Zduhać

A zduhać (Cyrillic: здухаћ, pronounced [zdǔxaːtɕ]) and vetrovnjak (ветровњак, [ʋetrǒʋɲaːk]) in Serbian tradition, and a dragon man in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian traditions, were men believed to have an inborn supernatural ability to protect their estate, village, or region against destructive weather conditions, such as storms, hail, or torrential rains. It was believed that the souls of these men could leave their bodies in sleep, to intercept and fight with demonic beings imagined as bringers of bad weather. Having defeated the demons and taken away the stormy clouds they brought, the protectors would return into their bodies and wake up tired.

Notions associated with the zduhać, vetrovnjak, and dragon man, respectively, are not identical. The dragon man fought against female demons called ala, which led hail clouds over fields to destroy crops, and consumed the fertility of the fields. The zduhaći (plural) of an area usually fought together against the attacking zduhaći of another area who were bringing a storm and hail clouds above their fields. The victorious zduhaći would loot the yield of all agricultural produce from the territory of their defeated foes, and take it to their own region. The vetrovnjak, recorded in parts of western Serbia, fought against a bringer of bad weather imagined as a black bird. The zduhaći are recorded in Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, part of Bosnia, and the Sandžak region of south-western Serbia. The dragon men are recorded in eastern Serbia, Banat, western Bulgaria, and Macedonia.

In Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, part of Bosnia, and the Sandžak region of south-western Serbia, a man who was thought to be able to protect his estate, village, or region from bad weather was called a zduhać or a stuha. These names have a number of variants, which can be with or without h, with v instead of h, with or without the ending ć, and with č instead of ć. According to philologist Franz Miklosich, the Serbian word stuhać is cognate with the Old Slavonic stuhia (стѹхїа) or stihia (стихїа) "the elements", which stem from the Old Greek stoicheion (στοιχεῖον) "element". The latter name is the origin of the Modern Greek stikhio (στοιχειό), denoting various kinds of spirits in Greek folklore, such as those fighting for the well-being of their village or area against adverse spirits from elsewhere. According to linguists Petar Skok and Norbert Jokl, stuhać stems from the Albanian stuhi "storm". In any case, the form zduhać may have resulted from folk etymology through association with the Serbian duh "spirit".

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