From time immemorial, the Slavs went mushrooming, which markedly differed from their European neighbors, who neglected the forest gifts of nature and praised, for example, dishes from frogs.
"Treasured words"
Starting in the second half of the summer, whole villages left for forests, pine forests and groves, after which dozens and hundreds of carts, “to the eyeballs” loaded with fresh, dried and salted mushrooms, were sent to city bazaars. At the same time, simple-minded villagers were always very suspicious of mushrooms growing “out of nowhere” and tried to explain their appearance either by lightning strikes, or “divine spits,” or, conversely, by the devil’s pranks, or by the magic action of the rainbow and even their own sins. Like, oak mushrooms and aspen mushrooms among them are the most serious, and russula and pigs are insignificant.
According to established beliefs, everything that was in the forest belonged to its sole owner - the devil. Therefore, before proceeding to the collection of mushrooms, it was necessary, firstly, to ask his permission, and secondly, to perform certain rituals and utter special "cherished words" so that the mushrooms in the grass and foliage do not hide and fall under their own feet. Otherwise, you could return home with an empty basket.
Of course, everyone had his own words, as well as ritual actions. According to one of them, in order not to waste dozens of versts in the forest paths, at the entrance to the forest it was necessary to put stalks of various blades of grass in the cap or under a scarf and hide a piece of moss in your pocket.
Already engaged in "silent hunting", the villagers kept in their heads and special signs that helped in collecting mushrooms. So, if a hare suddenly jumped out from under your feet, you should definitely go after it, because a scythe, as a rule, tried to hide from a person exclusively in mushroom places.
Into a circle - not a foot
Old-timers claimed that in leap years, mushroom yields were usually twice as large as usual. But this is due solely to the mass appearance of poisonous counterparts. In this regard, our ancestors even thought up a saying quite accurately reflecting the state of things: "To carry mushrooms from a forest in such a year is to carry coffins to the cemetery!"
But, hunting is more than captivity, and therefore, in order to “be safe” from poisoning with false boletus and lumps, the mushroom pickers plotted before entering the forest, supposedly protecting from “poison, abdominal pains, cold chills and indigestion”.
The villagers were especially careful when picking mushrooms in the so-called "witch circles", the essence of which modern scientists have long explained scientifically. Previously, having discovered a strange circle in a forest glade, absolutely devoid of vegetation in the center and densely covered with mushrooms at the edges, people sincerely believed that witches arranged their covens at night on this stretch of land.
Naturally, stout saffron mushrooms, brown boletus and oily mushrooms were picked by mushroom pickers from the edge of the circles, but they didn’t agree to any carriages to step inside so as not to accidentally fall into the netherworld.
