686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mortal woman. But one can rarely count on the endurance of 

 their love, or be happy with it, and at last the chosen one will try 

 to escape them. They are also sometimes accustomed to take 

 men into their society; but one who has once associated with 

 them, willingly or unwillingly, can never get rid of them, and 

 must at last pay for his mistake with his life. He is strangled or 

 torn to pieces, or, if a lighter punishment is administered, he is 

 made blind or lame. The Vilas are able to call back to life men 

 that they have slain, and also to lift the disabilities they may 

 have inflicted upon any one. If a man succeeds in robbing a Vila 

 of her wings, he acquires full power over her. If she loses her 

 crown and her robe, she only suffers a separation of some time 

 from the society of her playmates. 



Three stories that were told me give some insight into the 

 customs of the Vilas. As the peasant Adam Odvorcie was driving 

 along, he came to a hill where seven Vilas were dancing. As he 

 drove by, they came down and frightened the horses so that they 

 ran away, leaving him in the road. He waited till the Vilas went 

 away. A little farther along he saw seven of them washing their 

 clothes. Reza Barjanovie relates that, in the summer of 1887, as 

 she was sitting under a nut-tree in the yard with her mother-in- 

 law, they heard dancing and singing on the hill back of the house. 

 All at once there arose a whirlwind and drove through the yard, 

 striking them forcibly. They were much frightened, and, while 

 trying to consult as to what had best be done, the mother-in-law, 

 accidentally looking up at the roof, exclaimed : " Look ! there are 

 Vilas up there ! " She said again to Theresa : " Look, daughter ! 

 the Vilas are dancing on our roof ! * At that moment the Vilas 

 disappeared. Both women have the second-sight. They often go 

 to the woods in the morning and have opportunities to see much 

 that is uncanny. 



Koprivce Vic, an octogenarian of Pleternica, wrote me on the 

 25th of April, 1887, in his own handwriting, of the following ad- 

 venture he had had with the Vilas : " Several years ago, in the 

 old times, I was going into the mountains with my grandfather. 

 It was late in the fall, and I was helping him drive the oxen 

 through the plum orchard to the pasture. We perceived them 

 away off, stamping with stamps, washing their robes. The nearer 

 we came to them the more distinct grew the stamping. We were 

 about to turn back, but took heart and went to within a few 

 yards of them. Two of them were washing robes. We saluted 

 them in the name of God. The huo rose, threw their stamps over 

 their backs, and let their hair fall to the ground. "When we had 

 gone a little farther, one said to the other, ' What shall we do to 

 them ? ' Said the other, ' Nothing, for they saluted us in the 

 name of God, and we shall have to let them go.' Upon this we 



