Drekavac
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Drekavac (literally "the yeller") is a mythical creature in south Slavic mythology.
The creature is not consistently described; it is usually described as an animal, but sometimes as a bird. The one feature everyone agrees about is its horryfying yell. Another belief, most popular in Sumadija is that a drekavac is the soul of a dead unbaptised child which wanders around and yells at night[1] (http://www.tolkien.co.yu/viewtopic.php?t=3310).
Drekavac is practically never depicted in the modern fantasy of the region. However, belief in it is sometimes described in fiction. An example is the book Eagles Fly Early by Branko Copic. A more recent and much more popular example comes from the movie Nice Village, Nice Flame[2] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116860/) where (lack of) belief in drekavac is present in one of the central points of the movie:
- Halil (Bosniak): "Who torched my house?"
- Milan (Serb): "And who slaughtered my mother?"
- Halil: "I haven't slaughtered your mother."
- Milan: "And I haven't torched your house."
- Halil: "Then who did, Milan? Maybe it was drekavac from the tunnel?"
Drekavac is often used as a child scare, in a similar way a bogeyman is in the West. It is probably more useful than bogeymen in rural areas, as children will surely sometimes hear a sound of some animal and attribute it to drekavac, thus becoming convinced that it really exists; which would then probably prevent them to wander far from home. In the cities, however, belief in it has faded, and Baba Roga, which more closely resembles western bogeyman, is much more used.
Though the creature is used as a child scare, adults do believe in its existence. According to the guide of a reporter of Duga magazine, numerous villagers on the mountain of Zlatibor report seeing it, and almost everyone reports hearing it[3] (http://www.vreme.com/arhiva_html/525/17.html). In 1992, it was reported that in the Krvavicka river the villagers have found remains of an animal which doesn't look like any known, and claimed that it is drekavac; it looked like a dog or fox, but with hind legs similar to those of kangaroo[4] (http://www.svetlost.co.yu/arhiva/99/216/216-2.htm). A more recent encounter is from 2003; in the village of Tometino Polje near Divcibare, a series of attacks on sheep took place, not unlike those which are in other parts of the world attributed to chupacabras, and some villagers have concluded that they must have been perpetrated by a drekavac; other have concluded that it could not have been a drekavac because they have only heard the yells during the night, and sheep were mutilated during the day[5] (http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2003/10/20/srpski/R03101902.shtml).