#unbaptized children

[julieschulerart]

In medieval Scotland, children who died unbaptized became spirits called Tarans. Their souls wandered woods and places of solitude. It was thought unlucky tread over their graves.

[slavic-mythology]

Nekrstenci (Unbaptised Children) by Ivica Stevanovic.

Drekavac (literally “the screamer”) is a mythical creature in South Slavic mythology that comes from the souls of children who have died unbaptised.

The creature is not consistently described. One description is that its body is dappled, elongated and thin as a spindle, with disproportionately large head; yet another is that it is some kind of bird. It may also appear in the form of a child and call for people passing near the cemetery to baptise it. The one feature everyone agrees about is its horrifying yell.

Drekavac could be seen at night, especially during the twelve days of Christmas (called unbaptised days in Serbo-Croatian) and in early spring, in time where other demons appear most often. In the form of the child it predicts someone's death, but in the form of the animal, it predicts cattle disease. Drekavac rarely bothers its parents, as it is afraid of dogs.

Drekavac is often used as a child scare, in a similar way a banshee is in the West. It is probably more useful than banshees in rural areas, as children surely sometimes hear a sound of some animal and attribute it to drekavac, thus convinced it really exists; which would then probably prevent them from wandering far from home. In the cities, however, belief in it has faded, and Baba Roga, which more closely resembles western bogeyman, is much more used.