Is Baba Yaga good or evil?

You're listening to Pet Candy. This is the for real, real sound check with the St. No Play play sound check. Play, why don't you take the table? Let me bump the table a little bit. Okay. Get those in there. Make sure that our bump sound good. Okay. I'm going to sit from this cup. This is the new intro assuming I like it because we're not a new podcast anymore. We're old news. We've been there, done that that we have been around the block a time or two. When I was your age, I was 50. Oh, Mr. Palmer, sit down. It's okay. We have to check him out the home from time to time. We have to take him out and let him see his family. We're just really kind like that. Welcome to Obsessed, a comedy horror podcast where we talk about macabre mysteries, creepy cryptos, and everything in between. I'm Caitlin Palmer. I'm Clay. And we're Obsessed. This show is brought to you by Brave Paws Anxiety and Stress Support Two Aboles for Dogs. Thunderstorms, vet visits, fireworks, separation anxiety, and more. Every day can be a Brave Paws Day. Check out my Brave Paws.com. So you're one of people who like to hear a story about Baba Yaga? Sit down. Do not be afraid. Sit. Let me just make some room here. Okay. Where was I? Ah, yes. Baba Yaga. But before I begin, do you have a cigarette? Yes? Who will I hope you will want to stop smoking after you hear a story? I never think about smoking since I met Baba Yaga. Stay away from cigarette. Ish, Ish. One early morning, I go to forest to get fired. Over there, that dark forest, mixed to road. Everybody say that during night, you can hear strange laughter coming from forest and nobody dares to go near it. It was always believed that it is home to ferries, devils, and all kinds of creatures. But most stories were about Baba Yaga. But who will believe such childish nonsense today, huh? Baba Yaga, and those cursed cigarettes. Anyway, I went inside forest courageously. Okay, maybe not courageously. Night before, me and my friends got a drunk in village, so we sank together, we fight together, and after that we all hug. So in the morning I was so hammered, I didn't know where I was going. So me and my donkey stopped to drink water at the well on the end of village, and then we start walking into dark forest, without knowing it. As we go into woods, I start singing songs from last night. Very good songs we made up. And by the time I realized I was lost, I was already into deep. I was not scared, really. Just hated that I would have to walk back in time away with hangover. So I started collecting firewood, because I promised to my wife not to come back until I have enough. Good thing I had my donkey. It worked behind me entire time in forest. I could hear his steps. At least I thought I could. When I would kneel down to pick up wood, I could hear fast footsteps behind me. And I say to myself, it is probably donkey getting confused by something, although donkey never gets confused. So I quickly turn around, and donkey was here. So I just get on with it, picking up firewood, and donkey walking behind me. And when we finally hit enough, I turn around to go back home and donkey was gone. Without a trace. So now I get scared. My wife will kick my ass again because I lose the donkey. How can I possibly explain? I started breathing heavy, and then I started hearing very faint sounds of laughter coming from behind me. I started walking, looking for donkey, but sounds of laughter were getting louder. Then I realized that sounds of laughter were only sounds of river that was flowing in middle of dark forest. I tell you I was relieved, especially because next river was a house. Strange house. It looked like a henhouse with legs, but I was sure it was home to good welcoming people. I could even hear an ex chopping wood. Oh, that damn sound. I can still hear it at night. I drank some water from river, I calmed down, and started walking towards house. And then I see her, old woman, with her back turned chopping wood. Next to her there was big boiling cauldron. So I spoke to her, good day old woman, how are you? Can you please help me find donkey, and I will help you chop wood? She did not turn around. She just chopped wood. Then I think to myself, she probably did. So I started walking towards her, but without turning around, she said, Are you hungry? Come taste this lovely stew, and she laughed quietly. Then she swing with eggs again, and it made strange squishy noise, not like chopping wood, but like stepping on a tomato. Only, only it was on tomato. It was donkey. Baba Yaga was butchering my donkey and throwing the pieces into boiling cauldron. Suddenly, she turned toward me, and then I finally saw her rotting face, like face of someone who has been dead for centuries. And then I saw her crippled chicken legs coming toward me, and the awful smell coming from her mouth as she said, Oh are you tasty? I started walking backwards, and then I tripped and fell down. I see that everywhere there are animals and human skulls, and entire house is made from bones and hides. I could lick it up, and start to run as fast as I can, and she just stood there and laughed quietly. The laugh followed me through entire forest, sometimes quiet, sometimes so loud as it behind my ear. I don't remember how I got home. I just remember running like an animal. Ever since that night, I have not been the same. Even my wife say so. I don't laugh anymore, and whenever someone laughs, I get scared. I stopped smoking and drinking, but still, it has been four years now since I cannot sleep. I don't know what else to say except, please, if you know a witch hunter, please send him here. Oh, and whatever you do, don't go near dark forest. Ah, time for lunch. Oh, I'm very hungry. My wife makes wonderful wheels too. Do you want to stay for lunch? Baba Yaga is a supernatural being from Slavic folklore. She often appears as a ferocious and deformed old woman, something more akin to a troll than a true human being. The name may sound familiar, but the most remembered thing about the old lady of the woods is her chicken leg at hut. The hut stands on two massive chicken legs and constantly rotates to keep watch for the old throne. The windows beam with light from within, functioning as the house's size. You've definitely heard the name Baba Yaga. I have heard of Baba Yaga, yes. You know what, Clay, I hate to do this to you, but we're going to have to take a commercial break. We'll be right back with more pet candy. Does your dog shake and tremble when she hears thunder? Brave paws, anxiety and stress support chewables may promote calm behavior in dogs who exhibit nervousness or anxious behavior. Our clinically studied and patented botanical blend contains naturally occurring bioactives, which can be found to promote a sense of calm and relaxation in dogs. What's even better is it's fast-acting and non-drowsy. Get it today at mybravepause.com Baba Yaga is not a particularly old folklore. Some of the oldest writing you can find about her is only from 1755, but she has essentially set the precedent for what you think of as a witch. You know, the old lady dressed in rags who rides around on a broom with the huge nose, typically with a wart on it, the jutting chin and the gunt face, just this ugly nasty old woman. Dude, I'm right here. She is essentially the reason why we think of that as a witch. She has many other objects that do her bidding, like I said, a magic broom for flying, as is customary for typical witches, but she also travels around in a flying pestle and mortar. What the? What? Yep. While we are in the little weird. Okay. Flies around in a giant pestle and mortar, which of course, you know, is used for typical witchy type things. I feel like that would be good for lumbar support because you're going to have that arch. I've seen it where she is just riding around on the pestle, the grinding instrument. Uh-huh. But I've also seen it where she's sitting in the mortar using the pestle like an orr just when we're here. She does want to take you in it's cute. Yeah. I've seen both of those, but you know, a pestle and mortar for I guess people I don't know is basically, it was typically a small stone bowl and a rounded handle of sorts that you could use to grind up herbs and things of the sort inside of that bowl to use for typical witchy things. Yeah. And they're still used in witchy practices today and some people use them just to crush up hills. Yeah. I mean, they're really good at what they do. Right. It's kind of a trick to using them, but they do. They grind it up nice and finally. And it was something that people would make for themselves because you could just carve them out of bone. You could whittle them out of wood, but that wasn't preferable since it could absorb the various substances you're grinding up in there. Orville trying to interrupt us. Orville was helping. Orville was interested. You said grind up and he was like grind. I'm a cat. You know, so they use it to grind up herbs, mushrooms, just kind of like anything for these various concoctions, these pastes that they used to put on. Pastes. Yeah, well, they would make a paste out of all of these things. Yeah. To make like a topical sort of solution to that with. Flowers stuff. Yeah. I cannot think about it. It's a medical term though. A poultice? Yeah, I think it's a poultice. They'd mix it with mud or leaves or something like that or like slap a leaf on there to work like a bandage. And to keep it on there to heal whatever sort of wound. I love old school apothecary type stuff. It's a whole vibe. Yeah. I mean, they also used it not just for like surface level wounds, but also for your body, your skin to absorb the substance slowly. Right. Some things were total bullshit and some things were actually based on actual science. I mean, you always heard about like putting tobacco and bee stains and stuff like that. I remember doing that. That's essentially, I mean, witchcraft. Yeah. I mean, technically. If you took it by how it is, Baba Yaga is what's called an augeris. Basically a large, hideous woman with features like a large nose and oversized head. Again, sitting right here. Ogres and augresses are seen at least in literary sense as one of two archetypes. Either the seducer who devours his or her victims in a sexual sense, or as a political tyrant or dictator who controls and exploits others effectively swallowing them up. Any art or depictions you see of Baba Yaga are going to feature her as this not very human looking thing. I talked about the long nose as one that's very particular, and it is almost like an elephant trunk in a lot of art. Yeah. And then the other thing that I think is pretty much the size of her torso. Her arms are distended and hang close to her ankles. She's withered and gaunt in appearance. Again, does not look super human. Didn't they have a Baba Yaga type character and spirited away? I will get to that. Okay. Baba Yaga is exceptionally popular as far as these kind of things go. Fun fact, I thought she was the one with the chicken legs. I didn't realize it was the house that has the chicken legs. It's not which can just up and move whenever it needs to. Baba Yaga is moving castle. It's way less magical than house moving castle. Right, but it does have super, super tight chicken legs. Die. Now Baba Yaga certainly fits, you know, this narrative as she has been known to disguise herself to lure in young men, and she absolutely eats people. Let's not put that pad. She likes to eat people. In particular, naughty children. So much so, she is known to decorate her fence posts with the human skulls of though she has to foward. It's even said that Baba Yaga accompanies death on his travels so that she may consume newly released souls. Oh, they're friends. You can't even what a ride with me to go do this mundane task and she's like, yes. Or she's so powerful and terrible that even death will not say no to her. Ooh, I like that. Baba Yaga is one with whom you do not f***ing know. Now, all of this sounds bad. Yeah, it does. But if you look at all Baba Yaga stories, she's not always depicted as a villain. Sometimes she's depicted as a donor. In literature, a donor is one who helps the hero of the story, but usually only after first passing a test or completing a favor for the donor. The donor may require the hero to succeed a seemingly impossible test to prove worthy of the donor's help, or may require something the donor cannot retrieve themselves. This often portrays the donors as tricksters that fool the heroes into an early death. So other sort of donors, you want to think about like, Disney's Hercules, how Phil helps Hercules, but it's only sort of like after he proves himself in us. Sure. He jumps up and just says no, I'm going to get struck by lightning. He's like, okay, so he's going to still do it. Yes. You'll see things where maybe somebody will steal some sort of magical item from the donor and in order to get it back, they have to help the hero, things like that. So they're not particularly good guys or bad guys. They're simply someone in the story that lends help to the hero through their own will or otherwise. Right. That makes sense. Bobby Yaga acts as a donor in the tale, the death of Koshki, the deathless Mario Moravna, Moravna. Moravna? I think so. It's hard to say. This is difficult for me. We're in the deep south. We can't help it. I'm doing my best. It's a Russian fairy tale about a character named Koshki. He's an immortal and evil man who tricks the protagonist into setting him free. His next act is to kidnap the man's wife and eventually kill the protagonist. I mean, that seems like a normal progression of things. Yeah. So what I say, like, he's an evil man who tricks the protagonist. I mean, quite literally, he's like, thank you, piece of shit. Thanks, thank you, piece of shit. I won't get too far into the story, but our protagonist, Ivan, is brought back to life by some bird wizard. And in order to compete with the evil wizard, Koshki, he was fine, Bobby Yaga, and convinced her to give him a magical horse. He completes her trial and gets the horse and then marks Koshki. Nice. I want to know more about the magical horse. So Koshki's horse, like so many other methodological horses, seems like it's only real power is that it's super naturally fast. I think horses are magic. I love horses. It's just a fast horse. Although there is one thing, it keeps mentioning that Koshki's horse will inform Koshki that Koshki is able to carry out several other tasks. Before pursuing and catching up to Ivan. So like side quests? Yeah. So he's like, hey, he's like, look, I mean, I know that guy, he's getting further away from us. We can catch him if you want to swing by the dollar store and pick up like some milk and stuff. We can do that first. I'm fast enough to catch up to him. Okay, so I'm always in favor of a dollar sword trip. So those are the horses' powers. Is that he can do math really well as far as like time management goes. Like, yeah, we can do these things before he gets too far away from me and he can move very fast. Okay. I like this horse. Koshki is interesting and is his own right and we may do an episode on him. Yay. Because he's definitely a lich. Okay. So I know what a lich is. You know what a lich is. A lich is a super powerful undead wizard of sorts. So a vignette. Right. Yeah. No vignette is literally a lich. Yeah. If you look at the actual lore in D&D where Vignette, because I assume you're referencing stranger things and not actual D&D. I'm running up that road. Yeah. So powerful undead wizard who is basically unable to be killed because they usually take their soul and put it in an amod object. Also like Voldemort. So yeah, like Voldemort. So like the more cruxes. Right. See, but for liches are called phylacteries. But, you know, J.K.Rowling had to, she wanted to make it her own and not have to do copyright or something. I don't know. I don't know. So Koshki, definitely lich. He's known as Koshki the deathless and that's for a good reason. Uh-huh. Because he's a lich. Because he hides his soul in these objects. Like I said before. But he's actually a bit smart about it. And typical like D&D fashion, a lich will hide it in like a powerful sword or something. You know, something that attracts a lot of attention. Koshki is clever. He's a clever man. And he hides it inside of several nested eggs or nested objects. So for instance, put his soul inside of a worm and hide that worm inside of a fish. Which in turn is hidden inside of a cat. That's hidden in a dog. That's inside of chest. That's about, that's at the bottom of the sea. So I would like to. Yes. So a dog ate the cat? Yeah, dog ate the cat and the cat ate the fish and the fish ate the worm. And then they put the dog in a chest and then put that at the bottom of the fish. That's disgusting. Shame on him. Well, Koshki is an asshole. I'm pretty sure I'd talk to him. Well, I take back all the good things I said about him. So yeah, we'll probably talk about Koshki at some time in the future. I don't want to talk about Koshki. Uh, he's in quite a few stories himself. He's actually probably as popular as Bobbiaga in Slavic folklore. Some consider him like the sort of father, whereas Bobbiaga is the mother. Oh, that is so dark. Yeah, well, it's a very dark sort of family construction because like they're both pretty fucking terrible. There are a lot of people. This is like shameless, but not very good. Both parents are not very good. Both garbage do do people. Bobbiaga will help you sometimes. Koshki though will never help you. No. He's an asshole. Yeah, no, Koshki is not my friend. So let's talk about Bobbiaga's name. Okay. Because you've certainly heard of a couple words that sound very similar like Babushka. Oh, I call our dog Babushka. I didn't know that was a grandma. So Bobbiaga's name is derived from many East Slavic religions. In Macedonian, Bulgarian and Romanian, Bobbi means like grandmother or old woman. Oh, that's cute. But in Russian and Polish context, Bobbi is actually a pejorative term that also means old woman, but particularly one that is dirty and foolish. It's like you stupid old lady. Yeah, so it's like a slur or an insides. So not like a fun dirty lady. Like a nasty lady. So everybody from the first couple of countries I mentioned, it's a term of endearment. Yeah. But yeah, on the other side it's called like a stupid old lady. Oh, it's a scene. The yoga part of her name though is much more challenging to find an origin for. Scholars can't really come to a consensus, but many suggestions include descriptors like which, wicked woodnymph and the phrase to abuse continually. She's got some weird nomenclature when it comes to that. There's actually quite a large list because there's a lot of countries in that area that all have some form of Babbiaga. Depending on which culture is telling you the story of Babbiaga, her name will often take on different by names. So she gets like a sort of last name to Babbiaga. So for instance, one being Babbiaga Kastanya Noga, which means like Bony leg. I'm definitely saying that wrong. There's no way I'm pronouncing it correctly. Probably so. Another name being Babbiaga Jalejmi Zubami, which means with iron teeth. Ooh. She's like a bear trap. Why the that at the end? What? Because I've had three cups of tea. That's why. Okay. I feel like people haven't had time to pee. I don't want anybody to pee themselves. Oh, no, don't do that. Yeah, we're going to take a commercial break. Hi. I want to tell you about my new show, Simply Pets with Shannon Gregor. We talk about pets, life, love, and everything in between with the coolest people on the planet. Don't miss out on the fun. Check it out on a podcast platform of your choice. So I understand the Bony leg. I'm not sure about the iron teeth. I could really find anything on about that. No, I've seen that. And I must have been a cartoon, but it's like an old creepy lady, but she has iron sharp teeth. But I don't remember. That's probably a reference to Babbiaga that probably is. So the first clear reference to Babbiaga occurs in 1755. Mikhail V. Lamanisovs, Russian grammar. In the book, Babbiaga is mentioned twice among other figures, largely from Slavic tradition. The second of the two mentions occurs within a list of Slavic gods and being next to their equivalent in Roman mythology. So like comparing the two. Babbiaga, however, appears in a third section without an equivalence, highlighting her perceived uniqueness even in this first known attestation. Babbiaga is often described from a horrified perspective, usually focusing on her seemingly deformed body, extremely long nose or disproportionate limbs. Okay, sorry, I've already forgotten her limbs are extra long, right? Right, yeah, like dragging arms, right, long dragging arms, Bony legs, a huge elongated, usually described as grotesque nose and like other things. She's got tickle Rick for her nose. She looks only sort of vaguely human in a lot of descriptions. All right, I'm driving with Babbiaga. Babbiaga may also sense and mentioned the Rursky duk, the Russian scent of those that visit her. Like she smells you before you enter her heart. Love it. Like she sniff the air and says, oh, is that a Russian child who has wandered into my hut? If it was us, she'd be like, chili, chili though. So Babbiaga is more than just popular in Slavic folklore. Just from what I've seen, I've found her in nine separate stories and books and I'm sure she's in more. Oh, definitely. She also appears in quite a few things outside of folklore. So spoilers ahead for a lot of things, honestly. I guess particularly the Witcher is one I should throw out. I think that's the only thing that really people would be watching now that might be spoiled. The hut. I'm sorry. She's a character that naturally eats children in the Hellboy comics and in the 2019 movie. Oh, excellent. And Hayo Miyazaki's spirit of the way, Ubaba is definitely meant to be based on Babbiaga. I knew it. Big head at all broad. Yeah. How's moving castle is definitely is absolutely based on Babbiaga's walking on it. More on the nose, Dragon Ball of the series has a fortune teller straight up named Babbiaga. Although she doesn't eat any children, you know, naughty or otherwise. Okay. And it basically helps the main group and just kind of disappeared one day. And no explanation. So just stopped appearing in the series. The Hector's Quit. John Wick is referred to as the Babbiaga by the Russian Mafia, which is funny knowing the direct translation. It's supposed to be more of like a boogie man thing. But you know, it means smelly old woman. So it's kind of funny. They're like pissing their pants scared. It's Babbiaga. But you know, they're basically like, it's a smelly old woman. That's me at the front desk whenever some old lady tries to give me booze money. It's Babbiaga. So like I said, the Witcher has some Babbiaga references. Yes, it do. In the Netflix series, the old woman of the woods seems a clear reference to Babbiaga, especially the chant that allows one to enter her hut. And tales of Babbiaga, a similar chant is used to stop the hut from spinning. Hutt hut, turn your back to the woods and your front to me. And there's a few other variations of that. Right. Let's go watch it. Let's go watch the Witcher. Her chicken hut is also connected to three horse riders. This may also sound familiar, but one is dressed in white, one in red, and one in black. Nice. Just like the three totems in the Witcher. So Babbiaga shows up on many Lubke singular being LeBoc. They are wood blocks with pictures on them, sometimes containing words. They usually are depicting like a single scene used to tell a story. So think like a one panel cartoon. They're often summed up or, you know, showing an important event at an otherwise well known story. So it's like the Catholic Church, how they'll have like the different stages of like... Other stations of the cross. Right. Yeah. You can see one of those and know what they're talking about. Sure. These Lubuki are the same way. Okay. Jezebaba. Jezebaba. Jezebaba. Jezebaba is a figure closely related to Babbiaga, who occurs in the folklore of... It's Babbiaga sluddy sister. She's got a lot of... She occurs in the folklore of Western Slavic peoples. In fact, nearly every European peoples has some form of Babbiaga, whether it be Jezda from Poland or Babaroga from the Bosnian region. How could this one old woman be so many places? She couldn't always be in the woods near your house, patiently awaiting naughty children, right? Yeah, she could. She's got nothing better to do, she can drive. Babbiaga is often said to have two sisters, also named Babbiaga. You may remember me showing you, personally, the Babbiaga costume in Dead by Daylight. Great game if you don't mind being filled with rage or terror. And how the the mask she was wearing had two faces. I realized after showing you that, that without this knowledge, it would mean nothing to you. It meant nothing to me. I wish it was like creepy. But Babbiaga seems to be more of a title than a name. Ooh! One that simply refers to an old... Can you hear me? Right, one that refers to an old or powerful witch. So maybe Babbiaga herself isn't waiting patiently just inside the woods for a lost child to wander near. But another might. She might not be as willing to help or let you go. She may be particularly hungry. If you don't want to find out what Babbiaga's plans to do with your bones, my suggestion is to stay away from the forest, especially if you're alone. She can smell you after all. So Babbiaga isn't mentioned to have any particular powers. It's pretty general, some claim she has power over the elements, before basic fire, water, earth, and wind. In other stories, she just kind of has like typical witch-like powers, control over animating objects or plants or animals, whatever it might be to be her servants. But it's never really explicitly stated sort of like what her power... And some, she's even said to have necromanctic powers, which definitely gives those skulls on the fence post a new sort of utility, if that's the case. Can the skulls talk or did I make that up? I didn't see any stories that mentioned it. But like I said, there's a ton of stories about Babbiaga. In fact, we will probably end up doing another episode of Babbiaga at some point, which we'll dive more into like the stories, instead of just who Babbiaga is. Sure, give me, I know you can't, you don't really have time to do like a full bug big story, but give me like a little story. Like take me into the world of Babbiaga good. Oh, that's difficult. Babbiaga shows up in the middle of other people's stories. There'll be these whole other stories that are going on that have, you know, a protagonist in an internet like just like what I was talking about with Koski the Deathless. That's his story. Babbiaga just pops in to help the main character get a horse that's as fast as Koski's horse, just to f*** him over. She just kind of wanders into all these other stories. But that could be because Babbiaga is not an individual person. She's many. She is Legion. She is Legion. You know, that it's just a Babbiaga or the Babbiaga. Not Babbiaga. I don't know what you call it, like formative or whatever. Right. So was there like one Babbiaga and then other witches took the name of Babbiaga or is Babbiaga like a species? From what I saw as far as like where Babbiaga came from is probably from like European countries meeting and intermingling with like Slavic and Russian countries like early on. And she was sort of born of that like interaction. There were always these old wise women, you know, in history where, you know, after they've had children or their husband dies or whatever, they don't have to take care of kids anymore. So they just kind of sit around in a crew knowledge and help anyone that shows up to their hut. Naturally they get this kind of like legend, dairy-ness about them. Where it's like, oh, it's the old woman and she'll eat you or whatever. You know, kids make up all kinds of crazy things. Right. It's like you never see her, but you know, she's there and sometimes people go to her for help. And magically whatever element that they've come down with to need to go see her is cured. It classic sort of. I mean, it's not that she brewed you a nice cup of tea. She's a witch. Well, I mean, you know, she probably knew some sort of thing that her mother taught her or her mother taught her. You know, some pulses to put on a wound or some herb to ingest whatever it might be to help with the symptoms or the element, whatever that might be. But, you know, as time moved on, old wise women stopped existing. They became witches. Right. And, you know, they were hunted down. The idea is that that Bobby Yaga just represents this old woman. Sure. You know, who who has this vast wealth of knowledge. So as far as the story is about her eating children, do you think is that based on any kind of maybe like serial killer or do you think that's more? How many stories do you know of two young children wandering off by themselves finding some sort of figurehead, whatever it might be, and then being in danger of being eaten? I know exactly one story like that. You talked about Hansel and Gretel? Yes. Right. Well, in that, they're getting fattened up and about to be eaten by a witch. Do you think it was just a way of like people telling their children not to run off into the woods? It's dangerous if you run into the woods. Yeah. Very similar to what we talked about with the Kelpie. Right. The younger by the way. People used these stories to help teach lessons in a meaningful way. As you tell your kids to say out of the woods, for many good reasons, they could get lost, they could step on a snake, BOR comes through and just goes them like anything could kill a child. It's not that hard. It's not that hard. Anyone could do it. Anyone could do it. You're not a special Albert Fish. You're nasty piece of nasty. You're nasty, nasty, nasty. Telling them a scary story that keeps them out of the woods is much more effective than don't go in the woods or you'll be in trouble. That makes sense. I just didn't know if there was like an origin story of a children. No, I didn't see like one individual who was like the Baba Yaga. There are plenty of stories that talk about it like this is the Baba Yaga. Right. But as we know, there are many Baba Yaga's. Clay, do you know what I love almost as much as I love you? What's that? These ads by Vet Candy. We'll be right back with more pet candy. I love my fur babies so much. But when they're stressed out, it makes me stressed out. 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That's why I said the earliest, the earliest second five was 1755. But almost assuredly people were telling Baba Yaga stories well before that. They had to have been. That's a long time ago, but when you think about Slavic folklore, that's really not that long ago. Slavic folklore is one of the older folklore. For sure. Any other questions about Baba Yaga before we get on to our rating? No, I think I'm good. How likely are you to survive an encounter with Baba Yaga? Do you feel one to ten? One being there's no chance and then ten being I can definitely see. I don't know. I feel like I could probably survive Baba Yaga. I feel like I probably stand a solid six or seven. Okay. All right. That's pretty high. Yeah. I'd probably give myself about a seven. In a lot of her stories, she has some way of escaping her. Most of the stories end in whoever is dealing with her, escaping her. Right. One way or another. I know I say would be no story. Either by tricking her or passing some sort of test that she's set before you, that kind of thing. I'm too nice. I couldn't trick her. I'd be like, Baba Yaga, do you need me to run to the pharmacy for you or anything? And she'd be like, oh, are you going that way? You can have this magical horse, but first you have to get me some Metamusel. Yes. I'd be like, Baba Yaga, I got you. Don't get me. I don't want your gas money. Baba Yaga, go sit down. If she gives you money for Metamusel, it's also gas money. Right. So how creepy is Baba Yaga? And I've actually decided to change this scaling. It is not one of 10. It is my five part scale. Okay. Then being listed as not spooky, spooky, two spooky for me or three spooky five me being the maximum spook factor. Okay. So Baba Yaga looking at her, not like the actual Baba Yaga is a big headed, long limb, pickle, rick nose. She might be a two spooky for me. Two spooky for you? Yeah. I'd only put her at about spooky. Really? Yeah. I think I'd put her at a spooky. Mainly because she doesn't like sneak up on you or anything in every story. I mean, you see the hut. And see that? I think that's what's scary to me is that because I have a problem with it. It's usually moving and the windows are glowing like beams of light. I would see that and be like, oh, yeah, no, fuck that and then just leave. I'd be like, I wonder if they have squish mellows. How likely is Baba Yaga to exist? Maybe a one. A one? You don't think there's any chance of Baba Yaga to exist? I think I could give her a two because I feel nice. Wow. I mean, I was going to give her like a seven. Yeah. My thinking is like Baba Yaga as an old lady of the woods. Oh, old ladies of the woods certainly exist. Right, right. Now as far as like the giant turning chicken hut probably lower. And see, that's what I was thinking. I was thinking during classic Baba Yaga and her chicken hut with her giant ass head. I hate to interrupt our rating, but like there is a reason behind the chicken hut design. Really? There were these old cabins that used to be built off the ground on four sort of like poles. Tree trunks usually, with the only way to enter the cabin being through a trap door in the bottom of it. Like 10, 15 feet off the ground. It was a way to keep animals and stuff out of your hut. It was a way that people back in a long time ago used to design their houses for that kind of frontier living. Especially if it was an area that like fluttered or something like that. When we go to the coast on the beach. But it made it difficult for like say people to break into your house. They had to come through this one entrance. A lot of times they didn't even have windows or anything. We need a lift kit for our house. Right. Something similar was also used in Japan, some of Japan's islands. They had something similar. It wasn't quite so high up off the ground, but it was similar in that design. I thought it was just to make it mobile. It wasn't really mobile, but the chicken hut you obviously was. I do very much enjoy the chicken hut. I don't enjoy this dog that's barking. Yeah, no. I gave it the eye and it can't even see me. I know. I've been like glaring at this dog that's in another room for like the past or even less. But for real though, everybody, can we just talk about how great brave pauses? We got a free sample. We did. We're going to be completely transparent with you. We did. We got some free stuff and it works. Yeah, I was a little surprised. I'm not going to lie. You get this stuff and it doesn't really seem like a typical pet treat, right? Right. But we gave it to our pets and they gumbled right up. They do. And it's nice because it's like you give so many pills per pound. So you don't have to buy like three different sizes. You know, our little guy gets a half of one. Our big one gets three. Right. And he loves it. He takes them like a treat. Now being plant based, you're kind of like, ooh, are they going to like it? Right. That's what I was saying. It's like it's dry and sort of leafy and it like I said, it just doesn't normally when you get a pet treat. It's kind of like moist and squishy. But you know, they don't usually eat those I found. Well, that's because ours are extremely picky, which is why it was so surprising they ate these. Exactly. And we got more than one dog. We're going to be for real with you all. But they eat it and they eat it well. Yeah, and it worked. It does. We live in the deep South, aka Satan's armpit. And it storms and rains at least once a week, like at least once a week we're under some kind of watch. Like a hurricane watch. That's a Tuesday. And our dogs are weenies. So when it starts like with the lightning and the rain and everything, they freak out. They do. They do. They do. We really put these to the test. Right. And I did not think that they would work like they did. Exactly. As well as they do. And this is a non prescription. You don't have to go to the vet and get it. It's not going to knock them out. It's not a sedative. It's just a calming support. And it does. So we had lightning hit very close to our house within a mile. It ran out of our windows. It was scary. I was even scared. I love bad weather. And we gave everybody their happy pills. And they put their brave paws on and everybody laid down and went to sleep. And it was fun. Yeah. So like we don't have to do this part of the commercial, right? Like we've done the ad read and we've goofed around. But like this is we wouldn't lie to you. We would at least not record this part if. Exactly. Didn't work and we didn't actually. Exactly. And we're both in the animal industry and we have been for years and years. So we would not tell you about a product if we did not believe in it ourselves. Yeah. It absolutely worked for us. So maybe it'll work for you. Go check it out. My brave paws dot com. Go put your brave paws on. Brave paws. Give your pet the courage they need to weather the storm. So the final rating. Okay. How likely is Bob a Yaga to be an alien? I think it's true. 10 with 10 being the most likely as if ancient aliens was telling you the story about Bob a Yaga. Bob a Yaga is just weird enough. I'd have to give her like an eight like that bitch. I actually kind of expected to give her a lower. I would also give her about a seven or eight just because if I did in the community of alien fans would come after me for sure. I mean, you know, the whole elongated limbs and like looking human, but barely human. Yeah. Like trying to look human. Like having powers we couldn't explain. Yeah. Especially when you bring into the flying mortar and pestle. They would basically they'd be like, oh, that's definitely a UFO. Yeah. But it is it is weird enough. It is weird enough that it'd be like I can only describe that as a pestle of mortar. Well, if you don't have anything to compare it to. Right. So yeah, I'd actually give her unlike the Megalodon, you know, last last time. Yeah. A much higher score. Right. Yeah. So you can see the argument for it, even if I don't agree with it. I'm like, okay, yeah, I think if there's the Bobby Yaga, then she's probably an alien. Well, there you go. That's the Bobby Yaga. Was it everything you hoped for anymore? Let us know in the comments. So it is a spooky season. It is spooky season. Officially. And we've got some stuff planned for you. We do have some things. Where's got a few things lined up. We do. We sort of get through this hiatus. Yes. We're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there. We're definitely going to do something for the month of October. Yeah. It's my birth month and it's also Halloween. So. It's Christmas. Yeah, it's born a week before Halloween. So lame. Exactly seven days before Halloween. Done. So we have picked some spooky topics so far. We've saved the spookyest, I think. Yeah. We have, I have definitely saved the spookyest. So we'd like to thank Vosko, our editor. He's amazing. Vosko. We love you. The opening story was written and performed by Vosko. So thanks to him for that. Yeah. If I wasn't motivated to do Bobby Yaga before, I definitely was after hearing that. Vosko. Why do you sound exactly like I thought you would? I think, okay. So Vosko, this is how I picture you looking. You're beautiful. Like you've got long black hair and it's really, really, really shiny. And you're gorgeous. You're gorgeous, Vosko. All right, guys. So we hope you enjoyed that and we'll be back to you shortly. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.