This is for LSM and Alex, to pull it out of another thread. Alex, you forgot the part about the CLOCK in the shape of the hut. That is the reference you need. ;) This object is depicted in 2 artistic venues linked by the same 2 names. (Hi, Sharon, my turn!) In most illustrations, the hut is on 2 ckicken legs because it turns around to face her when she gets home. (This is a bit hard to do on one leg, even if it is magical.) There is often a fence with talking skulls or lighted skulls... but I wonder about the need for a fence. How many people are going to walk up to a witch's house willingly anyway? She doesn't strike me as the sort who washes dishes, or makes pastries and has a samovar of steaming tea waiting for guests. She has been known to keep her word... which is a point in her favor. The Sunbirds site is a nice one. Their version of The Lady of Copper Mountain was something that I snagged last year. My RPG vikings are traveling through Russia and every once in a while I throw them situations in which a slippery tongue is better than a well-oiled blade. ;^) Speaking of Vikings, I'm running 5 events and hostessing 2 dinners at the convention this upcoming weekend, so I'll be temporarily dropping out of online discussions in the next day or so while I gather props and character sheets and such. The 2 RPGs are both set in my Viking world. If anybody is familiar with the "whimsey tables" from Arduin - I wrote my own. :)= THAT ought to strike fear into the heart of a campaigner. Yowser, where do the days go? Carolly

carolly, i only found that hartmann's design for a baba yaga's clock and it has indeed two legs (or maybe even four, it's hard to tell from the drawing). the fence was needed for the skulls so they can talk to "guests" and talk them into waiting for her. but she was sometimes helpfull: for vasilisa and ivanushka, though not in the way they'd expect it...

Bingo! You've struck gold. :) Moussorgsky wrote "Pictures at an Exhibition" after visiting the posthumous exhibit of 400 works by his good friend Hartmann. Hartmann must have been a special person to have so many mourn his passing, but the musical suite is much more famous than his own artwork. Most people think that the "Pictures" are all paintings, but most were designs for other applications: theatre sets and costumes, proposed buildings (although the 12th century Gate at Kiev is vastly better than Hartmann's design for a new one), decorative work. In those days artists turned their hand to stamps, flatware, and curtain patterns, whatever would pay the bills, and ordinary folks didn't have to flinch in the store. (I buy plain TP, tissues, and paper towels because the patterns are so ugly that they aren't good enough to wipe with!) Anyway, that is an exquisite little clock, nd you can see why Moussorgsky could envision it turning and spinning away. Sometimes our value to the human community isn't what we do ourselves, but what we can inspire in others. Carolly

I thought the fence was the counterpart of Count D.'s having to be invited in: cross the line and you are fair game, like accepting the License agreement by running setup.

Well, anybody who is wandering around the woods is fair game! Baba Yaga goes tearing around hunting for someone to eat, and there isn't a copcar on 3 continents which can catch a mortar and pestle... much less slow it down enough to hand out a speeding ticket. Being inside her yard may actually constitute some protection as "guest right"... like being questioned before being eaten. ;) Carolly

ROTFLMAO! "... like accepting the License agreement by running setup." Baba Yaga = Bill Gates? Bwa ha ha Ha HA!

hauksdottir: two questions - 1) Where does the Hut hide it's wings when it's not flying? 2) What is the skull's name? and what is his relationship to (bikermouse invokes "Spell of Protection",) "BaBa Yaga"?