Szeptucha i Natura. Od analizy leksykograficznej do opowieści Nadziei Bittel-Dobrzyńskiej

Abstract

The aim of the article is to demonstarte the relationship of the witch-doctor, a Podlasie healer, with nature. It presents a lexicographical analysis of the word szeptucha, centred primarily around Jan Karłowicz’s definition proposed in the dictionary of Polish dialects. Next, it discusses the relationship between witch-doctors and nature on the basis of the autobiographical prose Jak wiedźma Agrypicha znachorstwa mnie uczyła [How the witch Agripicha taught me the healing witchcraft] by Nadzieja Bittel-Dobrzyńska, which is connected with the historical and geographical motherland of witch-doctors: the Vilnius region, the Polish-Belarusian borderland and Podlasie.