Bannik
A Bannik is a household guardian spirit of a traditional bathhouse in Slavic folklore.
Description[]
Many accounts also claim that they are shapeshifters and can appear as a local person to someone who stumbles across them, or even as a stone or coal in the oven heating the bathhouse.
A Bannik was also granted the ability to see the future and would share such knowledge with humans via either stroking their back gently (to signify they would have a good future) or claw at them viciously (to signify that great troubles awaited them).
Overview[]
Bathhouses were used much like saunas but were also places for childbirth and divination, thus they were seen as significant places of magic and tradition, Banniks would have their own special area and often forbade any Christian imagery within this area as they often invited spirits from the forest to join them in their baths.
A Bannik was normally pleasant enough with humans and would share space with them but if angered or disturbed by an intruder when bathing the Bannik may deliver swift and violent punishments such as scolding them with hot water or even strangling them. There were several rituals performed in order to keep the bannik happy and peaceful. The most common occurred during the steaming/firing that was reserved for the spirit itself or upon the quitting of the banya for the night; offerings of fir branches, water and soap were left, capped by a formal thank you uttered aloud.
The bannik was often blamed for anything that went wrong within the bathhouse, so if the structure burned down (which they often did), it was believed the spirit had been affronted in some way. In order to appease the bannik, upon the rebuilding of a banya, a black hen would be suffocated, left unplucked and buried beneath the building's threshold. The people performing this ritual would end it by bowing and backing away from the threshold, while reciting appropriate incantations.