The legends from the Vitebsk Governorate of Russia said that bolotnik is a dirty, fat, eyeless creature that motionlessly sits at the bottom of the swamp.
Bolotniki (plural) are rarely found in folklore, and the swamp-dwelling spirit was often thought of as a kind of vodyanoy, leshy[3] or chort.
The naming "antsybal", according to one version, is an old borrowing from the Baltic languages, compared with the Lithuanian ančiabalis, meaning "duck swamp".
The very origin of the swamps in the Vitebsk Governorate was associated with the earth, which, during the creation of land by God, the chort hid in his mouth, and then spat it out.
[4][5] The origin of bolotniki, according to popular legends, is the same as that of the rest of the evil spirits: they are fallen angels thrown down from heaven by God or the creations of Satan.
[5][2] Bagnik (also spelled bugnik; Russian: багник; Belarusian: багнік), a spirit of a lower rank, lives in bogs and never appears on the surface, and only grabs people by the legs.
[5][2] Polish błotnik is an evil spirit appearing in the form of a pitch-black man with a lantern in his hands, who, illuminating the way for the travelers, leads them astray towards the swamp.
In some places she was considered to be more like a spirit that had no connections with the human race; according to one Russian folktale, Bolotnitsa is a singular being, one of the seven likhomanka sisters.
[4] Modern residents of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast believe that the bolotnitsa is shaggy, scary and green and that she sits in a swamp all the time, leaving it only at night.
In the north of the Omsk Governorate, there was a legend about a bolotnitsa named Marya, who lured young men to the swamp bumps, where they met their deaths.
[13] Bolotnitsy (plural) were attributed to a special malice: they were capable of causing storms, downpours and hail, thereby destroying crops.
The belief is associated with a large amount of iron ore deposits in impenetrable forest bogs on the territory of Belarus, especially Polesie.
She may look like a short, ugly old hag or a middle-aged woman covered in grasses and moss, but she usually takes on an invisible form.
Babay (Бабай), a night spirit from Russian and Ukrainian folklore, according to some beliefs, lives in a swamp, hiding in thickets of reeds during the daylight hours.
According to some accounts, the swamp spirits, including the bolotnik, bolotnitsa, kikimora and karakondjul, are the companions and assistants of One-Eyed Likho (Russian: Лихо Одноглазое).