The Legend about Bies and Silesian creatures Utopki

1. About
„Utopki” and „Bies”

2. „UTOPKI” (drown men)
Where did they come from? In our region there are lots of boggy areas, such as lakes,
rivers, streams, or drainage ditches. There are also numerous ”chain lakes”
(connected with one another) nearby.
Majority of them were located far from the human residences. Sometimes strange things
hapenned there , and many of them were caused by the existence of Utopki (drown
men).
They came from the clayish water, in which God used to clean his dirty hands. God
Poured out water with utopki after work. They got out of paradise.
Utopki, like all ghosts, were cruelly malicious, but they didn’t have devilish powers,
beacause the Devil didn’t like creatures living in the water.

3. Utopek from Kościelniok Lake
Kościelniok” is a big Lake, located by the Road to Rybnik. One Day a priest
consecrated the Lake and Utopek was forced to leave it. Utopek wanted to
go to another Lake. He decided to take revenge on the group of shoemakers
heading towards Rybnik.
When the shoemakers passed Kościelniok lake something hit the cart violently .
The men looked back, but all their belongings were on their place. They kept
on talking. From that moment the horse was trudging slower and slower, as if
it carried a cart filled with stones. When they reached a cross something hit
the cart twice and shoemakers heard a frightful giggle.

4. The horse got very anxious and statred to flap its ears. Both men Got out and went
to see what happenned. In the middle of the road they saw a little creature wearing
colourful clothes. He jumped and clapped his hands, then tumbled and fell to the
nearest ditch. It must have been utopek , because there was a dark wisp behind
him and the road was wet. The shoemakers froze to death at the sight of a burning
horseshoe sign at the rear of the cart. Frightened shoemakers began to say all the
prayers they knew.

5. Our team members decided to look for Utopek…

6. Unfortunately, they didn’t meet him. They found horses, a motorboat and probably his
tree house. Maybe he got scared and ran away. He left strange blue snakes in one of the
lakes.

7. That is how our younger students see Utopki

8. March to „Bies”
„Bies” is a name of a farmstead. This name was taken from a nickname of his
owner, who had an Inn and was very rich. A lot of people say that strange
things happenned there. Nowadays, In this classicistic palace there is a
restaurant „At Bies’ ’”

9. Legend of Bies
The owner of farmstead turned out to be a cruel tyrant. He wasn’t young, always
wore black, and used to wander in the woods with his dog. His rifle was
always ready to shoot, he killed everything on his way and laughed wildly.
Once he let his dog bite an old lady collecting brushwood in the woods.
People hated and cursed him. They also steered clear of his farm. The woods
and lakes went quiet, but more often his devilish laughter could be heard In
the area. People thought the farmer entered into collusion with the devil and
started to call him „Bies” (the other word for devil).
One day a storm raged in the woods. The farm burned in a fire, and the farmer
dissapeared. His servants were searching for him, but heavy rain washed
away all the traces. However, the footprints of him and his dog were found on
the edge of the wood.
People avoided walking around ruins of the farm.
Nowadays, you can sometimes hear a strange laughter in the area or see a
dark person with a dog wandering along dams.

10. Ladies looking for Bies

11. He wasn’t in the chapel nor did he see a snowball fight. Tired girls took a nap in
the forest. There they saw a very big molehill. It must have been Bies who got
scared of the girls and went underground to pretend to be a mole.

12. BIES potrayed by our younger students.