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A zduhać (Cyrillic: здухаћ, ) and vetrovnjak (ветровњак, []) in Serbian tradition, and a dragon man in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian traditions, were men believed to have an inborn supernatural ability to protect their estate, village, or region against destructive weather conditions, such as storms, hail, or torrential rains. It was believed that the souls of these men could leave their bodies in sleep, to intercept and fight with demonic beings imagined as bringers of bad weather. Having defeated the demons and taken away the stormy clouds they brought, the protectors would return into their bodies and wake up tired. Notions associated with the zduhać, vetrovnjak, and dragon man, respectively, are not identical. The dragon man fought against female demons called ''ala'', which led hail clouds over fields to destroy crops, and consumed the fertility of the fields. The zduhaći (plural) of an area usually fought together against the attacking zduhaći of another area who were bringing a storm and hail clouds above their fields. The victorious zduhaći would loot the yield of all agricultural produce from the territory of their defeated foes, and take it to their own region. The vetrovnjak, recorded in parts of western Serbia, fought against a bringer of bad weather imagined as a black bird. The zduhaći are recorded in Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, part of Bosnia, and the Sandžak region of south-western Serbia. The dragon men are recorded in eastern Serbia, Banat, western Bulgaria, and Macedonia. ==Zduhać and vjedogonja== In Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, part of Bosnia, and the Sandžak region of south-western Serbia, a man who was thought to be able to protect his estate, village, or region from bad weather was called a zduhać or a ''stuha''. These names have a number of variants, which can be with or without ''h'', with ''v'' instead of ''h'', with or without the ending ''ć'', and with ''č'' instead of ''ć''.〔Kulišić, Petrović, & Pantelić 1970, pp. 139–41〕 According to philologist Franz Miklosich, the Serbian word ''stuhać'' is cognate with the Old Slavonic ''stuhia'' () or ''stihia'' () "the elements", which stem from the Old Greek ''stoicheion'' (στοιχεῖον) "element".〔Miklosich 1886, (p. 327 )〕 The latter name is the origin of the Modern Greek ''stikhio'' (στοιχειό), denoting various kinds of spirits in Greek folklore, such as those fighting for the well-being of their village or area against adverse spirits from elsewhere.〔Plotnikova 2008, para. 10〕 According to linguists Petar Skok and Norbert Jokl, ''stuhać'' stems from the Albanian ''stuhi'' "storm".〔Đerić 1930, p. 48〕 In any case, the form ''zduhać'' may have resulted from folk etymology through association with the Serbian ''duh'' "spirit".〔Čajkanović 1994, p. 264–65〕 The notion that the human being consists of body and soul is found in traditional Slavic culture. There was a belief among the South Slavs that, in some people, the soul could leave the body and again return into it.〔Radenković 1996, pp. 12–13〕 The zduhać belonged to such people in Serbian tradition. It was thought that, after a zduhać fell asleep, his soul could fly out of his body, or "go into the winds", as it was said in Montenegro.〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 237–38〕〔Rovinski 1901, pp. 528–29〕 In some accounts, it exited the body in the form of a fly.〔 The zduhać's soul had the power to direct the motion of winds and clouds.〔 If the body of the sleeping zduhać was rotated so that his head and feet changed places, or if he was carried away from where he fell asleep, his soul would not be able to return into his body, and the zduhać would die.〔〔 Although zduhaći (plural) could be women and children, most were adult men.〔 Their supernatural power was thought to be inborn. In many regions it was regarded that the zduhaći were born with a caul—white or red, depending on the regional belief. The mother would dry the caul and sew into a piece of garment always worn by the child, such as a pouch attached under the child's armpit. In the clan of Kuči, eastern Montenegro, the mother would preserve the caul hiding it from all eyes, and hand it to her son when he grew up. The caul was supposed to protect him when he flew as a zduhać. If the caul was destroyed, the child's supernatural power would be lost. A birthmark of a zduhać in Herzegovina could be a tuft of hair growing on his shoulder or upper arm. In Montenegrin Littoral, the caul played no role in the birth of zduhaći, who were rather born on certain Fridays at a set hour. There was also a belief in Herzegovina that male children who were conceived on the eves of great feast days would become zduhaći.〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 239–40〕 A 19th-century ethnographic account from eastern Herzegovina describes a way through which a man who was not born as a zduhać could become one. Forty days after he ceased praying to God and washing his face, the man should go to some level ground, before he drew a circle on the ground and sat in its centre. Soon the Devil would come and ask the man whether he was willing to join his army, and what form he wanted to be transformed into. When the man stated the desired form, the Devil would turn him into that, making him a zduhać.〔 In the region of Semberija, northeast Bosnia, а zduhać could pass his supernatural power on to his son.〔Kajmaković 1974, p. 102〕 The appearance of zduhaći was not much different from that of ordinary people, but they had some traits that set them apart. They were deep sleepers, very hard to wake up, often drowsy, pensive, thoughtful, and solemn. Their faces were often puffy, eyes shadowy. They were wise and shrewd, successful in whatever they were doing and resourceful in dealing with problems; their households were prosperous.〔〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 241–42〕 In Semberija, zduhaći were said to be good scapulimantic diviners, and to be able to communicate with domestic animals.〔 The clan of Paštrovići from Montenegrin Littoral claimed that the zduhaći could hear any doings anywhere in the world; if someone stepped on a zduhać's foot, they could hear that too.〔Kordić 1990, pp. 220–21〕 The clan of Kuči held that the zduhaći were outstanding long jumpers.〔 Adverse weather such as a storm or hail could devastate crop fields and orchards, and thus jeopardize the livelihood of farmers in the affected area. A role of zduhaći, according to folk tradition, was to lead storms and hail clouds away from their family estates, villages, or regions, to save their crops. A zduhać could take the storms and hail clouds over the territory of another zduhać to destroy its crops. The other zduhać would fly up to confront the bringer of bad weather, and there would be a fight between the zduhaći.〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 242–44〕 They fought alone, or in bands composed of individuals from the same area. Thus it was thought that the zduhaći from eastern Bosnia fought together against those from Herzegovina and Montenegro. The zduhaći from Sandžak fought jointly against the Albanian zduhaći. On the Adriatic coast, battles were waged between a band of zduhaći from Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and northern Albania on one side, and a band of zduhaći from Apulia in southeast Italy on the other side.〔〔 The latter were also called the transmarine zduhaći, as Apulia is situated across the Adriatic Sea from Montenegro.〔 Each band had its leader. A man named Mato Glušac (1774–1870), from the village of Korita in Herzegovina, was reputed the supreme commander of the Herzegovinian and Montenegrin zduhaći;〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 245–46〕 he was also a famous seer.〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 249–50〕 According to some accounts, zduhaći flew and fought mostly in spring when strong winds blew, and, as held in some regions, only during night.〔 As recorded in Montenegro, the zduhaći "went into the winds" usually during the Nativity Fast (15 November – 24 December), when there was not much snow and the winds were forceful. They also flew frequently from mid-February to the end of March. In some years, they were not active at all.〔 The zduhaći of a band would leave their bodies in sleep and gather at an appointed place, before flying into a battle.〔 They used various weapons, such as spindles, beech buds, sharp splinters, leaves, stalks of straw, fluff, flakes, sand, long twigs, cornel stones, pine cones, eggshells, and other light objects. As believed in Herzegovina, zduhaći uprooted gigantic firs and oaks and fought with them. However, the most powerful zduhać weapon was held to be a stick of ''luč'' (resinous wood burned to give light or used as kindling) charred at both ends, or any charred splinter of wood. A zduhać who was hit with this weapon would surely die. People therefore avoided igniting the sticks at both ends, and they took care that no splinters were left half-burned.〔〔Rovinski 1901, pp. 530–31〕 Beside the weapons, each zduhać carried a milk bucket and a peck measure; an alternative for the latter could be a shovel or broom from a threshing floor. If a band of zduhaći succeeded to seize the peck measures from the enemy band, they would thereby transfer the crop yield from the area of their enemies to their own area. Seizing the milk buckets meant that the milk yield would be transferred. According to the clan of Kuči, zduhaći used their peck measures, milk buckets, and other containers to grab off the overall yield of the enemy territory.〔 The battles of zduhaći were furious. They were accompanied by forceful gales and whirlwinds which uprooted trees and whipped up dust.〔Đorđević 1953, pp. 247–48〕 In Montenegro, it was considered dangerous to throw stones in the wind, because that might knock out an eye of a zduhać, who would kill the culprit.〔Rovinski 1901, p. 533〕 A fighting zduhać was supposed to retain his peck measure and milk bucket, while trying to seize these objects from an enemy zduhać; he should hit and not get hit. The victorious band of zduhaći would loot the yield of all agricultural produce from the territory of their defeated foes. The harvest in the coming season would thus be excellent for the victors and poor for the defeated zduhaći.〔 After the battle, the soul of the zduhać would return into his body, and he would wake up weak and exhausted. If he was wounded, he would be sick for some time afterwards—before he recovered, or died if his wound was mortal. There are records of seriously ill men who claimed that they were wounded in zduhać battles. It was held in Montenegrin Littoral that a mortally wounded zduhać could still recuperate if he revenged himself on his wounder before the eighth day of his wound expired.〔 Pavel Rovinski, Russian philologist and ethnographer, recorded a story told to him by a man of the clan of Ceklin in southern Montenegro (Rovinski also heard a similar story in Montenegrin Littoral):〔Rovinski 1901, pp. 531–32〕 There was a Ceklin zduhać who was so beaten by other zduhaći that he had to die, and there he was, dying. Various remedies were brought to him, but he accepted none, because all was in vain. Finally he had everybody ushered out of his house, except for one of his brothers, a famous hero; all were also driven away from the door, to prevent eavesdropping. Then the dying man said to his brother: "I will surely die, if I am not substituted for; and you can do it and save me, if you will have enough strength." The brother, of course, promised that, and the sick man continued: "You will have to go tonight to Mount So-and-so, at three to four hours' walking distance from here, most of the way lying through a dense forest. You will come beneath a stair-like cliff and stop there, and a great fear will seize you. To encourage yourself, take your two pistols and a knife with the silver sheath." "I will also take a musket," added the brother, and the sick man said, "You may take that too, though only as an encouragement, as it will be of no use to you, but you must have the knife." "I can go without any weapon, with a pocket knife, if it is against a single, and with a weapon I can go against a hundred," interrupted the brother again. "Take it easy with your boldness," resumed the sick man, "and by all means take the knife. When you come beneath the cliff, the sky will be cloudless, lit, and there will be a silence in the air; then you will notice a wisp of cloud coming from the direction of Mount Rumija, and the wind will start to blow. The wisp will turn into an enormous storm cloud that will cover all the sky, and there will come a darkness such as you have never seen before; the wind will blow, whistle, roar, and shriek, as you have also never heard before; the hair will rise on your head so that it will lift your cap, and I fear that you may go mad from horror. And if you persevere, you will see three bulls falling down from the cloud on the earth: a light-haired, a pied, and a dark-haired bull. The latter two will start to beat the former, which is the weakest, because it is already wounded. Make sure to strike the two bulls with the knife; but take care not to cut the light-haired bull; that would be the death of me, as it would be if the two bulls overcame the light-haired bull." Having heard all of that, the brother took two pistols, poured more gunpowder, and sharpened the flints; he put the pistols into his belt, placed the knife between them, and slung a musket over his shoulder. He set forth. He passed through the dark forest; he came beneath the stair-like cliff; the moon and the stars were shining, so it was like a day; a silence all around him, pleasant; he sat down and lit his pipe. Before long a wisp of cloud showed from the direction of Mount Rumija; there came a roar and bluster, and everything happened as the sick man said. His hair rose so that three times he jammed his cap down on his head. Finally, three bulls fell down from the storm cloud and started to fight; all as it was said. He stabbed the pied bull in the neck with the knife; it staggered and fell; the light-haired bull got encouraged. Then he stabbed the dark-haired bull, and it slumped; the light-haired was finishing them off with its horns. This was not enough for him, and, fearing that the cut bulls could still rise up, he kept on striking them with the knife as long as there was a breath in their bodies. The storm cloud suddenly disappeared; together with it, the light-haired bull vanished. Again the moon and the stars shone; again a silence and blessedness. He was going back home as if flying; when he arrived he found his brother sitting by the hearth, placing logs on the fire, healthy as if he had never been sick. An interpretation of the story about the Ceklin zduhać is given in an essay by literary theoretician Radoman Kordić. According to him, the story is a product of the symbolic scheme of the culture of Montenegrin Serbs.〔Kordić 1990, pp. 135, 143〕 The story comprises a zduhać narration and a heroic narration.〔Kordić 1990, p. 129〕 The former is based on the mythological beliefs in the zduhaći, which were strongest in Montenegro. The latter is based on the heroic ideology exalting death in battle, which was a predominant trait of the Montenegrin society.〔Kordić 1990, pp. 184–195〕 The zduhać and the famous hero symbolize, respectively, two systems of the Montenegrin culture. At its beginning, the story is placed in the framework of the first system, but it is realized with the means and on the ideological plane of the second system.〔Kordić 1990, pp. 136–37〕 The beaten zduhać, who is supposed to die, diverges from the mythological pattern, and he replaces himself with the hero.〔〔Kordić 1990, pp. 162–63〕 This results in an ironic twist. The fearless hero acts in fact as a butcher of bulls which do not even fight back. The apparently happy ending degrades the zduhać into a subject without identity. Kordić argues, using mostly Lacanian psychoanalysis, that there is a third, silent narration in the story—that of the death drive—which crumbles the other two narrations.〔〔 In a story recorded in the area of Cetinje, a zduhać was mortally wounded on Mount Lovćen in a battle against the transmarine zduhaći. The dying zduhać disclosed the way in which he could be saved, and one of his relatives acted according to the instructions. He went by night to a valley where he saw horses, oxen, rams, billy goats, men, and women. He passed by them in total silence, before he saw a black ox. He struck the ox with a wooden bar, and the animal roared tremendously. When he returned home, he found the zduhać sound and healthy. As believed in the region of Birač, eastern Bosnia, a mortally wounded zduhać could get well if he burned beech buds in a milk bucket, and censed himself with the smoke, using a spindle to wave the smoke toward himself. Before performing this rite, he should have publicly confessed that he was a zduhać. Most zduhaći would reputedly rather die than do that, because afterwards they could no more fly as zduhaći.〔 As thought in Herzegovina, a man who did not want to be a zduhać anymore, should have confessed to a priest and promised that he would not fly anymore.〔Đorđević 1953, p. 250〕 Zduhaći were regarded as a blessing for their home and village, as guardians of the prosperity and well-being of their region, and as good, honest, just, and law-obeying people.〔〔 In the region of Birač, zduhaći were said to meet with angels "on the leaves of high and thick branches". They were sometimes thought to have a prophetic gift. However, a zduhać could ally himself with the Devil, and use his innate power in accordance with the Devil's directions. That zduhać was doomed to turn into a vampire, unless he confessed and repented.〔 Some influential historical persons were believed to have been zduhaći, such as warrior and writer Marko Miljanov, and Petar I Petrović-Njegoš, who was the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro from 1784 to 1830.〔〔 Mahmud Bushatli, the Ottoman pasha of Skadar in northern Albania, was reputed a powerful zduhać in Montenegro. It was claimed that his mother carried him for three years. Bushatli was defeated and killed by the Montenegrins under Petar I, while attempting to subdue them in 1796. Since that time, the crop yield in Montenegro and northern Albania was allegedly not as high as before. Bushatli was said to have fought for the crop yield against the transmarine zduhaći.〔〔 Petar I was reported saying of him, "I regret his death although he was my biggest enemy."〔 After Bushatli was killed, his body was burned; according to oral accounts, green flames rose from it. In South Slavic tradition, green could be associated with supernatural creatures, like witches and dragons.〔Radenković 1996, pp. 305–6〕 An individual domestic animal could also be regarded as a zduhać, such as a shepherd dog, ox, bellwether, horse, or billy goat. If an animal habitually made vocal sounds in sleep, it was assumed to be a zduhać.〔〔 Such an animal was cherished, and was not for sale.〔〔 The spirit of the animal zduhać would leave its body in sleep and fight against the enemy zduhaći, to protect its own flock or herd. Only the fertility of the livestock depended on the outcome of the battles fought by the animal zduhaći; they had no bearing on the crop yield.〔〔Đorđević 1953, p. 244〕 In the region of Užice, western Serbia, it was believed that storms and hail clouds were led by zduhaći who flew above them in the form of big birds. A black ox and a three-year-old rooster defended their village from them—especially the rooster, for which reason he was not killed for food, but kept as a home guardian. In folk spells for repelling hail clouds in Serbia, these clouds were called white cattle. This could be compared with the idea of the black ox as a defender from hail.〔Tolstoy & Tolstaya 1981, p. 112〕 In some regions of southern Montenegro, such as the Bay of Kotor, Grbalj, and Zagarač, and in parts of Herzegovina, a man who acted as a zduhać was called a ''vjedogonja'' or ''jedogonja''.〔Đorđević 1953, p. 240〕〔Dragović 1997, pp. 196–97〕 There was a rule: if a child was born with a caul, the girl would become a ''vještica'' "witch", and the boy would become a ''vjedogonja''.〔 This could have been prevented by cutting the caul on a trough for feeding dogs, and throwing it away; the child would then grow up into an ordinary person.〔 While the zduhaći and ''vjedogonje'' (plural) protected their community from the threats coming from the outside, the witches were the enemy within, doing harm primarily to their own relatives and friends.〔Kulišić, Petrović, & Pantelić 1970, p. 64〕 A correspondence between the witches and the ''vjedogonje'' can be seen in a passage from ''The Mountain Wreath'', a poetic drama by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, the plot of which takes place in 18th-century Montenegro: A man named Vukota said these words to Bishop Danilo, one of the main characters of ''The Mountain Wreath'', who previously uttered a piercing vision speaking as if he was alone. The second and the third verses can be compared with an idiomatic expression whose literal sense is "to dash into a frenzied countenance", meaning "to fall into a frenzied or crazed exaltation".〔Petrović-Njegoš 1952, pp. 37–38, 174–76〕 Vukota compared Bishop Danilo's exaltation with that of a witch or a ''vjedogonja'' when their spirit flew out of their body.〔 It was thought that the witches held an assembly each year on 1 March,〔Đorđević 1953, p. 28〕 and the ''vjedogonje'' mostly flew during the long autumn nights, especially when strong winds blew.〔 After Vukota's words, Bishop Danilo started as if from a dream.〔 The ''vjedogonje'' fought in regional bands, their weapons being huge boulders or gigantic trees which they uprooted with one hand.〔 The leaders among them were those who had a tail and were hairy.〔 A 19th-century ethnographic account describes that "when a man regarded as a ''vjedogonja'' dies, they drive hawthorn spines under his nails, and cut the tendons beneath his knees with a knife whose sheath is black, so that he could not get out of his grave (like a vampire)."〔Karadžić 1867, (p. 215 )〕 Petar I Petrović-Njegoš preached among people against superstition. He strongly condemned the denunciation and persecution of women as witches. After one such incident in 1830 in south Montenegro, Petar I wrote an epistle, mentioning ''vjedogonje'' in a sentence: "Nowhere have I found nor has anyone told me that witches and ''vjedogonje'' exist, except in the blind and sad Serbian people, because it is blind and believes lies rather than Christ's Gospel and Christ's teachings and commands."〔Petrović-Njegoš 2000, para. 41〕 In the folklore of Croats of Ravni Kotari, a region in northern Dalmatia, there were men called ''vidogoja''. They were believed to know past and future things. People paid them to cure the sick, which they did by saying prayers and making the sign of the cross all over the patient's body. The ''vidogoja'' were also thought to be able to inflict diseases on people, and to have evil eyes. They could not fly.〔Zorić 1896, (p. 227 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zduhać」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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