Baba Yaga goddess of birth and death devolved into the bogeywoman of Russian fairy tales a cannibal forest-witch her name used to threaten children into obedience: "Be good or Baba Yaga will get you." Baba Yaga doesn't just eat children, sometimes she defends them by dispensing justice to evil step-mothers. Baba may be petitioned for fertility by those who lack it. She allegedly knows every botanical healing secret in existence, whether or not she can be persuaded to reveal these secrets is another story. Baba Yaga is the Mistress of All Witches Lady of the Beasts the Primal Mother who rescues nurtures and destroys. Her favored people are witches herbalists heroes and hardworking advocates for wild nature but be cautioned: Baba Yaga has no patience with slackers whiners and ingrates of: any persuasion.
Baba Yaga lives in the heart of a deep birch forest in a little hut named Izbushka (literally "little hut") that usually stands on stilt-like chicken's feet but occasionally on goat's legs or even on spindle heels. Baba Yaga's hut obeys orders. Say "Izbushka Izbushka! Stand with your back to the forest and your front to me" and it does as directed. The house is formed from bones personally collected by Baba herself. The doorposts are leg bones, the lock is a sharp-toothed mouth, the bolt is a hand. The fence consists of bones crowned with skulls whose empty eye sock- ets glow in the dark. The house is dominated by an oven akin to a cauldron of regeneration and Baba Yaga stories may be understood as tales of initiation sometimes but not always successful.