death 2 the west

《 فَاصْبِرْ صَبْراً جَمِيلاً. إِنَّهُمْ يَرَوْنَهُ بَعِيداً. وَ نَراهُ قَرِيباً. 》

The cult of snakes protecting the house is a more or less specific feature of the Balkans, although some traces of it can be found in other Slavic lands as well. In Western Polesia grass-snakes living in a house are called domovik. It dwells under the stove, it must not be killed and it brings happiness to the house and household members. In Carpathian Ukraine this snake is called gazdovnik (from gazda ‘master’), and lives under the stove, under the threshold or in the foundations of the house. While rich people have large gray snakes, the poor have only small ones. In Czech and Slovak folk beliefs this snake is white, and its name is also related to the word ‘master, owner’: (Slovak domací had, starý dedo, gazda, etc.). Thus, unlike the other patron demons examined here, traces of the cult of home snake appear outside the Balkans as well, although it is certainly the most developed in the Southern Slavic regions.