The grass is falling with a little evening dew,
A black-browed widow is scratching her braid and washing her neck.
And he doesn’t take his dark eyes off the sky at the window,
And it flies, coiled into rings, in the bright sparks of long snakes.
And it makes noise, closer and closer, and over the widow’s yard,
The thatched roof bursts into flames.
And the black-browed widow will immediately close the window;
Only kisses and words can be heard in the bright room...
A. A. Fet, 1847

Fairy tales and legends of many peoples of the Earth tell about various creatures that preceded man.

Indeed, when the ancestors of the first people appeared on the vastness of this planet, it was not empty. It was inhabited by many, many species of plants and animals, most of them disappeared without a trace in the fog of past years, but there was probably SOMEONE, whose implicit appearance can still be discerned today through a thick veil of legends and traditions. Today in mythology these creatures are presented as ANCIENT, although in many legends of various peoples of the Earth they are known under the name Sleepers. The variety of ANCIENTS is so great that in this article we are forced to consider only one “type” of them - “Flyers” or “Fire Snakes”.

The Fire Serpent (commonly known as Flyer) is a serpentine demon endowed with anthropomorphic features. The first mentions of these creatures known to us were reflected in a number of ancient Russian epics and conspiracies.

Flyers are an undoubted reality of the modern information database, and in this capacity their study seems promising. Moreover, as field research shows, the actions of this character include quite material objects (such as, for example, “wedding failure,” “failure at the Christmas tree nursery,” “fiery meadow,” etc.).

The Fire Serpent is the embodiment of the element of fire; and this function of his, as well as his connection with secret treasures and hidden riches, which he often brings to the house where he flies, brings him closer to the Firebird of East Slavic fairy tales. It also seems possible to connect the legends about the Fire Snakes with beliefs in the ancient Slavic deity Usen, represented in a number of legends in the image of the “Fire Wheel”.

Most modern researchers agree that the image of the Fire Serpent is very old. “The image of the Fire Serpent is older and more complex than the image of the devil. The idea of ​​them reflected the concepts of life-giving celestial “fiery phenomena” and “living” falling stars.”

In folk conspiracies, the Fire Serpent is presented as a magical creature capable of inspiring passion in a woman. According to legend, he can marry any woman (or rape her), after which, under certain conditions, a creature of the snake breed can be born. According to these legends, the Son of the Fire Serpent often engages in single combat with his father and defeats him (for example, the Serbian epic about Vuk the Fire Serpent).

Ancient beliefs about the Flyers were persistently preserved among Russian peasants in the 18th-20th centuries. They knew that the Fire Serpents were “devils that fly and tempt women.”

The following motif of stories was widespread in the villages: The Fire Snake (called a fire snake in the Yaroslavl region) flies to girls and women: “Sparks scatter over the pipe, he (through the pipe) appears in the hut in the guise of a handsome guy or the deceased husband of the mistress of the house.” (M.D. Chulkov, 1786).

“In the Russian folk tradition, the “flying kite” (“flyer”) was represented in the form of a fireball scattering sparks around itself. Among the Old Believers, characterized by the stability of the archaic, the “flyer” was represented in the form of a trail of sparks flying out of a chimney and carried high into the night sky.”

This creature does not have a single name. So in the Smolensk and Ryazan regions such a snake was called - Lyubak, in the Oryol region - Volokita, in the Tambov province - Lyubostai. According to the beliefs of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, there is Raid, an evil spirit in the form of a fiery broom “six arshins”. He often visits people who are grieving for the deceased.

In the Samara region, the belief about “Conversations” with Flyers has been preserved. It was well known that the Fire Snake was attracted to the excessive grief of widows. When he flew in, you could stop and subdue him by saying: “Whoa!” Some sources add the need, before the snake arrives, to first stick three iron knives into the ground in a certain way. After this, the snake became somewhat dependent on man, fulfilled his requests, and revealed secrets - of Earth and Heaven, past and future. When releasing the snake, it was necessary to tear his shirt down from the collar, otherwise the snake would not fly away, but would destroy the person who stopped him.

A vague belief has been preserved that in the middle of the 20th century, on the Samara Luka, “Wonderful snakes” destroyed an entire village.

In this regard, it is interesting to note that some researchers believe that the chronicle “firebirds” of Princess Olga (circa 946), who destroyed the main city of the Drevlyans, are classical flyers. Contact with whom in those days was more stable and to some extent more fruitful.

It is interesting to note that similar beliefs (about the possibility of using flyers) have survived to this day. So, over the past twelve years, researchers in the Yaroslavl region have recorded 166 stories touching on the image of the Fire Serpent. These creatures do not fly quickly, wriggling, sometimes noisily twirling and tumbling. Numerous reports of encounters with these creatures occur in 1910-1919, 1930-1939, 1940-1949. From the information they collected, it is assumed that there is a special language of the intermediary necessary for cooperation between man and the Fire Serpent, with the use of special, very specific signs - symbols.

At present, encountering Fire Snakes is quite unlikely. Although, according to unverified information (personal contacts in the mid-80s of the twentieth century in Sverdlovsk), among climbers of the former USSR there was a belief about the entire “plateau of Fire Snakes”, located on the southern border of Dagestan in the area of ​​Guton Peak, the main Caucasus ridge and a lesser-known mountain tract Bochokhmeer, Bogossky ridge.

According to other unverified information (personal correspondence 2001), “every year on the first full moon of the eleventh lunar month, on the day (which coincides with the end of the Buddhist fast), hundreds of red, pink and orange fireballs soar into the sky over the Mekong River (Indochina). This spectacle attracts huge crowds of spectators. Locals call this phenomenon “Naga fireballs.”

Naga is a mythical lord of snakes who lives in the world's underground.

Local scientists, without denying the very fact of such a phenomenon, use the gas hypothesis to explain it. “Methane rising from river sediments creates fireballs.” But this hypothesis is not able to explain such a strange regularity of this phenomenon, which is to some extent similar to the regular descent of the “Blessed Fire”* on Orthodox Easter on the temple mount of Jerusalem. “Suddenly, the lid of the Coffin is covered with droplets of light Fire, similar to liquid silver. Then the “drops” change color - they become blue, then scarlet..."

The descent of the “Blessed Fire” itself is a rather mysterious phenomenon and for many years was simply “hushed up” as if it really existed. Balls of “good fire” were demonstrated in a live television broadcast from Jerusalem NTV on April 10, 2004.

How and when the image of the Fire Serpent appeared is almost impossible to say. There are very few versions on this issue and they are all quite unsubstantiated. So, for example, Samara ethnographer K.I. Serebrenitsky suggests that the Fire Snakes are a distorted image of a dragon.

It should be noted that in the beliefs of Slavic peasants, Fire Snakes were only one of the varieties of the “Wonderful Serpent” - “underground serpent”, “snake snake” and “fiery serpent”. “The genesis of the mythological image of the serpent-dragon still cannot be fully elucidated, since its roots go back to prehistoric civilizations, about which science does not have reliable information... South Slavic mythology has been preserved in which the “Wonderful Serpent” appears together with St. George the Victorious and Elijah the Prophet in the struggle against demonic creatures that send hail clouds, showers, tornadoes and other misfortunes.”

One of the modern researchers of ancient beliefs, V. Bumagin, in the article “Why the Serpent Gorynych is not alone...” (Snakes and snake-like creatures in Slavic myths, fairy tales and beliefs), notes that the image of the “Fire Serpent”, which is in undoubted development and currently.

It is interesting to note that in the mythology of other, non-Slavic peoples, this image practically does not exist!

To some extent, a possible analogue of the Fire Serpent can be considered: Latin - vivus ignis... - Living fire; Japanese “Tengu Lanterns”, the creature “Azhi-Dahaka” of ancient Iranian mythology, also in Europe such creatures as Leader in Hungarian mythology, Aitvaras in Lithuanian mythology, Ognevik - “money serpent” are also locally known in Europe.

Some researchers draw parallels between the images of the Fire Serpent and the Fire Salamander, but in our opinion this direction is wrong.

It is logical to assume that in ancient times the image of Fire Snakes among most peoples of Europe and North America (if it existed) was replaced by legends about the so-called Strange Lights - ignis fatuus, mysterious flying lights of various colors. They are popularly known as “fireballs”, “St. Jack’s lanterns”, “Monk’s lights”, “Candle lights”, “Elves’ lights”, at sea “St. Elmo’s lights”, the Finns called such lights “lekkyo”. Their characteristic location is in the air, at the height of a human hand.

In ancient times, the observation of these lights was considered a manifestation of the “transcendent world.” The main difference between Strange Lights and Fire Snakes is their relatively small size and usual abundance. Whereas the Flyers almost always appeared (with very rare exceptions) alone.

In Christian mythology, Strange Lights, most notably “balls of fire,” were identified with “fiery demons that live in the upper layers of the air, practically never descending to earth and having nothing to do with people until the Day of Judgment.”

Although this was probably not entirely true. The Roman historian Amin Marcellinus recorded: “In the year 252 AD. e. Balls of fire that descended from the sky burned all the workers who were trying to restore the Temple of Jerusalem.” (This evidence is confirmed by other authors, such as Rabbi Gedaliah).

More modern evidence of the massive appearance of special fireballs in the eastern hemisphere was recorded on the night of November 12-13, 1832: “... hundreds of shooting stars mixed with large and small fireballs that moved in different directions...”. In the Western Hemisphere, they appeared on the night of November 12-13, 1833: “... the entire sky was covered with dozens of light stripes and illuminated by fireballs...”.

There is a curious connection between fireballs (Flyers) and the legends of modern Theosophists about the first fiery races. “Fire serpents descended from heaven and taught the Fifth Race (man).” The samizdat book “The Bowl of Fire” talks in more detail about the first two fire races. In the "Bowl of Fire" they are called the first - "Pitri" and "Phat", the second - "Evols".

This book, of theosophical-arisophical content and unknown authorship, became relatively famous in the USSR approximately from the mid-70s of the twentieth century.

Theoretically, in the case of their real existence, both the first and second races could “give birth” to very peculiar relics, in certain (energetically active) regions of the planet capable of surviving to the present day.

“The Bowl of Fire” reports that “in the later stages of their evolution, the Evols represented a kind of single planetary organism, consisting of relatively independent “nest-colonies”, the latter being in a belt of volcanic activity or drifting in the atmosphere in the zone of thunderstorm fronts. Each such “nest” was ideally adapted to collect, accumulate and maintain a constant energy balance in a strictly defined territory. The “nests” exchanged information among themselves. The (possibly rapid) decrease in the supply of cosmic energy to Earth gradually led to the death of the majority of “nest-colonies” and an intensification of the struggle for existence between those still remaining.”

Not long before their “extinction,” the Evols “brought” the Moon into outer space. Perhaps they just reached the moon? – Theosophical texts are difficult to understand.

Is it possible that modern fireballs observed today on the surface of the Moon are distant descendants of the legendary Evols?

It is interesting to note that a large number of “fireballs” were observed by pilots from Germany, Japan, the USA, and England. Most of the pilots considered these objects to be the enemy's secret weapons and in reports called them “ghost fighters.” After the war, reports of such encounters greatly decreased and steadily became relegated to the category of UFO stories.

A strange, very short-lived wave of such observations seems similar to the history of recording the mysterious radio echo of 1927-1929, the so-called Stoermer paradox, perceived by a number of researchers as signals of an alien intelligence.

A large number of recorded reports of “contacts” between humans and “fireballs” in the second half of the twentieth century in the USSR were collected by the Siberian researcher M. Dmitriev. But after his death, this data is practically unavailable.

Perhaps some additional information about fireballs is available in the unique database of the American researcher of the early twentieth century, Charles Fort, in his “Book of the Damned.” (A highly abbreviated version of Ch. Fort “1001 Forgotten Miracles”, St. Petersburg, 1997).

Currently, modern science does not deny the very fact of observing strange lights and fireballs. But he explains their origin by purely natural processes - an unusual state of the atmosphere, luminescence, combustion of swamp gases or the glow of radioactive “vapors”, observation of the passage of ball lightning or traces of a collapsed fireball.

In modern mythology (its subsection of ufology, fireballs are considered as certain specific vehicles, manned or unmanned aerial vehicles of some highly developed civilization. They are also identified with certain: “Critters” - creatures living in the clouds in electric fields with a frequency of 7 - 20 Hz, sometimes they are simply called “fiery predators of the sky”; “Red Ghosts”, energy “birds” - living at an altitude of 30-90 km.

We consider it necessary to give also this version of the appearance of fireballs: Fireballs are the creation of “skilled” people. “According to the beliefs of residents of the north-west of our country, flying fireballs are a type of witchcraft damage. Sorcerers create such balls, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, by the power of their “will”. (Here the fireballs are a product of ancient, almost forgotten technology.) They direct it at a person and the ball, scattering on its victim, causes dangerous diseases.”

The already mentioned Samara ethnographer K.I. Serebrenitsky is inclined to believe that fireballs (fire snakes) are generally some kind of secondary, rather rarely observed form of human existence. “There is a chain of person + something that gives death in a special form, transforming a person first into a sorcerer, and then into a fireball.”

It is generally accepted that the number of observations of Flyers (fireballs) has decreased markedly in recent years. It is likely that the last observation is correct, although not reliably accurate, due to the specific nature of the change in perception. (But at least this observation is completely true for the manifestation of ball lightning. What this is connected with is difficult to say.) But in the case of stories about Fire Snakes, we can deal with a striking example of the replacement of the ancient image of the Flyer with a modern UFO and UFOnauts demonstrating classic (era-adjusted) style of behavior.

For a number of years, a Samara group of local historians tried to collect and, if possible, verify these stories.

We were not able to see the “fireballs” themselves, except for the observation of a certain mysterious “swarm”. On August 15, 1990, at about 10 p.m. (local time), I (I. Pavlovich), as well as several of my comrades, observed a group of fireballs flying over Zhiguli. A large single ball with a small tail was flying in the group, followed by nine smaller balls. They moved in a row of three, “shimmering” with bright and long tails.

Reports of sightings of this group in the interval from 22 to 24 (local time) “came” from a fairly large area, from various areas of Samara, Ermakovo village, Novodivichye village, Sergeevsk city, etc. What happened? Today it is impossible to say.

Most of these stories were rather unaddressed. For example, quite a lot of Fire Snakes were seen in the second half of the 20th century in the area of ​​​​the village of Askuly on Samarskaya Luka. In 1974 they were even shot at there with guns. “They talk about fireballs and other obsessions in the village of Askuly calmly, without mystical horror and sparkle in the eyes. Considering that these are all “enemies”. The emphasis is on the first syllable."

For example, it is known from the media that on June 21, 2001, a large fireball was seen in the vicinity of the village. Kinel-Cherkasy, May 24, 2002, the village of Verkhnie Belozerki was “visited” by a group of fireballs. They smashed windows and set trees on fire.

Fireballs that are more interesting to us, capable of turning into people, were seen quite often in the northeast of the Samara region.

In 1984, a Samara group of local historians decided to check one of the stories about Fireballs, somehow connected with the local Shikhan Mountain.

Translated from Mordovian, the name Shikhan means Oath.

There are lakes on that mountain. They never, even in the greatest dryness, dry out. The ancient Spirit of Water lives there. By performing a certain Ritual, he can be asked to bring rain in a dry summer or disperse the clouds in a too damp summer.

Before the revolution, many people went to those lakes to “pray.” The place where the Spirit “dwells” was marked with a “special stone.” This is where offerings were left: bread, salt, honey. According to legend, there were some ruins near the lakes. Local residents, according to the established tradition of the Middle Volga region, called them “Dugout of Stepan Razin”.

Let us recall that Stepan Razin in the Volga region is a collective image and has a very distant relationship with his historical prototype. Stepan Razin, the leader of the uprising in the Volga region, was executed in Moscow in 1671. In local tradition, Razin is a sorcerer, a werewolf, a powerful sorcerer, the owner of a flying boat (hidden in one of the mounds).

After the revolution and civil war, practically no one went to the mountain (worthy fruits of enlightenment, prohibitions and the cultural revolution). The sacrifices stopped, and the “angry spirit” flooded the lakes, turning them into swamps. Wild pigs (boars) settled on the mountain, attacking people who disturbed their property.

Presumably in the book “Legends, Traditions, Happiness”, edited by the famous researcher N.A. Krinichnaya, there is a mention of the Volga Shikhan Mountain: “We heard from the old people that Shikhan Mountain is not natural, but was built by human hands from savage stone. It's hollow inside. If you tap its side with a crowbar, the Shikhan will hum like an empty barrel or drum, and inside it will hiss like a snake.”

On May 28, 1984, I (I. Pavlovich) and a group of my like-minded people went in search of this mountain. In this article, we will not specifically give precise geographical references, based on the general safety rules for “communication” of a thirsty but unprepared public with such places.

... Steppe. The endless steppe stretches from horizon to horizon. We drove a GAZ-66 car and the kilometers fell happily under the wheels. What mountain? Where is she here from? — we were tormented by doubts. But here is a domed vault, overgrown with forest. It feels like we are facing a glacial moraine. The ice tongue brought tons of stone here (many fragments of quartz) and melted.

But according to the views of experts, the glacier never reached these places. The dosimeter clicked 20-30 µt/h, practically normal.

The legends said that Shaitan “sealed” that mountain and “closed” the caves.

Indeed, a preliminary inspection suggests the presence of some large voids in the mountain. We discovered several rather narrow cracks in the hillside, clogged with clay and large, seemingly melted stones.

We tried to explore the top of the mountain. Swamp. Dense thickets, traces of wild boars and flares. All this made the search difficult, and we were limited by time. Local residents (inhabitants of surrounding villages) refused to accompany us to the mountain, citing their (obviously exaggerated) fear of wild boars. At that time, we were not able to complete the entire planned research program - to go to the “prayer stone” and examine the “ruins”. They are still waiting for their “discoverers”.

A survey of local residents suggested that the “Spirit” had left these places. They even told us how it happened: “Shaitan flew away! Flew away! The appearance is like a man, the head is all fire, and there are fiery tails around.” This description of Shaitan put him on a par with the Fire Snakes already under consideration.

According to local legends, the “fiery shaitan”, entering into a love affair with village women, gave birth to quite a few children of the “snake breed”. And although most of these children did not live long (died in infancy), some lived to adulthood. According to one version of local beliefs, it was they who expelled their “father” Shaitan, after which they went up the mountain, where they fell asleep...*

It is interesting to note that such “ideas” about the possible merging of man and the fiery serpent are quite common in modern theosophical literature. Which even claims that the appearance of representatives of the Third Race - the Lemurians, occurred due to the “merger” of the last Evols and the first cold-blooded ones, and the Atlanteans and modern man also appeared.

Similar stories were typical for the north-west of our region. Therefore, we sent our next expedition in 1994 to the north-west of the Samara region, where beliefs about Fire Snakes were also preserved.

On this trip we were accompanied by a representative of the Samara Historical-Ecological Association “Volga Region”, ethnographer Kirill Serebrenitsky.

It’s hard to believe that in our industrial age, relatively close to the “ring” of large cities, a corner of wild nature has remained virtually untouched. People lovingly call it the Volga Alps. These are darkly beautiful, truly fabulous places. Subtly mysterious and surprisingly silent, you can’t even hear the birds. Only owls screech at night. Yes, rise to the sky, above the low hills there are rock outcrops, a legacy of bygone eras.

In the geological past, the high-water Tethys Sea raged here, and the current rocks, the most durable rocks, formed the ancient islands.

Local residents have dark beliefs associated with these places. Even today they believe that these rocks, forests, and swamps are inhabited by evil spirits. And although no one dares to admit it directly, they are afraid of these places and the creatures that they believe live here.

Although there is no one in particular to “confess” to, in the nearest populated settlements, organized in the 30s, fulfilling Stalin’s directives, only four houses remained inhabited, only eight people, all Chuvash.

It is known that in the historical past people did not settle here of their own free will. Although it is not clear why. There is plenty of game, the land is untouched, the water is healing... (Water from this mountain range is now widely advertised and sold under the name “Palace Water”).

Kirill Serebrenitsky, working with the local population, found out that almost everyone who had ever visited these swamps at night saw will-o-the-wisps - flying evil spirits. They call her Pata Kabusya.

Another sound of this name, preserved by the older generation of local residents, is Patavka-bus - “flying head” or “head bird”.

Later, having returned to Samara, Kirill Serebrenitsky specifically consulted with Cheboksary ethnographers and found out that “patavka” is a completely uncommon and incomprehensible word in the modern Chuvash language.

The closest thing to him is “pudovka” - meaning an old pood bucket. Then it turns out that Pata-Kabusya is a kind of “Flying Head” in the shape of an old pound bucket. In the modern Chuvash language, the word “Patavka” is completely uncommon and little understood. The closest one to him is “Pudovka”. Then Patavka is a kind of “flying head” in the shape of an old bucket.

In the Chuvash language “Bus” (Pus) means “source”, “beginning”.

According to local beliefs, Pata-Kabusya lives in a large moss swamp, a strangely preserved relic of a long-past ice age. They say that if someone died a violent death here and was not buried according to the requirements of a certain ritual, Pata-Kabusya could fly in: “A sheaf of fire flies in the form of a snake, the head thick and thinner towards the tail. He flies straight to the village...” There he allegedly exalted the dead man, and then led the deceased around the surrounding area and took him to his swamp. No one else saw the deceased. “The locals don’t know why the ball does this...”

In 1997, we were told that Patavka-bus, “while protecting his territory,” destroyed a military helicopter, killing three crew members.

“MI-24” on August 3, 1997 seemed to have fallen into some kind of air sieve. The car lost the horizontal component of its speed and fell vertically to the ground like a stone.

The impact was so strong that the seismic shock was recorded at a distance of 30 - 40 km from the site of the disaster. (The analogues of such accidents throughout the world can be counted on one hand. The car was in good working order. The systems were normal. The weather was good).

While working in this area, we were able to find out a number of interesting details. For example, although fireballs usually appear at night, when there are dry thunderstorms in the summer, they can also appear in the midday sun. The blue ball is young. The red ball is old. The old ones are not dangerous. Balls can move hills, change the flow of rivers, awaken springs. They are putting out forest fires. Sometimes two balls come together and begin to “crush” each other, sometimes they shoot like lightning.

It is interesting to note that it was in these places, according to the information of the anonymous narrator, that a certain Ritual was performed that prevented the explosion of Jupiter from the impact of debris from the Shoemaker-Levy comet. (See the newspaper “New Aquarius” N 15-16, 21 1996) This material will be presented in more detail in the third book of the study of modern mythology, “Playing Shadows”.

The newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda - Samara” published the following message on September 07, 2005: “On July 20, 2005, a red ball with a diameter of 5-6 m (approximately the size of a Kirovets tractor) flew out from the Trengul district of the Ulyanovsk region.” Flying through an abandoned field, the UFO suddenly released a green beam. A fire started. Having destroyed the grass on the field, the flame suddenly went out... It is assumed that the place where this ball came from is the mysterious “Skripinskie Kuchur” of the Terengul district of the Ulyanovsk region.”

Reflecting on this message, Samara local historian Viktor Pylyavsky suggested a possible connection between this incident and the appearance of a mysterious geometric figure in a buckwheat field near Tolyatti on the night of July 21-22, 2005.

As already mentioned, according to ancient beliefs, “children” are sometimes born from the “cohabitation” of people and Fire Serpents. (In the Volga region they are called “Takhami” or “Rakhami”).

Usually they do not live long or... become sorcerers. And if Pata-Kabusya lived in a swamp, then his “children” or “talkers” with snakes (and among them, of course, Stepan Razin was remembered) lived in the “Stone House”. Stone House is supposedly a rock outcrop associated with an extensive system of caves stretching for tens of kilometers, overlooking the bank of the river. Volga. “This place is rotten. Many wanted to know what was happening down there. They went down on the reins. Those who returned to the passion were frightened, and those who were more foolish went into the depths - they completely turned around. The floors in that “House” (caves) are innumerable. A person will fail and there will be no way out for him... Sorcerers lived there, and maybe they still live today. We don't know for sure."

After asking local residents, we moved towards these caves. We walked for about forty minutes through an old pine forest. Soon the surface layer of soil disappeared, exposing the bedrock. Huge cracks cut through the massif, opening access to the depths of the earth.

And again, the lack of free time did not give us the opportunity to systematically explore this entire area. We found only one deep cave, from which there was a noticeable draft of cold air.

Having squeezed through a stone crack, we found ourselves in some kind of underground well, three meters deep. The further path was “blocked” by a large sharp stone. Without excavation and removal of small interfering stones, it was impossible to go further. So these caves are also waiting for their explorers.

Making our way along the kinks of these cracks, we once again felt a certain subtle spirit of lubricant. Indeed, traveling through the remains of these ancient islands, literally riddled with caves and vast underground voids, one can believe in the last representatives of a long-vanished world who took refuge “until the hour of doom.”

And these sensations were well intertwined with the legends of the “sleepers in the hills” who once ruled these lands, which have now become swamps.

But one day, so the story goes, they will rise from these hills and regain power over the world.

We didn't see any fireballs. But one night we witnessed a rather unusual phenomenon. In a large clearing formed between two converging ranges of hills, we saw brightly burning blue lights. There were three of them in total, arranged in the shape of a triangle; through binoculars it was clearly visible that they had the shape of elongated rhombuses, with clearly defined ribs.

Me and my other companion Andrey, we stayed on the hillside to correct the movement. And four of our comrades, armed with dosimeters, moved towards the fires to try to find out their nature. And what’s interesting is that the closer they got to the lights, the worse they saw. We, from the hill, continued to clearly observe both the lights and the dark silhouettes of our companions. The blue light was so bright that my eyes watered and I was forced to hand the binoculars to my partner. While I was passing it on, our search group passed the lights and began to move away from them. With shouts and flashlight signals, we turned them around. Then, having lined up in a chain and turning on their flashlights, they moved back. While I was rubbing my watery eyes, this is what happened. They still didn't see the lights. My partner Andrei saw through binoculars how the beam of one of the flashlights hit one of the blue “diamonds”. Andrei claims that instantly it became blacker than the darkness of the night surrounding us, as if it flared up in reverse and the lights went out.

True, after a few minutes they or others like them caught fire again, but much further into the hills. We tried to approach them again, but the same story repeated itself. From a distance the lights were perfectly visible, but when approaching them they seemed to disappear.

The dosimeters showed the norm. The compass needles behaved normally. There was also no smell of swamp gas. So this mystery is still waiting for its discoverer.

Some of the results of our research were presented by us in a number of articles published in 1995-2000 in the Samara newspaper “New Aquarius”, the magazine “Svet” No. 1, 1997 (I. Pavlovich “Patavka-bus. Who is he?”) and the book “Legends” Volga Dungeons", Samara, 2001.

The closest analogue of the fabulous Fire Serpents in terms of external characteristics is Ball Lightning. Ball lightning is a luminous body that usually appears in the air during a thunderstorm and reaches sizes from two to three centimeters to several meters. The properties of her behavior are so unusual that until recently many scientists were inclined to think that all the stories about her were fiction. But too many people observed it, so they had to believe in its existence.

It is interesting to note that during Hurricane Katrina, which hit the United States in September 2005, many people observed flying fireballs. Some of them were even recorded by video cameras and shown on television news.

It has been noted that ball lightning most often appears in areas of high tectonic stress. Professor Michael Persinger (Canada) suggests that changes in mechanical stress in certain types of rocks generate electrical current. This current ionizes the column of air located above the rock and spins it around its axis. This is how ball lightning and UFOs are supposedly “born”.

According to numerous eyewitness accounts, brightly luminous balls (or other objects) are often observed above the Zhiguli, the apparent diameter of which reaches the size of the full Moon. They move along complex trajectories and can disappear instantly.

And this is not surprising, on the calm, “stable” Russian platform - this land area shows increased activity. And the “Volga Alps” generally tend to grow.

Perhaps the “active energy” of these places can serve as a partial explanation why, by the beginning of the twentieth century, adherents and keepers of almost all the main secret and apocryphal teachings of Russia gradually gathered in these places.

Some researchers of the “unusual” late 19th and early 20th centuries argued that, according to ancient views, the evolution of man on Earth was preceded by several intelligent Races. According to their views, the first Races did not have a solid body, but were “clumps of fire.” Indeed, one can imagine a seething surface about the Earth, where clots of ionized gas alternate and collide at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour. Such collisions can form complex formations consisting of various components. After some time, most of these formations will disintegrate, but not instantly, but after participating in various interactions with the environment. One can imagine the emergence of some “simple being” that is capable of using planetary and cosmic energy, initially to maintain its own existence. And then, to move to greater and greater levels of order.

Gradually, it can learn to “think” using ordered electromagnetic pulses. It is assumed that when even the simplest such systems arise, their evolution will proceed much faster than for chemical and biological creatures.

As the Earth cools, they will find themselves in increasingly worse conditions. And perhaps Pata-Kabusya, like all Fire Snakes, are the last surviving relics of bygone eras, hidden in special energy points of the planet. Today they are limited in their capabilities and need the “help” of other intelligent beings. It is possible that it is they who indirectly “push” the development of human civilization in a strictly defined direction (for example, towards the use of high energies and nuclear reactions. In our file there are many reports of observations of fireballs as if “sticking” to the wires of high-voltage power lines. They are also “barge” over areas with the highest levels of radioactive waste contamination.

Probably, for the first time after the “cooling” of the earth’s crust, people were able to turn back time, as it were. Over two to three decades, the brightness temperature in the meter wavelength range has increased millions of times.

It is quite possible that in the coming decades our planet will surpass the Sun as a source of radio emission feeding ball lightning!

And then people will again return the Earth to the Fire Snakes. Whether this is true or not can only be proven by further research. And in this regard, the vast expanses of Russia are still in many ways “terra incognito” for an inquisitive researcher capable of painstaking work.

In conclusion, I would like to say that there is a fairly large “layer of information” in which certain “fireballs” or unusual “glowing lights” appear, but at present it is completely impossible to say whether it is related to the topic under study. For example, the mysterious “Prana balls” are luminous balls of various sizes, usually invisible to the naked eye, but recorded in certain shooting modes with photos, movies or video equipment.

Painting by A. Fantalov. "Fire Serpent"

The collector and researcher of Russian folklore Ivan Petrovich Sakharov (1807-1863), who published three volumes of “Tales of the Russian people about the family life of their ancestors,” wrote: “Everyone and everyone in Rus' knows what a miracle a fiery serpent is. Everyone knows why he is flying and where he is flying, but no one dares to talk about it out loud. The fiery serpent is not his brother, he has no mercy: certain death from one blow. And what to expect from evil spirits! It would seem that he has no need to fly to the red maidens, but the villagers know why he flies, and they say that if the fiery serpent falls in love with a maiden, then his sweetheart is incurable forever. No one dares to reprimand or dissuade such a sweetheart...”

The transformation of a fiery serpent into a person, according to Sakharov, happens like this: “Everyone sees how a fiery serpent flies through the air and burns with unquenchable fire, but not everyone knows that as soon as it descends into the chimney, it will find itself in a hut as a young man of unspeakable strength. Without loving, you will love; without praising, you will praise, the old women say, when a girl sees such a fine fellow. He, the villain, knows how to fool the soul of a red maiden with greetings. He, the destroyer, will delight the young woman with his speech. He, merciless, will play with the zealous heart of a girl, he, the barbarian, will melt his scarlet lips with honey and sugar. From his kisses the beautiful maiden burns with a ruddy dawn, from his greetings the beautiful maiden blooms like a red sun!” Villagers often noticed those huts where fiery snakes were flying, and suspected women of carnal cohabitation with a demon.

But people also noticed something else - the consequences of sinful relationships with the undead, when women became pregnant from such intercourse and even gave birth to someone unknown...

Here is what I.P. Sakharov writes about this: “He dries and chills the beautiful girl to the point of languor. Is it from this unclean force that a girl gives birth to a child that is not good (unclean, devilish, satanic, worthless - according to Vladimir Dahl’s dictionary). Out of anguish and sadness, the hearts of the father and mother are breaking because the red maiden has conceived an unnatural child. They swear, they scold the unkind child with a great oath: he should not live in this world, he should not be like a human being! He would burn forever in boiling tar, in unquenchable fire! Because of that oath, the cursed child, without time and time, disappears from the mother’s womb. And he, the accursed one, is carried away by the unclean to distant lands, to the thirtieth kingdom. And there, exactly seven weeks later, the cursed child is called Kikimora. Kikimora lives and grows with a magician in the stone mountains...”

Now, in hindsight, we, ufological researchers, already know that some of the alien species use earthly women as surrogate mothers or a kind of incubator, and after about three months the embryo is removed from the woman’s uterus so that cultivation can continue in special laboratories with the creation of all the necessary physiological conditions for growth. But now we know something. From eyewitnesses, from doctors, according to hypnosis, according to ultrasound data... However, to read about the same thing in the testimonies of our ancestors... This fact leads to difficult thoughts. And conspiracies and oaths most likely had nothing to do with it: this is simply the technology for growing hybrids - they, as is now becoming clear, are brought into the world at just three months old. _

Sometimes, as folklore testifies, “children who are not crazy” were born in person. They supposedly had a big head and a big belly, were ugly, stupid, unsociable, and usually disappeared somewhere in the forest.

Don't those old stories remind us of the situation with the birth of a baby from Valya Solovey from Kazakhstan? After all, according to the mother in labor herself, he was “taken away by aliens,” and the young woman does not even remember under what circumstances this happened.

In Russian settlements, in addition to the “fiery serpent,” this same phenomenon was often called “Maniac.” “The maniac flew by!” - the peasants of that time said when they saw the fireball. “That’s what the villagers call shooting stars...” explains Sakharov. - Our villagers tell different legends about Maniac. Some say that the Maniac always falls from the sky into the yard where the girl lost her virginity. Others claim that unclean spirits fly in his form, visiting lonely women when their husbands go on long journeys to earn money. Then, at the sight of the Maniac, they say: “Amen, scatter!” Still others assured with fear that these are cursed people wandering and that they are wandering from place to place until they are forgiven...”

Another famous Russian collector of fairy tales and legends, A. Afanasyev, did not ignore this topic. He writes: “The serpent, the common people say, flies across the sky, breathing fire; over the hut he knows, he scatters sparks and through the pipe appears in front of his chosen girlfriend and turns into a fine fellow... The fruit of relationships between wives and snakes are extraordinary children, and heroes are magicians and kikimors.”

My colleague in the study of the anomalous, Alexey Konstantinovich Priyma, believes that the legendary fire snakes are nothing more than modern UFOs, and the “red fellow” is a “flying saucer” operator, or enlonaut (11). In his book “Meetings with Nonhumans,” Priyma cites a story that was told by residents of the village of Peshkovo, Chita region, to folklorist Zinoviev in the sixties of the last 20th century. Allegedly, the fiery serpent flew to their fellow villager Lydia, and she, by the way, did not renounce this fact, and before that, during the Second World War, he visited a woman named Pasha. The stranger appeared to her in the guise of her husband Yakov, who had gone to fight the Nazis.

Pasha was very afraid that her husband would die in the war, she cried every day and was killed for her husband. And soon, according to local residents, “a kite began to fly towards her.” Lzheyakov appeared only at night. He lay down next to Pasha. and demanded female caresses.

At first, Pasha was incredibly happy about her husband’s return. She decided that he had deserted and was hiding in the taiga from the authorities. But then I suspected something was wrong. One day she stroked her “husband” on the head and found many large lumps on it. I even told my Lzheyakov about this, but he remained silent. And the woman recalled the stories of her fellow countrywomen that they had seen a fiery kite flying over the village, and just recently...

Alarmed Pasha told his brother’s wife Elizaveta Maksimovna about everything. She agreed to spend the night in her hut to verify the reality of what was happening. And so both women, having put Pasha’s three young children to bed, settled down on the Russian stove. After some time, a bright flash illuminated the hut, and Lzheyakov appeared before the women. Not paying any attention to Lizaveta Maksimovna, the demon began to reprimand Yakov’s wife in the strongest words: they said, it was impossible to tell anyone about his visits to her, he had sternly warned about this... Having yelled and raged, the alien suddenly disappeared - melted into thin air.

And the women heard a terrible roar in the hallway... In the morning, as soon as it was dawn, they realized that they could not leave the hut: the door did not open. They raised a cry, Yakov's brother Ivan and other neighbors came running... And they were amazed: a huge woodpile of firewood, piled near the hut under a canopy, was in the entryway, down to the last log... So the whole village learned about this event, there were a lot of witnesses to what had happened.

Candidate of historical sciences Lyudmila Lavrenyeva and Tatyana Shchepanskaya, employees of the Moscow Academy of Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, conducted their own investigation of the legendary tales about the fiery serpent - the Serpent Zmeevich (20).

This character of folk demonology turns out to be very common in Russian villages from the Volga region to Polesie, as well as in other places in the country, right up to Siberia. They say that this undead flies, scattering sparks, to lonely women yearning for a husband or lover. Pelageya Mikhailovna, a resident of the Vyatka village of Vorobyova Gora, told folklorist-researcher Tatyana Shchepanskaya that she herself observed, when she left her hut in winter, how “fire flies like a sheaf, and suddenly crumbles, sparks fly out... and another time I saw the same thing when I was threshing bread".

Eyewitnesses usually testify that IT looks like a sheaf, a bunch, a broom, a fireball or a snake with a tail of golden sparks. As a rule, they saw him flying into a chimney and for some reason specifically into houses where single women lived, left without a husband (he died, went to work, joined the army, and disappeared without making himself known for a long time). They say the same thing in different places: “And people see a fiery serpent flying across the sky - and straight into the chimney. And he comes down into the house and introduces himself as a man, like her husband...” As if he goes into the upper room, hugs, kisses the waiting woman, goes to bed with her, treats her with gingerbread... Such visits could, according to legend, have a tragic outcome: one Vyatka young woman is on fire the guest, they say, took her to the bathhouse and put her on a hot stove, after which she died. Another lost weight and wasted away for a long time, abandoned her house, the children ran around the village, tattered and dirty, begging in other people's houses. After some time, there was a fire, and she herself burned down in the house. For this reason, in some villages they looked after lonely women and, if they noticed something was wrong, they performed a ritual to ward off the uninvited guest.

People also noticed that fire flyers were especially active during the period of Stalinist repressions. The arrested village men died in the Gulag camps, leaving their still young wives to grieve. “My sister-in-law lived with me,” says Pelageya Yakovlevna from the same Vyatka village. “They took a man from her - a Trotskyist, or what, did they find him? He gave me a gift, crackers...” Slowly she began to go crazy. Then,” the narrator continues, “my husband says: “It’s not Yakov who comes to you, the long one (as they called the devil in those places because of his tall stature) comes.” They began to convince her not to go into the fence. They were already guarding her, not letting her in...” Sometimes this guest showed himself too materially for a ghost: either he ate pancakes baked by the hostess the evening before, or in the morning after his visit the neighbors saw bruises on her arm. At night, she drove the children away from her so that they could sleep separately, and the children could hear their mother talking to someone at night, laughing, whispering. In Polesie, the birth of illegitimate children is still sometimes explained by visits from the fiery undead, and therefore they are not too surprised at the disappearance of such children, who must apparently be ghostly, like their parent.

To ward off the enchanting guest, relatives and neighbors performed various magical actions: they stuck rowan branches at the doors (there are supposedly crosses on the rowan berries that scare away evil spirits), nailed a collar and a horseshoe, drew crosses with charcoal... In the ancient book “Abewega of Russian Superstitions,” published in 1786, its author M.D. Chulkov wrote that in the beliefs of the 18th century, fiery snakes are “devils that fly and tempt women.” It is believed that this creature is much more ancient and more complex than, say, the image of the same devil...

Folk mythology is essentially the testimony of eyewitnesses who encountered inexplicable things and interpreted what was happening in their own way. However, there is no need to brush aside or deny some events, even incredible from a modern point of view. We ourselves are now faced with phenomena that are even more striking and mysterious, leaving completely material traces. And the reader will have the opportunity to verify this in the future using the facts of this study.

It goes without saying that, perhaps, it is no coincidence that in fairy tales snakes often kidnap princesses and “red maidens”, and that good fellows and the same princes fight them. Apparently, there was something like that, people noticed. Even in serious literary works that have been left to us as a heritage from the 14th-15th centuries, something similar is said, but not in a fairy-tale form, but in the form of a legend, historical evidence. Such, for example, is “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” - a monument of literature of Ancient Rus' (21).

The story begins like this: “Behold, in the Russian land there is a city called Mur. In it there is no autocratic and noble prince, as I have told, named Paul. Having hated the good of the human race from time immemorial, the devil planted a hostile flying serpent on the wife of that prince for fornication.”

If we translate into modern language the story of the serpent, which is difficult to read due to the antiquity of the language, it turns out that the serpent took the form of the husband of an unfortunate woman and had intercourse with her. But the princess suspected something in this situation and told everything to her legal spouse. By order of Paul, Fevronia managed to cunningly extract the secret of the death of the serpent from the “hostile charmer,” and he “uttered the secret to her, saying”: “My death is from Peter’s shoulder, from Agrikov’s sword!” Agric in Rus' was the name of a fairy-tale hero who possessed a countless number of weapons, among which was a treasure sword. Since Prince Peter was Paul’s brother, and Agrikov’s miraculous sword was walled up in the wall of the Vozdvizhensky Monastery, everything was decided simply. Peter got the treasured sword and waylaid the serpent, cutting it into pieces. But... he was splashed with the blood of the snake and was covered all over with scabs and ulcers, from which he could not recover for a long time.

The narrative ends with the message that both Peter and Fevronia, after all these upheavals, went to the monastery, putting on “monastic robes.” “And the blessed Prince Peter was named David in the monastic rank, and the reverend princess Fevronia was named Euphrosyne in the monastic rank.”

It is interesting that the legend told in the story of Peter and Fevronia has similar plots in Western European literature. Researchers find many similarities in the Russian story with the song about the battle of Zigurd with the serpent Fafnar and the union of this hero with the things of the maiden. Especially a lot of similarities in individual episodes and the storyline are observed in the story of Tristan and Isolde, which gave opera and theatrical performances known to the world. In later records of folklore collectors, an oral tradition about Fevronia was preserved, but not from Murom, but from the village of Laskovo, Ryazan region. Researchers have suggested that the name Peter should mean Prince David Yuryevich, who reigned in Murom from 1204 to 1228. However, there is another opinion - that the prototype of Peter was the Murom prince Peter, who lived at the beginning of the 14th century, the ancestor of the boyars Ovtsyn and Volodymerov.

But I’m thinking: what to do with the snake, or rather, with the persistent stories about this creature? A very common, quite recognizable image can be discerned behind it. Why is the folklore of different countries, myths, fairy tales, and finally the Bible replete with episodes with giant snakes? Why has this strange character accompanied humanity since time immemorial?

After all, many now admit that any myths, traditions and legends often had a very real basis, only slightly altered, half-forgotten in some details...

Without delving deeply into the essence of the issue, I easily found some works related to the hypothesis about the possible existence of a serpentoid civilization that preceded the human one. The possible existence of a reptilian civilization is directly indicated by the chapter of the Mahabharata - “The Burning of Snakes”. There we are talking about the existence of a snake power. It is possible, as follows from the Mahabharata, that the civilization of snakes could fly in unusual ways beyond the control of humans. For example, when the snake Takshaka, as follows from the description of the Mahabharata, killed the king of people Parikshit with his bite, he flew into the sky, leaving a trail of reverse jet, like that of jet aircraft:

Then the mighty Takshaka soared into the sky,

Like a living fire-breathing cloud

And the color reminds me of a lotus,

Behind him the strip stretched straight,

Similar to a woman's hairstyle with a parting...

And, punishing the death of his father, his son Janamejaya sacrificially burns snakes.

In Greek mythology, images of snakes and snake-like creatures are also found - for example Gigantomachia. Suffice it to recall the famous sculptural group “Laocoon”, created by ancient masters in the period BC based on ancient Greek myths.

Biblical evidence speaks of the intelligence and cunning of the tempting serpent: “The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made” (Genesis 3:1). Apparently, for man, created by God, the serpentoid civilization was hostile, and people began to fight with giant snakes.

In connection with the persistent mention of snakes in many myths and religions, Russian researcher Anatoly Stegalin put forward a hypothesis about the existence of a snake-like civilization in the distant past of the Earth. At the same time, the main tools of the snakes, as Stegalin believes, were not a stone and a stick, but... extrasensory abilities. Over the millions of years of its existence, such a creature could have mastered the ability to superfinely manipulate the consciousness of lower animals. It is not without reason that everyone talks about the hypnotizing gaze of snakes, especially such large ones as, for example, a boa constrictor.

It is likely that, giving way to man, the serpentoid race moved into another dimension, and the memory of it remained in myths, legends, tales and in the Bible. But it is possible that serpentoids, if desired, can appear in our three-dimensional world.

Traces of the activity of serpentoids can be traced in mythology on all continents. Everywhere you can find references to snakes, dragons, creatures both good and evil, but in any case very wise and long-lived. Their list is impressive: the feathered serpent of the Aztecs, the fiery serpent of the Russians, Chinese dragons, European dragons that kidnapped beauties, and finally the well-known biblical serpent.

In Russian folklore there is also a snake named Gorynych, who left a deep mark in the memory of the people through poetic fairy tales and legends.

If you take the book by M. Zabelin “Russian people. Its customs, rituals, legends, superstitions and poetry" (22), then among the prayers and conspiracies there is also a "Conspiracy from a serpent flying into houses." "... You, Lord, from the servant of God (name) and from her house, drive away the flying fiery serpent and the unclean spirit that touches the day, night, midday and morning, and evening, hourly and minute, all unclean power, turn him away from all her thoughts and thoughts, visions and dreams, actions and will..." - appears in that conspiracy.

If it was read and passed down among the people from generation to generation, then there were facts! But it seems there was also help from prayers, otherwise they would have been forgotten as ineffective.

By the way, there are legends about snakes in almost all European countries. In Bulgaria, in the village of Zmeyovo, not far from the city of Stara Zagora, local residents claim that their ancestors were people of “fathom height,” that is, 2.13 meters, because in the old days one woman from the village married a snake. For this they called her the Snake. Moreover, it was believed that it was easy to find out when a woman conceived “from the serpent”: she carries the fetus not 9, but 10 or even 11 months!

Belimov G.S. Proximity with aliens. Secrets of contacts of the 6th kind

“For a smart person, one good dragon costs as much as
How much would a stupid person give up a hundred of them for?...”
J.R.R. Tolkien "Beowulf: Monsters and Literary Critics"

Fire serpent in Rus'

A little evening dew
The grass is crumbling,
Scratching his braid, washing his neck
Black-browed widow.

And it doesn’t bother you at the window
From the sky of dark eyes.
And flies, twisting into rings,
There is a long snake in bright sparks.

And the noise is getting closer, closer,
And over the widow's yard,
Over the thatched roof
Scatters with fire.

And the window will immediately close
Black-browed widow;
Only heard in the bright room
Kisses and words.
A. A. Fet, 1847

Let's give the floor to I. Pavlovich, Samara researcher of the Fire Serpents. “So, for example, the Samara ethnographer K.I. Serebrenitsky suggests that the Fire Snakes are a distorted image dragon. It should be noted that in the beliefs of Slavic peasants, Fire Snakes were only one of the varieties of the “Wonderful Serpent” - “underground serpent”, “snake snake” and “fiery serpent”. In the mythology of other, non-Slavic peoples, this image is practically absent! To some extent, a possible analogue of the Fire Serpent can be considered: Latin - vivus ignis... - Living fire; Japanese “Tengu Lanterns”, also in Europe such creatures as Leader in Hungarian mythology, Aitvaras in Lithuanian mythology, Ognevik - “money serpent” are also locally known in Europe.

In Bulgaria, in the village of Zmeyovo, in the vicinity of Stara Zagora, local residents claim that their ancestors were “...people of a fathom height (2.13 m), because in the old days one woman from the village married a Zmey. That’s what her name was – Snake.” It’s funny, the same peasants assured that children born from a woman and a Snake are much “...stronger, more dexterous, live longer and have more youth in them.” It was believed that it was easy to find out when a woman conceived from the Serpent. Then she carries the fetus much longer than the prescribed 9 months, but 10-11 months!

The name “Zmeyovo” came from a strange hole in the ground near the village, where a mysterious creature was said to live. However, local enthusiast and skeptic, 70-year-old Nacho Yanakiev bravely examined the hole and declared that “a falling meteorite made a hole in the ground!” .

A. Kolmogortsev adds: “In popular belief, snakes are depicted either as a monstrous beast or as a giant, which evokes certain associations with the Greek snake-legged giants. Popular beliefs attribute to the snake demonic properties, heroic strength, knowledge of medicinal herbs, possession of untold riches and living water, and endow it with the ability to change its terrible monstrous image into the fascinating beauty of a young man.

“There are some mischievous fellows,” says the oral tradition about flying snakes, who know how to pretend to be like a snake and like a human.” In one Russian fairy tale, the snake is represented as a man with a snake’s head: “in appearance, the snake is a hero, but the head is a snake”; the same idea is known among the Poles."

V.I. Dal in his book “On Beliefs, Superstitions and Prejudices of the Russian People” points out that this creature does not have a single name. In the Smolensk and Ryazan regions such a snake was called Lyubak, in the Oryol region - Volokita, in the Tambov province - Lyubostai. According to the beliefs of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, there is Raid, an evil spirit in the form of a fiery broom “six arshins”. He often visits people who are grieving for the deceased. In the Samara region, the belief about those who converse with the Flyers has been preserved.

In the Smolensk province, according to D.N. Ushakov (Ethnographic Review, 1896.2), there was a legend about how once in one village they tried to kill the Fire Serpent. They covered it with earth, but no matter how much they carried it, it was not enough. They realized that they shouldn’t be transported on horses. They brought it on... roosters! They only threw one handful, and the earth grew and the Fire Serpent disappeared.”

“Two were returning home, they saw a sheaf of fire flying low from the ground into the village, a snake - the head was thick, thinner towards the tail, and straight to Ivan Anfimov’s house. The next day, Ivan was threshing on the threshing floor and died overnight. In another house, where the kite flew, a girl of twenty years old died,” as they said in the Vologda province.

In the Vladimir province, the Fire Snake was called upon in conspiracies to “dry” the girl. When they washed in the bathhouse, they talked about the water that was left after washing. “Nine spirits come from me, nine fiery ones, they want to light up the blue sea. Don’t light up the blue sea, but light up the heart of such and such (the name and place was called).”

In fact, it was believed that devils flew in the form of the Fire Serpent. They fly either to the bewitched or to the sorcerers who call them. And they carry money. They said so hostilely about people who strangely and unexpectedly became rich: “The couple’s name is money.” “Pair” was called a snake.

It was well known that the Fire Snake was attracted to the excessive grief of widows.

“Everyone in Rus' knows what a miracle a fiery serpent is,” writes I.P. Sakharov. “Everyone knows why he is flying and where he is flying, but no one dares to talk about it out loud.” The fiery serpent is not his brother, he has no mercy: certain death from one blow. And what to expect from evil spirits! It would seem that he has no need to fly to the red maidens, but the villagers know why he flies, and they say that if the Fire Serpent falls in love with a girl, then her sweetheart is incurable forever. No one dares to reprimand or dissuade such a sweetheart...”

“The Dictionary of Pagan Mythology of the Slavs” adds: “Everyone sees how the Fiery Serpent flies through the air and burns with unquenchable fire, but not everyone knows that as soon as he descends into the chimney, he will find himself in a hut as a young man of unspeakable beauty. Without loving, you will love, without praising, you will praise, the old women say, such a fine fellow. He, the villain, knows how to deceive the soul of a red maiden with greetings; He, the destroyer, will delight the young lady with a swan speech; he will play, ruthless, with a zealous girl’s heart; He, insatiable, will drown his beloved in flaming embraces; He, barbarian, will melt his scarlet lips with honey and sugar. From his kisses the red maiden of the ruddy dawn burns; from his greetings the beautiful maiden blooms like a red sun. Without the Serpent, the beautiful maiden sits in melancholy, in grief; without him she does not look at God's light; without it she dries, dries herself! But in fact, the Fire Serpent has a ball-shaped head, a trough-shaped back, and a long, very long tail - sometimes up to five fathoms. Arriving at its place, it crumbles into sparks that fly out as if from a sieve, and it flies so low that it can be seen from the ground no more than a fathom. He visits only women who have long and deeply grieved for their absent or deceased husbands.

The visitor himself is not visible to outsiders, but his voice is heard in the hut; He answers questions and begins to speak himself. Moreover, his visits are noticeable because his lovers begin to grow rich in front of people, although at the same time every woman with whom the Serpent gets in the habit certainly begins to lose weight and waste away (they say: “The Midnight Office has been set”); and another is tormented to the point that she dies or commits suicide (all cases of female suicide are attributed to the Fire Serpent).

There are, however, ways to get rid of the visit of the Serpent. A conscientious and bashful woman will come to her senses and turn to the witches for advice, and they will show how to find out who comes at night: whether the husband is real or unclean. To do this, they order, while the chosen one is sitting at the table with the Fire Serpent and treating her to everything that he brings and displays, to drop some thing from the table and then, picking it up, bend over and look: are there any hooves on the legs? is there a tail tip between them? If it then turns out that the person who has arrived is truly unclean, then in order to get rid of him, you need to sit on the threshold, circle around, comb your hair and at the same time eat hemp. When the Serpent asks: “What are you eating?” - you have to answer: “Lice,” and when asked by the snake whether it is possible to eat lice, she will answer: “Do snakes live with women?” He was so uncomfortable with this that he would push him in the side or hit him, but from that moment on he would not fly again.

For a girl enchanted by the Serpent, there is a reliable way to get rid of the fierce spell. On a moonless night, you need to throw prophetic herbs into a cauldron: sheep's gentian, hellebore, iris, sweet clover - and in the morning douse yourself with the decoction - and the Serpent will forever forget the way to home. But you should remember: herbs should be collected only in the mermaid week, not earlier, not later.”

“As in the city of Lukomorye, a snake flew across Pomorie, the queen of the city was seduced by it, she was killed by longing for the king, she mated with him, with the snake, her whiteness diminished, her heart yearned, she indulged in one consolation - as the snake flies, so it will seduce her. I am not afraid of you, snakes, I worship the Lord God, I will become like the Venerable Mary of Egypt, I will be imprisoned. Just as a dead person cannot rise from the ground, so you cannot fly to me, do not set my womb on fire, and do not melt my heart. I begin a conspiracy, lock myself in with an iron castle, fence myself in with a stone wall, cool off with spring water, and cover myself with the veil of the Mother of God. Amen."

Also, wanderers wandering around the villages come running to help women and girls in trouble. They, from all such pranks of evil spirits in the form of Fiery Serpents, write on pieces of paper 40 times the psalm: “May God rise again” - and order them to put it on the cross and wear it without taking it off.

In the “Collection of Fairy Tales and Legends of the Samara Region”, recorded by D. N. Sadovnikov, from the words of A. V. Chegodaev we read: “When a kite flies, you can stop it; just say: “Whoa!” Here you can ask him about anything, and he will tell the truth; and when you need to let go, you should tear your shirt from the collar down, otherwise it won’t fly away and will keep saying: “Let me go!” Let go!” Whoever does not know this will be caught by the snake.

Once, over one of the huts, where a widow lived and grieved for her husband, the snake crumbled. He entered as he was in life - with a gun, and brought a hare in his hands. She was happy. They began to live; Only she still doubts whether it is her husband - she forced him to be baptized. He gets baptized and gets baptized, so quickly that you can’t keep track. She gave the Saints to read - she reads, only instead of “Theotokos” she reads: “Miracle Mother”, and instead of “Jesus Christ” - “Sus Christ”. She guessed that something was wrong and went to the priest. The priest gave her a prayer and the kite disappeared and did not fly anymore.

In the village of Nikolskoye, a woman gave birth to a son from a snake, black, with hooves, and eyes without lids, bulging. The men thought and thought, and they killed him, and then buried him in the ground.”

Some sources add the need, before the arrival of the Serpent, to first stick three iron knives into the ground in a certain way. After this, the Serpent became somewhat dependent on man, fulfilled his requests, revealed secrets - of Earth and Heaven, past and future.

It is interesting to note that similar beliefs have survived to this day. So, over the past twelve years, researchers in the Yaroslavl region have recorded 166 stories touching on the image of the Fire Serpent.

This is how S. Temnyatkin, editor of the newspaper “Katskaya Chronicle” (Yaroslavl region, Myshkinsky district), talks about it.

“- I went to the Yuryev school in the third and fourth grades. In the fall, old lady Augusta Mikhailovna let me into her apartment. I remember that in the evenings she would walk for a long time, and I was scared without her...

And so I’m going to Yuryevskoye, and grandma Nadezhda stops me:

And you're not afraid?

Why be afraid?

Duck Augusta knows the Snakes!

But how!?..

And look, there are krinkas on her porch. Uzhi brings milk to her krinki. And in the evening she drives them underground; I made a spot there - they will sit down and sit like crows!

I came, looked at the porch - and there really were krinks! And I was afraid to look underground.

Aksinya saw off her husband Peter to the war. A month passed, then another. There is no news from him. She's worried and can't sleep. Black thoughts prevail. Aksinya is sitting by the window one night. The moon is so big, full, and pours silver into the surrounding area. And the Cossack woman decided to tell fortunes by the moon and find out about her husband. She sits and waits to see what appears to her.

Suddenly, in the moonlight, she sees a bloody stream flowing, right through her window and spreading across the floor in a puddle.

Aksinya groaned: a bad omen. An unknown grief entered my heart. She felt bitter. Worse than death! Such grief fell upon her. The Cossack woman burst into tears.

One day, in the hayfield, Aksinya was raking the grass, and she thought: “If only Peter would come back, and the red sun would shine for me again.” As soon as I thought, I raised my head and saw Peter on a horse riding down the hill. He waves his hand at her. Dressed cleanly, in all his uniform. The horse has a long, long mane that spreads along the ground. Aksinya threw down the rake and ran towards him. Peter jumped off his horse. They fell to each other, unable to find words for happiness. The horse tramples around them and neighs. Aksinya, take it and ask:

- Why is the horse’s mane so long?

Peter answers:

- And in war it’s like that for everyone. I found something to ask.

Aksinya laughed:

- Indeed, it’s me. Thank God that he returned alive and well.

I grabbed it - there was no one around: neither Peter nor the horse. She stands in the forest and hugs a tree. To know, she imagined everything.

Aksinya had no time for work, so she went home. She opened the gate. He sees through the window, Peter is sitting in the hut, drinking tea. “How did he get there,” Aksinya thought, “the door is locked.” She unlocked the door and ran into the hut: there was no one there. And the dishes are all there, untouched. I looked here and there: no, no one. The Cossack woman sank to the floor, exhausted, and began to cry.

In the evening, a cow came from the pasture, mooing, demanding her mistress. Whether you want it or not, get up. The cow needs to be milked.

Aksinya went into the barn, just as she was getting ready to milk the cow, she grabbed the cow’s tits and heard someone walking in the hay barn from above. She hung the bucket on a nail, took the lantern and climbed up the ladder. He sees boots sticking out of the hay, and the man is lying down.

- Peter, is that you? - asks Aksinya. Silence in response.

- Answer, Christ is with you!

The hay rustled, the boots disappeared, and the door to the barn opened with the wind.

OK. Aksinya’s head is burning, she’s walking around, as if in delirium, but she doesn’t feel any fear in her soul. She milked the cow, strained the milk, had dinner and went to bed.

At midnight Aksinya hears someone shuffling in the hallway. The door opened: there was no one there. Suddenly Aksinya’s blanket flew to the floor and the bed moved. The Cossack woman stood up and lit the lamp. Peter stands in front of her.

- Are you alive? - asks Aksinya.

“You see, he’s still alive,” Peter answers. - Go arrange the horse, while I figure it out.

She went out into the yard, unsaddled the horse, and put it in a stall.

She returned to the hut, and Peter was already lying in bed, beckoning her to him. Aksinya lay down with him and seemed not to be herself: it seemed that Peter was hers, but it seemed that he was not.

And he caresses her. Delights with the speech of a swan. He flirts in a warm embrace. From his kisses Aksinya burns with a ruddy dawn. From his greetings it blooms like a red sun. You can love such a fellow even if you don’t love him.

They are lying in bed. She ran her hands through his wild curls and ran her fingers over his head.

“Oh, Peter,” he says, “your head is all full of bumps, so wavy.”

“When I was taken to war,” Peter answers, “I just washed myself in the bathhouse.” We scabbed everything there.

- So let me heat the bathhouse for you.

“Another time,” he says, “there’s no leisure now.”

It’s surprising to Aksinya, but she didn’t say a word, not even half a word.

At dawn, Peter says goodbye to her and says:

- Don't tell anyone about me. I will sneak towards you.

As evening approaches, Aksinya is overcome by doubts: is this her Peter? Before going to bed, she took the ashes and scattered them on the floor.

At midnight Peter came again. Affects Aksinya again. Loves it. Her doubts melted away like last year's snow. At dawn Peter left. In the morning Aksinya looks, there are no traces in the ashes. Is it possible that an unclean spirit is visiting her? The Cossack woman was spinning and didn’t know what to do. I've been rushing around the yard all day, work is falling out of my hands.

And at night Peter showed up. He approaches her. It's from him. He comes to her again. It's from him.

-Are you afraid of me? - asks Peter.

“Then get ready, I’ll follow you.” There is no need for you to suffer here alone.

“Now,” says Aksinya, “I’ll just pack my things.”

And she herself thinks: “Here it is, my death has come.” She gets ready to go on the road, and Peter hurries her.

- How long will I wait for you?

“Wait,” says Aksinya, “I can’t find the beads.”

She found the beads and quietly broke the thread, scattering the beads on the floor. Aksinya began collecting beads.

“Uh, yes, this is a long song,” says Peter.

- I can’t throw the beads, I’m swearing at my memory.

She collected all the beads, only one bead was missing.

The Kochet screamed, Peter stamped his foot, scattered sparks and disappeared.

As soon as the dawn turned red, Aksinya ran to her grandmother the healer. I told her everything as it is.

So the healer says to her:

- Yes, this is not your husband at all, but a fiery serpent is flying towards you.

Aksinya burst into tears, what a sin! What to do? He asks for advice from a healer.

“You,” says the old woman, “put crosses on the door, on the windows, and sit and read your prayer.” The snake will call you, don’t answer.

Aksinya went home. I put crosses on the windows and doors with chalk, and I didn’t forget to mark the stove damper, I marked it with a cross. As soon as it got light, Aksinya knelt down and began to say a prayer.

At midnight, a fiery serpent flew in and scattered sparks. He walks around the house, stomps around, asks to come in, speaks sweet words, begs. Aksinya doesn’t listen to him and bows.

The fiery serpent got angry and began to tear down the hut. The walls shook, the ceiling cracked, and was about to collapse. Aksinya didn’t even move.

“It’s good that I guessed,” says the fiery serpent, “otherwise you wouldn’t be alive.”

And he flew away. And he never showed up again.

Aksinya seemed to be on the mend after that. However, no, no, yes, he will remember Peter and burst into hot tears. Her soul is empty without her husband, there is no life.

She saddled her horse and set off on her journey. “Wherever you are,” he thinks, “I will still find you.”

And I really found it. Aksinya sees a crow circling over one place. And a war horse walks nearby, driving away crows. She came closer. Peter lies lifeless. All wounded.

- You are my dear friend, beloved! My dear fellow, you have crushed my heart with a heavy grave stone. I will dry up without you, my beloved, like a lonely blade of grass! My lips will get baked and dry, don’t kiss you, my beloved! And melancholy like a snake sucks at my heart! So I would have laid down in the damp ground, and I would have hit myself on a stone in the silent steppe! I am a bitter cuckoo in a green little garden...

Suddenly Aksinya feels someone touch her shoulder. She turned around and saw through her tears that the beggar was standing in front of her. Old, old. The ugly hunchback.

“Can you really help such a grief by screaming,” says the beggar.

“I would give everything,” says Aksinya, “if only my blue-winged falcon would be alive and well.”

The beggar became interested and tortured Aksinya:

– I would give it away, wouldn’t you think about it? Will you give up your youth and beauty?

“Why not give up,” says the Cossack girl, “for the sake of a dear friend.” I still can’t live without him.

“Then I’ll help you,” says the beggar.

- How can I give you youth and beauty?

“That’s my concern, I’ll take it myself.” So they got along. The beggar reached into her bag and pulled out two bottles.

“Here is dead water for you, and this,” he says, “is living water.”

As Aksinya took the vials, she saw that her hands were covered with wrinkles and were shaking. And the beggar began to change before our eyes. The Cossack girl looks at her and thinks: “Was I really so stately and beautiful? I never thought so highly of myself.”

The beggar asks:

- Well, do you regret anything?

“Why regret it,” Aksinya replies, “the job is done.”

The beggar climbed onto the horse and rode away.

And Aksinya washed Peter’s wounds with dead water. The wounds healed as if they were not there. She sprinkled him with living water. The Cossack sighed. He opened his eyes.

He sees an old woman sitting in front of him, a terrible ugly woman. Peter restrained himself.

- Thank you, mother, for waking me up.

He jumped up from the ground. Speaks:

- How easy it is! And he laughed.

- It's time to go home. My wife was waiting for me.

He whistled for his war horse. Jumped on him in one fell swoop. He sees the old woman shedding tears.

“Are you freaking out, mother, are you shedding tears?” Can you help me with anything?

And she answered:

“I don’t need anything from this life.” I'm happy with everything. And tears flow from old age.

“Well, then,” says Peter, “forgive me.” Don't remember it badly.

“Goodbye,” says Aksinya. And she waved her hand at him, go, they say, with God, there’s no time for you here.

And the Cossack went in one direction, and the old woman went in the other.

“FAIRY TALE – A TALE ABOUT THE FIRE SNAKE”

This story happened on New Year's Day. The children merrily circled around the Christmas tree in the company of the Snow Maiden and Father Frost. Baba Yaga and Leshy infected everyone with their fiery dance. More and more guests arrived at the holiday, and no one noticed how the Fire Snake slowly crept into the hall. He immediately began to make his way to the tree, licking various New Year's debris with his tongue along the way. There was a hint of smoke in the hall, but everyone continued to have fun. Now the long tongue of the cunning Snake has already reached the wiring of the electric garland and got lost among the colorful lights. But most of all he wanted to reach the top of the tree, where the star sparkled.

But the insidious Fire Snake triumphed early in victory. He didn’t know that young firefighters were on duty in the hall, and they had previously hidden thick Cloth, Sand and a Fire Extinguisher under the tree. Having been the first to smell the smoke and notice a fiery tongue among the branches, the young firefighters boldly entered into battle with the evil Snake, using hidden fire extinguishing equipment. The Fire Extinguisher was especially helpful, spitting foam at the Fire Snake so diligently that he hissed from powerlessness and anger and began to slowly retreat. Cloth and Sand did not retreat either: they attacked the Serpent from all sides. The sand got into his eyes and filled his nostrils and ears. The unlucky villain sneezed and coughed, squirmed and dodged, but, to the joy of those present, he became smaller and smaller. The guests also hurried to help the young firefighters: Grandmother Snowstorm waved her long sleeves, the Snow Queen breathed cold air on him, and the Snake hissed with the last of his strength in anger and disappeared. All that was left was a small pile of ash and a cloud of smoke. And the delighted Father Frost and Snow Maiden gave the young firefighters the best gifts from their bag for their courage and resourcefulness. This is how this story ended happily.

Proverbs and sayings:

A fire is born from a spark.

Don't joke with fire - you might get burned.

Don't touch the matches, don't touch the fire in them.

A small match burns down a large forest and a house.

A match is invisible and fire is a giant.

If you let the fire go, you won’t be able to put it out.

He who plays with fire burns in fire.

The traveler must have bread, and the shepherd must have fire.

Fire is warmth for the smart, burn for the stupid.

Fire doesn't believe in tears.

Don't touch the fire - you won't burn your hand.

Don't play with fire, don't start a fire.

You can't argue with fire and water.

The fire is never satisfied.

Fire is both friend and enemy.

Fire is not water - it will engulf you, you will not float out, your belongings will not float up.

Smoke is worse than fire.

They run away from the fire, but suffocate from the smoke.

The ax cuts, but the fire burns the roots.

Be careful, don't get burned!

Relay game “Fire shield”.

(shield layout)

Remember the names, purpose, order of arrangement of objects on the shield.

Reinforce knowledge of “What to do in case of fire”

1st relay race “Fire equipment on site”

At the start there is different inventory. Each participant in the game takes turns choosing an item that should be on the shield. Running to the finish line, he tries to position it correctly on the backboard.

2nd relay race “Put out the fire”

At the finish line there are red balls symbolizing fire. Each player takes firefighting equipment, runs to the finish line, simulates extinguishing, takes a ball, and brings it to the start. When the last ball is brought to the start, the fire is extinguished.

3rd relay race “Rescuers”

Evacuation of dolls from the fire zone. You need to crawl, “escaping the smoke,” under the tables to the “place of the fire,” carefully pick up the doll and “take it out of the fire.” Remember the rules of conduct in a fire, that it is unacceptable to hide under the bed, in the closet and other places.

4th relay race “Fireman number – 01”

You need to run to the phone, dial the fire department and report the fire, give the address.

5th relay race “Crew – one family”

The team captain begins the “fire drive” holding a hoop in front of him - an improvised steering wheel of a fire truck. He runs around the obstacle at the finish line, returns to the start, and takes one participant with firefighting equipment into the “fire truck.” Children should hold onto the hoop with one hand. It is important not only to come to the start, but that no one falls, lags behind, or loses equipment. Then, one at a time, leave them in place and place the equipment in place.

Story-conversation, reading “Fire” by S.Ya. Marshak.

A long time ago, man made fire. Years passed, thousands of years, and people gradually learned to use the power of fire to keep warm, cook food, make machines work... but at the same time they learned the destructive power of fire: people died in the flames, homes, crops, livestock, forests, entire villages and even burned down. cities.

Fire, from being a good servant of man, could turn into a harsh judge of people's carelessness. Therefore, it is necessary for every person to be careful when handling fire, to be careful near electric heating devices, fireplaces and stoves. Pranks with matches, lighters, and candles are dangerous. Often, misfortune can happen at the New Year's tree if you use candles or sparklers instead of electric garlands, or arrange fireworks in the apartment.

If you are left alone at home, then when smoke or fire appears, you must either call the fire brigade yourself by phone, wait for an answer and give your address, or contact your neighbors in the apartment on the landing. It is unacceptable to hide in secluded places in the apartment. It's better to run out of the apartment.

Questions

1. 
   What did the poet tell us about in this poem? (about a house fire,...)
2. 
   What caused the fire? (Lena dropped the coal on the floor...)
3. 
   Who came to the rescue? What is the correct name for the profession of people who put out fires? (firefighters)
4. 
   Who else did fireman Kuzma save (a cat)
5. 
   What else could cause a fire in an apartment? (from matches falling on the floor, from an iron, if you forgot to turn it off, if you didn’t turn off the gas, and then lit a match or just turned on the light, there will even be an explosion,...)

S.Ya. Marshak

"Fire"

On the market square

At the fire watchtower

All day long

A soldier is standing at the booth.

Looks around -

On North,

To the west,

To the East, -

Is there smoke visible?
Mother went to the market,

She told her daughter Lena:

“Don’t touch the stove, Lenochka.

It’s burning, Lenochka, fire!”
Only the mother left the porch,

Lena sat down in front of the stove,

He looks through the red crack,

And the fire sings and hums:

"Nowadays there is not enough space in the stove,

There is nowhere to go for a walk!

Don’t trust your mother, Lenochka.

Open the door a little!"
Lena opened the door.

The fire jumped from the log,

I burned the floor in front of the stove,

Climbed the tablecloth onto the table,

He ran over the chairs with a crash,

Crawled up the curtains

The walls are covered in smoke,

Licks the floor and ceiling.
Poor Lena became scared.

Lena ran out into the hallway,

The door closed behind itself,

And the fire roars: “Open!”

Smoke blew through the crack of the door,

He stuck his hand into the hole.

Lena rushed into the yard,

From the yard - through the fence...

And the fire is getting higher and higher.

The cat is rushing about on the roof.
From the neighboring gate

People run out -

Some with a jug, some with a bucket -

Dousing a burning house.

Fire! Fire!

From the window to the sidewalk

A feather bed falls into a puddle,

An armchair, a primus stove and a picture,

Gramophone and samovar...

Guard! Fire! Fire!
On the market square,

At the fire tower -

Ding-dong, ding-dong -

There is a loud ringing sound.

The work begins

The gates are unlocked,

The convoy is gathering,

They pull the ladder and the pump.

From the gate without delay

The barrels come out with a crash.

This is the first horseman

He galloped along the pavement.
And behind him is a squad of firefighters

In radiant copper helmets

Flew through the market

On the way to the fire...
And the fire is getting higher, higher,

Climbs out from under the roof

Looks around

Waving his red sleeve.

“Whose took it!” shouts to the people, “

Break the glass! Pour water!

I'll run across the rooftops

I'll set the whole city on fire!"
But it’s too close along the road

The drogues are rushing by in a line.

There's a gallop ahead

Out of breath trumpeter.

In front of the house in clouds of dust

The horses were stopped.
The sleeve was pointed up,

The copper mouth is clamped over him.

The elastic sleeve hissed,

I was shaking all over from the strain

And when the tap was opened,

The fountain flowed high.

Hey, crew, don't yawn!

Download, download!
The evil fire roars and burns,

Threw two firefighters off the roof

And the axeman Kuzma

I wanted to strangle you in the smoke.

But Kuzma is an old fireman,

I've been putting out fires for twenty years,

Saved forty souls from death,

I fell from the roof ten times.

He's not afraid of anything

He beats the fire with his mitten,

Boldly climbs the wall.

The helmet glows in the fire.
Suddenly on the roof from under the Beam

Someone's cry rang out pathetically,

And across the fire

Kuzma climbed into the attic.

He stuck his head out the window.

I looked... Yes, it's a cat!

"You will perish in the fire here.

Get into my pocket!"
The flames rage widely.

With tongues waving,

Licks nearby houses...

Kuzma fights back.

Looking for a way in the name,

Calls the younger ones for help.

And they rush to his call

Ten brave fellows.
They destroy beams with axes,

Fire hoses are used to extinguish the flames.

A thick black cloud

Smoke billows behind them...

The flame rushes and gets angry,

Running away like a fox.

And the fire gut

Drives the beast out of the attic.
The logs have turned black...

Evil fire hisses from the crack:

"Spare me, Kuzma,

I won't burn houses!"
“Shut up, insidious fire!”

The fireman tells him: -

You will remember Kuzma!

I'll put you in jail.

You will only live in the oven,

Only in a lamp and a candle!"
There's fire here for the last time

He got angry and went out.
On the panel at the gate

The people are waiting for saviors.
As soon as we saw Kuzma,

They rushed towards him with a scream -

They hug, ask to visit,

The pies are brought out to him.

"Oh, Kuzma, you are our Kuzma,

You saved our home today!

Dear you are our fireman,

We are forever grateful!"
On the bench at the gate

Lena sheds bitter tears.

Poor Lena's house burned down -

Ceilings, floors and walls,

Cat, doll and bed.

There will be no place to sleep at night.

And in addition, for her prank

Got it from my parents.
The girl is crying bitterly.

And Kuzma tells her:

"You shouldn't cry, young lady,

A new house will be built for you.

Your cat is saved.

Admire it - here it is!"
Lena squeezed the cat tightly

And it calmed down a little.
From the gate along the pavement

The horseman rides off.

And behind him is a squad of firefighters

In radiant copper helmets

He drives slowly backwards.

The barrels are jumping and rattling.

Here is Kuzma sitting on the road.

His face is covered in burns

Bloody forehead, black eye.

It's not the first time for him!

It was not for nothing that he worked -

Did a great job putting out the fire!

Diagnosis of children's knowledge level

on fire safety
Pedagogical diagnostics is the determination of the quality, productivity of the educational process, its state and results, analysis of cause-and-effect relationships and assessment according to certain criteria and indicators of the degree of achievement of the set goals and objectives of teaching and raising children.

As a result of qualitative and quantitative analysis of pedagogical facts and phenomena, it is possible to draw a conclusion about the reasons for a particular state of the pedagogical process and give recommendations for its correction.

The main method for diagnosing children's knowledge about fire safety is observations and conversations with children.

Diagnostic material M. N. Sosunkevich

Diagnostic material for educators to determine the level of knowledge of children of senior preschool age about fire safety rules

Test No. 1. “Identification of the essential”

Instructions: a phrase and a number of words are proposed: you need to highlight the two words that are most essential for the phrase.

Fire truck (wheel, steering wheel, pump, man, tank)	Pump, tank
Fire station (commander, house, dispatcher, gate, car)	Dispatcher, commander
Fire shield (crowbar, ladder, hook, helmet, fire extinguisher)	Crowbar, hook
Fireproof suit (helmet, gas mask, raincoat, tarpaulin, sleeve)	Helmet, gas mask
Communication means (walkie-talkie, letter, telephone, telegram, signal)	Telephone, walkie-talkie
Causes of fire (matches, water, earth, electrical appliance, children)	Matches, electrical appliance
Firefighter assistants (man, fire, dog, car, ground)	Man, dog

Processing the results obtained

Children who have completed tasks correctly have the ability to identify essential features of objects and have knowledge about the work of firefighters. For each correctly completed task - 1 point. Additional information (about color, quality of the item on the topic) – 2 points.

Test No. 2. “Awareness.”

Instructions: You are asked to complete the unfinished sentence.

The fire department is staffed by (who?)…(firefighters, dispatcher, department commander…)

The work of firefighters (what?)…(difficult, necessary, dangerous, interesting…)

Firefighters should be (what?)…(strong, brave, dexterous, courageous, resourceful…)

Firefighters save from fire (what? who?)…(houses, forests, people, farms, animals…)

Firefighters wear (what?)…(fireproof suit, hard hat, gas mask…)

The fire truck is equipped with (what?)… (tank, mechanical ladder, pump, walkie-talkie, signal lights, sound signal, fire hoses with barrels…)

To report a fire you need to (what to do?)…(call “01”, give the address…)

On the fire shield there is (what?)…(crowbar, hook, bucket, axe, fire extinguisher…)

Fires happen if people (what do they do?)…(play with matches, leave electrical appliances, a gas stove unattended, do not follow fire safety rules…)

People who especially distinguished themselves while extinguishing a fire are awarded (what?)...(medal “For courage in a fire”...)

For each complete and correct answer - 2 points, For each correct answer - 1 point

Test No. 3. “Generalization”

Instructions: it is proposed to generalize the items according to some characteristic.

Matches, fire, electrical appliances are the culprits of (what?) (fire)

A pump, a tank, a walkie-talkie are equipment (for what?) (of a fire truck)

A bucket, a hook, an ax - this is (what?) (items for a fire shield, for extinguishing a fire)

Helmet, gas mask, fire-resistant suit - this is (what?) (firefighter clothing)

Commander, dispatcher, firefighter - this is (who?) (fire department workers)

Processing of the obtained results.

For each correct answer - 1 point.