Halaichuk V. Traditional demonological ideas of Ukrainians about domestic spirits

On the basis of a large number of sources, in particular on the rich field materials of the author from Polissya, Volyn, Boykivshchyna, Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya, for the first time in Ukrainian ethnology demonological characters belonging to the category of “house spirits” are comprehensively characterized. In Ukraine it is an anthropomorphic hobgoblin, “house devil”, also “house snake”, weasel. The names, appearance, time and place of manifestation, functions, prefe¬rences and other features of domestic spirits are considered in a broad all-Ukrainian and, in part, all-Slavic context. The connection between the belief in house spirits and the so-called “cult of the dead” has been traced. It is noteworthy that despite the dominance of a certain type, in individual settlements of different ethnographic regions of Ukraine at the same time there are ideas about others. Given a certain rationality of human imagination, the characters do not perform the same functions together, but are perceived as separate, and their significance and influences are different. For example, in Boykivshchyna the dominant type is the “house devil”, but there are also stories about the domestic snake, as well as many stories about the weasel.