M203A. Tell me I'm dead (.28.31.)

A supernatural being transmits a message through a person he meets to an unknown addressee, transmitting which the person dies or suffers damage.

Russians (Novgorod), northern Ukrainians, Icelanders, Lithuanians.

Central Europe. Northern Ukrainians (Rivne region, Rokitnovsky district, p. Stone) [A man kills a snake in the field. He hears someone saying to him: "When you get home, tell the brownie that there is no field worker." The owner comes home and tells his wife about it. As soon as he repeats to her the words he heard in the field, the brownie crawls out and bites his leg, avenging his field brother. The owner dies from a bite]: Gura 1997:319; Russians (Novgorod) [On the west side, a small river called the Black Stream flows into Lake Ilmen. A mill is being set up on the Black Creek, the fish turn to the Black Stream, asking him for protection: "We were both spacious and free, and now a dashing man is taking our water away." The black stream promises its patronage to the fish. A resident of Novgorod is fishing with a fishing rod on the Black Creek, a stranger dressed in black approaches him, says hello, asks him how the catch is, and promises to indicate a place where the fish is teeming if he serves. The service is not great: when he is in Novgorod on Sunday, he will meet a tall, tight man in a blue caftan, wide blue trousers and a tall blue hat; he must say: "Uncle Ilmen- lake! The Black Stream sent you a petition and told you to tell you that a mill had been built on it. As you say, it will be so!" A resident of Novgorod agrees to comply with the request, and a black stranger shows him a place where the fish are dark and dark. With a rich catch, a man returns to Novgorod, meets a man in a blue caftan and gives him a petition. Ilmen replies: "Bow my bow to Black Creek and tell him about the mill: this has never happened before, and it will not happen." The resident of Novgorod is also fulfilling this order. At night, the Black Stream broke out, Ilmen Lake roamed, a storm rose, the waves demolished the mill, it is no longer being built there]: Kupriyanov 1853:25-26.

Baltoscandia. Icelanders [Icelandic mythology is known for the dark balder (skuggabaldr), a creature dangerous for humans, a cross between a maternal fox and a paternal cat. A dark balder alone causes great damage to sheep people from Bear Lake. They find him in a hole in Blanda Gorge and kill him there. When he is stabbed, the dark balder says, "Tell the cat in Bolly's Court that her dark balder was stabbed into the gorge today." When the Dark Balder killer returns to Bolly's Court, it's already night. He's lying in bed telling this story. An old cat is sitting on the crossbar. As soon as a person conveys the words of the dark balder, the cat jumps on him, clings to his throat with its claws and teeth, and does not calm down until his head flies off]: Å eniavskaya 2010:77; Lithuanians [ A man goes to the field for sheaves of compressed rye. He finds a snake under the sheaf, kills it. She manages to say in a rude (i.e. Belarusian): "Tell the brownie that she is dumb." A man comes home for lunch, says at lunch that he killed a snake, and the snake spoke, but in a rude way: "Tell the brownie that the snake is dumb." A snake crawls out of the corner, stings a person, he dies]: Kerbelite 2019, No. 63:46.