Water Deity: The Magic of Combing Hair as a Premise for the Creation (on Northern Russian Folklore and Ethnographic Materials)

Abstract

The article discusses magical functions of an archaic predecessor of the mermaid, a mythical water character. This female character is drawn on notions of the conversion of primeval chaos into cosmos. By means of hair combing, the mythical entity brings orderliness into the organization of the world, creates both the society and the individual, and stimulates the continuity of rotation of death and rebirth. Having been eventually assimilated by spirits the “water masters”, this female character had also influenced those itself in turn.