Ebajalg

Also Known As: the South Estonian name for the whirlwind spirit; elsewhere in Estonia called tuulispask, tuulispea, tuulispää, keerandus, tuulepööris or vihur; the word joins eba-, false or sham, to jalg, foot
Region/Culture: Northern Europe
Mythos: Baltic Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Fairy Folk and Spirit Beings
Mythical Attributes: The ebajalg is a spirit that travels as a small whirlwind, strong enough to lift haycocks and carry grain, hay and laundry away from their owners.
Role in Mythos: In Estonian folk belief it is the usual explanation for a dust whirl on a still day, most often taken to be the soul of a living witch out stealing.
Relation to Humans: It robs fields and yards, and it can carry off a household’s luck or bring sickness with it. People fought back by throwing a knife, axe, scythe or sickle into the spinning air, knowing that a wound to the wind would appear on a human body somewhere else.

On a hot, windless afternoon in the hay season, a twist of dust stands up at the edge of a field. Straw climbs into it. It leans, wanders along the swath with a dry hiss, and takes the top off a haycock as it passes. Then it thins out over the road and is gone, and the air is as heavy and still as before. In the south of Estonia the people raking that field had a name for what had just walked through their hay. It was an ebajalg, and somebody had sent it.

The word belongs to the southern dialects. Across the rest of the country the same thing went by tuulispask, tuulispea or keerandus, and the folklorist Matthias Johann Eisen, who gathered the beliefs together in 1926, listed a good many more. The names differ. The belief under them is steady. A small whirlwind on a calm day was not weather. It was a being with a purpose, and the purpose was theft.

Most often it was a witch. The usual account, as Eisen set it down, says that a witch could send her soul out of her body to gather goods, and that the soul left as a small winged creature. She lay down first. She stopped the openings of her body with earth and left only the mouth free, and through the mouth the soul went out. Some said her soles had to be rubbed with blood on three Thursday evenings before any of this would work. What then crossed the fields as a spinning pillar of dust was the woman herself, in the only part of her that could fly, while her body lay cold and unmoving at home.

Other explanations ran alongside this one. The whirlwind might be the soul of someone dead. It might be a thing made or sent by a witch. Among the Setu of the southeast it could be the devil, or the devil’s son or mother. Whirlwind spirits were usually thought of as women, though men were known, and people tended to place them somewhere else. In Viru they were old Finnish women. In Võru they were aunts from Viru. A witch was also said to be able to turn other people into whirlwinds against their will.

As for what it looks like, the plain answer is that it looks like wind. The dust and chaff it lifts are all that can be seen, and the spirit inside keeps out of sight. It could be made to appear by mocking or angering it. If it was someone the watcher knew, they might recognize her, and spitting at it was said to help reveal who it was. The ebajalg enjoyed taunting the people who watched it work.

Its strength was real enough to fear. It could carry off whole haycocks. It took grain from the field and washing from the line. It was a thief first and last. Anyone who stepped in to stop it was seized, their hair and clothing knotted, their body rolled along the ground. Beyond the visible losses it was blamed for taking a farm’s luck and for leaving illness behind.

The remedy was iron with an edge. People threw whatever tool was in hand, a knife, an axe, a scythe, a sickle, straight into the whirl. A hit on the spirit was a hit on its owner, so that the witch lying at home would be found with the wound. A spirit caught or cut in this way was said to have learned its lesson and never to come back. There was also a spoken charm, recorded in the nineteenth century by the linguist Wiedemann, for bringing a whirlwind to heel.

That link between wind and body is the ebajalg’s great weakness, and it is also where the stories turn dark. One tale tells of the strongest young man in a village, who saw an ebajalg and put his knife into it. It was a good throw. When the dust settled and the news came, he learned that he had killed his own bride.

Not every whirlwind needed a soul. The Estonian Folklore Archives hold an account taken down in Häädemeeste parish in 1956 from Peeter Veide, then about eighty, who remembered his father going to a crossroads, blowing into a bottle and speaking words into the wind. A strong whirl soon rose and spun the leaves and rubbish about. The same archive keeps reports from Rapla County in the 1930s saying that the wind is itself a spirit and that its howling is speech.

The ebajalg’s limits follow from what it is. It lasts only as long as a dust whirl lasts, which is seconds, perhaps a minute. It works by day, in warm still weather, in the open. It can be stopped by any farmhand with a blade and a steady arm. And because its owner’s body lies helpless while the soul is out, every theft is a wager with the witch’s own life.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an ebajalg?

An ebajalg is a whirlwind spirit in Estonian folk belief. It appears as a small spinning column of dust on a calm day and steals grain, hay and other goods from fields and yards. The name ebajalg is used in southern Estonia, and the same being is called tuulispask or tuulispea elsewhere.

Who or what is inside an ebajalg?

An ebajalg was most often said to be the soul of a living witch, sent out of her body to gather goods. Other accounts make it the soul of a dead person, a creature made or sent by a witch, or, among the Setu, the devil or the devil’s son or mother. Whirlwind spirits were usually thought of as women.

How do you stop an ebajalg?

The traditional defence against an ebajalg was to throw a bladed tool such as a knife, axe, scythe or sickle into the whirlwind. A blow that struck the spirit also wounded the person whose soul it was. A spirit that was caught or cut was said never to return.

What does an ebajalg do to people?

An ebajalg robs people of grain, hay and laundry, and it was also blamed for carrying away a farm’s luck and bringing illness. It could lift whole haycocks. People who tried to block it had their hair and clothes tangled and were rolled along the ground.

What is the story of the ebajalg and the bride?

In one Estonian tale the strongest young man in a village threw his knife at an ebajalg. He then found out that he had killed his own bride, because the whirlwind was her. The story shows the belief that a wound given to the whirlwind lands on a human body.