Schabbock

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The Schabbock (short Schab ) is next to the Trud the most famous and most impressive legendary figure of the south west Styria . This night spirit is known in various forms in other parts of Austria and Bavaria (and probably also in Slovenia ). However, people who claim to have seen this mythical creature still live in the area around the Koralpe .

Creation of a ram

In western Styria the following explanation is known for the development of a shabbock: "If bride and groom who have already ordered the bunch do not live modestly and celibate in the last few weeks before the wedding and a child is born from this connection, then it has the burden wear to disturb people as a night ghost . If it is a boy, then he appears as a shabuck and is after small children. If it is a girl, it appears invisibly as a Trud [...] "(quote: Wippel) .

Appearance

Eyewitnesses reported Isabella Wippel, who collected myths from western Styria in the 1980s , the following about the shabbok: "The front of the shabuck has a glowing spitz or a glowing head, behind a glowing birch broom, from which it 'dawns'" (which probably means sparks) .

function

The ram's job is to kill young children. He flies across the country before midnight or crouches on the Vistula trees next to the farmhouses or on their roof gables. There he waits until parents leave their nappy-changing children alone, and then pushes the children to death.

Defense measures

As a defense measure, something “consecrated”, a rosary , a hemp stalk in the cot and a man's skirt is considered. Furthermore, the grandmother of Mrs. Hafner in Soboth recommended that the nappy-changing children should be smoked with shabbok herb and hemp stalks to ward off the shabbock , as the shabbat is allergic to hemp . Of course, there are also some defensive lines to drive away the scapegoat. For example this: “Help God! Me and you, Schabbock push next to vür "(... over)

The scapegoat as a scapegoat

It is not known which ancient figure the Schabbock is based on or which culture it originally comes from. The child-killing night ghost presumably arose out of a desire to explain sudden infant death syndrome. But there are also legends about toddlers who were badly battered by the rascal or hung on the door handle. These were probably crimes that, in the absence of police prosecution, were simply attributed to the scabbard.

literature