Hut on chicken legs – the figurative name comes from those wooden log cabins, which in the old days, in order to protect them from rotting, were placed on stumps with chopped roots and fumigated with smoke from insects. One of the wooden churches in old Moscow, placed, due to the topiness of the place, on such stumps, was called "Nikola on chicken legs". From the Slavic word "smoking", which originally meant burning incense resin or a mixture as a sacrifice, as well as the incense mixture itself, is now used only in the meaning of smoking tobacco. Here are some old Russian games.
SMOKING ROOM. The players sit down next to each other, light a thin splinter and, when it flares up, extinguish it. While the fire is smouldering, the splinter is passed from hand to hand until it stops smoking. Whoever has it extinguished must fulfill some order. While the splinter is being passed, they sing:
Once upon a time there was a Smoking room,
Once upon a time there was a strangler.
Already at the Smoking Room,
Already at the strangler
The legs are small,
The soul is short.
Don't die, Smoker,
Don't die, strangler!
Already at the Smoking Room,
Already at the strangler —
The legs are small.
The soul is short.
Alive, alive
Smoking room,
Alive, alive strangler.
BURNERS. The players form pairs and become a string. Ahead by two steps, "burning" ("gorelytsik", "goryun", etc.) is the one who drives. He is forbidden to look back. The players sing – shout:
Burn, burn clearly,
So that it doesn't go out.
Stay hemline —
Look in the field.
Trumpeters are going there.
Yes, they eat rolls.
Look at the sky —
The stars are burning,
Cranes are screaming —
Goo, goo, goo, I'll run away.
One, two, not a crow,
Run like fire.
The "burning one" has to look at the sky, and meanwhile the rear pair separates and runs – one on one side of the string of pairs, and the other on the other, trying to connect again in front of the "burning one". If the couple succeeds, then the "burning" continues to drive, if not, and the "burning" catches someone, then the one left without a pair drives – becomes "burning". A new pair takes a place directly behind the new "burning" – and the game continues.
Eternal flame is a symbol of eternal memory. The veneration of fire as one of the main forces of nature was widespread in primitive society among almost all peoples of the world – everything falls to the ground, only the smoke from the fire (an option is to burn incense, from Greek. I burn, smoke) rises up, this meant, according to ancient people, that God feels smoke and fire. In one place, the fire was burned for many centuries and those who allowed the flame to fade, and these were mostly women, were killed. In Russia, the caretaker of the fire was called an ognishchanin (from ognishche – pechishche), in the 10th -12th centuries the chief steward of the princely house was a patrimony. Read more in the book by Tikhomirov A.E. When and why did man arise? LitRes, Moscow, 2023