When the zburător takes the shape of a man he represents actual young men visiting or longing for a maiden that was married off by her parents to someone else. Intoxicated with lust, he climbs down chimneys or enters through key holes, windows or through the crack of the door in the room where the maiden is sleeping. He holds her tight, kisses, bites and loves her. The girl or woman sees him in her dream and wakes up. In the morning the zburător escapes through the chimney by turning himself into fire and sparks and the woman feels tired and weak.
He can be prevented from entering the house if the entry points are smeared with burst zmeu grease. During the day he spends his time in the hollows of trees. Supposedly witches would incinerate it to find the burst zmeu grease.
This is one of the most famous Romanian poems, written by Mihai Eminescu, it’s a variation of the zburător myth and tells of a maidens affair with a star:
Evening Star
There was, as in the fairy tales,
As ne'er in the time's raid,
There was, of famous royal blood
A most beautiful maid.
She was her parents' only child,
Bright like the sun at noon,
Like the Virgin midst the saints
And among stars the moon.
From the deep shadow of the vaults
Her step now she directs
Toward a window; at its nook
Bright Evening-star expects.
She looks as in the distant seas
He rises, darts his rays
And leads the blackish, loaded ships
On the wet, moving, ways.
To look at him every night
Her soul her instincts spur;
And as he looks at her for weeks
He falls in love with her.
And as on her elbows she leans
Her temple and her whim
She feels in her heart and soul that
She falls in love with him.
And ev'ry night his stormy flames
More stormily renew