Baba Yaga (Baba Jaga)

In a number of East European myths, a Baba Yaga (there are more than one) is a cannibalistic witch who lives in a hut on the edge of the forest. The hut stands on chicken legs and will only lower itself after Baba Yaga said a certain rhyme. Surrounding the hut is a picket fence on which she places the skulls of her victims. For transportation Baba Yaga uses a giant mortar which she drives at high speed across the forest floor by steering the pestle with her right hand and sweeping away all traces of her passage with a broom in the left hand. She is often followed by a host of spirits.

Baba Yaga is often represented as a little, ugly old woman with a huge and distorted nose and long teeth. She is also called Jezi-Baba or Baba Yaga Kostianaya Noga ("bone-legs"), referring to the fact that she is rather skinny in appearance. She is regarded as the devil's own grandmother.

In old Hungarian folklore, Baba ("old woman") was a originally a good fairy but was later degraded to a witch. A Baba Yaga is a hard bargainer, and will threaten to eat those who do not fulfil their part of an agreement.