Where the hut on chicken legs came to us from, and why the chicken has nothing to do with it

We all read fairy tales about Baba Yaga or watched wonderful films by Alexander Rowe. Remember: "Hut, hut, turn back to the forest, and to me before." After all, it was always interesting what kind of hut it was. The home of the pagan witch?

In fact, the hut on chicken legs has very real prototypes. Everything comes from our ancestors of the Slavs.

Such huts actually existed, but only by the word "curies" did not mean a chicken, but a completely different one. Chicken legs are tree-houses made to house on. "Kurya" because they removed the bark and fumigated with special smoke that protects from rot and wood insects. Thus, the ancient Slavs saved their home from the spills of rivers, animals, small pests, snakes.

The hut is actually widespread among the ancient Slavs - forest sheds. Travelers who stayed in it could always find food, drink and shelter. If you remember, Baba Yaga also first of all sits at the table, feeds, drinks, puts to bed.

The hut was always located by the entrance to the path, "and back to the forest."

The mysticism is most likely connected with the Slavic traditions of cremation of the deceased. When a person went into another world, his body was burned at the ritual fire, then the ashes were placed in a special house - the tomb. They all belonged to the same family and were located in the forest in a hut on chicken legs.

In the 20th century, archaeologists on the territory of the Upper Volga, Ob and the Moskva River discovered such burials belonging to the people of Meri and Vesy. They looked like wooden houses on logs. They contained the remains of five cremated people. Nearby was discovered another such house, about two meters high, with a gable roof. It already had 24 cremated bodies. Some were placed in special urns.

Arab diplomat Ahmad ibn Fadlan in 922 left curious memories of a meeting with a Russian merchant. He told him about how dead relatives are burned in his homeland: “You Arabs are acting stupidly. You throw a really close, beloved and dear person into the ground and, oh, horror!”, They bury him. There he is eaten by snakes and vile worms. "We immediately burn our loved ones, and they go without hesitation to paradise."

The fairy hut is just such a tomb in which the sage Baba Yaga lives. This grandmother is also not easy. She is the image of the Slavic goddess of death Mara. Its task is to help people move from one world to another.