Gabija

Gabija is attested in early modern sources listing Lithuanian deities (notably Jan Łasicki in the early 17th century, as reported in modern summaries) and survives in folk practice and later ethnographic accounts as the household fire spirit. Modern discussions often connect or conflate her with another fire figure, Praurimė, but the supplied sources do not preserve a detailed cosmogonic origin tale; instead Gabija's identity is grounded in domestic practice and the moral economy of hearth care.

Gabija is primarily identified with the hearth fire itself and treated as if a living being. Folkloric accounts report that she could appear in zoomorphic forms — a cat, a stork, or a rooster — or as a woman clothed in red. Contemporary popular sources sometimes style her as "Mama Gabija" or call her a goddess of the home, but the core attestation emphasizes her embodiment as the household hearth-fire.

Gabija functions as the protector and patron of the house and family; domestic welfare is conceptually linked to proper care of her fire. Folklore explains wandering or destructive domestic fires as the action of an angered or mistreated Gabija — flames that "went for a walk" until satiated. Her behavior is presented as responsive to treatment: offerings and evening care keep her placated, while insults or neglect (stomping, spitting, urinating on the hearth) are said to incur ill fate.