Zduhac
Encyclopedia
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
tradition, a man with the special ability to protect his estate, village, or region against destructive weather conditions, such as storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
s, hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
, or torrential rains. These calamities were believed to be brought by various demonic
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
beings, including devils, creatures called ala
Ala (demon)
An ala or hala is a female mythological creature recorded in the folklore of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Ale are considered demons of bad weather whose main purpose is to lead hail-producing thunderclouds in the direction of fields, vineyards, or orchards to destroy the crops, or loot and...
, eagles, black-feathered birds, and the souls of drowned and hanged persons. Protectors from bad weather fought with them, or used magic to ward them off. The protectors could also be regarded as bringers of bad weather—moving it away from their village, they could take it to another.
The man who fought with bringers of the elements had the inborn supernatural ability to leave his body in sleep, after which his soul engaged in the battle against the adversaries. Having defeated them and thwarted their destructive intentions, he would return into his body waking up tired and sweaty. It was often believed that such a man was born with a caul
Caul
A caul is a thin, filmy membrane, the amnion, that can cover a newborn's head and face immediately after birth.-Obstetrics:A child "born with the caul" has a portion of the amniotic sac or membrane remaining on the head. There are two types of cauls. The most common caul is adhered to the head...
. He was called a zduhać or stuha in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, eastern Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
, part of Bosnia
Bosnia (region)
Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...
, and Sandžak
Sandžak
Sandžak also known as Raška is a historical region lying along the border between Serbia and Montenegro...
, while in eastern, central, and southern Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, as well as in Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
, he was called a zmajevit or alovit. The zduhaći (plural) of an area usually fought together against the attacking zduhaći of another area who were bringing a storm and hail clouds above their fields. The victorious zduhaći would loot the fertility from the fields and livestock of their defeated foes, and take it to their own region. Individual domestic animals could also be regarded as zduhaći, fighting in a similar way as their human counterparts. The zmajevit were able to leave their bodies to protect the village crops by defeating an ala, a demon who led hail clouds. This demon could, however, be a positive character in central Serbia and Banat, where she was believed to be connected to a territory, which she protected against other ale (plural).
In parts of western Serbia, a vetrovnjak's soul would soar out of his body in sleep to fight against a black-feathered bird that led bad clouds over his village. In some regions, such as Dragačevo in western Serbia and Banat, there were stories about men who flew bodily into the stormy sky, where they clashed with bringers of hail. After the battle, they would come back exhausted, scratched and bruised. The oblačar from Syrmia
Syrmia
Syrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....
did not not fly, but operated from the ground against an aždaja, a serpentine winged demon which flew in terrible clouds and spewed hail on the crops. A gradobranitelj ("hail defender") from Pocerina
Pocerina
- See also :* Regions of Serbia...
, northwestern Serbia, defended his village by using a special magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
that he learned from another gradobranitelj. This magic was aimed at dissipating hail clouds, in addition to warding off the devils and souls of the drowned and hanged who led them. Some women were claimed to be able to avert adverse weather from their village by using sorcery. In other respects though, all these protectors were normal individuals who lived and worked in their communities as others did. Similar characters can be found in folk traditions in other parts of the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, as well as in northeastern Italy, the Carpathians, and southern Poland. In some respects, they can be compared with shamans.
Bringers of bad weather
Adverse weather such as storms, hail, or torrential rains could quickly devastate fields, orchards, and vineyards, and thus jeopardize the livelihood of farmers in the affected region. They were believed to have been brought by supernatural forces. God let bad weather afflict the people of an area as a punishment for their sins. AngelAngel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s and some saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s could punish in the same way, and the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
was also thought of as a bringer of such afflictions. Female demons named ala
Ala (demon)
An ala or hala is a female mythological creature recorded in the folklore of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Ale are considered demons of bad weather whose main purpose is to lead hail-producing thunderclouds in the direction of fields, vineyards, or orchards to destroy the crops, or loot and...
were prominent bringers of storm and hail clouds in central, eastern, and southern Serbia, as well as in Banat; the same role was sometimes played by eagles and black-feathered birds. In Syrmia, demons called aždaja spewed hail on crops flying through dense, terrible clouds. The elements could also be brought by the souls of drowned and hanged persons, or those struck by lightning. Living individuals, such as priests, witches, and those who had acquired certain magical skills were able to direct severe weather to the area whose people they wanted to harm. It was held in Bukovica
Bukovica
Bukovica is a geographical region in Croatia. It is situated in northern Dalmatia, between Lika in the north, Kninska Krajina in the east, and Ravni Kotari in the south-west. Prior to the war, it encompassed the western half of the Knin municipality, the eastern half of the Benkovac municipality...
and Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
that evil persons after death, or even during life, led hail to whatever field they wanted.
People supplicated God and saints for protection against those calamities, but they also resorted to magic practices. There was a widespread practice of "cutting" clouds and hail by means of an axe, scythe, sickle, hoe, or knife. Noticing the approach of a hail cloud, farmers would stand in the house yard and wave toward it with one of those implements, or place it with the blade turned toward the cloud. Some chased hail away by firing from rifles or small simple mortars called prangija. They also tried to propitiate the bringer of the elements, as in the custom of placing a dining table with bread and salt on it in the yard. The table could have been used for "cutting" as well, for which purpose it was placed with its legs directed skywards; the same was done with tripods. In other practices farmers used objects that had been part of annual festivities and family observances, counting on the protective influence of the sacred power with which these objects were consequently imbued. Some of the customs were performed only by women, others only by men, and still others by men and women together. The gender could depend on what object was used, e.g., the scythe was seen as a masculine tool and the sickle as a feminine one, but there were practices for which the gender was irrelevant.
Most of these practices were accompanied by a loud utterance of ritual texts, which had their own semantics
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
, symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ism and structure. Standing in the yard and facing the cloud, farmers would address the cloud himself, or hail, prodigy, the unholy power, ala, drowned or hanged persons (usually calling by name someone like that from their region), and others. People tried to deflect the horrific bringer of clouds from their fields, by scaring him off with something even more appalling that was allegedly present in their village. For example: "Back! Back, ala! Here is a bigger ala, beware!" or "Hey, do not go, prodigy, on prodigy! We have a huge prodigy: here a girl bore a girl, a girl of nine years old! Do not go, prodigy, on prodigy: we have a huge prodigy!" These texts often contained the idea of hail clouds as cattle, usually white: "O Sava and Nevena, turn back those white cattle! There is no pasture for them here! We only have ashes to put their eyes out!" Uttering this, they would spill the ashes of the fire on which a česnica
Cesnica
A česnica is the ceremonial, round loaf of bread that is an indispensable part of Christmas dinner in Serbian tradition. The preparation of this bread may be accompanied by various rules and rituals. A coin is often put into the dough during the kneading; other small objects may also be inserted...
had been baked for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, into the wind. (Sava and Nevena were a couple who drowned themselves in the Morava River for not having been allowed to marry.) Saint John
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
and Saint Sava
Saint Sava
Saint Sava was a Serbian Prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, the founder of Serbian law and literature, and a diplomat. Sava was born Rastko Nemanjić , the youngest son of Serbian Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja , and ruled the appanage of Hum briefly in...
also appeared as leaders of cattle/clouds: "Saint Sava, turn back your cattle from our village!"
Protectors from bad weather
There was a widespread belief among the SerbsSerbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
that there were special men able to protect their estate, village, or region against destructive weather conditions. Individuals, mostly adult men, were known and recognized as such in their community. Their characteristics and modus operandi differed from area to area.
Zduhać and vjedogonja
In Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, part of Bosnia, and Sandžak, the man who could protect his region from bad weather was generally called a zduhać or a stuha, with various local variants of those names: with or without h, with v instead of h, with or without the ending ć, with č instead of ć, etc. These nouns are probably derived from the SlavicProto-Slavic language
Proto-Slavic is the proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged. It was spoken before the seventh century AD. As with most other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstructed by applying the comparative method to all the attested Slavic...
root duh "spirit", with a possible influence of the Greek
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
word stikhio (στοιχείο) of the same meaning. That word stems from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
stoicheion (στοιχεῖον), which denoted the four classical element
Classical element
Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. Most frequently, classical elements refer to ancient beliefs...
s—Air
Air (classical element)
Air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance. Its supposed fundamental importance to life can be seen in words such as aspire, inspire, perspire and spirit, all derived from the Latin spirare.-Greek and Roman tradition:...
, Water
Water (classical element)
Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing...
, Fire
Fire (classical element)
Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, but especially as a metaphysical constant of the world.-Greek and Roman tradition:Fire...
, and Earth
Earth (classical element)
Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition.-European tradition:Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the...
. In Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
folklore, a stikhio was a spirit who fought in the air for the well-being of his village or area against adverse spirits from elsewhere. The influence of the noun stikhio could have been indirect, as it might have been borrowed from Greek into a pre-Slavic Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
language: the Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
stuhi means "storm", and that is also the name of a female storm demon.
The zduhaći (plural) were born with a red or with a white caul—depending on the regional belief, and an additional condition could have been that the birth happened on a certain Friday at a set hour. To ensure the retention of the child's supernatural power, the caul should have been dried and carefully kept to be handed to him when he grew up. From then on, the man would keep it always by him, strictly hidden from all eyes. The caul was a means of protection for the man, which was especially important when he fought.
Semberija
Semberija is a geographical region in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main city in the region is Bijeljina. Semberija is located between Drina and Sava rivers and Majevica mountain...
, northeast Bosnia, zduhaći were said to be good scapulimantic
Scapulimancy
Scapulimancy is the practice of divination by use of scapulae...
diviners
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
, and to be able to communicate with domestic animals. As believed by the clan
Serb clans
Serb clans is a general term referring to what are known as plemena and bratstva , traditional geo-political units of the Western Balkans that now richly attest social anthropology and family history . The descendants of the clans are divided by regional and lately, national affiliation...
of Paštrovići
Paštrovici
The Paštrovići is a coastal clan in Montenegro.- History :The people and land of Paštrovići is mentioned for the first time in 1355, when Serbian emperor Dušan Silni sent his nobleman Nikolica Paštrović in diplomatic mission in Dubrovnik...
from Montenegrin Littoral, they could hear any doings anywhere in the world; if someone stepped on a zduhać's foot, they could hear that too. The clan of Kuči
KUCI
KUCI is a college radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Irvine, California, USA, the station serves the Orange County area...
held that the zduhaći were outstanding long jump
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...
ers. Some historical individuals were believed to have been zduhaći, such as Marko Miljanov
Marko Miljanov
Marko Miljanov Popović was a warrior and writer from Montenegro. He led the Kuči clan against the Turks in 1862 and distinguished himself in the War of 1876-78...
and Petar I Petrović-Njegoš
Petar I Petrovic-Njegoš
Petar I Petrović Njegoš was the ruler of Montenegro, the Cetinje Episcop of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Exarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church throne. He was the most popular spiritual and military leader from the Petrović dynasty...
. One of the most famous zduhaći was herbalist
Herbalist
An herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
and seer Mato Glušac (1774–1870) from the village of Korita in the municipality of Bileća
Bileca
Bileća is a town and municipality in the southeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the entity of Republika Srpska. It is in eastern Herzegovina near the border with Montenegro, north of Trebinje and south of Gacko...
in eastern Herzegovina.
There were claims that a person could become a zduhać through some magic rites, but it was a general opinion that the power was reserved only for those who were born with it. This gift was regarded positively; however, a zduhać could ally himself with the Devil, and use his innate power in accordance with Satan's directions. Such a person was doomed to turn into a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
after death. There is a description of the way through which a man ready to serve the Devil could become a zduhać. Forty days after he ceased praying to God and washing his face, the man should go to some level ground, before he drew a circle on the ground and sat in its center. Shortly thereafter Satan would come and ask the man whether he was willing to join the Devil's army, and what form he wanted to be transformed into. When the man stated the desired form, the Devil would turn him into that, making him a zduhać.
It was believed that every region and clan had their own zduhaći, who most often fought together. They were organized like an army unit, led by a head, their main foes being zduhaći from other regions. The goal of the fight was to beat these enemy spirits, thus saving one's own region from the storm and hail clouds brought by the adversaries, and moving the bad weather to their area. The victorious zduhaći would loot the fertility from the fields and livestock from the territory of their defeated opponents, and transfer it to their region. The zduhaći could associate on various levels, more or less localized. The clan of Kuči believed that the zduhaći from their side of the Komovi mountain chain fought together against the zduhaći who lived across that chain. The Bosnian ones fought against the Herzegovinian, the Herzegovinian against the Montenegrin, and the latter against the transmarine zduhaći, i.e., those from the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
.
Herzegovinian author Radovan Perović wrote about Mato Glušac in a 1906 text, where he recorded a reminiscence of Stojan Kovačević, a man who knew Glušac: "Both the young and the old, both the poor and the rich, both Serbs and Turks respected him [Glušac] and were glad to have him as their guest. They knew that he was one of the leaders of the good, mountain zduhaći, and that he would not let those evil seaside ones ravish their crop or do any other damage to them." Perović also interviewed Živko Lažetić, a zduhać from the village of Dobrelji
Dobrelji
Dobrelji is a village in the municipality of Gacko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-References:...
in the municipality of Gacko
Gacko
Gacko is a town and municipality in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Republika Srpska entity. It is situated in the Foča Region.-Geography:The town is in a short distance from Montenegro...
, eastern Herzegovina: "When we engage in fight with the zduhaći from Rudine (a region near the town of Bileća)—what a prodigy and struggle is that! We always beat them, unless the seaside zduhaći come to help them. And if they come, we escape to the highest mountains—only to decoy them away and prevent them from harming our fields."
Zduhaći fought mostly at night, especially between the second half of February and the end of March, as well as between the eve of the Nativity Fast
Nativity Fast
The Nativity Fast is a period of abstinence and penance practiced by the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches, in preparation for the Nativity of Christ, . The fast is similar to the Western Advent, except that it runs for 40 days instead of four weeks. The fast is...
and Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
. They engaged in battles high in the air, in the clouds, on mountain heights, or at sea shores. Their clashes were accompanied by gales and whirlwinds. It was considered dangerous to throw stones in the wind, because that might knock out an eye of a zduhać, who would kill the culprit. The zduhaći used various weapons in their fights: a spindle, cornel
European Cornel
The European Cornel is a species of dogwood native to southern Europe and southwest Asia. In North America, the plant is known by the common name of Cornelian Cherry....
rods, twigs, stalks of straw, splinters, fluff, pine cones, hay stacks, water drops, and beech leaves. Others fought with huge boulders or gigantic trees, which they uprooted with one hand. However, the most powerful zduhać weapon was held to be a stick of luč (resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
ous wood burned to give light or used as kindling) charred at both ends, or any charred piece of wood. Each zduhać carried a broom from a threshing floor
Threshing floor
A threshing floor is a specially flattened surface, usually circular and paved, where a farmer would thresh the grain harvest and then winnow it, before the advent of threshing machines from the nineteenth century onwards. The threshing floor was either owned by the entire village or by a single...
, a milk bucket, and a peck
Peck
A peck is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints. Two pecks make a kenning , and four pecks make a bushel....
measure, to fill the containers with the fertility of the fields and livestock of the defeated area. Seizing those three objects from an enemy zduhać was considered as an important achievement in the battle.
An individual domestic animal could also be regarded as a zduhać, such as a shepherd dog, ox, cow, bellwether, horse, or billy goat. They usually fought to protect their own flocks and herds, and only the fertility of the livestock depended on the result of their battles. Such animals were cherished, and were not for sale. In the region of Užice
Užice
Užice is a city and municipality in western Serbia, located at the banks of the Đetinja river. It is the administrative center of the Zlatibor District...
, western Serbia, farmers believed that storm and hail clouds were led by zduhaći who flew above them in the form of big birds. A black ox and a three-years-old rooster defended their village from them—especially the latter, for which reason he was not killed to be cooked, but kept as a home guardian. The idea of a black ox as a hail defender can be compared with the aforementioned idea of white cattle as hail clouds.
According to a description from eastern Herzegovina, the soul of a zduhać could take the form of an eagle or a bird with white wings, yellow legs, and a red beak. The sound of that bird resembled the whistle of a shepherd collecting his flock. When they fought on mountain heights, zduhaći might become incarnate as bulls. After his soul came back into his body following a strenuous battle, the zduhać was usually weak and exhausted for some time afterwards. There could be casualties in these battles, and it was believed that a "killed" or "wounded" zduhać would not live long after the return of his soul. People suspected that a man who suddenly died without an apparent cause was a zduhać. Russian philologist, ethnographer, and traveler Pavel Rovinsky recorded, in the second half of the 19th century, a story about a wounded zduhać. The story was narrated to Rovinsky by a man of the clan of Ceklin
Ceklin
Ceklin is one of the old clans of Montenegro, belonging to the Riječka Nahija . The origins of this tribe are from the base of Ceklinštak Mountain. This feuding tribe expanded in the late 17th century until finally it hit Skadar Lake and Rijeka Crnojevića by the 18th century...
, southern Montenegro, and could be paraphrased as follows:
There was a Ceklin zduhać who was defeated by other zduhaći and consequently had to die, so he took to his deathbed. His friends, neighbors, and relatives brought various presents to him, but he refused everything, because all was in vain. Finally he had everybody ushered out of the house, except for one of his brothers, a famous hero; all were also driven away from the door, to prevent eavesdropping. After that, the dying man said to his brother: "I will surely die, if I am not substituted for; and you can do it and save me, if you will have enough strength." The brother, of course, promised that, and the sick man continued: "You will have to go tonight to Mount So-and-so, at three to four hours' walking distance from here, most of the way lying through a dense forest. When you come beneath a cliff, stop there. A great fear will seize you; to encourage yourself, take your two pistols and a knife with the silver sheath." "I will take a musketMusketA musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
too," added the brother, and the sick man continued: "You may take that too, though only as an encouragement as it will be of no use to you, but you must have the knife." "I can go without any weapon or with a pocket knife, if it is against one man, and with a weapon I can confront a hundred men," interrupted the brother again.
The sick man then continued: "Tone down your bravado, but by all means take the knife. When you come beneath the cliff, the sky will be cloudless, lit, and there will be a silence in the air; then you will notice a wisp of cloud coming from the direction of Mount RumijaRumijaRumija is a mountain in South Montenegro. The highest point of Rumija Mountain is Rumija, which is high.Rumija rises above the town of Bar, and is a natural Dinaric barrier, separating Adriatic Sea from Skadar Lake basin....
, and the wind will start to blow. The wisp will turn into an enormous storm cloud that will cover all the sky, and there will come a darkness such as you have never experienced before; the wind will blow, whistle, roar, and shriek, as you have also never heard before; the hair will rise on your head so that it will lift your capMontenegrin capThe Montenegrin cap is a cap traditionally worn by Montenegrins and Serbs of Montenegro. Originally worn by males, it is now not exclusively for them....
; I am afraid that you will go mad from fear. And if you persevere, you will see three bulls falling down from the cloud on the earth: a light-haired, a pied, and a dark-haired bull. The latter two will start to beat the former, which is the weakest, because he is already wounded. Make sure to strike the two with the knife, but take care not to hurt the light-haired bull; that would be the death of me, as it would be if the two bulls gained the upper hand over the light-haired bull."
Having heard that, the brother prepared two pistols and put them into his belt, placed the knife between them, slung the musket over his shoulder, and set forth. Passing through the dark forest, he came beneath the cliff; the moon and the stars were shining, so it was like a day; a silence all around him, pleasant; he sat down and lit his pipe. Before long a wisp of cloud showed from the direction of Mount Rumija; there came a roar and bluster, and everything happened as the sick man said. His hair rose so that he had to push his cap down on his head three times. Finally, out of the storm cloud the three bulls fell down and started to fight; all as it was said. He then stabbed the pied bull in the throat with the knife, so this staggered and fell; the light-haired bull got encouraged. Then he stabbed the dark-haired bull, which slumped; the light-haired was just finishing them off with his horns. Since the man feared that the two bulls, wounded as they were, could still rise up, he kept on striking them with the knife as long as there was a breath in their bodies. The storm cloud suddenly disappeared; together with it the light-haired bull vanished. Again the moon and the stars shone; again a silence and serenity. He was going back home as if flying, and when he arrived he found his brother sitting by the hearth, placing logs on the fire, healthy as if he had never been sick.
In the Bay of Kotor
Bay of Kotor
The Bay of Kotor in south-western Montenegro is a winding bay on the Adriatic Sea. The bay, sometimes called Europe's southernmost fjord, is in fact a submerged river canyon of the disintegrated Bokelj River which used to run from the high mountain plateaus of Mount Orjen...
, Grbalj, and other parts of south-central Montenegro, a man who acted as a zduhać was called a vjedogonja or jedogonja; his epithets were "shady", "in the shade", or "in the wind". There was a rule: if a child was born with a caul, the girl would become a witch, and the boy a vjedogonja. This could have been prevented by cutting the caul on a trough for feeding dogs, and throwing it away; the child would then grow up into an ordinary person. The analogy between the witch and the vjedogonja is also present in the following verses of The Mountain Wreath, a poetic drama written in the 19th century by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš
Petar II Petrovic-Njegoš
Petar II Petrović-Njegoš , was a Serbian Orthodox Prince-Bishop of Montenegro , who transformed Montenegro from a theocracy into a secular state. However, he is most famous as a poet...
, the plot of which takes place in 18th-century Montenegro:
Бог са нама и анђели божји! |
|
Serdar
Serdar
Serdar is the Turkic spelling of the Persian name Sardar which means Field Marshal.-Given name:* Serdar Avcı, Turkish boxer* Serdar Aziz, Turkish footballer* Serdar Bayrak, Turkish footballer* Serdar Güneş, Turkish footballer...
Vukota said this to Bishop Danilo after the latter, speaking as if alone, expressed a piercing vision on the clash between Christianity and Islam, and on the lonely struggle of little Montenegro to preserve its freedom from the Turkish Empire. The second and third verses can be compared with the idiom u mahniti lik udariti, literally "to dash into a frenzied countenance", meaning "to fall into a frenzied or crazed exaltation". The sardar compared Bishop Danilo's exaltation with that of the witch or the vjedogonja when their spirit left their body. It was believed that this happened mostly in March and October, when the weather was exceptionally windy and cloudy. After the sardar's words, the bishop started as if from a dream.
While it was claimed that the witches harmed primarily their relatives and neighbors, the vjedogonje were useful to their home region and harmful to other areas. After they left their body in sleep, these spirits trooped to a mountain where they uprooted trees and fought with them, one regional band against the other, e.g., the band from the Bay of Kotor against that from Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. The winners in these combats would transfer to their territory the crop yield of the losers. It was thought that the main individuals among the vjedogonje were those who had a tail and were hairy, the same as among the witches. Vuk Karadžić recorded the following in the first half of the 19th century: "When a man regarded as a vjedogonja dies, they drive hawthorn spines under his nails and cut the tendons beneath his knees with a black-sheath knife, so that he could not get out of his grave (like a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
)."
Vetrovnjak and vilovit
In parts of western Serbia, the man whose spirit protected the fields of his village from bad weather was called a vetrovnjak; the name is derived from the noun vetar "wind". A shepherd by the name of Živko from the village of Šljivovica on Mount ZlatiborZlatibor
Zlatibor is a mountain region situated in the western part of Serbia, a part of the Dinaric Alps.The mountain range spreads over an area of 300 km², 27 miles in length, southeast to northwest, and up to 23 miles in width. The highest peak is Tornik at 1496 m...
was believed to be a vetrovnjak. At the onset of a storm, he would fall into a trance-like sleep and soared skywards to fight against the black-feathered bird which led storm and hail clouds. Returning to his body after the battle, he had to rest for some time to restore his physical strength. He talked to nobody about what was happening with him while he was in the unconscious state. Živko was sometimes called a zduvać by those who were mad at him, which was a derogatory term in this area. It was claimed that a vetrovnjak could take the bad clouds over the estate of a man with whom he was in a conflict. In the region of Dragačevo, western Serbia, there were stories about the vilovit men, who would disappear at the sight of hail clouds, reappearing later bloody and with torn clothes. Asked where they had been to, they would only answer that they had gone to fight against those who led hail over their village.
Zmajevit and alovit
In eastern, central, and southern Serbia, the defenders against bad weather were called the zmajevit men. The adjective zmajevit is derived from the noun zmaj ("dragon"), and means "having a dragon's properties". In those areas, the dragon was imagined as a flying fiery power, a spiritual being benevolent towards the humans. Each dragon had his own territory, within which he dwelt by a forest spring or stream, or in the hollow trunk of a beech tree. There are many toponyms with the root zmaj, for example Zmajevac, which is usually the name of a spring or a source. The dragon took care that his territory received the right amount of rain at the right time, for good growth of the crops. His arch-enemy was the ala, a female demon whose main activity was to lead storm and hail clouds over fields to destroy crops. Whenever he noticed an ala approaching, the dragon would fly up into the clouds to fight against the demon, and kill or chase her away.The zmajevit man acted in a similar way; as soon as he saw bad weather approaching, which he knew was brought by an ala, he would leave whatever he was doing, and fly up into the clouds to confront the demon. This he did by falling into a deep sleep, either at the very spot where he happened to be at that time, or after he retreated to some more out-of-the-way place. His soul then left his body and soared skywards. It was claimed that he was not breathing as long as his soul, which could take the form of a snake or a lizard, was absent from his body. The battle could last for a whole day, or even for several days, during which time the man lay unconscious, sweating from the exertion of the fight. There was a danger that, during the course of the battle, the ala might approach the man's body and harm him, which could be prevented by someone swinging a blade above him, or by sticking the blade at the lying man's head.
There is a story about a zmajevit man who saw an ala in a cloud while he was scything
Scythe
A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...
. Having said to a scytheman beside him, "I am going to sleep, and you swing a scythe above me," he lay down and fell asleep. The man who swung the scythe, however, inadvertently grazed him with the tip of the blade. When the zmajevit woke up, he told that he had been wounded by the ala he fought with, and lost a lot of blood. A zmajevit man from the village of Bogujevac always kept with him a piece of a scythe blade or a knife. As soon as he perceived the imminent approach of bad weather, he would lie down on the ground and stick the blade above his head, before his spirit soared into the clouds to deal with the ala. When he was drafted into the army, he fell asleep without a blade during a thunderstorm, and died.
In some regions, the zmajevit men were referred to as the alovit. This adjective is derived from the noun ala, and means "having supernatural or demonic properties". It could be applied not only to humans, but also to dragons, snakes, horses, trees, armies, and rivers. An ala could have a positive character in central Serbia and Banat, where she was believed to be connected to a territory, which she protected against other ale (plural). In the area around the city of Kruševac
Kruševac
Kruševac is a city and municipality, and the administrative center of the Rasina District, in central Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the municipality has a population of 127,429, while the town has 57,627....
, when blessings were pronounced on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
and on the slava
Slava
The Slava , also called Krsna Slava and Krsno ime , is the Serbian Orthodox tradition of the ritual celebration and veneration of a family's own patron saint. The family celebrates the Slava annually on the patron saint's feast day...
, people would say: "God, save our guardian ala." There was also a notion that the amount of crops wiped out by a storm or hail in one area, would be added to the crop yield of another area, this violent transfer being the result of the victory of a raiding demon over the demon that guarded the crops. So, a successful ala would defend and save the fields of her territory, and increase their yield by the quantity of crops she destroyed with hail in the territories of the ale she defeated. This can be compared with the inter-regional fights of the zduhaći and the vjedogonje.
The adjective alovit was applied in some areas to the men that were believed to have an ala dwelling in them. At the sight of hail clouds, such an alovit man would fall into a trance-like sleep, before the ala within him went out of his body. She would then fly before the clouds and take them over the fields of a neighboring village. A man, who was claimed to be alovit, was described as unusually tall, thin, and bony-faced, with a long beard and mustache. When the weather was good, he worked and behaved like the others in his village, but as soon as dark clouds covered the sky, he would close himself in his house, put blinds on the windows, and remain alone for as long as the bad weather lasted. It was also claimed that he suffered from epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
. In the region of Boljevac
Boljevac
Boljevac is a town and municipality located in the Zaječar District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the population of the town is 3,332, while population of the municipality is 12,865....
, farmers believed that the epileptics were alovit—their spirit went out of their body during epileptic fits and led hail clouds.
In Banat, the fighters against the ale were called the halovit (a dialectal variant of alovit). In the village of Kusić
Kusic (Bela Crkva)
Kusić is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Bela Crkva municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population is 1,361 .-External links:*...
, a halovit man was Ilija Bordan, for whom the villagers said that he had a tail. Whenever a thunderstorm came, his appearance changed—he fought with an ala. If the ala was overwhelming him, Ilija would lie down and sleep, and if he was overpowering her, the clouds would start to dissipate. In the same village there was a story about a halovit man who would warn people to run home before a thunderstorm started, and then take a wagon tongue on his back, before he flew bodily into the clouds. After some time he would return exhausted, scratched and with torn clothes. In the village of Sokolovac, the halovit was a man with four nipples
Multiple breast syndrome
Multiple Breast Syndrome is a condition and a form of atavism where a person is born with, or develops, extra breasts. It is most prevalent in male humans, and often goes untreated as it is mostly harmless...
. Perceiving the approach of hail clouds, he would mount his mare and disappear for three or four days to come back bruised and with torn clothes.
The zmajevit or alovit men were born with a caul; they were reputed to be able to cope with the ale from their birth. In a story, a group of dragons surrounded an ala, who broke away and flew into a watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
. Unfortunately for the ala, a woman and a toddler who was a zmajevit boy were in the mill: the boy grabbed a stone and killed the ala with it. It was believed in the area around the city of Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
that the alovit boy fought in the clouds against the ala using a plough beam as a stick to beat her with. The boy had helpers in his battles—the Aesculapian snake
Aesculapian Snake
The Aesculapian Snake is a nonvenomous snake native to Europe.-Description:They hatch at around 30 cm and average at around 110 cm but can grow up to 200 cm . They are dark, long, slender, and shiny...
s; for this reason people would not hurt the snakes of that species. One of the folk theories about the origin of dragons asserted that they developed from Aesculapian snakes which had attained a certain age. A tradition from southeastern Serbia had it that an alovit boy would only then become able to confront successfully an ala, when three old women spun yarn, knitted a baby shirt with it, and dressed the infant in the shirt. To be effective, those three jobs had to be done in one day and one night, during which time the three women should not have spoken a single word. It was narrated that Prophet Elijah drove his chariot across the sky accompanied by an alovit boy and killed ale by striking them down with lightning bolts.
Another idea associated with the zmajevit man was that he was born out of a relationship between a woman and a dragon, who was regarded as a great lover and seducer of beautiful women. The dragon visited them by night, entering their houses down the chimney before turning into a man. It was believed that no other man could be attractive to a woman who had spent a night with a dragon. He, however, could fall into such a love trance to forget to secure the rain for his territory. If the villagers concluded that the drought developed because the dragon became entranced by their women, they would chase him out of the village by making a deafening noise, ringing, banging metal cans, blowing whistles, and similar. According to a Serbian folk poem
Serbian epic poetry
Serb epic poetry is a form of epic poetry written by Serbs originating in today's Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The main cycles were composed by unknown Serb authors between the 14th and 19th centuries...
, Princess Milica of Serbia had a love affair with the dragon of Mount Jastrebac. Immediately to the north of that mountain lies the city of Kruševac
Kruševac
Kruševac is a city and municipality, and the administrative center of the Rasina District, in central Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the municipality has a population of 127,429, while the town has 57,627....
, which had contained the court of the princess and her husband Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović
Lazar of Serbia
Lazar Hrebeljanović , was a medieval nobleman that emerged as the most powerful Serbian ruler after the death of the previous, childless, Emperor Uroš the Weak, which resulted in years of instability in the Serbian realm. As Stefan Lazar, he was Prince of Serbia from 1371 to 1389, ruling what is...
since 1371. The following verses of the poem describe how the dragon visited Milica after sunset in her apartment in a tower of the court:
Мало било, за дуго не било, |
|
The dragon had been visiting the princess for a year when Prince Lazar, noticing how pensive and pale his wife was, urged Milica to tell him what troubled her. She confessed the secret to Lazar, who then instructed her to ask the dragon whether he feared anyone, except God. The princess did so, coaxing her magical lover into revealing that the only hero he feared was the ruler of Syrmia
Syrmia
Syrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....
, Despot Vuk Grgurević
Vuk Grgurevic
Vuk Grgurević Branković , also known as Vuk the Fiery Dragon , was the titular Despot of Serbia from 1471 until his death in 1485...
. Prince Lazar sent a letter to the despot, who came to Kruševac and killed the dragon after an aerial pursuit high in the clouds.
The men born out of relationships between women and dragons were believed to be extremely strong, almost invincible, extraordinarily wise, nimble and hot-tempered. Some famous heroes were regarded as sons of dragons, such as the aforementioned Vuk Grgurević, popularly known as Vuk the Fiery Dragon, and Despot Stefan Lazarević
Stefan Lazarevic
Stefan Lazarević known also as Stevan the Tall was a Serbian Despot, ruler of the Serbian Despotate between 1389 and 1427. He was the son and heir to Prince Lazar, who died at the Battle of Kosovo against the Turks in 1389, and Princess Milica from the subordinate branch of the Nemanjić dynasty...
, Princess Milica's son. The appearance of zmajevit men was not different from that of ordinary people, except that they had little wings beneath their armpits. A story has it that the mother of a zmajevit boy wanted to make him an ordinary child by cutting off his little wings, but that section resulted in the boy's death. Among the properties that the zmajevit men inherited from their dragon fathers was the inclination to confront the ale and the ability to defeat them, thus saving the crops of their villages from the storms and hail that the ale were bringing.
Oblačar
In Syrmia, people believed that the dragons lived on high mountains and flew high in the sky shedding a lot of sparks. Benath them, in dense and terrible clouds, flew gigantic winged serpentine demons called aždaja, which spewed hail on fields. A special man, called an oblačar, would fight against them and their associates. This name is derived from the noun oblak "cloud". The oblačar would rush directly beneath the dark clouds, as soon as he noticed that they were gathering above the fields of his village. There he would run to and fro, following the movement of the aždaja, at the same time waving his arms, or holding a stick raised in the direction of the cloud. He would not stop until he was completely exhausted and drenched. Sometimes he succeeded in preventing hail fall, and other times not, as was the case with an oblačar from MirkovciMirkovci
Mirkovci is a village and the suburb of town Vinkovci, in eastern Croatia. It is in the Syrmia region, located immediately southeast of Vinkovci. The Vinkovci-Gunja railway separates it from the rest of the city...
. When the wind blew the clouds away from Mirkovci without a damage to its crops, this man would return from the fields and boast to the villagers of his persistence in warding off the hail bringers despite their ferocity. And when hail fell on the crops, he would humbly state that he did his best, but the adversaries flung themselves upon him with tenfold fierceness. The villagers believed and felt sory for their oblačar, all drenched and bruised by hail. In autumn, he drove his cart from house to house in Mirkovci, receiving wheat from farmers for his struggle.
Gradobranitelj
In PocerinaPocerina
- See also :* Regions of Serbia...
, the region containing Mount Cer
Cer (mountain)
Cer is a mountain in western Serbia, 30 kilometers from Šabac, 100 kilometers west of Belgrade. The highest peak is 689 m high.During World War I, the Battle of Cer was fought on Cer, in which Serbian forces defeated Austria-Hungary....
in northwestern Serbia, protection from hail was provided by a gradobranitelj ("hail defender"), who learned that "craft" from another gradobranitelj. This type of protection included the use of magic. The gradobranitelj in the village of Lipolist
Lipolist
Lipolist is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Šabac municipality, in the Mačva District. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 2,582 people .-See also:*List of places in Serbia*Mačva...
was Nikola Stojković, who pursued that vocation for about forty years, until the 1950s. On the night before every bigger feast day, he collected earth and remnants of candles from graves of hanged and drowned persons, flour beneath a millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...
, water beneath a water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
, and dew. Nikola mixed all these ingredients into a mass, from which he made pellets the size of a hazelnut. At the same time he collected dew in a bottle. All the pellets and dew collected from Christmas to Christmas were placed in one bag and one bottle, respectively.
At the onset of a thunderstorm, according to Nikola's own description, he felt a great excitement; he heard some music in the thunder, all his muscles tightened, and something made him go. He would take a sickle and a scythe, a warp beam
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
on which a twin sister had wound warp yarns
Warp (weaving)
In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...
, the bag with the last-year's pellets, and the bottle with last-year's dew. With this he would run directly toward the cloud, looking neither left nor right, nor watching where he treads. Once on the field, Nikola would stick the scythe into the ground, and say a prayer for lightning to strike. Having gone away from the scythe, he would make the sign of the cross with the warp beam in the direction of the cloud, to break it into quarters. Further beneath it, he would shake the cloud apart using the pellets and dew. There he also addressed the souls of the drowned and hanged leading the cloud, praying them that the "rain like this dew" fall, and spoke various other prayers. For these protective services, Nikola had been receiving wheat and maize from his fellow villagers. He was eventually warned by the authorities to stop with these activities, branded backward superstition by them.
The gradobranitelj in Bukor
Bukor
Bukor is a village in the municipality of Šabac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 818 people....
in the 1950s was Trivun Selenić. Perceiving that there might be hail, he would go behind the village, wave his arms toward the cloud, and speak the following (the meaning of the italicized words is unclear): Raviše đaviše, nađuniši pistols, the dress on silver, the girl onto the neck! Barbarian's head smashed! I am the first voivode here. The dinner is not served for you here. Go there to those hills. It is served there for you. So dine there." Trivun explained that hail clouds were led by devils accompanied by souls of the drowned and hanged. By the statement "I am the first voivode here" he would proclaim that he was the principal commander of devils, who consequently had to obey his commands and proceed around his village. Trivun recognized that all this was a sin: both his declaring himself a voivode of devils, and averting hail from his village, because it would fall and make damage at some other place. Miljko Ivković from Dobrići spoke nothing, but went onto the field, took his cap off, made the Sign of the Cross
Sign of the cross
The Sign of the Cross , or crossing oneself, is a ritual hand motion made by members of many branches of Christianity, often accompanied by spoken or mental recitation of a trinitarian formula....
, and put the cap back on. After that, he three times made the sign of the cross with a knife in the direction of the cloud, thus cutting it into quarters, which he then drove apart. In the end he stuck the knife's handle into the ground, the blade turned toward the cloud.
Sorceress
Besides the aforementioned protectors, who were mostly men, it was also believed that there were women who could eliminate the danger from destructive weather. This was the case with Stana Tomić, a healer from Jarmenovci in the municipality of TopolaTopola
Topola is a town and municipality situated in the Šumadija region of Serbia. It was the place where Karađorđe, a Serbian revolutionary, was chosen as the leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1804. The local St...
. Her fellow villagers held her in high esteem and claimed that she saved Jarmenovci from hail many times. At the sight of hail clouds, she would place the dining table at the center of her house, before putting on it a piece of bread, salt, and the lighted candle that had been used during the celebration of the slava
Slava
The Slava , also called Krsna Slava and Krsno ime , is the Serbian Orthodox tradition of the ritual celebration and veneration of a family's own patron saint. The family celebrates the Slava annually on the patron saint's feast day...
. She would then go out into the yard and shout: "O Radomir, hanged man, lead the kolo
Kolo (dance)
Kolo , is a collective folk dance, danced primarily by people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. It is performed amongst groups of people holding each other's having their hands around each other's waists...
around. Turn those white cattle back there, do not let them come here. Here is a bigger prodigy: a girl of seven years old bore a child, wrapped it in silken diapers, bound it with a silken ribbon. Do not let harm come to our vineyards, do not let harm come to our fruitful fields." In 1956, when this was recorded, Stana had been protecting Jarmenovci in this way for thirty years, since she had moved there from the nearby village of Rudnik. In the regions of Takovo
Takovo
Takovo is a village in the municipality of Gornji Milanovac, Serbia. It has a population of about 500.The Second Serbian Uprising under the leadership of Miloš Obrenović started in this village.- External links :*...
and Užice
Užice
Užice is a city and municipality in western Serbia, located at the banks of the Đetinja river. It is the administrative center of the Zlatibor District...
, people claimed that some villages had never been ravaged by hail, because in each of them there was a woman that prevented it.
Comparison with other traditions
The idea about the men with the inborn ability to leave their body in a spirit form has also been recorded in Slovene and Croatian traditions. The spirit would turn into a bull, dog, bore, or some other animal, intercept bringers of bad weather, and fight with them to save the crops of his village. A man with this ability was designated by various names: vedomec in TolminTolmin
Tolmin is a small town and municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.-Geography:Tolmin, the old town that gave the name to the entire area , is the largest settlement in the Upper Soča Valley , as well as its economic, cultural and administrative centre. It is located on a terrace above the...
, mogut in Turopolje
Turopolje
Turopolje is a region in Croatia situated between the capital city Zagreb and Sisak. The administrative center of the region Turopolje is the town of Velika Gorica.-Overview:...
, vremenjak in Lika and Sinj
Sinj
Sinj is a town in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The town itself has a population of 11,448, while the population of the administrative municipality which includes surrounding villages is 24,832 ....
, legromant or nagromant in southern Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
and the area around Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, višćun in Dalmatia, and štrigun in Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
. These protectors usually fought with each other—e.g., a vremenjak against another vremenjak—and the winner would take bad weather to the region of the loser. The spirit of a krsnik from Slovenia, Istria and the Kvarner Gulf
Kvarner Gulf
The Kvarner Gulf ); sometimes also Kvarner Bay, in Italian Quarnaro or Carnaro) is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian seacoast....
, confronted dangerous demons to defend his village from any harm that they could inflict, including the damage from weather. Similar to him were the benandanti
Benandanti
The Benandanti were an agrarian fertility cult in the Friuli district of Northern Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Between 1575 and 1675, the Benandanti were tried as heretics or witches under the Roman Inquisition, and their beliefs assimilated to Satanism...
from the region of Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
in northeastern Italy; the last mention of them was in documents of the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
dating from the second half of the 17th century. The krsniks and the benandanti were born with a caul. There were also supernatural beings, such as obilnjaks and brgants in Slovenia, and kombals in Međimurje, who clashed with each other during thunderstorms over the plenty of their territories.
In Greek folklore, a stikhio (στοιχείο) was a spirit that protected his territory against the adverse stikhio spirits from other territories. In Macedonia, each zmej ("dragon") had his own area which he defended from an ala or the lamja, a fusion of the ala and the Greek demon Lamia
Lamia (mythology)
In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia was a beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-eating daemon. Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet , referring to her habit of devouring children....
. In Albanian tradition, a dragoi was a dragon-man gifted with an enormous strength and the power to fly; he was born with a caul. He saved his region from a kuçedra or kulshedra, a female serpentine demon. In Bulgaria, a good dragon fought against an evil hala, a demon equivalent to the ala in Serbian tradition. Neither the dragon nor the hala were connected to a specific territory. In Romanian tradition there were no defenders against bad weather, which was produced by a gigantic flying serpentine creature called a balaur
Balaur
A balaur is a creature in Romanian folklore, similar to a European dragon. A bălaur is quite large, has fins, feet, and is polycephalous...
or a zmeu. A balaur could be controlled by an evil sorcerer called a şolomonar
Solomonari
-Origins and name:Solomonarii are very important characters of the Romanian mythology, a caste, order or congregation of wizards with special knowledge and abilities. Their origin is often linked [1] [2] with that of the ancient Dacian priests...
, who was able to ride on that demon. The notion of a şolomonar named a vîlva, who protected his village against attacks of vîlvas from other villages, was marginally encountered in some places of Romanian Banat.
In the folklore of the Vlachs of Serbia, an ethnic group inhabiting parts of eastern Serbia, there were men and women called vlva, whose supernatural abilities could be compared with those of the zduhaći. A vlva protected his or her village from torrential rains and hail. There is a story from the 1960s about two vlvas, Đorđe Kurić and Strain Dragojević, from the village of Rudna Glava
Rudna Glava
Rudna Glava is a mining site in present-day eastern Serbia that demonstrates one of the earliest evidences of European copper mining and metallurgy, dating to the 5th millennium BC. Shafts were cut into the hillside, with scaffolding constructed for easy access to the veins of ore. It belongs to...
in the municipality of Majdanpek
Majdanpek
Majdanpek is a town and municipality in Bor District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the municipality of Majdanpek has a population of 18,179 people, while the town of Majdanpek has a population of 7,367....
. The villagers became annoyed by the two men constantly quarreling in the local public house about which one was the more successful vlva, so they arranged a contest between them. The two had to crawl up a three-storey house and bring a slate from the roof. Dragojević managed to do that, but Kurić fell from half-way up and broke a leg.
It was believed in southern Poland that clouds and hail were produced by creatures named płanetnik, chmurnik, or obłocznik: they compressed fog into clouds, and fragmented ice with iron flail
Flail (weapon)
The flail is a hand weapon derived from the agricultural tool.The handle is attached to the striking part of a weapon by a flexible chain or cord...
s into hailstones. They were regarded to be the spirits of infants who had died without baptism, or those of drowned and hanged people. By other notions, they were the souls of individuals in deep sleep, but they could also be persons who bodily flew into the sky during storms. Płanetniks were friendly toward humans, often warning them about the approach of a storm or hail. They could direct the movement of clouds.
In Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
, people believed that the souls of persons who killed themselves not only led hail clouds, but also produced hail by fragmenting ice. They packed the hailstones into bags, which they then carried in the clouds they led. All this they did under the command of devils. A gradivnik was a man with special powers who did not allow these souls to unload their bags on the fields of his village, but commanded them to do that over a forest or a body of water. While he spoke to them, he waved his magical stick in the direction of the cloud. In some places there was a notion of gradivniks who would leave their body in sleep and clash with other gradivniks. The battles between these spirits determined which place would be ravaged by hail, because the winners led hail clouds over the village of the losers. In the folklore of Carpathian Ruthenia there was also the idea of humans with two souls. When such a person fell into a deep sleep, one of his souls would come out of his body and roam around doing harm in his human shape or that of an animal.
The zduhaći and the zmajevit men could be compared in some respects with the shamans: they were all able to leave their bodies in a soul form to fight against evil spirits for the well-being of their communities. In some traditions, shamans also fought each other, usually incarnate as animals. For someone to become a shaman, however, he had to go through a training and initiation, whereas nothing of that is needed for a zduhać—he is born as such. For a shaman's soul to leave the body, he had to work himself into a state of ecstasy through drumming, dancing, chanting, and even taking some narcotics. All the zduhaći and the zmajevit men had to do was to fall asleep, although the unusual depth of their sleep may indicate a state of ecstasy.
The shaman put on special clothes, details of which had symbolic meanings, before he started to perform the ecstasy-inducing techniques; clothing is of no significance for a zduhać. The description of the exit and the journey of the shaman's soul is full of details and events, but no corresponding accounts exist in the case of the zduhaći and the zmajevit men. An idea of a journey may, nevertheless, be discerned from the expression otišli su u vjetrove ("they have gone into the winds"), with which it was stated that the souls of the zduhaći had left their bodies and gone to fight. Pavel Rovinsky recorded the words that he heard in Montenegro from a woman on a windy March evening: "Listen, how they sing—the travelers; they have gone high—high! Happy journey to them!"