The ancient Slavs recognized and perceived, in addition to giants, goblins, and fairies, many other magical beings, generally referred to as BES – DEMON BEAST.
Beses were dark and evil magical beings, characterized by wildness, ferocity, and malice, whether in female or male form. They were always hostile to humans and considered them their prey. Some of the demons are said to be able to possess the victim and inhabit it. After killing their victims, these dark beings could often take on their appearance.
SAVAGEBEASTWOMEN, sometimes called BOGINYKA , like DIVIY, was described in her true manifestation as a creature similar to humans but with corpse-like yellow or gray skin that reeked of decay. These beings were emaciated, bony, entirely hairy, with long, greasy hair, and had sharp claws on their hands and feet. Their eyes glowed unnaturally, as if deeply sunken into their sockets.
Since they could transform from their true form into animals, as well as into beautiful maidens or handsome youths, they easily lured their chosen prey. Savagebastwomen had their hiding places in caves, abandoned animal burrows, or ravines of mountain streams. There, they built nests and wicker cages for their victims, whom they devoured so thoroughly that often not even a bone was left. The only thing savagebastwomen kept as trophies were the eyes, which they used in their dark magic.
Legends also say of savagebastwomen stealing newborns. ometimes they tried to exchange them for their own children. One way to get one's child back was to beat the savagebastwomen’s child with a willow or blackberry twig until the cry of the swapped child called the savagebastwomen. Once summoned, the savagebastwomen would return the human child, but it was often already dead.
HOOTER, or HEYKAL, was a creature that used its hooting and howling to scare night travelers or acted as a jack-o'-lanter to lead them off the path. This beast then jumped on the frightened and tired travelers from behind and strangled them. Hooters, like savagebastwomens, are described as human-like beings, but entirely hairy, dirty, sometimes even moss-covered, hunched, with unnaturally long arms and sharp claws.
For our ancestors, the demons of the mountains, forests, meadows, and fields represented the fearsome dark and unknown forces of nature. These fears were an expression of the inability to control natural forces, but also of the determination to overcome their adverse effects.
In addition to invoking fear and realizing the power of nature's forces, it was the beses - demons who guarded and protected the inviolability and often even the sanctity of the environment into which humans intruded to subjugate and exploit it for necessary resources. Whether it was wood, stone, ore, or even water and soil, or just ordinary grass, it was often these guardians of the wilderness that helped humans maintain moral principles and respect for the life around them, as well as for the environment that might have seemed lifeless on the surface. Therefore, it was natural for our ancestors to avoid inappropriate behavior in the forest, mountains, or underground, so as not to awaken the demons who could be hiding anywhere.
To appease these beings or ensure protection from them, people would offer sacrifices, mainly in the form of food. These offerings were usually meat dishes or milk. In ancient stories, human sacrifices are also mentioned. Another way to protect oneself from beings was to wear various amulets, talismans, or pouches filled with protective magical herbs, such as garlic.
These and many other demons - beses and dark creatures of the night were beings under the power, and often the creations, of dark deities like Kashchei, Niy, and certainly not least, the powerful goddess of death, Morena.
