Ala (demon)

Ala or hala (plural Bulgarian: хали (hali); Serbian: ale, hale) is a mythological creature recorded in folklore and beliefs of Serbs, Bulgarians and Macedonians. A name ala is used in the eastern and southern Serbia, on the mountain Kopaonik, and partly in Bulgaria. A name hala is recorded in the western Serbia in some epic folk poems, and is predominant in Bulgaria.

Ala used to be seen by the frightened farmers as a demon that leads storm clouds over their fields, and brings them destructive hail and torrential rains.

Ala is primarily a demon of bad weather. She is a female creature whose main purpose is to lead the haily, storm clouds in the direction of fields, vineyards, or orchards, in order to destroy the crops, or to loot and take them away to some other place. She is also extremely voracious, devouring all that she can grab. She is especially partial to children, whom she seizes, takes them to her dwelling, and eats them in there. However, her voracity is not limited to the Earth: from time to time she attacks the Sun or the Moon and starts to devour them – this is the cause of their eclipse. If she succeeded in devouring the Sun, the world would come to its end. When people encounter her, their mental and physical health or even their life are in a great peril. All in all, ala is a very dangerous and harmful demon.

Nevertheless, there is a possibility of a personal contact with her, and some people manage to gain ala's liking with the beneficial results for them. But even then, mixing with ala can prove deadly if one makes a mistake which she will not forgive.

Ala's appearance is quite diversely and often vaguely described in various folkloric sources: she looks like a black wind, a giant of an indistinct form, a snakelike monster, a huge-mouthed monster, a raven, a humanlike monster, etc. In some folk tales with humanlike ala, her character is strikingly similar to that of the Russian Baba Yaga. Sometimes she is seen as the dragon's sister and not much different from him. According to certain descriptions, she can in fact assume at will any of various human or animal shapes, choosing the one that suits her goals the best. She can also possess a person's body. This variety of forms is probably due to the fact that ala is a synthesis of a Proto-Slavic demon of bad weather, and such a demon of the central Balkans' pre-Slavic population. Ala's home is said to be in the clouds, or in lakes, springs, hidden remote places, inhospitable mountains, caves, or gigantic trees.

While ala is frequently an enemy to the humans, she herself has powerful enemies who can defeat her. Her principal opponent is the dragon, but in the Christianized version, St. Elijah takes his place. Sometimes St. Elijah and the dragons collaborate in their fight against ala. A man begotten by a dragon, so called zmajeviti (dragon-like), has also the dragon's capability to defeat ala, but when the time for fight comes, first his spirit must leave his body in a trance, and then flies up to clash with ala. Some believe that this task can be done by eagles, or by several other Christian saints too.

Lamia, a creature of both the classical Greek mythology and the folklore of modern Greeks, has certain similarities with ala. The name lamia is sometimes used as a synonym for ala in Macedonia and Bulgaria. One of the synonyms of Strigoi, a Romanian mythological creature, is hale.

Origin

No indications have been found that other Slavic peoples ever knew about ala. The Proto-Slavic mythology did have its demons of bad weather, but doubtlessly ala could not have been derived in its entirety from that heritage.

Among the East Slavs, the demon of bad weather was Baba Yaga. She was imagined as a woman with a gigantic stature, big nose, iron teeth, and protruding chin. It was believed that she ate children, and her presence brought storm and cold weather. The term baba is all-Slavic, and it was the name of a female divinity or demon. Traces of it are present in toponyms, customs and beliefs of all Slavs. Baba is usually a personification of the windy, the dark, the rainy. Traces of the beliefs in that demon are preserved among the South Slavs in several expressions for certain kinds of bad weather (baba Marta, babini jarci, babine huke, etc.). Brought from the ancient homeland, these beliefs most certainly combined in the Balkans with the beliefs of the population that the Slavs encountered there. Eventually, from that synthesis, the personage of ala developed.

Numerous variants of the form of this mythical creature, ranging from the animal and half-animal to the humanlike concepts, tells us in addition that the beliefs in this demon were not uniform in the area where present.

Etymology

According to the most dictionaries, the word ala comes from a Turkish word ‘ala’, meaning ‘snake’. Some folk representations of ala depicting her as a snakelike monster apparently support this view, but then it is hard to linguistically explain the initial ‘h’ in the other variant of her name, which is undoubtedly the original form of the name (the loss of the word-initial ‘h’ is a relatively recent sound change in some Serbian dialects).

While ala leads the clouds and hail to the fields with crops, dragon fights with her in the sky. That is why a much more acceptable etymology seems to be the one according to which the term hala stems from the Greek word for hail – χάλαζα (transliterated as chalaza). Concluding from this that the beliefs in ala were transmitted to Slav farmers by Greek priests or traders would be unacceptable, because they made quite a small stratum of the population, and lived in towns, having no closer contacts with the villages and hamlets. So the word hala probably originated in the language of a pre-Slavic Balkan rural population that was either Greek-speaking or had been under the Greek influence from earlier times.

Beside the general appellation ala, in folk spells individual ale have their own personal names - in the eastern Serbia: Smiljana, Ogršćana, Kalina, Magdalena; in the Leskovac region: Dobrica, Bugarka (i.e. Bulgarian female), Jevrosija Ruskinja (i.e. Jevrosija the Russian), Dragija, Zagorka, Ilenka Rumunka (i.e. Ilenka the Romanian; this one, according to a spell, got killed in the Morava river). In the latter region, in the act of spelling, they are addressed with an expression Maate paletinke, the meaning of which is uncertain.

In Serbian language the word ala can be metaphorically applied to the following terms: gluttonous or greedy person, wolf, destructive or harmful force, creature of an enormous physical strength, haily storm.

Appearance

There is no clear and unique concept of ala’s appearance. She is most often connected with the wind, storm and haily clouds:

• It was believed in the Gruža region that ala is invisible, but that she can be very much heard. Her powerful hissing resonated in front of the dark, haily clouds. Then the people shot at the clouds in order to kill the ala.

• In the contours of a dark cloud farmers saw a horrible hala with huge wings and sword-like thick tail. When a hala–cloud overtook the village, villagers peered into the sky hoping to see an imperial eagle emerging there. They believed that the mighty bird with a cross on its back, could banish the hala–cloud away form the fields.

• Serbs in Kosovo believed that ala lowers her tail to the ground, and hides her head in the clouds. Anyone who saw her head, became instantly insane.

• “Ala is some black and horrible creature in the form of wind” – a description recorded in the Boljevac region.

• “The people imagine ala like a black wind moving on the land. Wherever she goes a whirlwind blows, turning like a drill. Those who get exposed to the whirlwind go mad” – a description recorded in the Homolje region.

• In Bulgaria too hala is the violent wind that sweeps all that gets in its way and brings the havoc:

Излезнаха до три люти хали,

Девет години що се духали.

Three furious ale had come out,
For nine years they would be blowing.

• In a spell from the eastern Serbia, ala is described as a three-headed snake:

U jedna usta nosi vile i vetrovi,

druga usta – izdat i zle bolesti,

treća usta – učinci, rasturci.

In one mouth she bears pitchforks and winds,

the second mouth – infirmity and bad diseases,

the third mouth – spells, curses.

• At a village near Leskovac ala was imagined as a very large creature with a snake's body and a horse's head.

• Ala is the dragon's sister, and looks more or less like him.

• Ale metamorphose into humans or animals, and then, who they really are can be seen only by the so called šestaci – men with six fingers on both their hands and six toes on both their feet. A house shakes when such a human-looking ala comes into it.

• The ale that charge to the Moon have two heads and six fingers, and can transform into various shapes – now they turn into humans with six fingers and iron pitchforks, and then into some animals: black young bulls, big boars, black wolves.

• An ala can “sneak” into a human and then she has a human form but retains the ala’s properties. A tradition has it that an ala sneaked into St. Simeon, which made him voracious, but St. Sava took her out of him. According to a tale recorded in the eastern Serbia and Bulgaria, a man killed an ala that used to destroy his vineyard - she was in a skinny man in a distant village. In another story, an ala gets into a deceased princess and devours soldiers on the watch.

• According to a belief from the Leskovac region, ala is a monster with an enormous mouth, who holds a big wooden spoon in her hand, with which she grabs and devours everything that gets in her way. A story has it that a man kept such an ala in his barn, and that she drank thirty liters of milk every day.

• A tradition from the Leskovac region has it that ale in the form of twelve ravens used to take away the crop from vineyards.

When she leads the hail-bearing clouds, ala shows herself also in the form of an eagle, though that bird is usually considered a companion of ala’s adversary – the Thunder god. That could be explained by her capability to transform into various shapes, choosing the one that enables her to realize her goals as easily as possible. She is often represented in stories as gullible and stupid (which connects her with the devil).

Relations with humans

Ala is primarily regarded as a creature that leads the haily clouds and destroys the crops in fields, vineyards, and orchards. Her coming is accompanied by thundering and storm that uproots trees. Because of such a character, she is seen as a very dangerous and harmful demon.

In some areas it was believed that hail is in fact a result of two ale fighting with each other. In the Bor region the people supposed that they fought when they became thirsty. Thus, the women, at the first sign of a bad weather, brought buckets full of water in front of their houses. When one of the fighting ale spotted the water, she would descend to drink it, and, meanwhile, the other ala, left by her opponent, would fly away. So the fight would be resumed over a neighboring area, and someone else's crops would be destroyed by hail.

According to another belief, ale take the crops and transport them to some other place in their huge ears. This ala’s activity is sometimes called ‘drinking the fortune’ of an area. Thus, some villages become poor, while other become rich. It was held that this was the reason why, for example, the Aleksandrovac region was so fruitful – that was the place where ale transported their loot.

The people of the Kopaonik mountain believed that ala defended the fortune of the area where she lived from other ale. If hail destroyed the crops, it was considered that an ala from another area defeated the local ala and ‘took away the fortune’.

Of course, at the sight of the haily clouds, i.e. the ala that leads them, the people did not just sit and wait. They resorted to the magic. One of the spells that was used in this situation in eastern Serbia, and that explicitly mentioned ala, was shouted in the direction of clouds:

Ало, не овамо, путуј на Татар планину!

Ala, not hither, travel to the Tatar mountain!

Ala can spread out herself over a field. In this way she thwarts the ripening of the crops. But even worse than that is her consuming of the field’s fertility – the very life force that causes the plants to grow and bear their fruits. She can also drink milk from the sheep, especially when it thunders.

A concept of the extreme voracity was also connected with ala. She was imagined as a monster with a huge mouth and a wooden spoon in her hand, with which she grabbed all that got in her way. According to a tradition, ala used to seize the children, take them to her dwelling, and devour them in there. The dwelling used to be full of children’s bones and spilt blood. Less often, she attacked and ate the adults too. She was able to find a hidden human by smell.

Ale, in their voracity, attack also the Sun and the Moon. Gradually, ale eat more and more of them, and that is how an eclipse develops. The Sun’s becoming red in that process means that it is covered with its blood as a result of ale’s bites, and when it shines brightly again means that it has defeated the ale. The spots on the Moon are the scars of ale’s bites. While ale devour the Sun or the Moon, many elderly people are depressed, and some of them even weep in fear. When ale succeed to devour the Sun, then the end of the world will come. In order to prevent that, men shoot their guns toward the eclipse, ring the bells, and the women incessantly cast spells. There is also a belief that if ale succeeded in devouring the Moon, then the Sun would die from sorrow, and consequently the darkness would overwhelm the world.

Ala was believed to be able to make a man insane. In some regions of Serbia there is a special term for such a man: alosan. When people encounter ala on a road or in a field, they can get dangerous diseases from her. Traversing a crossroads in the night was considered dangerous, because it was the place and time of ale's having supper. The unfortunate person who stepped on an “ala’s table” could become blind, deaf, or lame. Ale gather on the eve of greater holidays, divert men from their ways, and ride on their backs in the gullies. Ala is by some responsible for the dogs’ rabies too, albeit indirectly: a skylark (noted for its song uttered in vertical flight) that reaches the clouds and encounters ala there, goes mad (alosan), plunges to the ground, and so kills itself. If a dog finds and eats the bird, then it will also go mad.

A human’s going into an ala’s house, which is far away and in a forest, can have different consequences: if he or she approach the ala with an appeal and don’t mention the differences between her and the humans, they will be rewarded – otherwise, they will be cruelly punished. So a stepdaughter, driven away from home by her stepmother, after coming into an ala’s house, addresses her with the word ‘mother’, louses her hair full of worms, feeds her “livestock” consisting of wild animals, and gets rewarded by the ala with a chest filled with gold; the stepmother’s daughter does the opposite and the ala punishes her and her mother sending them a chest with poisonous snakes in it. In another example, when a prince asks an ala for her daughter’s hand, the ala saves him from some other ale, and helps him get married. But then again, an ala eats a woman and her daughter, to whom she is the godmother, after the woman, coming to visit her, tells her about all the strange things that she has seen in her house.

It is considered that the places on a field where a plough turns around during ploughing, and the levees, are unclean because they are visited by ale. At these places, in the Pomoravlje region, the so called ala’s herbs are picked, which are used in magic.

The aloviti men

Certain men were believed to possess some of ala’s properties. They were called in Serbia aloviti – which could be translated as ala-like. There were several explanations of how they became such:

• An ala had sneaked into them. These were recognized by their voracity, because the ala, in order to satisfy her excessive hunger, drove them to eat incessantly.

• They were borne covered with the caul.

• An ala blew on them, and they survived, although ala’s breath is usually lethal to humans. These people would become exceptionally strong after that.

Just like ala, they led the haily, storm clouds. When the skies darkened, such a man used to fall into a trance, and his spirit used to fly out of him toward the clouds. Or, perhaps, it was the ala herself that flew out of him – it is not quite clear. However, there was a significant difference – an aloviti man never led the clouds to above the fields of his own village, but of some of the neighboring villages. In this respect, the aloviti men are equivalent to the zduhaći.

There is a story of an aloviti man, who was described as unusually tall, thin, bony-faced, with a long beard and moustache. When it was a nice weather, he worked and behaved like all the other people in his village. But as soon as the dark clouds covered the sky, he used to close himself in his house, put blinds on his windows, and remain alone and in a trance as long as the bad weather and thunder lasted. Some say that he was an epileptic.

Adversaries

Ale have adversaries: the dragons, the zmajeviti (dragon-like) men, St. Elijah, St Sava, zduhaći, eagles.

Dragon – a relentless enemy of ala. She is sometimes regarded as the dragon's sister.

The principal enemy of ala is the dragon. He is able to defeat her and eliminate her harmful effect. For this reason, the winged dragons are seen as guardians of the fields and the harvest against the bad weather. When ala threatens with bringing the haily clouds, the dragon comes out to fight with her in order to drive her away and thwart her intentions. The main weapon against ala is the lightning. Because of this, some believed that a thunder represented a fight between ale and dragons. When it thunders, ale hide in tall trees. If ala finds that a dragon is in a hollow tree, she can destroy him by burning the tree. In some regions, the eagles too were seen as efficient opponents of ala, and defenders against the haily clouds.

By some other beliefs, ale can also be defeated by the zmajeviti men. These are the men who have a human mother, but their father is a dragon. They look like the ordinary people, apart from the little wings beneath their armpits. Such a man is borne always at night, after his mother has been pregnant for twelve months. When the weather is nice, he lives like everybody else. But when the threatening clouds led by ala appear, he falls into a trance, his spirit comes out of his body, and flies up to the clouds to fight with the ala, just like a dragon would do.

An Orthodox icon of St. Elijah. In folklore, this Christian saint took, to a certain extent, the place of the pagan dragon as ala's main opponent.

A story from Banat, held to be true, says that, before WWI, an exhausted ala in the form of a giant snake fell from the clouds on a road, and people gave her milk to help her recover. The zmajeviti men are very similar to zduhaći.

In a Christianized version, the duel involves the Christian saint Elijah and ala. But there is also another version by which St. Elijah and dragons in fact cooperate – as soon as the saint spots an ala, he summons the dragons, embarks them on his chariot, and, together with them, shoots arrows and stones at the ala. Beside that, there is a tale in which the saint's ally is a young zmajeviti boy. And in addition, according to a more Christianized version, St. Elijah shoots lightnings at the devils who lead the haily clouds. The devils here, are obviously ale.

Ala i Baba Jaga

A painting of Baba Yaga. In her human-like form, ala has a character similar to that of Baba Yaga.

Comparing folk tales, we can observe similarities between ala and the Russian Baba Yaga. The aforementioned motif of a stepdaughter coming to ala’s house in a forest, is recorded among Russians too – there a stepdaughter comes to Baba Yaga’s house and feeds her “livestock”. Similar are also the motifs of ala’s (by Serbs) and Baba Yaga’s (by Russians) becoming godmothers to children whom they later eat because the children discover their secret. In the Serbian example, the mother of ala’s godchild dialogues with ala, and in the Russian – the godchild itself dialogues with Baba Yaga.

• Serbian tale:

(…) Tomorrow, the woman went to ala’s house with her child, ala’s godchild. Having entered one room, she saw a poker and a broom fighting in it; having entered the second room, saw human legs in it; in the fourth room – human flesh; in the fifth room – blood; in the sixth room – she saw that ala had taken off her own head and was lousing it, having put instead a horse’s head on herself . After that, ala brought a lunch and told her, “Eat, kuma.” “How can I eat after I saw a poker and a broom fighting in the first room?” “Eat, kuma, eat. Those are my maids: they fight about which one should take the broom and sweep.” “How can I eat after I saw human arms and legs in the second and third rooms?” And ala told her, “Eat, kuma, eat. That is my food.” “How can I eat, kuma, after I saw the sixth room full of blood?” “Eat, kuma, eat. That is the wine that I drink.” “How can I eat after I saw that you had taken your head off and was lousing it, having fixed a horse’s head on yourself?” Ala, having heard that, ate both her and her child.

• Russian tale:

(…) On her name day, the girl went to her godmother’s house with cakes to treat her. She comes to the gate – the gate closed with a human leg; she goes into the yard – there a barrel full of blood; she goes up the stairs – there dead children; the porch closed with an arm; on the floor – arms, legs; the door closed with a finger. Baba Yaga comes to meet her at the door and asks her, “Have you seen anything, my dear, on your way to my house?” “I saw,” the girl answers, “the gate closed with a leg.” “That is my iron latch.” “I saw a barrel in the yard full of blood.” “That is my wine, my darling.” “I saw children lying on the stairs.” “Those are my pigs.” “The porch is closed with an arm.” “That is my latch, my golden one.” “I saw in the house a hairy head.” “That is my broom, my curly one,” said Baba Yaga, got angry with her prying goddaughter and ate her.

The both examples witness the chthonic nature of these mythological creatures. Namely, a hero can enter the chthonic space and discover the secret of that world – but he is not allowed to relate that secret to other humans.

Both the Ala and the Baba Yaga can be traced back to an older concept of a female demonic divinity – the snakelike mistress of the underworld.

References

• Слободан Зечевић. Митска бића српских предања (in Serbian). Belgrade: Нолит.

• Radenković, dr. Ljubinko. "Mitska bića srpskog naroda".

• Душан Бандић. Народна религијa Срба у 100 појмова (in Serbian). Belgrade: Нолит.

• Сретен Петровић. Српска митологија (in Serbian). Belgrade: Народна књига.

• Ш. Кулишић. Српски митолошки речник (in Serbian). Belgrade: Нолит. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)