Boginka

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In Polish pagan mythology, boginki (singular: boginka)^[a] are female spirits or demons of wild nature: forest, field, mountains, water (both of land and sea), often a personification of forces of the nature. The word literally means "minor goddess" in Polish. and may be translated as "fairy" or "nymph". They were usually imagined as either ugly old hags or prelly young girls, usually naked. They are usually evil.^[2]

Some boginki are rusałka, vila, dziwożona, łaskotałka, mamuna [pl], nawka, dziwożona. The term "boginka" started to be applied to any of them.

Boginki (mamuny) can steal a human child and substitute them. Such substituted child is called boginiak, płonek , podrzutek, or odmieniak ("changeling"). ^[3] Often children with mental disabilities were thought to be such.^[4]

There are various folk means to fend off boginki.^[5]

• 
  "A drowned man in the arms of a dziwożona", Jacek Malczewski
• 
  Opętany, Jacek Malczewski (a man bewitched by a boginka)
• 
  Boginka tatrzańska, Walery Eljasz Radzikowski (1905): a highlander meets boginka of Tatry

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