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THE WATERS AND WATER SPIRITS INVOTIAN FOLK BELIEF *

Ergo-Hart Vstrik

INTRODUCTION

In this article I intend to focus on the belief reports, legends anddescriptions of customs concerning the bodies of water and water-related supernatural beings recorded from the Votian linguistic areain the Votian language.1 As compared with the analogous Finnish(Jauhiainen 1998: 257266), Estonian and Livonian material (see,for example, Loorits 1998: 111210) the records of Votian folkloreare scarce and relatively fragmentary, comprising a total of 120shorter or longer texts. Except for a few from the 18th century, theera of the exploration of Votian folklore, the majority of accountswere collected by the greatest researcher of the Votian language ofthe 20th century, Paul Ariste, an academician and professor of TartuUniversity. (These are available in the collection of manuscriptsThe Votian Ethnology and partially published in Ariste 1935;1941; 1958; 1964; 1965; 1969; 1976; 1977.) In order to be able toorientate in this fragmentary material and categorise it in someway I will attempt to distinguish between the concepts reflectingthe tradition spheres of different periods based on certain religiousphenomenological processes as described by the Estonian histo-rian of folk religion Ivar Paulson in his collection of essays TheOld Estonian Folk Religion (1971).

Although the Votian linguistic area was relatively small duringthe collection period, we can distinguish between the preferencesof different village groups as regards the names of the water spir-its2, beliefs and characteristic plots of folk narratives: particularlythe Central Votia rich in lakes (the village groups of Orko, Mtiand Kabrio) contrasted with the western coastal villages and thoseat the River Lauga (the village group of Vaipooli and Kukkuzi; seemap 1). The geographical position of the village groups has deter-mined their different natural surroundings and sources of liveli-hood. Even in the middle of the 20th century people in Vaipooligained their sustenance mostly from deep-sea fishing (the coastal

dianaText Boxdoi:10.7592/FEJF1999.12.spirits

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villages had retained the common dragnet crews), whereas in Cen-tral and East Votia the smaller-scale fresh-water fishing had onlya secondary role in providing subsistence (see Rnk 1960: 79). Thedifference is reflected correspondingly in the tradition concerningwater spirits: in the Central Votian lake area the perception of waterspirits was never associated with fishing, whereas in the villagesof Vaipooli it was clearly a part of fishing at sea and in the RiverLauga.

In the whole Votian area the names of water spirits refer to familyrelationships, particularly to maternal relations, and also to pos-session or ownership (containing the stem word haltiaZ spirit, lit-erally halta- to own, to rule): for example, vesi-em3 watermother, vesi-mm water woman; jg-em river mother, jarvi-em lake mother, jarvi-is lake father, jrv peremmeeZ lakemaster, jarvi-pappi lake priest; vesi-haltiain, vesi-haltias, vesi-haltialain all meaning water spirit, meri-haltia sea spirit, jrveehaltiaZ lake spirit, jaa haltiaZ stream spirit, lhte haltialain,lhtie alt both meaning spring spirit. The names of the waterbeings are distinguished according to their location in sea, river,lake, stream or spring, which is a manifestation of the belief thatwater spirits may inhabit every body of water. However, it is rathercomplicated to differentiate between the distinct categories of wa-ter spirits in the 20th century folkloric material on the basis ofterminology. Below I intend to observe the water related tradition

Map 1. Votian villages andvillage groups.

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as a set of clusters concentrated around a specific domain of inter-est, focusing mainly on ritual performances and their ways of in-terpretation.

FISHING: FEMALE DEITIES, MASTERS OF THEUNDERWATER AND GUARDIANS OF FISH

Similar to the tradition of other Baltic-Finnish and more distantkin peoples, the Votian tradition includes the notion of water spiritas a patroness of fish and mistress of the underwater. An 18th cen-tury account by the first investigator of Votians Friedrich LudolphTrefurt,4 the Baltic-German pastor from Narva, states that theVotians had devoted one day in the year for the goddess of the seaand rivers, the name of which Trefurt translated as Seemutter:

On this holy day everyone goes at midnight to the seashore. Ifthey have gathered together, they all attire themselves in whiteand pray for a good and plentiful catch; in exchange they vow togive back the first fish caught to the Sea Mother after it hasbeen cooked. Then they go back to their homes. Early the nextmorning they start fishing for the first communal catch of theyear, cook the first fish at the shore and throw it back into thesea; there upon they fish for the whole day and at the end of theday are quite exuberant, especially if the haul has been suc-cessful, and they entertain themselves with excessive eating,drinking, singing and playing bagpipes as they used to do on St.Florus Day.5 (Trefurt 1783: 1819).

A similar description of water spirit cult has been recorded at thebeginning of the 1790s by the Russian historian Feodor Tumanskiin his description of the St. Petersburg Guberniya (Pronvince).6

According to Tumanski the Votians worshipped the goddess of thewaters, lakes and rivers called Alteas on St. Elijahs Day (July20th/ August 2nd). Similarly to Trefurt, Tumanski mentions thefestive clothing of the participants, the gathering to a nearby lake,or a river or stream, the praying in the evening for a successfulhaul, the cooking of the first fish caught the next day, and joyousfestivity (pik 1970: 112). We could, however, point out one differ-ence: namely, according to Tumanski, the fishing began only afterthe service in the afternoon, adding that:

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The very same day they have a custom to ask a priest to sprin-kle holy water on their cattle and sheep. They believe that thevery year they stop performing that ritual their cattle will notincrease and the fishing will not succeed. (pik 1970: 112).

Thus, we might assume on the basis of Tumanskis text, that thecollective sacrifice of the first fish described above was, at least insome areas, associated with Christian church practice and thesaints day. Nevertheless, it is more likely that such a joint sacrifi-cial ritual was held in spring, and not on St. Elijahs Day asTumanski describes it. The reference to a goddess(es) here is a char-acteristic interpretation of the 18th century scholars: both emmother as well as (h)altias spirit compounds are clearly relatedto the 1920th century water spirit tradition, whereas Trefurtsterm Seemutter might be identified as the vesi-em or vesi-mmof the Vaipooli villages. One of the most important elements of theritual is the white or festive clothing of the participants which hasalso been mentioned by Trefurt (1783: 22) in connection with magicand sorcery, and which has been described in even more recentaccounts of sacrificial customs (see below). Another significant factis that, according to the scholars, the joint sacrificial ceremony ofthe community was performed to obtain a good fishing catch andgeneral well-being. The 19th and 20th century folkloric reportscertainly contain references to sacrifice but the meanings attrib-uted to ritual performances are associated with other spheres oflife.

The respect towards the sea and supernatural beings in it is alsoreflected in the behavioural standards which prohibited swearingand quarrels during fishing (Ariste 1965: 431). The tradition re-lated to fishing includes accounts recorded in the 20th century whichsay that a water spirit could impede the haul of greedy fishermenby tearing the fishing net or obstructing the fishermen in pullingthe nets out. In some cases sacrifice is mentioned in connectionwith saying charms for the water spirit stressing the do, ut desidea:

Meez meni hell oHtogoll. Pani vrkoD jrvee. Oomnikoll tmsai pallo kalaa. Saatii tl inimezet tt, ett tm saipallo kalaa. Jott Joro sai pallo kaloi. Ja pantii tizd mehedvrkod vettee. Oomnikoll mentii vrkkoi vttamaa. Evd vrkkoi

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tttee saanD. Anna vrkod vll, nii v. M annammsill musaa katii p palkkaa! Eb antanuD vrkkoi vll.Jaa nii neeD vrkoD jivD. Meni kaHs ntelii, ku mentii vrkkoikattsomaa. Sis saivad vll. Se mokoma vesihaltialain.

A man went out one night. Cast nets into the lake. In the morn-ing he got a lot of fish. Village people found out that he caught alot of fish. That Joro [=name of the fisherman] caught plenty offish. So other men cast their nets into the water. The next morn-ing they went to pull out the nets. They could not pull themout. Please, be so kind and give us back our nets. We will payyou with the head of a black cat. She did not give the netsback. And so the nets were left in the lake. Two weeks passedand they went to see the fishing nets. Then they could pull themout. It was some kind of a water spirit. (VE VIII 199200< Jgper, Darja Lehti (1938) = Ariste 1941: 4849).

Throwing the head of a black cat into the water might be regardedas a placatory offering by addressing the water being and promis-ing an offering in return for a good catch. A similar preventive magicritual, a remnant of the sacrifice tradition, was also known in thevillages on the banks of the River Lauga where people, before go-ing to sea, had a custom of casting a small stone into the water(Ariste 1965: 431).

Photo 1. Lake Svjarvi. Photo by Ergo-Hart Vstrik 1998.

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A single account from Liivtl village (VE XIX 14) lets us knowthat getting lost at sea was interpreted as the interference of a seaspirit. Another interesting contamination of popular beliefs occursin a report where the water spirit was identified as a hobgoblinwho knew when the vessel would sink (VE III 141 < Luuditsa).

As compared to the tradition of the Central Votia, the texts re-corded from West Votian coastal villages contain but single refer-ences to the appearance and typical activities of water spirits. Nev-ertheless, I will introduce them, simultaneously pointing out thedifferent possible associations. For instance, sea spirits (vesi-mm,meri-haltiaZ) were believed to have the power to create waterspoutsand capsize ships and boats (VE IX 195 < Luuditsa; Ariste 1958:35). In these cases the water spirit has been also described as ahuge fish or some other aquatic animal. A water creatures appear-ing in the shape of a fish might suggest its affinity to the guardianspirit of fish, however, in the scanty recorded material such re-ports are associated not with fishing luck but rather with accidentsat sea. Another popular shape for a water spirit is half-human/half-fish, also known through a migratory legend about a waterspirit who became entangled in the net and bowed to the fisher-men who had set it free before disappearing (cf. Jauhiainen 1998:L 56, L 234; Loorits 1998: 183184 (S.27)). In the Livonian andEstonian folklore the narrative is connected to the pharaohs chil-dren, in the Votian variant the fish-tailed being is not specificallydetermined:

Siso juttli sit viisii. Tm nti, ku tmmattii nootaakaa. Naiz-elokaz li, kalaa nt li. lpool li inemiin, a alapool li kala.Soomust pl i kalaa nt. I siis ko tm tmmattii maal, tmkui ep tahtonnu. Siis takaaz lastii vettee. Tm siis kummrtli,pkaa kummrtli. nnkaa ku hloppaz, nii meni. Se li kasinUst-NaroovaZ. Pallo voosii on jo, ko li. Siso li herroill piikan.Sii ttii kik kattomz.

My sister told me this. She saw when the seine was hauled in. Itwas a female, had a fishtail. Her upper part was human, lowerwas fish. Had scales and fishtail. And when they pulled herashore she did not like it. Then they released her back to thewater. Then she bowed. Bowed her head. Flapped her tail asshe went. It happened here in Ust-Naroova [=name of the set-

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tlement]. Many years have passed since. My sister worked as amaid for the gentry. Everybody went to see her [the sea crea-ture] then. (VE XII 267 < Luuditsa, Paro Dmitrijeva (1969) =Ariste 1977: 152).

DROWNING: GENII LOCI, DEMONS AND DIDACTICSTORIES FOR CHILDREN

Narratives focusing on water spirit as demonic drowner occur innumerous variants in Votian folklore. Such focus is mainly charac-teristic of the tradition associated with the Central Votian lakes,still it is known in Vaipooli villages and in East Votia.

In these beliefs the feminine aspect is also prevalent, which is sug-gested by the specific terminology as well as the description of thewater spirits outward appearance. Votian tradition, however, con-tains no elaborated legend types (fabulates according to Wilhelmvon Sydows terminology) about water spirits. The water spirit asan empirical supernatural being could be perceived for only a shortperiod of time: a criterion for the supernatural is the sudden disap-pearance of an anthropomorphic being, particularly when an ob-server happens to expose its proximity. References to the placeswhere spirits were most often seen or were believed to live are moregeneral. Such places in bodies of water could be, for example, siteswhere water suddenly swirls upstream, sites with a deep bottomor those where people had drowned. Although the time of the wa-ter spirits appearance is often unspecified we should note that inseveral reports and memorates the supernatural event has takenplace at high noon:

Pajatan ize enes, mit mill tapaHtu nuorn pojon. Menenhskrt Kattilal. Se li spivl. Menem mie kanvaa rantaam. Liti kalmoi li lhe. Mie vaatan: meneb inehmiin, daiduumaan: meneb vetta juomaa lHtiess. Tulm mie litiplie,inehmiin hviz. Vaatan Htiep-puol, tisp-puol, vaatan:tm isub lHtie serv pl da sugp pt. Mie seizattuzindai vaatan i thtin vai aivassiin. Dai hvis se inehmiin. Miemenin, tzin Kattilal i tulin kotuos tagaaz. Pajatanmamal, mit mie nin. Mama juttB: se li lHtie altD vaialt. Mama juttB, etti tehsi-pivll nvt tagottavad

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nttss. Mie tuozh ln nhn. Mille tuli vassaa dai krrazhviz. Tuo senes samaz lHtiez nin.

I will tell what happened to me when I was a young boy. OnceI went to Kattila [=the name of the settlement and manor], ithappened at high noon. I walk along the channel. There was aspring near the cemetery. I see: there goes a person, and I think:they must be going to drink water from the spring. I went closer,the person disappeared. I am looking to the right, then to theleft and then see: they are sitting at the shore combing theirhair. I stopped and looked at them and coughed or sneezed. Andthe person disappeared. I went to Kattila and then returnedhome. I tell my mother what I saw. Mother says: it was the spriteor spirit of the stream. Mother says that they usually appear athigh noon. I have seen them too. They came towards me andthen disappeared. I saw them in the same spring as well. (VEIV 1819 < Vanakla < Pummala, Grigori Kuzmin (1932) = Ariste1935: 1011).

One of the commonest shapes for a water spirit is a woman withexceptionally long and dark hair, often sitting on a rock near abody of water or at the very edge of water, combing her hair, cryingor lamenting. More detailed descriptions mention a silk scarf or awhite shift as the characteristic attribute of a water spirit. A fewaccounts refer to the fishtail of anthropomorphic water spirits butthis shape, though extremely popular in the Russian tradition(Vlasova 1995: 93), is not very common in Votian tradition.

Still, we cannot argue that the Votian water spirit tradition is re-stricted to female shapes only. The legends recorded in the CentralVotian villages around Lakes Jarvigoisjarvi (also called Savvokka-laa jarvi, Baabinoi jarvi, Russian Babinskoye ozero) and Svjarvi(Russian Glubokoye ozero) in particular, say that Lake Jarvigoisjarviis the home of a female spirit7 and Lake Svjarvi the domain of amale spirit. A popular belief about both lakes is that the spiritsliving in them drown people from the opposite sex, that is, onlymen are drowned in Jarvigoisjarvi and only women in Svjarvi. Asingle text about the dialogue between the male and female spiritsconfirms their co-existence enabling us to speculate on certain fam-ily relationships between the different genii loci in the waters (seeVE I 211 < Krvttula, Ignati Smirnov (1942) = Ariste 1964: 169;

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1977: 153). The differences between male and female spirits arenot, however, portrayed in any greater detail in the 20th centuryfolklore. Often the corresponding tradition is rendered as a mererecognition of the existence of water spirits of different gender:

No vot, ved jullaz, etti jka jarvez on ma em, i ma is. Votjaa, en t, Jarvigoiz-jarvz, miltin sill on, naiz-elj vai.Kuza-libo on meez-elj. A Svjarvz on meez-elj. Etti onkase, ettib on. Vot, meill li mokom konsti. Kupoloo pivllmentii, no, vennekaa ebll vene, taitaa mokom kori li mentiiliukumaa. Kahsaa enti i garmoniikaa, se noorizo. Jaa. I vot,mokomaa lauluukaa mentii kottoa, illookaa mokoma. I kui nvtsill mentii kukrpalloa. I vot nell enti, nii ebi saatu jarvssavll. Ep saatu eB, ep saatu. Mnikkaat saatii, vot, izze tultii.Kummad ujuttii, kummat kui. A vot, nit ebi levvett. hellemll kahs poikaa. Jaa siz hell i tizlla tttereD. Jarvi-emupotti.

Well, you see, they say that every lake has its own mother, andits own father. You see. I dont know which is there in LakeJarvigoizjarvi, a female? There is a female somewhere. But inLake Svjarvi there is a male. So it is the way it is. We did thistrick, you know. On Midsummers Day people took, well, a dug-out boat wasnt even a boat but I guess some kind of a dug-out and went onto the lake. Eight souls and an accordion, theyouth. Yes. And you see, they were singing and having such funwhen they went. And somehow they capsized the boat. And yousee, four souls were not found and pulled out. Were not. No,were not. Some were, you see. Came out themselves. Whoevercould swim, any way they could. But you see, they were notfound. Two sons of one mother. Yes. And then two daughters ofdifferent mothers. The lake mother drowned them. (VE XVII265 < Mati, Maria Boranova (1974) = Ariste 1977: 154155).

The abundance of memorates, recorded in the 20th century, provethe widespread acceptance of associating all kinds of water fatali-ties with water spirits. In addition often just a simple statementthat the water spirit drowned, or took the person who drowned, ismade (VE II 8 < Savvokkala, Jevdokia Ivanova (1956)). More de-tailed accounts of what happened to the drowned person or hissoul after his death have not been recorded in the tradition. Still,

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this might be associated with the gender differentiation of thedrowned discussed above.

The seeing or hearing of a water spirit is most often interpreted asan omen for the imminent water accident and drowning. Accordingto the legends water spirits make sounds and appear sitting onrocks at the shore with the purpose of luring curious passers-bytowards water (see, for example, VE II 75 < Mati, Olga Ivanova(1959) = Ariste 1964: 170; VE XVI 141142 < Liivtl, NadjozhaLeontjeva (1973)). It also introduces the idea of predestination:people believe that the water spirit drowns at a certain predeter-mined hour (VE I 140 < Mati < Jarvigoistl, Avdotja Onufrijeva(1942) = Ariste 1977: 153154). Furthermore, some bodies of waterare associated with a belief that every year an animal or a humanwill drown in it if the sacrificial ceremony is not performed at thecustomary time (most commonly in spring). Interestingly enough,the latter idea has been a basis for justifying the necessity of watersacrifice in Ingria. This is, for example, how the sacrifice of a ramor its head and feet to a creek at the River Lauga near Kotko vil-lage on St. Elijahs Day has been interpreted:

Kutsuttii umpi-apaja. Ku Iil praaznikka tuli, sis tapttiboranoi ja veetii apajaa. Vizgattii sinne: NaHH, s boranaapit, el s inemisii! Kotko tlz li riigoi takan. hskaHtmmed virstaa li Jgperlt Kotkoos.

It was called a creek. For St. Elijahs celebration a ram wasslaughtered and taken to the creek. It was cast in there: Here,eat the ram heads not people! At the village of Kotko it wasbehind the threshing barns. There was nearly 20 verst [21,3kilometres] from Jgper to Kotko. (VE VIII < Vanakla