Curses, Legends, and Myths

[Ulysses]

The following article details the Curse of Techumseh on American Presidents. Can anyone share legends of Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian, Belarussian or Russian history? Regards

Will Baby Bush beat the Curse of Tecumseh?
General William Henry Harrison fought against the Indian Chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe on 7 Nov 1811. The battle was indecisive but Harrison finally defeated Tecumseh in the Battle of Thames on 5 Oct 1813. Chief Tecumseh was killed in the battle. On the strength of this victory, William Henry Harrison was elected President of the United States.

After his death, Tecumseh passed a spell that became known as "The Curse of Tecumseh". Under this curse, Tecumseh decreed that any man elected President of the United States in a year divisible by 20 would die in office.

Under this curse, seven presidents have died in office. These were William Henry Harrison, who was elected in 1840, Lincoln, who was elected in 1860, Garfield, who was elected in 1880, McKinley, who was elected in 1900, Harding, who was elected in 1920, Roosevelt, who was elected in 1940 and Kennedy, who was elected in 1960.

History students find it useful to remember this, because only one other president has died in office. That was Zachary Taylor, who died in 1850 before Chief Tecumseh had settled on the details of his curse.

The first to break the curse was President Reagan, who was shot, but the bullet missed his heart by a quarter of an inch. Reagan remained technically alive, although brain dead.

Nancy Reagan was well aware of the Curse of Tecumseh. She went to Voodoo Witch Doctors and all kinds of psychics and mystics in an effort to beat the curse. Nobody will ever know whether it was due to her efforts to combat the curse that Reagan survived in office.

Most agree that the curse is now over and that Baby Bush will be safe. In addition, since Bush was not elected but was appointed by the US Supreme Court, the famous Curse of Tecumseh may not apply.

However, there are a few who still wonder. How long do old Indian curses last anyway?

[Zbyszek]

Thank you Ulysses for your legend about Tecumseh.
Older generations of Poles and Ukranians probably rememebr a famous Ukrainain visioner Moysey Vernyhora. Not many facts about him are sure. It is not even sure that he really existed. In one of the sources it is stated that he was born in Dymitrovka in left Dnieper bank and he fled to Poland after he had murdered his brother. His visions were repeated over and over by the oral way and later they were recorded.
Wernyhora has its place in Polish and Ukrainian literature. Wernyhora was telling about the mellow time of peaceful co-existence of nations, particularly Poles and Rusyns/Ukrainians within the great state (XVIth century).
Wernyhora lived in a terrible time when horror was everyday reality. It was a time of infamous Kolishchyna - bloody revolts of the Ukrainian peasantry when the level of atrocities was equal to that of Hmylnitski's hordes. (Zhuk whose knowledge I respect mentioned this period several times in his posts).
This time, the showdown had a strong religious colour because the peasants were devout Orthodox while the nobles were predominantly Catholics. Thousands of catholics were herded into the churches or synagogues and burnt alive.
The response of the Polish and Russian imperial army was edequately ruthless.
The times were so cruel that people desperately needed a tint of hope and Wernyhora gave them hopeful visions of honour, harmony and peace between Poles and Ukrainians.
The most oustanding Polish poets and playwrights were under strong influence of Wernyhora personality.
Let us quote our invaluable Juliusz Slowacki, a Polish poet living in Ukraine, Kremenec. (Polish media informed that his monument is to be erected in Kyiv).
Czy znasz prorocka dume Wernyhory
Czy wiesz, co bedzie w jarze Janczarychy,
Gdzie teraz golab lub jelonek cichy....
(too difficult to be translated into English).

Some of these hopes revived when Pilsudski and Petliura aoppeared on the political scene in the XXth century but they quickly faded.
Many Poles have an established image of Vernyhora because of one famous painting of our historic painter Yan Mateyko. The painting is really impressive and it would be good to make a scan of it.