Shatans

These are Belarusian mythological characters, symbols of idleness, callousness and importunity. They are known as creatures leading a completely stupid and useless lifestyle. There is no benefit from these creatures: they can wander aimlessly along roads, fields, forests for days without doing anything useful.

They were described By Nikolai Nikiforovsky in the work "Unclean. A set of folk tales about evil spirits in Vitebsk Belarus." In the academic five-volume book "Slavic Antiquities" these characters are not mentioned. In the "Mythological Dictionary" the word "shatana" is given as a synonym for Satan.