People who live in Zvarte know a legend about witches! They say that when it’s windy at night, witches are flying from faraway places like the forests of Ziluzi and Vilkate. They dance, eat together, and use a language that no one can understand. The biggest parties happen on New Year’s Eve and at Midsummer. Then it’s better not to go out and look down on Zvarte.

Only evil women can turn into witches. On a Saturday near Midsummer, after a whipping, they wrap themselves in a white cloth and lie on their mouths in the bushes. Then the devil comes and turns them into a witch. From then on they can live in a house or in the forest, run on the ground or fly in the air, be seen or ne invisible, and be human or not human. Witches can make thunderstorms and hailstorms, and they can make the grass die. They can tear the moon from the sky and make Amata stand still. Lord, have mercy! Witches make people sick or turn them into stone.

Young witches don’t know all this right away. The devils teach them the evil arts at the top of the Bell Tower. If the young witches do what the devils say, if they remember all the wickedness well, everything is calm. But if they resist the devils, then the river turns into whirlpools. The witches and devils fight until the first rooster crows. Then the witches jump down, find their brooms, and fly away before the third rooster crows.

During the day, a witch looks like an ordinary woman, but she has a long tail hidden under her clothes! It’s a tricky life in Zvarte…

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