Edited by MCK Sokół | Lesser Poland
Cloud pulling flankers
Country: Poland
Region: Lesser Poland
Type of inspiration: Beliefs
Inspiracja
In the beliefs of the villagers of the Beskid Sądecki region, "płanetniki", also known as "cloud pullers", are usually people like any other, often known by name, but endowed by God with special abilities. The infant's future powers were evidenced by its strange, penetrating gaze; a person born with a cap (birth membrane) also became a fawn. Another origin derived these creatures from people who were carried away into the clouds by evil spirits as punishment. There were also known frogmen acting in collusion with the devil, and these were usually referred to as "cloud sorcerers".
The panhandler was most often a man, although panhandlers acting in male-female pairs were mentioned. He was described as a grey-haired old man with a book or a pale, dry, unfamiliar young man. He was recognisable by his wet hair and clothes, from which water was always dripping, the linen sheet he carried with him or the pointed hat. He could take the form of a black dog or ram, or in older accounts, a huge winged lizard.
The planetswalkers were the rain makers, their duty being to fill the clouds with water. An interesting explanation of the formation of rain is recorded in ethnographic sources from the end of the 19th century ("Historical legends, beliefs and notions about the world of the inhabitants of Zabrze given by Walenty Szczepaniak, Zabrze 1883): "Clouds are drawn by fawns, who, when rain is needed, puncture them with the tip of their hat and through the holes water flows down, which the wind crushes into drops. And when the water is spilled, they scoop up water from the sea. This is helped by the rainbow, which appears in the sky just after a storm and does the frogmen a great service, as it drinks the water and brings it to the clouds. For the common man, the rainbow is dangerous - it can suck blood. Although it will give some remuneration for this, as it will let down a bag of money, but the man will get nothing out of this money, as he will die immediately". According to the inhabitants of Zabrzeža, hail was also supposed to be created by fawns: "For this purpose they descend to such areas where there is ice, they chop it up, cut it into pieces and load barrels with it, these they put on clouds and ascend into the air, from where they drop hail on villages which have refused them hospitality, as punishment and revenge".
If the fawns were favourable to the people, they gave notice of the approaching storm and chased the clouds away from the village. They did their work in the air, lifted up by the falling fog or drawn in by the clouds which they steered, drove them away or supported them and carried them out of the village, directing the storm over the forest. Sometimes they needed help to do this. Then the cry could be heard from the clouds, "Help, we can't hold it, let us go". The smoke from burning holy herbs or barley flour could strengthen the flamen. They usually helped people, but if mistreated they could be vindictive and spiteful - if they were not given hospitality in a village, they would bring hail or a downpour. They also came before the rain from the lowering clouds and took away the strength and even kidnapped people to pull the clouds for them.
See the error? Do you know more information? Report it to us.
Write to us.
