Nichnytsia
They can enter the house with water collected at night. They might also appear if someone takes a child outside in the evening, or simply if someone rocks an empty baby cradle, and so on.
What Do They Look Like?
People describe nichnytsias in different ways, but most often as semi-transparent, grey girls. Their long hair sticks out in every direction. They wear white, semi-transparent dresses that hide their legs, making them seem like they fly instead of walk. Their arms are bony, with thin fingers and sharp, sometimes long nails, almost like claws. Beliefs and legends say their wide-open eyes hold horror, and their faces twist in pain.
Nichnytsias show themselves only at night. They also transform into creatures like bats, slipping into homes more easily — often through windows.
Who Are They?
People said nichnytsias were girls who died unnatural deaths or the restless souls of witches. They disturb children’s sleep by touching them and stealing their dreams. Some legends warn that if a nichnytsia feeds a child with her milk, the child may develop colic or stomach problems. Nichnytsias harm adults too. They spark quarrels in families and steal dreams from grown-ups.
How to Fight Nichnytsia?
People in different regions of Ukraine used various methods to get rid of nichnytsias. They divided these methods into simpler, well-known ones and those reserved for the worst situations.
The most famous method among ancestors involved placing a motanka doll in the child’s cradle to trick (lure) the nichnytsia onto it, allowing the child to sleep peacefully while the nichnytsia tormented the doll instead.
Ancestors considered another method effective in protecting against nichnytsias. The mother would sit on the threshold of the house and take the restless child in her right arm. She used her left hand to comb the child’s hair — usually thirty times or in sets of seven. Then she placed the comb into a bowl on the floor and poured boiling water over it. At that moment, another woman — typically a grandmother or sister — would stand outside the door and ask, “What are you doing?” The mother would reply, “Steaming away the nichnytsia!” The woman outside would respond cheerfully, “Steam, steam, let her eyes burn.” They repeated this exchange three times.
Another method involved fumigating the room with strawberry leaves. They burned the leaves and walked around the room with the smoke because nichnytsias dislike that smell. The easiest method involved putting various herbs under the pillow, such as thistle.
People also used other ways to drive away troublesome nichnytsias. One method involved chickens. If a child slept poorly, the mother would take the child to the chicken coop and place them beneath the perch where the chickens slept. While doing this, she would say, “White hens, speckled hens, yellow hens, cuckoo hens — take your nichnytsias and return health and sleep to my child.” Then she would wash the child’s face three times with water while saying, “From the goose — the water, from the child — the trouble.” After the ritual, the mother always dressed the child in clean clothes.
People also asked trees (oak for boys, birch or willow for girls) to exchange the child’s nighttime crying for peaceful sleep.
In the Zhytomyr region, people practiced more complex methods. They dressed the child in the grandfather’s coat and placed them on the doorstep. They stepped over the child several times while saying, “I gave birth to you, and I will take you away.” Some other rituals involved washing the child in herbal brew. Then they poured the water outside to drive nichnytsias out of the house.