Lithuanian "kūkalis": Plant, Corn, Demon and Hobgoblin

The article discusses the development of Lith. kūkalis 'corn-cockle'. The opinion that kūkalis, kukulis, kuokulis etc. are loan words from certain Sl. languages is rejected, because they don't belong to a lexical layer which would be due to borrowing from Sl. languages. The derivation of ESSJ: Sl. *kolkolb 'bell, instrument' >*како1г>name of different plants in Sl. languages, among them corn-cockle is put in question. One finds neither *kolkol- for plants nor *kqkol- tor instruments. The authors give advantage to a double root set Bait. *kank-/kenk-/kunk-and *kuok-jkauk-/kiauk-lkuk-. Possible semantic derivations include the rise from seed capsules of weeds and relation to Lith. kaukas 'a demon, hobgoblin'. The corn-cockle is shown to be a suitable candidate for a botanical representation of the corn mother, a predecessor of skalsa 'Claviceps purpurea' also 'blessing, abundance' which is strongly related to the kaukas. From this corn demon rose penates kukolis 'hobgoblin', kukolė 'snake'. Traces of worshipping this mythical beeing are found in the archaic polyphonic songs Sutartines and in some Dainos. Similar development of kaukas, kūkalis and Sl. pendants are reported