.[3]
In eastern Serbia it was believed that ale who interact with people can metamorphose into humans or animals, after which their true selves can be seen only by so-called šestaci – men with six fingers on both hands and six toes on both feet – though human-looking ale cause houses to shake when they enter.[14] By a belief recorded in the Homolje region, ale that charge to the Moon also display shapeshifting abilities: they repeatedly shift from their basic shape of two-headed snakes to six-fingered men who hold iron pitchforks, black young bulls, big boars, or black wolves, and back.[3]
Effect on humans
Ale primarily destroy crops in fields, vineyards, and orchards by leading
At the sight of hail and thunderstorm clouds, i.e. the ala that leads them, people did not just sit and wait – they resorted to
Alo, ne ovamo, putuj na Tatar planinu! |
|
Another spell was spoken by a vračara, a woman versed in magic, while she performed a suitable ritual:[15]
Не, ало, овамо, |
As several other supernatural entities were also held responsible for bringing hail and torrential rains, when the entity is not explicitly named, it is often impossible to conclude to which the magical measures apply. There was, for example, a custom used when the approach of a thunderstorm was perceived: to bring a table in front of the house, and to put bread, salt, a knife with a black sheath, and an axe with its edge directed skywards on the table. By another custom, a fireplace trivet with its legs directed skywards, knives, forks, and the stub of the Slava candle were put on the table.[15]
Another characteristic attributed to the ala is extreme voracity; in the Leskovac region, she was imagined as a monster with a huge mouth and a wooden spoon in her hand, with which she grabbed and devoured whatever came her way. According to a widely spread tradition, ale used to seize children and devour them in her dwelling, which was full of children’s bones and spilt blood. Less often, they attacked and ate adults; they were able to find a hidden human by smell.[1][3]
People in eastern and southern Serbia believed that ale, in their voracity, attacked the Sun and the Moon. They gradually ate more and more of those celestial bodies, thereby causing an eclipse. During an eclipse, the Sun turned red because it was covered with its own blood as a result of the ale’s bites; when it shone brightly again, that meant it had defeated the ale. The spots on the Moon were seen as scars from the ale’s bites. While ale devoured the Sun or the Moon, many elderly people became depressed and even wept in fear. If ale succeeded in devouring the Sun, the world would end. To prevent that, men shot their guns toward the eclipse or rang bells, and women cast spells incessantly. There was a notion in the Homolje region that, if ale succeeded in devouring the Moon, the Sun would die from sorrow, and darkness would overwhelm the world.[3][14]
Ale were believed to be able to make men insane; in eastern Serbia there is a special term for such a man: alosan. When people encountered an ala on a road or field, they could get dangerous diseases from her.
Traversing a crossroads at night was considered dangerous because it was the place and time of the ala’s supper; the unfortunate person who stepped on an “ala’s table” could become blind, deaf, or lame.[6] Ale gather at night on the eves of greater holidays, divert men from their ways into gullies, and torture them there by riding them like horses.[14]
Ala can “sneak” into humans, gaining a human form while retaining their own properties. A tradition has it that an ala sneaked into
A human going into an ala’s house, which is frequently deep in a forest, but may also be in the clouds, in a lake, spring, cave, gigantic tree, or other hidden remote place, or on an inhospitable mountain,[2] can have varied consequences. If he approaches the ala with an appeal, and does not mention the differences between her and humans, he will be rewarded. Otherwise, he will be cruelly punished. According to one story, a stepdaughter, driven away from home by her stepmother, comes to an ala’s house; addresses her with the word mother; picks lice from the ala’s hair full of worms; and feeds the ala’s “livestock” of owls, wolves, badgers, and other wild animals; behaving and talking as if these things are quite normal to her, and is rewarded by the ala with a chest filled with gold. When the stepmother’s daughter comes to the ala’s house, she does the opposite, and the ala punishes her and her mother by sending them a chest of snakes, which blind them. In another example, when a prince asks an ala for her daughter’s hand, she saves him from other ale, and helps him get married. But when a girl to whom an ala is the godmother visits the ala with her mother, the ala eats them both because the mother talked about the strange things in her house.[3]
That even a dead ala is bad is seen in the legend explaining the origin of the Golubatz fly (Simulium colombaschense),
Aloviti men
In Serbia, men believed to possess properties of an ala were called aloviti (ala-like) men, and they were given several explanations. An ala may have sneaked into them; these were recognized by their voracity, because the ala, in order to satisfy her excessive hunger, drove them to eat incessantly. They may also have survived an ala blowing on them – an ala’s breath is usually lethal to humans. These people would then become exceptionally strong. Alternatively, they could be the offspring of an ala and a woman, or could have been born covered with the caul. It was believed that aloviti men could not be killed with a gun or arrow, unless gold or silver was used.[18]
Like ale, aloviti men led hail-producing and thunderstorm clouds: when the skies darkened, such a man would fall into a trance, and his spirit would fly out of his body toward the clouds as if his spirit were an ala herself. There was, however, a significant difference – he never led the clouds over the fields of his own village; the damage was done to the neighboring villages.[18] In this respect, aloviti men are equivalent to zduhaći. Besides leading clouds away, an aloviti man could also fight against ale to protect his village.[3] Children, too, could be aloviti, and they fought ale using plough beams. In these fights they were helped by the Aesculapian snake (smuk in Serbian), and for this reason people would not hurt these snakes.[7]
There is a story about an aloviti man, who is described as unusually tall, thin, bony-faced, and with a long beard and moustache. When the weather was nice, he worked and behaved like the other people in his village, but as soon as the dark clouds covered the sky, he used to close himself in his house, put blinds on the windows, and remain alone and in a trance as long as the bad weather and thunder lasted.
In modern Serbian adjective ''alav'' still signifies voracious appetite.[19]
Adversaries
Ale have several adversaries, including
Ale can be defeated by zmajeviti men, who have a human mother, but a dragon father. They look like ordinary people except for little wings beneath their armpits; such men are always born at night after a twelve-month term.[20] Much like a zduhać, a zmajeviti man lives like everybody else when the weather is nice, but when an ala leads threatening clouds into sight, he falls into a trance and his spirit comes out of his body and flies up to the clouds to fight with the ala, just like a dragon would do. A story from Banat, which was held as true until the 1950s, says that before World War I, an exhausted ala in the form of a giant snake fell from the clouds onto a road. The explanation of the event was that the ala was defeated in her fight with a zmajeviti man; people gave her milk to help her recover.[1][3]
In a Christianized version, the duel involves the
In a more Christianized version, St. Elijah shoots lightning at the
An eagle’s appearance in the sky when thunderclouds threatened was greeted with joy and hope by people who trusted in their power to defeat an ala; after defeating the ala, the eagle led the clouds away from the fields. An explanation for this, recorded in eastern Serbia, is that the eagles which nest in the vicinity of a village want thunderstorms and hail as far as possible from their nestlings, so coincidentally protect the village’s fields as well. The role of eagles, however, was controversial, because in the same region there was a belief that an eagle flying in front of thunderstorm clouds was a manifestation of an ala, leading the clouds toward the crops, rather than driving them away.[1]
Connection with Baba Yaga
Comparing
- Serbian tale
-
- (...) Yesterday, the woman went to the ala’s house with her child, the ala’s godchild. Upon entering the first room, she saw a poker and a broom fighting; in the second room, she saw human legs; in the third, she saw human arms; in the fourth – human flesh; in the fifth – blood; in the sixth – she saw that the ala had taken off her head and was delousing it, while wearing a horse’s head in its place. After that, the ala brought lunch and said to the woman, “Eat, kuma.”[C]“How can I eat after I saw a poker and a broom fighting in the first room?” “Eat, kuma, eat. Those are my maids: they fight about which one should take the broom and sweep.” “How can I eat after I saw human arms and legs in the second and third rooms?” And the ala told her, “Eat, kuma, eat. That is my food.” “How can I eat, kuma, after I saw the sixth room full of blood?” “Eat, kuma, eat. That is the wine that I drink.” “How can I eat after I saw that you had taken your head off and were delousing it, having fixed a horse’s head on yourself?” The ala, after hearing that, ate both the woman and her child.
- (...) Yesterday, the woman went to the ala’s house with her child, the ala’s godchild. Upon entering the first room, she saw a
- Russian tale
-
- (...) On her latch.” “I saw a barrel in the yard full of blood.” “That is my wine, my darling.” “I saw children lying on the stairs.” “Those are my pigs.” “The porch is closed with an arm.” “That is my latch, my golden one.” “I saw in the house a hairy head.” “That is my broom, my curly one,” said Baba Yaga, then got angry with her prying goddaughter and ate her.
- (...) On her
The two examples witness the chthonic nature of these mythological creatures: a hero can enter the chthonic space and discover the secret of that world, but he is not allowed to relate that secret to other humans. Both the ala and Baba Yaga can be traced back to an older concept of a female demonic divinity: the snakelike mistress of the underworld.[3]
Annotations
- ^ The mountain represents a wild, bleak, inhuman space, where demons dwell, and into which they are expelled by means of incantations, from the human space. See Trebješanin, Žarko. "Sorcery practise as the key to the understanding of the mytho-magical world image" (PDF). University of Niš. p. 2. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ One of the Serbian words for "voracious" is alav, literally: "who has an ala in himself".
- ^ Kuma is a name for either one’s godmother, one’s child’s godmother, or one’s godchild’s mother, depending on the context.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-585-04345-6.
- ^ a b c d Беновска-Събкова, Милена. "Хала и Ламя" (in Bulgarian). Детски танцов ансамбъл “Зорница”. Archived from the original on 2018-06-17. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Radenković 1996
- ^ Георгиева, Иваничка (1993). Българска народна митология (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Наука и изкуство. p. 119.
- ^ ISBN 978-954-739-682-1.
- ^ a b c Petrović 2000, ch. "aždaja-ala"
- ^ ISSN 0350-7653. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ISBN 978-86-82873-04-4.
- ^ a b Панайотова, Румяна (21 September 2006). "Тъмен се облак задава" (in Bulgarian). Българско Национално Радио. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
- ISBN 978-1-85302-485-6.
- ISBN 978-86-7547-037-3.
- ^ Radenković, Ljubinko (1982). Народне басме и бајања (in Serbian). Niš: Gradina. p. 97.
- ^ Маринов, Димитьр (1994). Народна вяра и религиозни народни обичаи (in Bulgarian). Sofia: БАН. p. 70.
- ^ a b c d e Kulišić, Petrović & Pantelić 1970, Ала
- ^ ISBN 978-86-83699-08-7.
- Carpathians.)
- ISBN 978-86-331-1946-7.
- ^ a b c d Kulišić, Petrović & Pantelić 1970, Аловити људи
- ^ "а̏лав". Речник српскохрватскога књижевног језика. Vol. 1 А-Е. Novi Sad: Matica Srpska. 1967. p. 63.
- ^ a b Беновска-Събкова, Милена. "Змей" (in Bulgarian). Детски танцов ансамбъл “Зорница”. Archived from the original on 2018-06-17. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
Sources
- Bandić, Dušan (2004). Narodna religija Srba u 100 pojmova Народна религија Срба у 100 појмова (in Serbian) (2 ed.). Belgrade: Nolit. ISBN 978-86-19-02328-3.
- Kulišić, Špiro; Petrović, Petar Ž.; Pantelić, Nikola (1970). Српски митолошки речник (in Serbian). Belgrade: Nolit.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - Petrović, Sreten (2000). Srpska mitologija: Sistem Srpske mitologije. Prosveta. ISBN 9788674554159.
- Radenković, Ljubinko (1996). "Митска бића српског народа: (Х)АЛА". Archived from the original on 2014-04-11. Retrieved 2007-06-21.. First appeared in the academic journal Liceum, issue no. 2 (1996, Kragujevac, Serbia), pages 11–16; the online version published by Project Rastko. (in Serbian)
- Zečević, Slobodan (1981). Митска бића српских предања (in Serbian). Belgrade: "Vuk Karadžić": Etnografski muzej.
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