Russian Fairy Tales
Bozalosc A
spirit of the elder tree which appears as a woman dressed in white with
long braided hair and red eyes from crying under the window of those
about to die. The white hair makes her reminiscent of the Rusalka,
however the braid does not. In Russia the braid of the Rusalka was a
symbol of their freedom of their wildness. That the Bozalosc has a
braid indicates that it isn’t free or entirely a nature spirit (unless
we presume that its braid was a later edition). The fact that she cries
for those about to die would make it similar to the domovoi and the
Banshee (of Celtic mythology) which are ancestor spirits. It seems
quite possible then that the Bozalosc is the spirit of a dead girl
which is still bound to, or in some way connected with her family.
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