The zmora, a supernatural being in Polish folklore that suffocates sleepers, is often classified as double-souled in the ethnolinguistic dictionary Slavianskie drevnosti. However, archival sources from the Polish Ethnographic Atlas and other Polish collections indicate that informants rarely describe the zmora as double-souled. This article examines how far the zmora can be considered double-souled in Polish folk tradition and how important that trait is for defining it. It reviews the concept of double-souledness, its associated motifs, and the term's history, then analyzes examples of the double-souled zmora in Polish folklore and their geographic distribution within broader soul dualism in Polish tradition.
The Liberty Cap mushroom (Psilocybe semilanceata), the most common psychedelic fungus in Britain, gets its name from an ancient Roman social practice. The article traces the etymology of this name, resolving long-standing speculation in modern literature about how a magic mushroom came to be called after a symbol of Roman freedom.
Pathogenic projectiles called waawî among the Makushi people of Guyana are ambiguous entities that are both objects and beings. Fabricated by shamans as embodiments of spirit-helpers, these magical darts exist beyond conventional distinctions between nature and culture. Similar pathogenic objects are also used by other-than-human owners and masters, as well as certain stars. The article argues that these Makushi shamanic concepts challenge familiar dualisms such as material/immaterial, body/spirit, and subject/object, offering new insights into debates about animism in Amazonia.