The pagan Slavic peoples thought the birds flying away to Vyraj for the winter and returning to Earth for the spring to be human souls. According to some folk tales, the human soul departs the Earth for Vyraj during the cremation of its deceased flesh on a pyre; however, it does not stay in paradise forever, returning some time later to the womb of a pregnant woman (traces of reincarnation can be seen in this belief)—carried by a stork or nightjar.