In Ukrainian folklore, there is a reed devil that lives only in reeds, where it is stuck and does not come out. Pavlo Chubynsky made mention of it when he was traveling in the Ukrainian Pereiaslav district:
"One man was driving near the reeds and noticed a white ram with claws screaming. The man took him on the cart, but the horses could not carry it, then the man wanted to cart it off. He tried it, but was unsuccessful, but when the roosters crowed, the ram jumped off, laughed and left."
In Ukraine, reed grows in wet meadows, swamps, along the banks of rivers, lakes and other places with close groundwater. As you know, fog can often gather in humid places at dawn and in the evening. Therefore, the rustling of the reeds in combination with the fog can create amazingly unbelievable scenes in person’s imagination, when going through the fog. That is why the ocheretianyk appears as a white ram. Animals can stop in thick fog because they cannot see the road in front of them. And the screams of the devil ram are made by other animals nearby.
According to this legend, you can understand that the ocheretianyk only plays around and scares people, but does not hurt anyone.
Ukrainians have several sayings with this devil, which are used when cursing someone: "May the one who shakes the reed know you!" and, on the contrary, they warn: "Let the one who shakes the reed not know you!".
Only we can decide whether the devil really lives in a reed or if it is just human imagination. However, it is better to be careful and not be afraid of the ocheretianyk, who just has fun because of boredom. See you!