Tickle me Forest Demon...

[Jamandi]

I found this tickle-demon by accident and was pleasantly surprised. Such behaviors as "kidnapping young women" and "tickle them almost to death" stuck out. Whether or not this web site is real/accurate is best left up to people who know a lot more about this type of mythology then I do. I just thought it was cool.

Lechies

Leshy (aka Lesiy, Lesiye, Lyeshe, Lyeshy, Lesovik, Miehts-Hozjin) is a Slavic forest faun/satyr, similar in nature to the Polevik sprites. He protects the birds & animals of the forest, & his protection is the bear. In terms of appearance, his shape is human, his blood & skin tone are blue, his eyes & beard are green, he wears his shoes on the wrong feet, & he doesn't have a shadow. Sometimes he appears with horns, goat's feet & finger claws, similar to the devil. It is thought that his parents were a mortal woman and a demon. His wife's nave is Leshacikha & his children are known as the Leshonki. Leshy isn't always evil, though he enjoys misguiding humans & kidnapping young women. He can be thwarted if one wears their clothes backwards.

Dictionnaire Infernal - Collin de Plancy (1863) (paraphrased)
Lechies were Russian demons that lived in the woods. They had human bodies from the waist up with the horns, ears, and beard of a she-goat. From the waist down, they had a goat's body. They would shrink themselves to the height of the grass when marching through fields, but would grow to the size of the tallest trees when they ran through the forest. They had horrible cries, but could imitate voices familiar to wanderers & could lure them back to their caves, where they would tickle them almost to death.

http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/mythology/lechies.asp

 

[milagros317]

the Rusalka

In Russian folklore, there is also a femle creature, the Rusalka, variously called a water-spirit or mermaid, that sometimes tickles men to death.

Two quotes from websites about Russian folklore:

RUSALKA

In contrast to the bride, there is a female folk figure in traditional East Slavic lore whose hair is permanently loose and uncontrolled; she is the rusalka. The rusalka of traditional beliefs is a powerful and enticing figure. She is described as a pale, lithe, often beautiful female spirit who lives in the water, forests and fields. She sits with other water spirits on the shore, yelling and laughing, or dancing and singing in the moonlight of clear, summer nights. She is known to swing on tree branches, waiting to entice an unsuspecting male passer-by, whom she often attacks and (perhaps inadvertently) tickles to death. The rusalka's characteristic physical attributes are her long, light-brown, blond, or green, loose hair, her blazing eyes, and her magnificent breasts. She is noted for her beautiful voice and melodious laugh. On the rare occasions when the rusalka is dressed, she wears white. In addition, some sources report that if the rusalka, and especially her hair, ever dries out, she will perish.(20)

The rusalka was believed by many nineteenth century peasants to be the soul of an unbaptized or stillborn baby, or the wandering soul of a young, unmarried but often betrothed woman who had died an untimely death, or who had become pregnant out of wedlock and drowned or hanged herself. In this way, she may be seen as a symbol of potent yet not-quite-tapped fertility, and as such is celebrated and feared during the spring festival, Rusal'naia nedelia (mermaid week), during which people played music, danced and sang to celebrate new vegetation. It was during this week that the rusalka was believed to leave her watery home to wander in the forests and fields, and bring moisture to the crops. Peasants decorated their homes with fresh green birch branches (the rusalka's tree), and young girls often went to the woods and decorated actual trees with cloth, thread and garlands, and then danced the khorovod (circle dance) and swore vows of friendship and sisterhood. But the water creature was also feared at this time. To appease her, peasant women left offerings in the woods of scarves and linen. Others attempted to minimize the rusalka's harm by using the sign of the cross, magic circles, garlic, wormwood, incense, pokers and charms.(21)

Not all the spirits in Russian legend are malicious, however. The Rusalka, we learned, is a mermaid who lives in the forest. While she does have the power to injure by spoiling a harvest or tickling a man to death, she is also endowed with the power to heal. A Snopot villager told a story of a woman who had been ill for a very long time. While walking in a meadow one day, the woman heard a baby crying. Following the sound, she found a naked baby in the grass and covered it with her head scarf. The Rusalka, dressed in white, appeared and thanked the woman for clothing her child. She gave the woman a piece of paper with writing on it and told her place it on her chest under her clothing. The woman followed the Rusalka’s instructions, and her health was restored.

 

[Jamandi]

If only I could get one for myself

 

[battlecat]

She is described as a pale, lithe, often beautiful female spirit who lives in the water, forests and fields. She sits with other water spirits on the shore, yelling and laughing, or dancing and singing in the moonlight of clear, summer nights. She is known to swing on tree branches, waiting to entice an unsuspecting male passer-by, whom she often attacks and (perhaps inadvertently) tickles to death. The rusalka's characteristic physical attributes are her long, light-brown, blond, or green, loose hair, her blazing eyes, and her magnificent breasts. She is noted for her beautiful voice and melodious laugh. On the rare occasions when the rusalka is dressed, she wears white. :

Hey that sounds just like a 'Hippy chick' I used to have a bit of sexy fun with at University. She wasn't Russian or Slavic (Scottish actually!!) but she was certainly pale, lithe and beautiul with amazing eyes and the most magnificent breasts. She was also even more into tickling than me and once or twice I swear i thought she was going to tickle me to death !!
We loved to go skinny-dipping together in a local moonlit lake and I never quite worked out if it was the moonlight, the feel of the water on her body or just the excitement of possibly being discovered but our moonlit swims always made her so horny she was virtually insatiable sexually for a hours afterwards. God those woods definately saw some action that year, somewhere there is even a tree with our initals carved in it.
Hey do you think she could have been a RUSALKA ??