Likho

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Likho (also liho, lykho) is the Slavic idea of bad luck and misfortune. It’s usually shown as a one-eyed old woman in black or as a male forest goblin. It isn’t part of the main belief system, but it appears in fairy tales with different morals.

In old stories, Likho was said to come and eat a person, a tale used to scare children. In Ukrainian folklore, it can be a bad spirit that clings to the neck. The word likho isn’t a real name but a word meaning bad luck in modern Russian and Ukrainian, and it was once an “odd” number in Polish.

There are proverbs about Likho, such as “Don’t wake luck while it’s quiet.” The idea is connected to notions of excess or an odd number, and similar words show up in other Slavic languages (Czech lichý, Polish lichy, Belarusian ліхі, Ukrainian).