Leshy

In a Russian appliqué panel of 1899 and in a French demonology of 1863

~

thus methinks, mayhap ‘tis some woodland spirit, a leshy

Two goes at drawing him, thirty-six years and one border apart.

Maria Yakunchikova, «Девочка и леший» — Girl and Leshy, 1899

A wall panel in cotton, linen and wool, appliquéd after the artist’s design. He is not the subject; he is the small watching thing behind a trunk, half a field away, while the girl gets on with her errand and the fly agarics come up red beside her.

Appliqué panel: a barefoot girl in a striped blue skirt and headscarf stands with a bundle at the edge of a wood of pines and birches, a clump of red fly agarics beside the trees, and behind a trunk in the middle distance a small pale long-bearded figure watching her
Appliqué panel: a barefoot girl in a striped blue skirt and headscarf stands with a bundle at the edge of a wood of pines and birches, a clump of red fly agarics beside the trees, and behind a trunk in the middle distance a small pale long-bearded figure watching her

Public domain · Maria Yakunchikova (1870–1902) · Wikimedia Commons

~ ~ ~

Louis Le Breton, “Lechies”, Dictionnaire Infernal, 1863

The French filed him under demons and drew him as a goat in a coat.

Wood engraving: a goat-headed figure with long curving horns, seated on the ground in a heavy coat, arms folded over its knees, cloven hooves and bare human-like feet
Wood engraving: a goat-headed figure with long curving horns, seated on the ground in a heavy coat, arms folded over its knees, cloven hooves and bare human-like feet

Public domain · Louis Le Breton (1818–1866) · Wikimedia Commons