Witches on Bald Mountain

A man had a wife, and she was a witch. As soon as the dead of night fell, he would wake up and find her gone. He would look around—the hut was locked, the hallway bolted, but she was nowhere to be found. He thought to himself, "I’ll try to track her down."

One night, he pretended to be asleep and waited until midnight. His wife got up, lit a lamp, took a small bottle of some potion from the shelf, grabbed a shard, poured the potion into it, added soot, stirred it, then put in sulfur and vitriol. She took off her shirt, laid it on the bed, covered it with a blanket, and then smeared herself under the arms with the mixture from the shard. After that, she flew out through the chimney.

The man got up, smeared himself under the arms as well, and flew after her. She flew, and he followed. They flew past all the villages and towns, approaching Kiev, right toward Bald Mountain. The man looked and saw a church, a cemetery next to it, and countless witches and warlocks gathered there, each holding a candle, the flames blazing brightly.

The witch glanced back and saw her husband flying after her. She said to him:

"Why are you flying? Do you see how many witches are here? If they spot you, they won’t let you breathe—they’ll tear you to pieces."

Then she gave him a white horse and said:

"Take this horse and ride home as fast as you can!"

He mounted the horse and was home in an instant. He tied the horse by the manger, went inside the hut, and lay down to sleep. In the morning, he woke up, and there she was, lying beside him. He went to check on the horse. When he arrived, instead of the horse, there was a large willow stick with its bark stripped off, stuck in the hay. He went back inside and told his wife that instead of the horse, there was only a stick.

"Take that stick," said his wife, "and hide it in the shed under the eaves. If the witches see it, you’ll be in trouble. Tonight, get up and throw it over the threshold, and then nothing will happen."

He went to bed the next night, woke up at midnight, and went to the shed. As soon as he threw the willow stick over the threshold, it turned back into a horse. The horse stomped its hooves, thundered down the street, and who knows where it disappeared to.

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Witches on Bald Mountain

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