In Slavic mythology, in particular the Czech and Slovak fairy tales, vodník is a water spirit. In German sources, he is generally referred to as Wasserman. The Czech and Slovak vodníci (plural of vodník) can take on an appearance of ordinary humans, but often with water dripping from their clothing, which makes their false identity easily discernable. Some accounts give them green color, and also long hair or beard in Slovak versions. There is an isolated Czech example of the vodník being human-like but transforming into a frog. Czech, Slovenian and Slovak tales have both evil and good watermen (relative to human beings) who do (or don't, respectively) try to drown people when they happen to swim in their territory. They will also attempt to lure victims with trinkets and colourful ribbons. Vodníci would store the souls of the drowned inside pots, and the liberated souls can ascend to heaven, or even revive. Except for fish (or perhaps fish spirits), they do not have servants. Otherwise, vodníci spend their time running their territory or – in their spare time – playing cards, smoking pipes or just sitting at the water surface (on rocks or willows nearby) and loitering.
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