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Mavka

Mavka (Мавка) also Nyavka (Нявка) is a type of female spirit in Ukrainian folklore and mythology. The Mavka is a long-haired figure, a Soul of the Forest, typically depicted as temptress figures who lure men to their deaths.

Terminology
There is variation in the names and spelling, including Мавка, mavka, навка, navka, нявка, nyavka. However, depending on telling, there are differences between the Mavka and Nyavka. These terms all derive from, and are cognate with нави, navi (plural).

Folklore
The spirits known by this term represented the souls of girls who had died unnatural, tragic or premature deaths, particularly unchristened babies. Mavkas often appear in the form of beautiful young girls who entice and lure young men into the woods, where they "tickle" them to death. Mavkas have no reflection in water, nor do they cast shadows. In some accounts, they were also said to help farmers by looking after cattle and driving out wild animals. A subtype of the Mavkas are the Nyavkas, which behave the same except for having "no back", meaning that their spine and some other insides can be seen; the most defining feature between determining Mavkas and Nyavkas is whether or not the insides are visible from the back. Mavkas and Nyavkas were believed to live in groups in forests, mountain caves, or sheds, which they decorated with rugs. They made thread of stolen flax and wove thin transparent cloth for making clothes for themselves. They loved flowers, which they wore in their hair. In the spring, they planted flowers in the mountains, to which they enticed young men, whom they tickled to death. On Pentecost (known as Navka's Easter, На́вський Вели́кдень), they held games, dances, and orgies. A demon accompanied them on a flute or pipes.

To save an unchristened baby's soul, one must throw up a kerchief during Pentecost holidays, say their name and add "I baptise you". The rescued soul would then go to heaven. If the soul lived up to seven years and did not go to heaven, the baby would turn into a mavka and haunt the earth.

Popular culture

 * Mavkas are depicted in literature, most notably in Lesia Ukrainka's The Forest Song and nyavkas are depicted in Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.
 * In modern culture the Ukrainian music band, Mavka, is named after the mythological creature.
 * In 2022, Ukrainian singer Eria released the song "Mavka".
 * The 2023 film Mavka: The Forest Song, is based on Ukrainian mythology.

title: Mavka


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Neuri

The Neuri or Navari (Νευροὶ; Neuri) were an ancient Baltic people whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.

Identification
The Neuri belonged to a larger group of Baltic peoples of which the only present-day members are Lithuanians and Latvians.

The Neuri lived in the region corresponding to present-day Belarus, in the territory including the Desna, Pripyat, and middle Dnieper rivers. To the south, the territory of the Neuri reached the upper section of the Southern Buh river.

The neighbours of the Neuri to the east of the Dnieper river were the Androphagi, the Melanchlaeni, and the Budini as well as Finno-Ugric peoples. Their neighbours were the Agathyrsi to the south-west, and the Scythian tribe of the Aroteres to the south-east.

History
The Neuri were independent of the Scythians.

According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the Neuri once had to leave their country because of an invasion of snakes.

When the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I attacked the Scythians in 513 BC, the Scythian king Idanthyrsus summoned the kings of the peoples surrounding his kingdom to a meeting to decide how to deal with the Persian invasion. The kings of the Budini, Gelonians and Sarmatians accepted to help the Scythians against the Persian attack, while the kings of the Agathyrsi, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Neuri, and Tauri refused to support the Scythians.

During the campaign, the Scythians and the Persian army pursuing them passed through the territories of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, before they reached the borders of the Agathyrsi, who refused to let the Scythian divisions to pass into their territories and find refuge there, thus forcing the Scythians to return to Scythia with the Persians pursuing them.

Legacy
The Neuri have left traces of their presence in the region of the Desna, Pripyat, and middle Dnieper rivers in the form of Baltic-derived hydronyms and typonyms which pre-date the migration of Slavic peoples into this area.

Culture
According to the Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the Neuri followed Scythian customs. This claim might have referred only to the southernmost sections of the Neuri, who were neighbours of the Scythian Aroteres tribe.

Herodotus also claimed that the Neuri "seemed to be magicians," and that all members of their tribe would allegedly each year become a wolf for some days before being restored to their human form. This might suggest that the Neuri performed cults in which they wore wolf skins and masks, and that the wolf might have been a totem animal of this tribe.

Archaeology
The Neuri archaeologically correspond to the Milograd culture.

The southernmost of part of the Milograd culture, which adjoined the territory of the Scythian Aroteres, included many Scythian elements.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Neuri


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Nocnitsa

In Slavic mythology, notsnitsa (начніца, nocnica, płaczka,  горска майка, ношно, шумска маjка, бабице, ноћнице, mrake, vidine, nočnine, mračnine, нічниця, ночница ), often referred in plural, is a nightmare spirit or demon that torments people and especially children at night. Other names for notsnitsa in East Slavic languages include kriksy, plaksy, plachky, plaksivicy, kriksy-varaksy, kriksy-plaksy, night hag, night maiden.

Folklore
In Russian and Slovak folklore, notsnitsa are known to torment children at night, and a stone with a hole in the center is said to be a protection from nocnitsa. Mothers in some regions will place a knife in their children's cradles or draw a circle around the cradles with a knife for protection. This is possibly based on the belief that supernatural beings cannot touch iron.

Nocnitsa is known to sit on one's chest, drawing "life energy". Because of this, many refer to nocnitsa as a type of vampire. Nocnitsa will often continue visiting. According to some folklore, night hags visit when one sleeps on one's back, with the hands on the chest (a position allegedly called "sleeping with the dead"). According to some folklore, night hags are made of shadow. She might also have a horrible screeching voice. She might allegedly also smell of the moss and dirt from her forest of origin.

Nocnitsa is linked to the common apparition seen during the hypnagogic state of sleep.

In popular culture

 * A creature, considered by the characters to be a nocnitsa, is depicted in a 2017 horror movie Slumber.
 * There is a nocnitsa in the supernatural novel Night Terror by John Passarella.

 * In the book Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, a Nocnitsa poses as Coraline's alternate dimension mother. Coraline, however, has a stone with a hole in it which protects her.

 * It is often believed throughout the Middle East that this mythological creature came into people's homes at night, and would watch their children sleep if they did not behave.

 * In the Iron Druid Chronicles book Staked Protagonist, Granuaile MacTiernan alongside Slavic Thunder God Perun and the Orisha Shango are attacked by a group of Nocnitsa.

title: Nocnitsa


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Talk:Fourth Crusade

Venetians and Moslems
The Venetians had a thriving trade with the Moslems, especially Egypt. It seems highly unlikely that they would transport a crusading army to attack their best customer.

With their wide spread trading connections, the Venetians must have been perfectly well aware that the Crusaders had grossly overestimated the number of soldiers expected to turn up for the crusade.

The Venetians must also have carefully engineered the crusaders getting into a vast debt over the shipping contract with the intention of diverting the crusade away from Egypt or the Middle East. The attack on Zara may have been preplanned as these were considerable trading rivals of the Venetians.

There wasn't much loot from Zara and the interest on the debt still mounting so the idea of some sort of extortion from the Emperor of Constantinople must have grown, after all he was a "Greek Christian" and not a "real Christian".

Whatever the original feelings of the Crusaders when they reached Constinople, the degree of Greek contempt for the Crusaders eroded any feelings of reverence and ended with the city being burned and sacked.

The Venetians probably couldn't beleive their luck as not only did they get their debt money repaid from the loot but also a great proportion of the artistic loot. Possibly best of all from their point of view was that Constantinople was almost eliminated their greatest trading rival.

The late Ernle Bradford in his book "The Great Betrayal" offers this very real interpretation of the 1204 political scene and the Fourth Crusade generally and is well worth reading. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.93.199.154 (talk) 09:46, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I have known about the "diversion" of the Crusaders for some time, but this is the first time that I learned why the Venetians diverted the Crusaders, who, themselves, had no axe to grind with Constantinople at the time. Student7 (talk) 20:39, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

Casualty count is odd?
It says "High..." would it be possible to at least change that to something else? I mean, high relative to what? Previous Crusades? Its also on other crusade articles... can we give an estimate or is it just too far back in history to find it?

173.79.68.101 (talk) 00:31, 29 November 2012 (UTC) This is an IP adress that still likes to edit as if it had an actual account :D

 * You are right, of course. This is WP:POV wording and is meaningless in an encyclopedia. I have removed

Commanders and leaders: Otto IV.
Please remove Otto IV. from this list due to following reasons:

Otto became emperor in 1209, years after this crusade.

From 1198 to 1208 there was a "civil war" in the Holy Roman Empire between Philipp of Swabia (brother of emperor Henry VI.) and Otto IV. of Brunswick, who both were elected Kings. For the biggest part of this ten years, Philipp was the more powerful and dominant contestor. Indeed Otto was only able to becom undisputed King after Philipp was assasinated in June 1208.

Otto IV. is mentioned nowhere in the text of this article, obviously he has not played a role in this crusade (which he hadn't indeed), so neither should he be mentioned as leader of this crusade. 87.178.36.189 (talk) 17:43, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

 * I removed Otto IV as, like you said, he's not mentioned here, nor is Constantinople mentioned on his page. Just a note, you cold have removed this yourself.  Thanks for the heads up - take care.. Dinky town   talk  17:53, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Bishop Martin of Pairis not Paris
The invisible text warning that it was not a typo was just removed and Paris was inserted; I've reverted it, but I also noted that Martin the same Martin of Pairis Abbey and no page exists for Bishop Martin.I'm putting it as 'Bishop Martin of Pairis, of Pairis Abbey' to clear it up the confusion and hopefully put another reason why it is not a typo for future editors. Even a minor mistake like this completely changes the context and identification of Bishop Martin. ChrisGualtieri (talk) 19:58, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

 * @seylarin 103.214.150.75 (talk) 16:20, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

byzantines
you're guys wrote the christians victories on the byzantines but byzantines are not muslims ? what about the christian defeat against the muslims ? youre guys dont fuking wrote the muslim victories, why so much hate ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.190.253.53 (talk) 19:56, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Great grammar - thanks for your note.

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Money taken after the sacking of Constantinople
11/04/18 6:28am In the 'Sacking of Constantinople' section it says that 900,000 silver coins were taken and distributed to various people but in the breakdown it only adds up to 800,000 (if my maths is right). So potentially either the 900,000 number, the other numbers, or I am incorrect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ailsa99 (talk • contribs) 05:31, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

Original intent of the Fourth Crusade?
The lead and text of the article disagree on what the original intent of the Fourth Crusade was (probably because there's disagreement among the sources.) The second sentence lead says, as if it's undisputed fact, that The original intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first conquering the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate, the strongest Muslim nation of the time. However, the Legacy section says that The controversy that has surrounded the Fourth Crusade has led to diverging opinions in academia on whether its objective was indeed the capture of Constantinople. The traditional position, which holds that this was the case, was challenged by Donald E. Queller and Thomas F. Madden in their book The Fourth Crusade (1977), implying that traditional scholarship holds that attacking Constantinople was always the actual aim. The historical section complicates this by listing the series of events that led to the sack of Constantinople and describing the motivations of everyone involved but carefully not saying, specifically, what the original aim was (and especially not delving into the motivations and goals of the Venetians, who traditional scholarship generally argues always intended to steer the Crusades against Byzantium); the closest we get Boniface and the other leaders sent envoys to Venice, Genoa, and other city-states in 1200 to negotiate a contract for transport to Egypt, the object of their crusade. Notably, the cite for that (a Brittanica article) was written by Thomas F. Madden, who describes his own position as revisionist. --Aquillion (talk) 18:03, 18 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Perhaps the Legacy section should be reworded. What is called "The traditional position" seems in earnest to be "the traditional Byzantine historians" position. The debate about the reasons for the diversion of the crusade to Constantinople is ancient (since the 19th c., cf "A Century of Controversy on the Fourth Crusade" cited in the article), Queller and Madden didn't came out of the blue to challenge an established historical position. The historical source for Egypt as the primary target is Villehardouin's work, so it depends on the trust (or direct knowledge) modern authors have for him, Byzantine historians tend to rely more on Nicetas' analysis.--Phso2 (talk) 19:07, 18 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the page should probably go into a lot more detail on historical perspectives on the Fourth Crusade and how they developed over time. --Aquillion (talk) 16:05, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Loss of Jerusalem to the truce of 1198 section
In the last paragraph in the loss of Jerusalem section, what does "Sidon was placed under a revenue-sharing condominium" mean? Is that a typo error?

Walter III of Brienne's invasion of the Kingdom of Sicily.
Walter III of Brienne joined the Fourth Crusade when it was initially declared, but he launched an invasion of the Kingdom of Sicily with the intention of sailing to Syria after he took control. This campaign is not mentioned once throughout the whole article and I think it should at least be mentioned. I think it might even be enough to include the Kingdom of Sicily in the info box as a belligerent against the Crusaders. What do you think? Lyricus the Lame (talk) 01:24, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

 * Yes on mention, no on infobox. It could get a whole section or even a whole subarticle, but putting Sicily as an opponent of the crusade in the box is not informative on its own. Srnec (talk) 05:10, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: The Middle Ages
— Assignment last updated by MaxLapides (talk) 06:52, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

To add to article
The Cumans article contains the following statement:
 * The Cumans also played a prominent role in the Fourth Crusade

As such, shouldn't the Cumans be mentioned in this article, if only briefly? 76.190.213.189 (talk) 00:00, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Only if evidence of some historic link between the 4th Crusade and the Cumans can be provided. This does not appear to be the case.Buistr (talk) 01:33, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Crusader victory?
Can someone please elaborate that how it was a Crusader victory when they failed to achieve the objective. 39.49.72.183 (talk) 08:34, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

 * Military victory is not the same thing as achieving a given objective. Also, whose objective? There were many different objectives sought by many different factions in this story. The Venetians achieved their objective, for example. Remsense  诉  08:37, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

 * It's a good demonstration of why trying to fit every conflict into a box doesn't work. Srnec (talk) 20:05, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Far be it from me to disagree with that. Remsense  诉  20:07, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fourth Crusade


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Psotnik

Psotnik is an elf, "mischief maker", in Polish mythology. It comes from the Polish word "psot", which means "mischief". Other translations of psotnik are "prankster," "jester," and "small soft-bodied insect with chewing mouthparts and either no wings or two pairs".

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Raróg

In Slavic mythology (in particular Czech, Slovak, Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian), the Raróg (Рарог) or Raróh (Рарог) is a fire demon, often depicted as a fiery falcon.

According to Czech folklore, a raroh can hatch from an egg that was incubated on a stove for nine days and nights, and can appear either as a fiery falcon or a dragon. In Polish folklore, the rarog is a tiny bird that can be held in a pocket, and can bring people happiness.

A caldera on Jupiter's moon Io was named Rarog Patera, a massive eruption from which was recorded by the W. M. Keck Observatory and Japan's HISAKI (SPRINT-A) spacecraft on August 15, 2013.

The northern cardinal-shaped logo of the Polish video game company CD Projekt is called the Raróg.

title: Raróg


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Strzyga

Strzyga (, plural: strzygi, masculine: strzygoń) is usually a female demon in Slavic mythology, which stems from the mythological Strix of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. The demon is similar to a vampire, and is predominantly found in Polish and Silesian folklore.

Origin
According to Aleksander Brückner, the word is derived from Strix, Latin for owl and a bird-like creature which fed on human flesh and blood in Roman and Greek mythology. It is unclear how the word strzyga was adapted by the Polish people, though it might have been through the Balkan peoples. The term strzyga could also sometimes mean a vampire or upiór. After the 18th century, there was a distinction between strzyga and upiór; the first one was more connected to witchcraft, while the latter was more of a flying, vampiric creature.

The strzyga remained a popular element in the folklore of rural Poland well into the late 19th and early 20th century, as shown by Władysław Reymont in his Nobel Prize-winning novel Chłopi (The Peasants). Its story takes place during the 1880s in Congress Poland and follows the everyday life of the peasantry in a typical Polish village. In the tenth chapter of book two, some of the characters gather together to exchange stories and legends, in one of which the striga is described as having a bat's wings (strzygi z nietoperzowymi skrzydłami przelatują).

Beliefs
A strzyga is a usually female demon similar to vampire in Slavic (and especially Polish) folklore. People who were born with two hearts and two souls, and two sets of teeth (the second one barely visible) were believed to be strzygi. Somnambulics or people without armpit hair could also be seen as ones. Furthermore, a newborn child with already developed teeth was also believed to be one. When a person was identified as a strzyga, they were chased away from human dwelling places. During epidemics, people were getting buried alive, and those who managed to get out of their graves, often weak, ill and with mutilated hands, were said to be strzygi by others. It is said that strzygi usually died at a young age, but, according to belief, only one of their two souls would pass to the afterlife; the other soul was believed to cause the deceased strzyga to come back to life and prey upon other living beings. These undead creatures were believed to fly at night in a form of an owl and attack night-time travelers and people who had wandered off into the woods at night, sucking out their blood and eating their insides. Strzyga were also believed to be satisfied with animal blood, for a short period of time. According to the other sources, strzygi were believed not to harm people but to herald someone's imminent death. In this, they resemble Banshees.

Methods of protection
When a person believed to be a strzyga died, decapitating the corpse and burying the head separate from the rest of the body was believed to prevent the strzyga from rising from the dead; burying the body face down with a sickle around its head was believed to work as well. Other methods of protection from the strzyga (some similar to those from vampires) included:

 * Burning the body
 * Hammering nails, stakes etc. into various parts of the strzyga's body
 * Putting a flint into its mouth after exhumation
 * Pealing the church bells (the strzyga then turns into tar)
 * Slapping it across the face with one's left hand
 * Burying it again, outside of the village, and pinning it down with a big rock
 * Scattering poppy seeds in the shape of the cross in every corner of the house
 * Exhumation in the presence of a priest and burying the body again, after additional rituals (such as putting a piece of paper with the word "Jesus" written on it under the strzyga's tongue)
 * Putting small objects in the strzyga's grave to make it count them.

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Topielec

Utopiec (plural Utopce), Vodník or Topnik is a name applied to Slavic spirits of water. The utopce are spirits of human souls that died drowning, residing in the element of their own demise. They are responsible for sucking people into swamps and lakes as well as killing the animals standing near the still waters.

Slavonic water spirits of the drowned dead remained a popular element of rural Polish folklore at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, as shown by Władysław Reymont in his Nobel Prize-winning novel Chłopi (The Peasants). Its story takes place during the 1880s in Congress Poland and follows the everyday life of the peasantry in a typical Polish village. In the tenth chapter of book two, some of the characters gather together to exchange stories and legends, in one of which the topielica (feminine form of topielec) is mentioned.

A more recent example of the utopiec in Polish popular culture is the comic book series Lil and Put, where the two titular characters are constantly at odds with an Utopiec living in a pond next to their village. He is never directly seen and possesses magical powers.

Utopiec is the official Polish translation of the Drowned, a monster and hostile entity from the video game Minecraft.

title: Topielec


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Karzełek

The Karzełek (diminutive of karzeł – a small one, used for describing non-fantasy dwarfs) or Skarbnyk, Kladenets (Ukrainian: Скарбник, Russian: Кладенец) (the Treasurer) or Dzedka (Belarusian: Дзедка) in Slavic mythology live in mines and underground workings and are the guardians of gems, crystals, and precious metals. It is said that they will protect miners from danger and lead them back when they are lost. They will also lead them to veins of ore. To people who are evil or insult them they are deadly, pushing them into dark chasms or send tunnels crashing down upon them. Hurling rocks, whistling, or covering one's head are actions that are offensive to Skarbnik, who will warn the offender with handfuls of pelted soil in their direction before taking serious action.

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Wila

Wila may refer to:

 * Wila (lichen)
 * Wila, Missouri, a ghost town
 * Wila, Switzerland, a municipality
 * Wila railway station
 * Wila' language, the name of several extinct Malayan languages
 * Polo Wila, an Ecuadorian footballer
 * An alternate spelling of Vila (fairy), a Slavic fairy

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Vodyanoy

In Slavic mythology, vodyanoy (водяной; lit. '[he] from the water' or 'watery') is a water spirit. In Czech and Slovak fairy tales, he is called vodník (or in Germanized form: Hastrman), and often referred to as Wassermann in German sources. In Ukrainian fairy tales, he is called “водяник“ (vodyanyk).

He may appear to be a naked man with a pot belly (and bald-headed) wearing a hat and belt of reeds and rushes, conflicting with other accounts ascribing him green hair and a long green beard. The varying look has been attributed in commentary to his shape-shifting ability. When angered, the vodyanoy breaks dams, washes down water mills, and drowns people and animals. Consequently, fishermen, millers, and also bee-keepers make sacrifices to appease him. The vodyanoy would sometimes drag people down to his underwater dwelling to serve him as slaves.

When angered, the vodyanoy breaks dams, washes down water mills, and drowns people and animals. Consequently, fishermen, millers, etc. make sacrifices to appease him. The vodyanoy would sometimes attack people entering water.

The vodník in Czech or Slovakia were said to use colored ribbons (sometimes impersonating peddlers, but also tying them to grass, etc., as lures in the landscape) to attract humans near water in order to snatch them.

Russia
In Russia, the vodyanoy is sometimes called the dedushka vodyanoy (Дѣдушка-водяной, "Water-Grandfather") or vodyanik (водяник).

Habitat
He is said to dwell in a slough (омут), kettle hole (Котловина), or a whirlpool of a river, pond or lake, and liked especially to live near a watermill. One that dwells in marshlands may be called a bolotnyanik (Болотняник).

Appearance
His usual appearance is that of a naked old man with a fat paunch of a belly and swollen face according to the Russian folklore collector, but a later English commentary using similar phraseology insisted the creature was not nude but bald, and concatenates additional commentary from the Russian source which says he is seen naked but covered in slime（), wearing a high ) made of green "club-rush" (or other sedges) and a green belt of that same "grass".

He is also described as an old man with green hair and (long ) green beard The green beard turns white with when the moon wanes, as the immortal Vodyanoy ages or rejuvenates with the phases of the moon.

Or, rather than wearing plant-based clothing, a different source states he is covered in weeds and slime, and scaly-skinned in his true form. Or rather a figure of giant stature covered in grass and moss. Or be "quite black with enormous red eyes and a nose as long as a fisherman's boot". Or that he is human-faced, but has huge toes, paws instead of hands, long horns, a tail, and eyes that burn like red-hot coals.

He has the capability of shape-shifting. and this has been suggested as an explanation of its varied descriptions. He may crawl out of water in the dark of the night and comb his (green) hair on shore, but he can also appear in the form of a naked woman combing her hair. He may be heard all along the shore while he is slapping the water with his palm (ладонь, or paw ) on moonlit nights.

He can appear as a giant moss-covered fish, a log or even a flying tree-trunk with small-wings, skimming over the water's surface.

Offering and boon
Since he tampers with the waterwheel, the dikes, or control of water if he is not pleased, an operator of a mill must known how to have a good relationship with him. When a watermill is built, a sacrifice of pig, cattle, sheep, or even human (or a chicken) must be made to appease the vodyanik. There are reported cases of watermills destroyed by him (at Lake Ilmen for instance), and may drown a person as forewarned.

The fisherman can also benefit from the boon of the vodyanoy, receiving a bountiful harvest in their fishing nets. He may receive this reward after returning a child which was accidentally netted. The fishermen offer sacred libation, especially melted butter or oil into the river.

There seems to have been a cult recognizing vodyanoy as a patron saint of bee-keeping, as evidenced by the old custom of bagging the first swarm of bees and sacrificing it in water. And the bee-keeper wishing for a bounty of honey would choose the midnight hour of the feast days of Saints Zosimus and Sabbatius and dip a honeycomb into the water by the mill, while pronouncing an incantation.

He will also foretell the coming harvest. He comes into the village disguised as human, but the edge of his coat will be visibly wet, and gives himself away. If he buys corn (grain) at a high price it forewarns spike in market price, i.e., crop failure. But if he buys at low price, the bread will remain cheap.

Mount
The vodyanik "owns" all the fish and aquatic creatures, and his control over them explains his ability to deliver fish. The vodyanik selects in particular the sheatfish (сом; Silurus glanis, aka "wels catfish") as his mount to ride on. But he will catch the farmers' cattle or horses (in water) and ride them till they drop dead in the wetlands. The farmer fording his livestock will make a sign of cross (emblem of Perun's weapon) over the river as protection from this happening.

Attacks on humans
The vodyanoy also posed risk of attacking people entering bodies of water, hence popular belief was to make the sign of the cross before swimming or bathing in such waters. An anecdote tells about a hunter trying to retrieve his duck, and the attack left the creature's finger-marks on his neck. In the Ukraine, children were instructed to chant a certain rhyme before going bathing/swimming.

Family
He is known to take on a wife (or wives), and espouses "water-nymphs or drowned and unhappy girls who have been cursed by their fathers or mothers". According to Afanasyev, the "water-nymph" ("water-maiden") is known by various names in Russia, including the rusalka.

It is believed that vodyanoys have a ruler: the Tsar Vodyanik, or the Vodyan Tsar. He is described as an old man armed with a club, who can rise to the sky sitting on a black cloud and create new rivers and lakes.

Other folklores

The Russian vodyanoy answers to Czech (and Slovak) vodník, Slovene vodeni mož ("water-man"), and Polish topielec ("Drowner").

These water demons of West and South Slavic lore are similar to the East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, etc.) conception, though there are certain differences. The Czech and Slovak vodníci (plural of vodník) can also take on an appearance of ordinary humans, but often with water dripping from their clothing, which makes their false identity easily discernable. But their version says the demon, sometimes impersonating peddlers, use colored ribbons to lure humans. Some accounts give them green color, and also long hair or beard in Slovak versions. There is an isolated Czech example of the water-demon being human-like but transforming into frog, but the water-demon's wife being froglike is commonplace. A widely known tale type of vodník or wife hiring a woman as godmother or housekeeper tale is found in Czech and Slovak versions.

Czech, Slovenian and Slovak tales have both evil and good watermen (relative to human beings) who do (or don't, respectively) try to drown people when they happen to swim in their territory. Vodníci would store the souls of the drowned inside pots, and the liberated souls can ascend to heaven, or even revive.

Czech
The Bohemian male water demon came to be called vodník or Hastermann, but their ancient names have not been found in older sources. It dwells in every river, stream, or pond. Though several may share a body of water, they keep themselves apart since they are antagonistic towards each other. Sometimes the vodník enters into a loving relationship with a human woman, and will live together with the family he has formed, but otherwise the bachelors are solitary. Those in the pond are considered more feral, living amongst the reeds, but those in the river are believed to live in crystal palaces in a whole expansive world found underwater, where they keep the souls of the drowned dead, inside pots.

There are also a tale and a legend concerning the hastermann or vodnik living near mills.

Physical description
The net-casting vodník (cf. below) is described as a green man, and comes out of the water combing his green hair on a day he does not hunt drowning victims. But in several accounts he manifests himself as an ordinary human being (cf. ), or the peddler by the pond north of Přeštice, wearing a dripping wet coat. He is known as the "green man" at the market, appearing like an ordinary man wearing a green coat, with the left coat-tip (šos) always wet, and also missing the thumb on his left hand. The merchants welcome him because when he makes purchases, business does well.

Man-snatching
The vodník lures people into the water to drown them, and those who bathe after hours are especially vulnerable, but he can only drown those who were fated to die that way. Fishermen were afraid of saving a drowning man from the clutches of a vodník, because they would come in a bad way and wind up being drowned themselves.

In one version the water demon spans a fine invisible net across the river to trap people. But he sits in the grass mending his nets on Friday, his day off from man-snatching.

The peddler vodník displays some sort of trinkets hanging on a rack in order to lure his prey into water. Most especially the peddler (kramář) vodník uses the colorful ribbon (stuha, pl. stuhy; pentle or its dim. pentlička to lure humans, according to numerous accounts. In  Quarter of Prague, the vodník was seen on a raft (vor, pl. locative vorách) in the evenings, and he hangs a red ribbons over the water to lure children and drag them down. A vodník in the guise of a red-haired man wearing green peddled green ribbons to a village woman, but the goods turned into grass when she returned home.

The vodník or hastrmann maintains a collection of captured souls inside pots in his submarine palace or mansion, as in the tale localized in Moldautein (Týn nad Vltavou), here specified as "earthenware" (irdenen) pots also filled with water. Here a poor day-laborer woman's eldest daughter becomes the Hastermann's servant, and when she sweeps, the dust she collects is gold. She liberates a soul from a noisy jar, which turns out to be her brother. She is forgiven, but after serving many years, homesickness hardens her decision to flee, and she frees all the souls on departure. The hastrmann pursues but she returns home to her siblings.

As frogs
In a Bohemian version of the butcher tale, a man from Předměřice was really a vodník, regularly shopping from a butcher at Tuřice, but the out-of-town man's habit of pointing the finger at the piece of meat he wanted annoyed the butcher into cutting a finger off one day. But two days later, he was taking the valley path along the Iser (Jizera) and encountered a huge frog which the curious butcher, but it turned into the client he maimed and dragged the butcher into water.

recorded a tale about the pregnant wife of a vodník (vodníkova žena) in frog form, which compelled a housekeeper named Liduška to be its child's godmother, though this tale type has been discussed elsewhere as a widely disseminated piece of Slovak folklore (see under §Slovakia). In this Moravian version (but recorded in Bohemian dialect[?]), the vodník returns from his absence in the guise of a red ribbon (červené mašle), attempting to lure and snatch Liduška, just as he is wont to do with girls with rakes haymaking on meadows by the river.

But in Jungbunzlau (Mladá Boleslav) it was rumored the water demon maintained two castles on the Iser (Jizera ), one by the mill, and other by the brickhouse. At mill was seen a vodník who was completely green, and covered with filamentous green algae; at the other abode was seen the vodník's wife, half maiden, half fish.

Slovakia
In Slovakia, the same water demon may be called voďní chlap meaning "water guy" or "waterman". The water spirit may also be called a molek (var. molok ). There is a story of a localized in a lake in the forest of Dolný Kubín in Orava, where a peasant encounters a waterman (from a lake in Kriváň (village)) pursuing another waterman who stole his wife, guiding him to the lake of the perpetrator. The peasant watches as an underwater fight ensues, culminating in bubbling froth turning red, signaling a bad outcome, and the peasant flees as forewarned.

Slovakian folklore also speak of the vodník's pot (vodníkove hrnce), attested in the former Trencsén County (now Trenčín Region or District), and anecdotally, in the northwestern village of (now attached to Budča) a stream was home to a vodný ("aquatic" man) who purchased pots to trap souls inside.

Appearances
Also according to Boky lore, the vodník had a long beard, and would be naked one moment, then be wearing a blouse (halena) dripping water from its side. Some say a vodník can be identified because the left side of his coat (kabát) is always dripping wet. Some ascribe long flowing hair, or blazing eyes as large as dishes (tanier). It allegedly appeared out of the stream in the form of a "little green boy", according to one witness.

The boatmen on the Váh claim to have witnessed the vodník looking like a man with the head of a black ram, though another that was spotted had green hair and clothing.

The vodník are said to employ ribbons to lure humans (as in Czech regions), according to lore found in the Bratislava area and Nitra in western Slovakia.

Frog wives
The wife of a vodník (vodníkova žena) is said to have the appearance of a frog. There is an anecdote of one that transformed into a frog and went to the home of the plowman where it was feasted, then entertained him in her own abode. In a more intricate but widespread tale, the froglike being with a swollen belly is met by a woman washing in the river Hron, who offers to be the godmother of the unborn child. A servant (drowned man) arrives with news a girl was born, and conveys the godmother to the vodník's home, hidden under the stairs beneath river boulder, which the man splits open with a magic wand. The vodník's wife instructs the woman to sweep and take home the sweepings (which later turn out to be gold and silver), but not to touch the covered pots. The godmother disobeys and overturns a pot revealing a soul had been captured inside. Then in a double pot she finds the soul of her two drowned children, who tells her they were thus captured by the vodník and could not ascend to heaven. She takes her childrens' souls in the pot and makes an escape; thereafter, the river throws up the children's bodies, and they breathe back to life.

This tale type is classed as ATU subtype 476* "In the Frog House", where the type example is a Hungarian folktale, but listing Bulgarian and Polish cognate tales, and Slovene and other comparisons as well.

Bolotnik
Bolotnik (болотник) is the owner of the swamp. He is often considered a relative of the vodyanoy and the leshy. There are many descriptions of him, but most often he was imagined as an old man with long green beard and his body covered in fish scales and algae. The bolotnik is dangerous, and he would pose an especially huge threat to those who play shepherd's pipe at night. In order to lure the person to the swamp, he would parody the sounds of various animals, create wandering lights and grow intoxicating plants. This spirit is often said to be a loner, although in some beliefs he has a wife, a bolotnitsa.

Vodyanitsa
Vodyanitsa (водяница) is a beautiful green-haired water maiden, and she is often said to be the wife of a vodyanoy. This spirit sometimes appears in the form of a golden-finned fish or a white swan. Vodyanitsy (plural: водяницы) prefer forested lakes, mill ponds, wells and (less commonly) seas as their habitat. They are considered harmless spirits, although sometimes they tear the nets and spoil the millstones; the sea vodyanitsy are more aggressive than freshwater ones and are dangerous to ships. According to some beliefs, the main difference between the vodyanitsa and other water spirits is that she is a baptized drowned girl. The term is often used synonymously for rusalka.

Cultural references

 * The first Slovene ballad, written in 1826 by the Slovene national poet France Prešeren, was titled "The Water Man" (Povodni mož). It is about Urška, a flirt from Ljubljana, who ended up in the hands of a handsome man who turned out to be a vodyanoy. The poem is based on a story from The Glory of Carniola, about a dance at Old Square in Ljubljana in July 1547, when Urška Šefer was enchanted by a vodyanoy and tugged to the Ljubljanica. Prešeren wrote it due to his unfulfilled love towards Zalika Dolenc. In the first publication of the poem, the flirt was named Zalika.
 * Composer Antonín Dvořák wrote a symphonic poem entitled Vodník (1896) about this creature, who is also a character in his opera Rusalka.
 * Karel Jaromír Erben's poem "Vodník" is the ninth poem of his Kytice collection, and inspired Dvořák to compose the above-mentioned symphonic poem.
 * The 1974 Czechoslovak comedy film about the end of vodníks in Bohemia, How to Drown Dr. Mracek, the Lawyer (Jak utopit dr. Mráčka aneb Konec vodníků v Čechách).
 * David Wiltshire's novel Child of Vodyanoi (1978, adapted into the TV series The Nightmare Man) used the water spirit as a metaphor for a miniature Russian submarine.
 * Vodyanoy is one of the best known characters of the Soviet cartoons. In the Soviet animated film The Flying Ship (1979), he sings about his loneliness and need to talk with someone.
 * A vodyanoi named Hwiuur features in C. J. Cherryh's Russian novel trilogy, Rusalka (1989), Chernevog (1990), and Yvgenie (1991).
 * In China Miéville's Bas-Lag novels, the Vodyanoi are an aquatic people skilled in water-based magic. In Miéville's Perdido Street Station (2000), Vodyanoi dockworkers go on strike and use their magic to blockade a river shipping route.
 * An aging vodnik is the main character of the novel Hastrman by Czech writer Miloš Urban published in 2001. The novel won the Magnesia Litera prize for literature in 2002. A Czech film based on the first part of the novel was produced in 2018.
 * Vodnik is the main character in the 2013 thriller Croaker, written and directed by Pittsburgh area filmmaker Fred Terling.
 * A Vodyanoy features early in Larry Correia's 2017 novel Monster Hunter Siege.
 * A Vodník appeared as an antagonist in episode 3 of the animated Netflix series Legend Quest, where it terrorized a village by stealing the souls of children.
 * A Vodyanoy is a spirit partner to a Russian shaman named Zria Gagarik in the manga and anime series Shaman King.
 * The Ghosts of Rose Hill features a vodnik named Rudolf Wasserman as its primary antagonist.

In games

 * The Vodyanoi appears as a monster in Dungeons & Dragons. It is described as a variety of Umber hulk.
 * The Witcher video game (2007) portrays a race of water creatures called the vodyanoi, also known as the Fishpeople. Drowners are also referred to as Vodniks.
 * Vodyanoy appears as a playable dragon in the 2018 Nintendo game Dragalia Lost.
 * A Water-attribute monster called the Vodianoi appears in the 2003 FromSoftware game Lost Kingdoms II.
 * A ship called Vodianoy entered Call of Duty: Warzone at the start of Season 2, bringing zombies to Warzone once more, and potentially hinting at the oncoming destruction of Gora Dam.
 * Vodyanoi are depicted as small winged frog monsters in Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader. They are commonly found near the coast and rivers.

title: Vodyanoy


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Floro Dery

Floro Dery (born 18 June 1958) is a Filipino illustrator best known for his work as design supervisor of the 1980s The Transformers TV series and was the visual creator of The Transformers: The Movie. He modified the 1984 character models originally designed by Shōhei Kohara and created the 1985 models, all of which became the visual guidelines both for the comic book and the animated cartoon appearances of those characters. He was also charged with designing all the characters introduced in the movie: Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, Unicron, Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, Junkions, Quintessons, Springer, Blurr, Wheelie, Kup, and Arcee. Finally, he designed sets including Unicron (interior and exterior), Autobot City, Cybertron's moons, Hall of Heroes, the Planet of Junk, Quintessa, etc.

Floro Dery is also known for illustrating the Sunday edition of the syndicated The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip from 1982 to 1992. Design supervisor for the 1986 animated series Wildfire, he was responsible for character design. Dery worked alongside fellow Filipino Alex Niño as a storyboard artist for Sunbow Productions on Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light. He was the character designer for the 1987 animated film Ultraman: The Adventure Begins. He went on to be the production designer for Pirates of Dark Water and a storyboard artist for Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

title: Floro Dery


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Talk:November 27

--mav 00:52, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Removed:
 * 1817 - First Seminole War begins.

Could not be confirmed outside of 'this week in history'-type websites. --mav 06:41, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Removed:
 * 1965 - Ken Kesey hosts the first Acid Test.

Exact day could not be confirmed with good refs. --mav 06:41, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Removed: 1990 - Birth of philanthropist Tom Sunnergren. No refs, and apparently non-notable unless he's the same guy who hosts a comedy blog at www.collegehumor.com/user:276. --Karenjc 21:01, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Casey Calvert death
not added. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.249.45.250 (talk) 02:31, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Park Soo Jin
Park Soo Jin redirects to Sugar (Korean band). Although there is no mention of Park Soo Jin's birth date in that article, a Google search produces a number of references that indicate that her birth date is November 27, 1984. I do not know whether that is sufficient to retain her entry in this article. --Dan Dassow (talk) 23:02, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Not sufficient. The entry must be the subject of a bio article at a minimum per WP:DOY.  -- Mufka (u) (t) (c) 23:21, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 May 2015
1912 - Connie Sawyer, American actress

72.189.56.110 (talk) 11:01, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Padlock-silver-open.svg Not done: According to the page's protection level and your user rights, you should be able to edit the page yourself. If you seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details.  Kharkiv07 Talk  21:27, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Harry and Meghan
I don’t know if Harry and Meghan getting engaged counts as a notable event: a couple gets engaged.

But I think the last time a member of the British Royal Family announced getting married to an American divorcee was notorious: I thought I should add it, as our opinions have deeply changed, over the years.

Oh, I wasn’t too sure: but thought I’d add this link: the BBC news announcement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42137179

Cuddy2977 (talk) 12:13, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

 * Put me in the "Whoop-dee-doo" category on this. Congrats to the young couple, but this isn't news worthy for the main page even though she is American.  posty (talk) 15:12, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

first Sunday of Advent
"celebrated on the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day" This is purely a hortological coincidence, but as stated it implies a relationship. Any reason for it to stay? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 17:58, 27 November 2017 (UTC) agreed. It is the 4th Sunday before Christmas. --142.163.195.186 (talk) 12:10, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Alexander Dubcek
Is he not more notable as a politician than as a soldier (at least in the English speaking world)? Jackiespeel (talk) 17:17, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

Vito
I’ve removed Vito Genovese: as his article show he was born on the 21st of November. Cuddy2977 (talk) 16:34, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:November 27


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Mat Zemlya

Mat Zemlya (Matka Ziemia or Matushka Zeml'ja) is the Moist (or Water) Earth Mother and is probably the oldest deity in Slavic mythology besides Marzanna. She is also called Mati Syra Zemlya meaning Mother Damp Earth or Mother Moist Earth. Her identity later blended into that of Mokosh.

Mythology
In the early Middle Ages, Mati Syra Zemlya was one of the most important deities in the Slavic world. Slavs made oaths by touching the Earth, and sins were confessed into a hole in the Earth before death. She was worshipped in her natural form and was not given a human personage or likeness. Since the adoption of Christianity in all Slavic lands, she has been identified with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

An example of her importance is seen in this traditional invocation to Matka Ziema, made with a jar of hemp oil:

 * East – "Mother Earth, subdue every evil and unclean being so that he may not cast a spell on us nor do us any harm."
 * West – "Mother Earth, engulf the unclean power in thy boiling pits, and in thy burning fires."
 * South – "Mother Earth, calm the winds coming from the South and all bad weather. Calm the moving sands and whirlwinds."
 * North – "Mother Earth, calm the North winds and clouds, subdue the snowstorms and the cold."
 * The jar, which held the oil, is buried after each invocation and offering is made at each Quarter. (Slavonic mythology 1977:287)

Old Slavic beliefs seem to attest some awareness of an ambivalent nature of the Earth: it was considered men's cradle and nurturer during one's lifetime, and, when the time of death came, it would open up to receive their bones, as if it were a "return to the womb".

The imagery of the terre humide ("moist earth") also appears in funeral lamentations either as a geographical feature (as in Lithuanian and Ukrainian lamentations) or invoked as Mère-Terre humide ("Mother Moist Earth").

Cultic practices
Up until World War I and the fall of the Russian Empire, peasant women would perform a rite to prevent against plague by plowing a furrow around the village and calling on the protection of the Earth spirits by shrieking.

Related characters
The Slavic bogatyr Mikula Selyaninovich, or Mikula the Villager, is closely connected with Mat Zemlya.

title: Mat Zemlya


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Kappa Alpha

Kappa Alpha may refer to:
 * Kuklos Adelphon, known as "Old Kappa Alpha" or "Kappa Alpha", an American college Greek-letter fraternity, founded 1812 at the University of North Carolina.
 * Kappa Alpha Society, an American college Greek-letter fraternity, founded 1825 at Union College, Schenectady, New York.
 * Kappa Alpha Order, an American college Greek-letter fraternity, founded 1865 at Washington College, Lexington, Virginia.

title: Kappa Alpha


text:
Howard Baker

Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was an American politician, diplomat and photographer who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985. During his tenure, he rose to the rank of Senate Minority Leader and then Senate Majority Leader. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was the first Republican to be elected to the U.S. Senate in Tennessee since the Reconstruction era.

Known in Washington, D.C., as the "Great Conciliator", Baker was often regarded as one of the most successful senators in terms of brokering compromises, enacting legislation, and maintaining civility. For example, he had a lead role in the fashioning and passing of the Clean Air Act of 1970 with Democratic senator Edmund Muskie. A moderate conservative, he was also respected by his Democratic colleagues.

Baker sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 but dropped out after the first set of primaries. From 1987 to 1988, he served as White House Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan. From 2001 to 2005, he was the United States Ambassador to Japan.

Early life
Baker was born on November 15, 1925, in Huntsville, Tennessee, to Dora Ladd Baker and Howard Baker Sr. His father served as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from 1951 to 1964, representing Tennessee's Second District. Baker attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, and after graduating, he attended Tulane University in New Orleans. Baker was an alumnus of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. During World War II, he trained at a U.S. Navy facility on the campus of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, in the V-12 Navy College Training Program. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1949. That year, he was admitted to the Tennessee bar and began his law practice.

Senate career
Baker began his political career in 1964, when he lost to the liberal Democrat Ross Bass in a U.S. Senate election to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Estes Kefauver. However, Baker only lost by 4.7% points, the closest that a Republican had come to being popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee.

In the 1966 United States Senate election in Tennessee, Bass lost the Democratic primary to the Governor of Tennessee, Frank G. Clement, and Baker handily won his Republican primary race against Kenneth Roberts, 112,617 (75.7%) to 36,043 (24.2%). Baker won the general election, capitalizing on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base, especially organized labor. He won by a somewhat larger-than-expected margin of 55.7% to Clement's 44.2%. Baker thus became the first Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee since the Reconstruction era and the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee. Baker voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Baker was re-elected in 1972 and again in 1978 and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1985. In 1969, he was already a candidate for the Minority Leadership position that opened up with the death of his father-in-law, Everett Dirksen, but Baker was defeated 24–19 by Hugh Scott. At the beginning of the next Congress, in 1971, Baker ran again, losing again to Scott, 24–20.

When Scott retired, Baker was elected as leader of the Senate Republicans in 1977 by his Republican colleagues, defeating Robert Griffin, 19–18. Baker led the Senate GOP for the last eight years of his tenure, serving two terms as Senate Minority Leader from 1977 to 1981, and two terms as Senate Majority Leader from 1981 to 1985, a role he transitioned to after the Republicans gained the majority in the Senate in the 1980 elections.

Baker did not seek further re-election and concluded his Senate career in 1985. He was succeeded by Democratic Representative and future Vice President Al Gore.

Nixon administration
President Richard Nixon asked Baker in 1971 to fill one of the two empty seats on the Supreme Court of the United States. When Baker took too long to decide whether he wanted the appointment, Nixon changed his mind and nominated William Rehnquist instead.

Watergate investigation
In 1973 and 1974, Baker was the influential ranking minority member of the United States Senate Watergate Committee, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin, which investigated the Watergate scandal. Baker famously asked aloud, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" The question is sometimes attributed to being given to him by his counsel and former campaign manager, future U.S. Senator Fred Thompson.

John Dean, former White House Counsel to Nixon, revealed to Senate Watergate chief counsel Samuel Dash that Baker had "secret dealings" with the White House during the congressional investigation. Although Baker, as a US senator, would be a juror in any future impeachment trial, Baker was recorded, on February 22, 1973, promising Nixon, "I'm your friend. I'm going to see that your interests are protected."

Watergate reporter Bob Woodward wrote that then "both the majority Democrats and minority Republicans agreed to share all information." Ultimately, one such document shared by Nixon lawyer J. Fred Buzhardt inadvertently suggested the presence of Nixon's secret taping system.

Presidential campaign
Baker was frequently mentioned by insiders as a possible nominee for Vice President of the United States on a ticket headed by incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976. According to many sources, Baker was a frontrunner until he disclosed that his wife, Joy, was a recovered alcoholic. Ford, whose own wife, Betty, was an alcoholic (albeit undisclosed at the time), chose Kansas U.S. Senator Bob Dole.

Baker ran for U.S. president in 1980, dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination after losing the Iowa caucuses to George H. W. Bush and the New Hampshire presidential primary to Ronald Reagan even though a Gallup poll had him in second place in the presidential race at 18%, behind Reagan at 41% as late as November 1979. Baker's support of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaties was overwhelmingly unpopular, especially among Republicans, and it was a factor in Reagan's choosing Bush instead as his running mate. Ted Stevens served as Acting Minority Leader during Baker's primary campaign.

Reagan administration
In 1984, Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In October 1983, Baker voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.

As a testament to Baker's skill as a negotiator and an honest and amiable broker, Reagan tapped him to serve as White House Chief of Staff during part of Reagan's second term (1987–1988). Many saw that as a move by Reagan to mend relations with the Senate, which had deteriorated somewhat under the previous chief of staff, Donald Regan. In accepting the appointment, Baker chose to skip another bid for the White House in 1988.

Later life
President George W. Bush nominated Baker to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan in March 2001. He was sworn in on June 26 and presented his credentials on July 5. During Baker's tenure, Japan supported the US-led Iraq War and implemented an embargo on American beef due to a BSE outbreak. Baker announced his resignation in December 2004 after returning to the United States for open heart surgery in August.

In 2003, the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs was set up at the University of Tennessee to honor him. Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech at the 2005 ground-breaking ceremony for the center's new building. Upon the building's completion in 2008, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor assisted in the facility's dedication.

In March 2005, Baker was appointed as a senior advisor to Citigroup.

In 2007, Baker joined fellow former Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole, Tom Daschle, and George Mitchell to found the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit think tank that works to develop policies suitable for bipartisan support. He was an advisory board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. From 2005 to 2011, Baker was a member of the board of directors of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a nonprofit that provides international election support.

From 2005 to his death, Baker served as senior counsel to the law firm of his father and his grandfather, Baker Donelson.

Baker was an accomplished lifelong photographer. His photographs have often been exhibited and were published in National Geographic, Life, and in the books Howard Baker's Washington (1982), Big South Fork Country (1993), and Scott's Gulf: The Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness (2000). In 1993, he received the International Award of the American Society of Photographers, and in 1994, he was elected into the Hall of Fame of the Photo Marketing Association.

Death
On June 26, 2014, Baker died at the age of 88 from complications of a stroke that he had suffered a week earlier. He was in his native Huntsville, Tennessee, with his wife, Nancy, by his side.

Honors

 * He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1973.
 * He received the US Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official in 1981, given out annually by the Jefferson Awards
 * He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.
 * The rotunda at the University of Tennessee College of Law was renamed for Baker.
 * While he was delivering a commencement speech during his grandson's graduation at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, on May 5, 2007, Baker was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.
 * He received the Order of the Paulownia Flowers, 2008 (Japan)

Personal life
Baker, a Presbyterian, was married twice. He married his first wife, Danice Joy Dirksen, who the daughter of former Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen in 1951. Together, they had two daughters. After she died of cancer on April 24, 1993, Baker then married U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum, daughter of Kansas Governor Alf Landon, on December 7, 1996.

title: Howard Baker


text:
Zagovory

Zagоvory (singular zagоvor) is a form of verbal folk magic in Eastern Slavic folklore and mythology. Users of zagоvory use incantations to enchant objects or people.

Etymology
The present-day Russian word zagоvor (заговор) corresponds to the English word conjuration, which once meant a 'conspiracy, plot, act of plotting'. Zagоvor ('what is performed with speech') originates from Russian folklore. So does the term nagоvor (наговор), with its prefix of initiation na- and the root -govor ('speech'), meaning 'what is launched with speech'.

Their slight difference in sense can be seen in constructions like "zagovory from maleficium"/"from bullets" (defensive, apotropaic aspect) and nagovory onto water (to make it "healing"). The latter phrase seems to reflect a more offensive action.

The Ukrainian zamowliannia (замовляння) and Belarusian zamowy (замовы) are semantically identical to the Russian zagоvory, as they both possess the root -mov ('speech'). Both of these East Slavic words are close to the Polish term zamawianie. Polish folklore retains rudiments of verbal magic as zamawianie choroby ('popular healing').

History
The practice of Zagоvory arose from pagan prayers and incantations, and so was initially based on the belief in the power of the human word. Hence followed the importance of exact pronunciation of the words (whether whispered or sung) as well as exact observing the associated rites. A great deal of life stamina was obligatory for a performer of the rites. As an example of this, a zagоvory practitioner should have either a full set of teeth, or a knife as a symbolic substitute for teeth that were missing.

Originally part of the art of a volkhv (Cyrillic: волхв; wołchw), who disappeared during the prosecution of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the zagоvory tradition survived until the 20th century in popular folk culture, often under the guise of a noncanonical Christian prayer.

In the Russian Empire, zagovory praxes were for centuries prosecuted by its church and by its secular, caesaropapist authorities (at least from mid-17th till mid-19th century). Russian archives yielded more than 600 cases of church and civil prosecution of witchcraft, blasphemy and rational heresies in the 18th century. Even in 1832, after Digest of Laws of the Russian Empire had been first codified under the leadership of Mikhail Speransky, witchcraft and sorcery still remained a subject of the secular Penal law.

For the sake of survival zagovory tradition began to mimic Christianity. Zagovory imagery became saturated with Christian themes and motifs, used as a reference base for performing magic acts. However within Byzantine written tradition (which embraced the Southern Slavs cultural intermediation) both Christian orthodoxy and some heterodox manuscripts circulated, which might echo back local heathen concepts.

For example, one of the zagovory (apparently influenced by christianization, though representing rather a specific vision) named "how to heal wounds" said "as Jesus Christ having been crucified felt no pain, so may this person I heal feel no pain from any wounds, from any illnesses".

Another layer in zagovory heritage could be of Western origin. Each of the motifs shared by East and West Slavs has West European (mostly Germanic) matches. This indicates that West Slavic charms served as a mediator between the East Slavic tradition and Western influences.

The magical formula "Stop, blood, as still in the wound, as water/Jesus in the Jordan" is an example of a treated person's bleeding wound assimilation with a Medieval apocryphal story of how the Jordan waters stopped flowing when Jesus entered them. It is attested in Belarus, Ukraine, somewhat rare in South and West Russia. As for other Slavic traditions, the formula occurs in Poland and, even more commonly, in Polish texts recorded in Lithuania; it is also found in Czech charms, though intended against disorders other than bleeding.

Geographically the Eastern Slavic zagovory tradition area could be roughly divided into two subareas (with their own subtraditions, correspondingly).

One of them is the tradition of the Russian North and adjoining Central Russian regions. This tradition was less influenced by neighboring cultures through direct contacts, though strongly influenced by the manuscript tradition. As a result it is not too diverse in the composition of plots and motifs. But the most famous plots, motifs and formulas which are considered an authentic feature of Russian (and all East Slavic) zagovory (such as the motive of the sacred center, Alatyr stone on Buyan island amid holy sea) seem to come from there.

Within the second tradition, covering most of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the south and west Russian regions, the West and South Slavic (as well as Byzantine) influence manifested itself to the greatest extent. The result is the coexistence and active interaction of plots, motifs and poetic formulas of different origins.

Mythological center and assimilation formulas

While the idea of the mythological center is totally absent in incantations of West and South Slavs, it is known in the folklore of all East Slavs, especially in Russian tradition of zagovory.

In Eastern Slavic folk religion the concept of Navel of the World is embodied by a sacred stone Alatyr (frequently referred as white and hot), located somewhere in the East (either in a pristine ("clear") field or Buyan island amid a holy sea/ocean).

The Alatyr appears in most of the zagovory under a variety of names. Much less than usually it is replaced by a sacred tree (for instance, a willow or a white birch) or a non-specified Christian church.

Appeals to such natural phenomena as dawn with red sun (and Eastern side of the world as such), young (new) moon, stars, winds are also very frequent.

As to personalized phenomena in those mythopoetic texts, one can see that heathen and Christian characters are often interchangeable. For instance, in different versions of the same zagovory, the supreme power that a practitioner applies to is either Maria (Mother of God) or "Dawn the Red Maiden" (Zorya).

In some of the zagovory a practitioner appeals to Western side of the world for help in maleficium. Nevertheless, the absolute majority of zagovory texts focused on good deeds, such as healing people and livestock, attracting luck, love affairs, wedding protection, birth support and public relations. In Western Siberia a zagovor was written down, named "for good deeds", which should have been read thrice around new moon. It said: "...I behold a young crescent with golden horns, give, my God, golden horns to new moon, so give to me, for good deeds..."

Another type of zagovor involved love magic "just as doves live in love, so would we with so-and-so do..." The practitioner performing this zagovor (recorded in Perm Governorate) had to perform a bird sacrifice: the young man had to  catch and stab a dove and knead its fat into dough to bake a kind of a small kalach, which he then had to feed to the girl he loved, saying as he did so the short incantation quoted above.

A recorded in 1648 nagovor onto wax named "how to endure a torture" established that "both heaven and earth are made of bast", and then made a wish "just as the dead in the earth feel nothing, may so-and-so likewise feel no pain from any atrocities, any tortures".

The most usual beginning of a Russian North zagovor was "blessed I rise, setting forth through doors and gates opening to the East, to the Eastern side, to the pristine field, to the sea-ocean, onward to the holy island of God... where lies the stone Alatyr..."

In the middle of zagovory the body part the practitioner was seeking to influence was patterned in assimilation with natural or sacred phenomena, as in this haemostatic example: "... just as the stone Alatyr yields no water, may I yield no blood ... neither a hen yields any milk, a cock any egg, nor would so-and-so bleed... neither blood from a bone, nor water from a stone..."

The typical ending of zagovory (accompanied by symbolism of both key and lock) often included the statement "May my words be (both) firm and plasteringly adherent".

Humanities
In Russian humanities, the term zagovory is often used broadly, for any manifestation of faith in the magic power of the human word, thus applied to completely different cultural phenomena of the humankind (from Anglo-Saxon metrical charms   to Atharvaveda's suktas).

title: Zagovory