> "The Forest is the abode of the Russian witch, Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is not just an ordinary witch. She is mistress of the forest and the forest animals, a role Propp compared to a similar figure from the ancient Indic *Rig Veda* (Propp 1976a:157-58.) She is also likely the master of the initiation ceremonies that once existed for Russian boys, master because in the original male ceremonies the role would have been enacted by a male. Very likely the Baba Yaga of the Russian folktale is a composite figure, owing something to the old underworld goddesses to be sure, but also continuing the notion of the mistress of the forest Students of Slavic mythology have traced the ultimate origins of Baba Yaga to an ancient Indo-European goddess of death (Toporov 1968; Laushkin1970:181)." > ([[haney1999]]:98) #fix GET REFERENCES