Not long ago, I wrote about the treasures our fellow countrymen found in Sloboda Ukraine more than 100 years ago. However, not everyone was as lucky as the protagonists of my previous article. In our region, there were many folk beliefs about how to find and obtain treasure, as well as legends associated with it.
As far back as the mid-19th century, our Slobozhans ancestors believed that:
According to popular belief, a treasure can be found only by someone “destined to do so.” When a treasure is buried, it is bound by a spell to a certain number of animal heads; and if that number of heads has already been sacrificed—as many as the spell requires—then the treasure becomes available to anyone. Sometimes it happens that someone overhears how many heads the treasure is bound to—even if it’s unclear whose heads—and resorts to a trick: they kill that many animal heads and throw them onto the cursed spot. After that, the treasure is easily found.
The night between Good Friday and Ivan Kupala was considered the easiest, most auspicious, and safest time. At that time, the treasure hunter absolutely had to have a lit Passion candle with him.
Grandfather Kulemza, who was living in the Izyum District at the time and had spent seven years searching for buried treasure, recounted:
…Once, around Easter, a friend and I went into the Tepliansky Forest—at that time, candles were burning over the buried treasures and the souls of the righteous. We got there and sat down; I had a spear and a spike a sazhen long.
I drove it into the ground. Then a candle appeared above the ground. We started digging—and there was a coffin with a dead man inside. Since then, I’ve stopped looking for buried treasure.
But there were also stories with happy endings. For example:
In the village of Dvurechnaya, a young woman was on her way to church on Good Friday. She looked up and saw a candle burning on the road. So she took off the shoe from her right foot and placed the candle inside it. And so, wearing just one shoe, she walked to church for the service. After the service, she went to the spot where she had left her shoe and found a box full of silver right there.
When buried in the ground, some treasures were sealed away for several years and were called “time-bound hoards.” Others, however, were sealed away for all eternity and were called “perpetual hoards.” It was forbidden to dig up treasures whose time had not yet come. It was said that in such cases, the treasures would sink even deeper into the ground, and the evil spirits guarding them would bring misfortune upon whoever dug them up.
Once the spell’s term had expired, the treasures were said to emerge on their own and could take the form of a rooster (if gold coins had been buried) or other animals. When hiding the treasure, the spellcaster could specify that it could only be obtained by a person with a specific name. It was also said that the treasures would emerge from the ground three times a year—on the Annunciation, Easter, and Ascension Day.
At enchanted treasure sites, one might encounter their guardian spirit—usually Satan. If the person who encountered it was not afraid, they could enter into a contract. The finder would take as much money as needed for an agreed-upon period, and in exchange, would leave their soul behind. Upon expiration of the agreed-upon term, the borrowed sum had to be repaid; otherwise, those who broke such a contract were doomed to eternal torment.
In this context, the following Sloboda Ukraine legend from the mid-19th century is of particular interest to us.
Near the Holy Mountains there is a tall mound. It was called “Matveeva.” At Easter, it would “open up.” On that day, people would come there to borrow money. They would lie down on the ground and hear a voice from beneath the earth: “How much money do you need?” The petitioners would name the amount they needed, and at that very moment, the money would appear from beneath the earth. At the same time, the voice from the earth would warn: “Make sure you return it by next Easter and put back in the same place as much as you took.” This went on for a long time, and many people from the surrounding area took and returned the money. However, one man decided to deceive the keeper of the treasure.
He came at Easter and borrowed a very large sum, which he had no intention of paying back. A year passed; the debtor, of course, didn’t return—he was just drinking himself into a stupor at the time. After that, something began to appear to him every night, demanding the money. No matter what the man tried to do to get rid of the creditor, nothing helped. And he couldn’t pay back the money, because he’d squandered it all. In the end, he went and hanged himself. After that, “Matvey’s Grave” stopped lending money to people. Some say that the guardian of the treasure took offense at people. Others believe that the drunkard took all the money and squandered it.
In Kup’yans’k, there was also a similar, though slightly different, legend on this subject:
In addition to enchanted treasures, there were also those believed to have been sent by God. They would appear by chance to travelers and worthy people, sometimes in the form of a frail old man, sometimes as various animals. After the traveler fulfilled a small request (such as untying a belt), the ancient old man would crumble into a pile of coins. It was believed that it was safe to use such money.
For instance, a woman living in the village of Preobrazhenskaya went into the forest one day to gather nuts and encountered an old man there who looked utterly repulsive. He was wearing a tattered fur coat, his face was covered in mud, and saliva was dripping from his mouth. Frightened, she ran away. However, the old man stopped her and asked, “Wipe me clean!” The woman obeyed, but as soon as she touched him, he crumbled into a pile of money.
In the settlement of Dvorichna, however, people told a different, but no less fascinating, legend.
A man was taking his son to the Kup’yans’k hospital when he noticed a horse running after him. The man stopped to spend the night in a field near the road, but the horse wouldn’t leave the wagon and simply lay down right there. The man went into the forest, cut down a sturdy club, approached the horse, and struck it on the head—and the head crumbled into silver; he struck the horse a second time on the leg—all its legs immediately turned into piles of silver coins; and when he struck it a third time on the body—the horse was gone, and only a heap of pure silver remained.
Years have passed, yet many people still search for buried treasure, relying on all sorts of spells and superstitions. All the while, they forget that the greatest treasure lies within themselves…
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