magick of bosnia

7/29/2019 MAGICK OF BOSNIA

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MYTHOLOGICAL WORLD OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Raif Esmerović

MYTHOLOGICAL WORLD OF BOSNIA ANDHERZEGOVINA

According to scientificdefinition, mythology is a

science that studies stories of

fantastic content whose heroes

are various gods and

goddesses, warriors, demons,

etc. Seen through the eyes of

modern psychology, mythology

is a bond that binds the man of

today with the past, shapes his

identity and even his

childhood. No matter the

geographic location, culture or

period every mythologicalstory whether from a large

civilization or a small one is

based on a classic Pantheon or

more commonly on a dualistic

division of fantastical beings

and spirits, where humans are

in the centre. Today,

mythology is present in large

numbers of various

publications, TVdocumentaries, art and history

itself. Not even movie directors

could resist its call and

mythology is a constant theme

of many films.

Analyzing the legends and

stories of a country one can

discern a lot about the thinking

and behaviour patterns of a

given people. Mainly in most

of the mythological stories we

find a classic fear in humans of

disease, death and evil,

constant need of upholding the

cult of the hero and warrior,

love towards his country,

family, individual, etc. Besides

this, mythological characters

represent intractable human

imagination, ability to weather

the hard times as best as one

can, or creation of an authenticidentity for a people or a

country.

Mythology of Bosnia and

Herzegovina abounds with

various external influences

because of its geographical

position but also its turbulent

history which shaped the

Bosnian spirit and imagination.

In Bosnia both the East and

West always manifested which

is clearly evident through

mythology where we come

across interesting elements of

both eastern and western

beliefs.

With the above mentioned in

mind, the mythology of Bosnia

and Herzegovina can be best

understood if it is divided into




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three groups of influence which

were the keys to its creation:

a) The old Slavic beliefs (Europe)

b) Bosnian beliefs (Bogumil)

c) Oriental beliefs (Iran, Turkey)

Slavic pagan beliefs were

preserved in legends about

demons of diseases and

generally in negative creatures

like vampires (Lampir), Mora

(Nightmare), Witch

(Sihirbaza), Plague, Cholera,

etc.

Remnants of the old Bosnian

beliefs of the Bogumil also

remained especially in the beliefs about Did Adža, Black

bull, mysterious bird Plačo, etc.

The vast number of Oriental

beliefs that were brought to

Bosnia by the Ottomans

originate directly from Iran. By

that we mean first and foremost

on the belief about angels

(Melek), Faeries (Periler),

visiting burial grounds (Dobri),

etc.

Bik Garonja (Black Bull): old Bosniaksbelieved that the Earth rests on the back of agiant black bull. When the bull moves his earthen an earthquake takes place somewhere in

the world, and on the day when the bullshudders the whole world will come to an end(Judgement day). The tumult that is heardduring the earthquake is believed to be thebulls bellow.

Stuhe: in the past it was believed that stuheor zduhači were male witches. Theypossessed magical powers and they wereclairvoyant. They usually helped people byperforming various miracles and protectingsome place from ill weather. They usuallymoved at night. Amongst the people there are

a lot of tales about fights between stuhawhen there was a fight between the good onesand the bad ones. The most famous zduhačiin Bosnia and Herzegovina were Mato Glušacand Suljo Aganović from Foča.

Faeries or Vile: Faeries are young beautifulwomen with long golden hair. They havesupernatural beauty and a soothing voice.They live inside forests and around lakes, theyfly around trees and they like to dance incircles on the green grass. During thatoccasion they usually sing one of their many

songs whose words worn people about somedanger (Ne zovi oca imenom, Ne udaraj konjapovodcem, Ne tari nogu od nogu, Ne čini sebisihira). There's a belief amongst the peoplethat a child who feeds a fairy with his milk willbecome a great hero, this is best illustrated bythe legend of Mujo Hrnjica.

If people hurt the fairy in any way, it willimmediately take revenge by making the

human psychologically disturbed. Fairies wereafraid of mothers, especially in the past.

According to a Turkish folklore which found itsplace amongst the Bosnian people, in the pasthumans stole the first child of a fairy and eversince then the fairies seek revenge by stealinghuman children or by exchanging a humanchild for its own. For this reason Bosnianwomen would place a metal object, most oftena spoon, near baby's feet inside the crib, whenthey had to leave the house or when they hadto do some chores.

Mujo Hrnjica

In Bosnia and Herzegovina the most famousfairies are Bosanska vila, Gorska vila, andthe queen fairy Zlatna. It was believed thatZlatna was the mistress of the forest and thewater. Legend has it that every night, Zlatnaaccompanied by other fairies, went to the riverto take a bath and after that they would danceand sing throughout the night on a nearbyhillside. Bosnians believe that only those of




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pure spirit and a clear heart can see fairies intheir sleep.

Besides female fairies it is believed that thereare male fairies amongst these mythologicalcreatures. The most famous male fairy isUšušur. According to a legend from Doboj,

Ušušur fell in love with a girl, who marriedanother man. Desperate and furious, Ušušurused his magical powers to drown the girl in ariver. Comprehending the gravity of hisactions, he threw himself in the river after thegirl but he couldn't drown himself because hewas immortal. Because of this incident hedecided to punish himself and he chainedhimself to the bottom of the river, whichbecame his home. Ušušur is described by thepeople as green man, ragged and covered inmoss.

Dragons or Zmajevi: in the past Bosniaksbelieved in dragons, they described them asgiant snakes with wings that were able to liveboth in the sky and on the land. It can beconcluded from the folklore that dragons weremales, there was no mention of a femaledragon, and the dragons fulfilled their desirefor offspring with human woman and animals,especially cows. According to folklore if adragon was attracted to a woman, he wouldcome to her room at night or wait for hersomewhere outside, on a meadow, and hewould use his magical powers to put her in a

trance like state. After the intercourse thedragon would fly away and the womanwouldn't have any recollection of the incident.

Fatima K. from Bosanski Novi claimed that shegave birth to a dragon in 1974: "I gave birthinside the house, sometime after midnight,after half an hour of painful labour, out came achild in a white placenta and after a fewmoments it disappeared?!" She claimed thatshe never saw the child again and thereforeshe concluded that she didn't give birth to a"Snijet" but to a dragon. Another confirmation

to this claim is that her breasts were full of milk in the evening, but when she woke up inthe morning they were all drained. Thisoccurred on a daily basis for a couple of months. Being afraid she told this to herneighbour, an old lady, who in turn told herthat it was the dragon-child that came eachnight to feed himself with her breast milk.

After some time the night visits ceased.

Jinn or Džin: demonic creatures that have anaberrant form, which were created out of aflame. The Bosnian people describe the Jinn assmall creatures with one eye and a tail. EachJinn is limping. Even though they can takevarious human or animal forms they prefer toappear to humans in a form of a dark man

(dark silhouette) whose face can never beseen. They also like to show themselves in aform of a black dog, a cat or a snake. It isbelieved that the Jinn are faithful servants butalso masters of witches and wizards. When theJinn want to seduce and subject someone tothem, they dance a fiery circle and call out thename of the one they want. This usuallyhappens when that person is sleeping. Jinncan dance a circle during the day but at thattime in a whirlwind, that is why people avoidwhirlwinds to this day. It is believed that assoon as the human utters: "In the name of

Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful" and blows

towards the whirlwind, that the whirlwind willdisappear.

A special group of Jinn by the name Al-Karisiattack women who have recently given birth,and babies in the first 40 days after the birth.




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Šejtani or Sheitan: they are demoniccreatures that are similar to the Jinn. They areless powerful than the Jinn, because when aŠejtan enters a human, the human startsenjoying vices, impurity, lies or theft; but whena Jinn enters a human being, then the personsuffers mental illnesses. Šejtan are easilyfrightened and they run away from humans assoon as the following words are uttered: "Inthe name of Allah, Most Gracious, MostMerciful". A Bosnian legend claims that thatthe Šejtan was present when the first man,

Adam, was created. Namely, when Godcreated the human body, He left it lifeless forthree years. Each day the Šejtan would comeand observe the human body and he would

batter his fingers on the body. When he wouldreach the human's head, he would batter it toand say: "This head won't be empty". At thepassing of the third year Allah gave life to thehuman and it rose to life. Allah warned thehuman immediately about the Šejtan and toldhim not to speak to the first creature thatapproaches him and not to tell him his name.In the beginning Adem resisted the Šejtan'sadvances, but after some time he gave in tothe Šejtan's blandishment and questions andhe started a conversation with the Šejtan. Thecunning Šejtan jumped on his left shoulder andexclaimed that he will remain there foreversince they are now friends. As soon as Godsaw what had happened he sent an angel toland on to Adem's right shoulder to stop theŠejtan from influencing the human to do evilall the time.

In Bosnia against the Šejtan there is a saying:"Šejtanu nalet te bilo!"

Angels or Meleci: it is believed among thepeople that there are two angels, one of themis blind and the other one is deaf, which aresent by Allah to stir up the clouds and thestorm to places where Allah wishes to punishthe people because of some sin. If the blindone hears the prayer from the mosque he will

immediately redirect the clouds and save thatplace from the storms. It is further believedthat the Šejtan wants to hinder him in hisintent and that a fierce fight between themarises. According to the legends when theangel swings his sword towards the Šejtan alightning flashes in the sky.

When a baby is smiling it is believed that it hasseen an angel. The angels are considered tobe the protectors of babies because of thebaby's purity and impeccability. It is believedthat babies are actually angels until the

moment when they learn to speak becausethen they can utter the bad words along withthe good ones and so they lose their graciousability.

Soul or Duša: according to belief a manshould never be woken abruptly because hissoul leaves his body while he sleeps andtravels around the world without anylimitations. There is a similar belief amongstthe Bosniaks about witches, they can alsotravel in the same manner with their physicalbodies while they are asleep. When a witch

falls asleep her soul exits through her mouthand wanders off to do evil to other humans.Her body then becomes blue and cold, hermouth stretches and her lips blacken. Beforedawn her soul returns in a form of a bumblebee and enters her mouth at which momentshe awakes abruptly from this mystic state.

It is believed that the souls of children haven'tyet completely merged with the body and that




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their souls wander the world almost every timethey fall asleep. Because of this reasonmothers who want to move their child while itis sleeping, call the child by its name, or shelightly pulls its nose, wanting to alarm the soulabout what is happening at that moment.Immediately the soul returns to the body.

Otherwise, if the soul isn't warned, it isbelieved that the child can get ill or haveserious psychological consequences.

Today in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is believedthat a dying man's soul can not leave his bodyuntil his family and his neighbours "nehalale" (forgive him for his sins).

Mora (Nightmare): Bosniaks believe that aMora is a discarded or cheated girl which uses

this form to get back at her boyfriend. In herinvisible form she comes every night aroundmidnight and suffocates the young man bysitting on his chest. The young man feels alarge pressure on his chest, he sweats and hasnightmares. He awakes in the morning paleand feels powerless. It is believed that everygirl can turn into a Mora if she surrenders hersoul to Iblis.

How does one catch a girl-Mora? From themosque one must bring a green belt used fortying down a deceased to the stretcher during

a funeral. The one who is attacked by a Moramust go to bed holding the green belt in hisright hand. He mustn't fall asleep but onlykeep his eyes closed. Around midnight theMora will appear and sit on his chest. At thatmoment the man needs to put the belt onhimself and the Mora will become visible to thehuman eye. Caught in a trap the Mora will bescared and she will start to beg the man not toreveal her secret in return she must swear notto be a Mora any longer. That way she willlose her invisibility power and she will becomea normal girl once again.

Witch (or Naletnica, Sihirbaza): Accordingto a Bosnian belief girls become witches if theywish to cause someone harm, for example, toget revenge on her neighbour, her neighbour'scattle or children. Witches drink children'sblood and they take away the milk from cows.While a Mora stops being a Mora as soon asshe gets married, the same thing does notapply to witches. They don't lose their title

after marriage because they stepped on theHoly Qur'an and they gave their souls to Iblis.

The witch can turn into a large butterfly andenter any house she wants especially the onethat has small children in it. When you noticesuch a butterfly in your house, you must catch

it and burn one of its wings on a candleuttering: "Come back tomorrow, I will give yousalt" and then let the butterfly out of yourhouse. It is believed that the first woman thatcomes to that house to ask for some salt is awitch. If she is then told that she visited thishouse during the night in a form of a butterflyand that she is a witch it is believed that shelooses all her demonic powers.

Tvora: An evil spirit of diseases which attacksthe patient and burdens his psyche withvarious nightmares and horrible appearances.

Činilica: An evil spirit that caused a lot of anxiety and fear in the patient's soul, so thatthe patient thought that all the evil of thespiritual world has entered him.

Otrovnica: An evil spirit that would poison thepatient's blood until he would finally dieexhausted

Krvopilica: An evil spirit that would drink thepatient's blood all night until it wouldcompletely drain the patient of his power.




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Mraza: An evil spirit of hatred and disputes,he took away love and unity from people, andhe made them fight one another.

Prikaze: Are evil spirits that appear to peopleonly at night in various forms, mostly as cats,rabbits, goats, dogs. It is believed that

whoever sees a Prikaza he will get seriously illor die in a short time.

Kudretfenjeri: It is believed that these arethe ghosts of dead Muslim soldiers who usuallyappear in the form of mysterious lights atabandoned cemeteries, ruins of old houses ormilitary fortresses and even sometimes forests.It is believed that these soldiers were buried inChristian cemeteries and now they arewondering in search of a Muslim cemetery.

Meknjača or Plačo: is the name of amysterious bird that has never been seen buthas been heard usually during eve time or atnight. Its call can be compared to a childcrying. The folk believe that it is a soul of adeceased child that has turned into a bird andthat it is only heard when someone is about todie. It is also called drekavac.

Karanđoloz: the belief about thismythological creature was brought over toBosnia by the Ottoman Empire. Karanđoloz asit is believed can be found at night on lonelyintersections, when it surprises a traveller by

jumping on his back and riding him like ahorse. Besides being very heavy, Karanđolozhas an awful smell and reeks, and in that way

deepens the traveller's misery and suffering. If the Karanđoloz asks the traveller "Am Iheavy?" the answer mustn't be affirmative orthis being of the night will become evenheavier. The Karanđoloz won't stop torturingthe man until dawn; when the roosters call isheard in the morning the demonic being will

disappear. People used to protect themselvesagainst the being by going around the houseor a stable in circles holding a walnut in eachhand and clapping one against the other theyuttered: "Tučem kućnog dušmanina, štoberićet odnosi a musibet donosi!". Thefamous Bosnian writer Mehmed MešaSelimović wrote about Karanđoloz.

Dobri: In Bosnia there is a legend aboutŠehidi (martyrs) and especially evlije, holymen, that they can help people even after theydie and that's why they are called Dobri. It is

believed that dobri rise from their graves atnight and they pray to Allah. Because of thatbelief people leave jugs (made out of copper)of water and clean towels inside mausoleumsin order for the Dobri to take ablution(religious cleansing). A large number of peoplewho were in charge of taking care of themausoleums (turbe) swore that a lot of thetimes they saw wet floor from the water andmisplaced towels. That was usually interpretedas a Dobri rising during the night to takeablution and to pray to God.

Turbe sedam braće

(Sarajevo)

Did Adže: belief in this mythological being ischaracteristic for the south-western part of Bosnia, in Cazin - Velika Kladuša to be moreexact, where it is believed that he is a dwarf with a long white beard and black feet whorides a large white rooster. His name stems




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from the Bogomil name for priests- Did. According to the above mentioned it is clearthat this creature is a Bogomil priest from thesouth-western parts of Bosnia whose namestuck through legends in Bosnia. Did Adžepresents a mystical character who was used toscare children into submission. Although in

legends Did Adže possesses powers of teleporting, he is the keeper of wisdom and anentrance in the underworld.

Prepasti: After WWII in Bosnia rumoursstarted spreading about scary apparitionswhich were called Prepasti. Usually theyappeared on roads, meadows or next to riversand creeks as obscure, black clouds, silhouetteand whirlwinds that would go high into theclouds and sometimes they would turn intoscary dark figures. Those supernaturalapparitions were described by the people asdistempered ghosts of dead soldiers becausethe places where they usually appeared werebattlefields where large number of soldiers

died during the war. Prepasti usually appearedin places where the soldiers lost one of theirbody parts, and according to belief theyappeared to search for their lost limbs.Prepasti would disappear forever when the raincompletely washes their blood from the soiland when plough furrows their bones into theground.

Lampir: in Bosnia vampires are called lampir,lapir, lampijer, vukodlak or vukozlačina. It wasbelieved that if a cat crosses over a deceasedman that he will become a lampir. Of coursethe effect would be cancelled out if the catreturns the same way it came. Because peoplewere afraid that this would happen they would

place a knife on dead man's chest or theywould spike a knife next to his head. Therewas also a custom where people would place abowl of wheat or only three grains of wheatwhere the dead person was lying before hewas buried, after the burial the wheat wasgiven to a pauper. There were a lot of lampiersbut the most famous ones were Meho fromGlamoč, Pajo Tomić and a certain Korkut fromNevesinje.

Bosnian witches were able to call forth thedeadly power of the vukodlak by going to a

graveyard and repeating the formula: Adali Ada to protect me" and then they would sitnext to a grave keeping their eyes closed, andthey would grab a handful of dirt and theywould take it home. They would hold on tothat dirt until one of their enemies would dieand they would plant the dirt under thethreshold of his house while the deceased iscarried out of it. They did this because theywanted someone else dead from thathousehold.




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