A Zmei Gorynich or zmei (; plural: ), in skazki (Russian folktales) and byliny (Russian epic poetry), is a dragon or serpent, or sometimes a human-like character with dragon-like traits. Zmei Gorynych and Tugarin Zmeyevich, two well-known zmei, appear as adversaries of the bogatyri (heroes) Dobrynya Nikitich or Alyosha Popovich. Etymology The word zmei in Russian is the masculine form of zmeya, a feminine noun, meaning "snake". General traits Gender The dragon in Russian folk fiction may be female, in which case she is called zmeya. The tendency is for the prose folktale versions to have male dragons, and the byliny poetry to have the females. This will affect the behavior of the dragons. For instance, only the male dragons will capture or captivate a princess or a maiden as a love interest. Multiheadedness The zmei is often depicted with multiple heads, and the number of heads may be 3, 6, 9, or 12. A three-, six-, nine-, and twelve-headed dragon are defeated on successive nights by the hero of the tale "Ivan the Peasant's Son and the Little Man the Size of a Finger" (Afanasyev #138). The twelve-headed one was hardest to kill, and although the hero beheaded it nearly completely, the last head had to be taken by six men provided to Ivan by the Tsar. Chudo-Iudo In the variant "Ivan Bykovich (Ivan Buikovich)" (# 137), an equivalent sets of these multi-headed creatures appear, but are not called zmei, but a Chudo-Iudo (Chudo-Yudo). These are humanlike creatures, each one is riding a horse. Even when decapitated, if the head is picked up it grows back on once a line is drawn on it with the dragon's fiery finger. As is pointed out below, a zmei can take human-form, and in the variant "Storm-bogatyr, Ivan the Cow's Son" (#136), the multi-headed Chudo-Iudo are described as using the word zmei also. Other attributes The creature's appearance is not described in bylinas. In more recent sources, the Russian zmei is described as being covered with either green or red scales, and having iron claws. Shapeshifting The zmei may turn into a handsome youth. In that form he enthralls the sister or wife of Ivan Tsarevich in different versions of (Afanasyev #204, #205), as described below. In one of these (#204) the zmei also transforms into kitchen implements to avoid detection: he becomes a broom, a sort of mop (помело pomelo) and