When a person falls ill from mrak (dark)

From the old days across Bosnia there was a taboo according to which washed clothes should not spend the night hanging outside because of the danger that the owner might fall victim to evil ghosts. According to traditional belief with the sun setting the Jinn and devils are being released and they spread quickly across the dark and they’re lurking and attacking people. They use various ways with that intent and one of them is to possess washed clothes which is hanging on the balcony or in the yard. Allegedly, people whose clothes is left outside, overnight will be afflicted by various fears, insomnia and mental distress.

Stravarka Fatka Hasanović from Banovići is probably among the oldest folk healers in BiH. She started practicing lead melting ritual back in 1945, when she was nine years old. Speaking about herself and her healing work in the Sarajevo magazine, claiming that she helped women which cannot stay pregnant even after ten or more years of marriage, she spoke how she cured the following: našice, krajčicu, spellbound eyes, fear, smolanice, sapunice, ringworms, ulcers.

Explaining what type of disease is hidden behind the name našice stravarka Fatka warned that we should avoid washing clothes in the afternoon and leaving it wet overnight since in that case “mrak will stick to the clothes and dry on it, when a person puts the clothes on and falls asleep it will rule over his mind. Since the old days this disease was called našice. As Fatka claims našice are best recognised by waking up a man in the middle of the night. When he suddenly jerks and wakes up the man is completely disoriented, and if he stands up to go somewhere, to the bathroom or kitchen, something will pull him back and he will fall down, this happens even to the strongest man, says stravarka from Banovići.


stravarka Fatka Hasanović

-If the clothes stays dry overnight nothing will happen since mrak will not stick to it. But if it stays overnight, wet, then it is better to wash it again in the morning so it can dry during the day or once you pick it up in the morning you should light a candle at dusk and you should bring around it all the clothes that stayed outside overnight. With this, stravarka Fatka claims, you will neutralise all of the negative effects on it.

Fatal power of spellbound eyes

In folk medicine in BiH all mental illnesses were called džanbola (from the Turkish word „can/džan“ – soul), and it would come through as a result of the detrimental activity of evil spirits – Jinn. Among the most difficult ailments were considered the ones caused by direct contact with demons („naletio na džinsko kolo – he came across a circle of Jinn“, „udario ga džinski vjetar – he got struck by demonic winds“ etc.), for example when a diseased would fall victim to specific mental states such as hysteria, paranoia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc.




According to Bosnian Imam/healers and stravarke a man can get seriously ill from fear, black magic, namet, nagaža, ograme, zgranila, letame (so called “džinski šamar-demonic slap” pareza facialis – Bell’s palsy) and spells. However, from all of the above, spells are considered to be the most widespread disease.
Fear from the destructive power of a spellbound gaze is deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of many cultures in the world, whether primitive or developed societies, and among the Bosnian folk it is most evidently presented in the following statement: “As soon as he looks at you, he disrupts everything, you can’t curdle cheese nor douse a fire!”.
As we have mentioned spells are common among people, far more than black magic, possessions or for example red wind. It appears always as a negative side effect when one has excessive emotions. Often, Imam/healers claim, it happens that parents cast a spell on their child, despite the great love they feel for the child, since “whatever a man does too much, it is not good nor healthy!”.


What is actually a spell and how does it work?

In his book “Power of thinking in scientific life”, William Walker states the following: “Science has confirmed the strength of spells by conditioning so called theory of magnetism. It is, actually, holding a strong inner desire with the help of the eyes, because of the ability of the eye not only to see but to feel as well, in this case, the final extreme ferocity of the gaze. As evidence to this, in a theatre or a place where people sit one behind the other, gaze into the back of someone’s head who is sitting in front of you. Persistently watching at the lower part of his nape wish inside of yourself, very hard, for him to turn around. Notice that the person will suddenly turn and look exactly at the place you were looking at him from. This exercise is shown as very successful among people which know each other, and less among people which are strangers. Similarly, it is more successful in women than in men, since women react better to such types of influence. The better you know a person the faster this will work.”

I am of the opinion that a spell, but also other paranormal appearances, have a direct connection with the astral body, our spiritual doppelganger who is also a link between the world of humans and spirits (1). What we call supernatural powers such as clairvoyance, telekinesis or spells are nothing more than the ability of our astral body which has the ability to penetrate into the higher spheres. Through the “third eye” i.e. as it is called in Bosnian occult practice – “star”, we are connected to the universe but also the spiritual world (see. “Illyrians – Europe’s greatest mystery”).  From there we draw all our knowledge and information. But, since further explanation would take too much space and would somewhat distance us from our main topic it will suffice to say the following.

According to some technical definitions the human body is nothing else than a collection of condensed energy, which has its own clearly determined way of acting. Every time when it comes to disruption of the normal flow of energy, primarily because of some overemphasized emotion, usually negative, our body accumulates that negative energy on some part of the body, where a disease then appears, or simply it “throws out” that excess energy in order to reset i.e. normalise. Which is somewhat identical to our physiological needs. If that expulsion of excess energy happens –visually through the eyes or orally through the mouth – at the moment when we are praising someone or when we envy someone, the energy will be automatically directed at “the target” and it will become spellbound. It is, also, an answer to the question – why do we get spellbound every time when someone lauds us or when someone openly or secretly envies us?

Hence, the power of spells is a native occurrence among all humans, it has nothing to do with specific character traits, sex, physical appearance or national affiliation. In folk belief there are sort of cultural animosities towards individual groups for which is then claimed that they have an evil gaze like the Roma people, but also elderly women, men without beards (ćosavi), bearded women, etc. (2). Actually, the symbol of evil amongst people were always those people which for some reason did not fit into the societal order or yet persons with lighter or more difficult physical deformities, whose appearance caused fear and prejudice, especially in rural areas.

Writing about spells, Leopold Gluck states that the belief in them is present among the entire Bosnian people, but, especially among the Bosniaks and Čifutima (name for Bosnian Jews), which claim that one can cast a spell “without looking” with only a word, and what is worse is that you can put a spell on yourself. When you laud someone because of his characteristics, physical or mental, when you are in awe of someone because of their animate or inanimate property, whether he heard it or not, you can put a spell on him. Even when you think of yourself as hard working, rich, you can put a spell on yourself. The above mentioned belief completely explains why dozens of prophylactic gestures appeared among these people whose sole purpose, during conversations whether important or unimportant, was to block or annul eventual spells by knocking on wood with the index finger or spitting to one side.



(1) Best informed about the definition of the body and the soul were our forefathers the Bogomils whose doctrine about the soul, representative of heavenly energy and physical body the personification of demonic force, clearly talks of the dualistic strength which creates life. Mission of every human is to achieve a balance of good and evil inside of himself, not allowing any of the forces to prevail. When that happens, and usually when weevil prevails, various evils occur among which are the influences of the evil eye.

(2) Traditional understanding which type of eyes can cast spells, i.e. their colour, is based on a very simple template. Namely, researching the available literature for acquisition of information which would help me in writing this modest work about folk medicine in BiH, I discovered that it primarily depends on geographic position and genetic structure of a people. A generally accepted thesis is that the evil eyes or spellbound eyes are determined on the colour of the iris which is least represented or is not present at all. Since there is a very small percentage of people with black irises among the Bosniaks, dark eyes especially combined with dark hair are considered to be evil. That’s why it is still today believed that one should beware dark eyes “since they can easily shoot through a person, to their heart and lead to death!” On the contrary, in Turkey, as well as in the entire Middle East, spellbound eyes are blue eyes and blonde hair.

Fear in Bosnian folk medicine

Author: Raif Esmerović

According to definition fear is described as intense and unpleasant negative feeling which a man experiences once he sees or expects danger, whether the danger is real or imaginary. It's an inborn, genetically programmed reaction to threatening or painful stimuli. Fear is a primary emotion, just like happiness, sorrow, surprise, anger and disgust, which means that in different cultures it is expressed the same or in a similar manner, i.e. that the expression of fear is not learned. Fear is not non-functional, just like pain whose goal is to protect the body from further harm, fear with its intense discomfort and exclusion of all other things focuses the body on defence of the thing that causes fear, it places the system in a preparatory state and spurs careful monitoring of the thing which causes the danger. (Wikipedia)


Studying ethnological build from the transition of the nineteenth into the twentieth century makes it easy to conclude that people lacking medical and scientific cognition divided diseases into two types – physical and mental. The most widespread cause of disease, which is the predominant cause of death, was according to people in Bosnia the destructive effect of evil (spellbound) eyes. Right after that came fear. Because of this reason in case a disease occurred people would perform the ritual of extinguishing coal in water, against evil eyes, or lead melting ritual, because of the doubt of fear. If neither method showed successful another solution would be sought such as medicinal herbs, balms, priests prayers and amulets, etc. Often, usually at the end, one would consult a doctor, but only if he is located close to the diseased person’s home. Necessity to seek help initially from the magical-religious domain is the product of an archaic belief according to which the disease was considered as god’s will or punishment, or a result of aggression by evil spirits who would cause terrible pain and other ailments by possessing the human body.

Fear from evil spirits, god’s punishment, evil eyes or mental shock is not only a reflection of the lack of enlightenment of a time but also of its brutality. How much rooted the fear is in the collective consciousness of this people is perhaps best envisaged by a short summary of the history of Bosnia and the Bosnian people, who were since ancient, Illyrian times constantly exposed to historical turmoil, war and occupation by larger states; according to this it is easy to conclude why it was accumulated in such an extent. In the end it created a psychological impression that there is a fear from fear, which is more intense than normal.

Namely, as modern psychology claims, humans are born with only two fears – fear of hunger and noise, while all other phobias are usually acquired during childhood and we fight with them our entire life. Fear from hunger and noise are tightly connected with the survival instinct, and during the process of growing up it is supplemented with new instinctual fears whose primary function is keeping us alive. But, besides this positive existential purpose, fear also has a negative side, when it acts in complete opposition against the human, directly endangering his life.

Circle of fear begins during childhood

It is believed among the folk that the victims of fear are more children than adults, primarily because of their physical and mental vulnerability. For centuries in a conservative society, like the Bosnian one, the children are brought up with fear, i.e. certain mental torture was performed on them in order to literally program them to act according to the hypocritical standards of the patriarchal society in which one traditionally suffocated all desire to be different or individualistic.

That’s why I always say that it is a bit ironic that out of the most beautiful period in a human’s life, which childhood is, we inherit the most trauma, complexes and frustrations, especially from parents, which we than tackle all our lives. Before, as now, the greatest issue in breaking apart this vicious cycle is the shallowness and almost no desire for change. The issue of all societies is the incomprehensible desire for constant imposition with which the human being has contact from day one; they impose religion on us, behaviour patterns, dress code, communication, way of thinking, etc. Of course there should be certain life and everyday norms of behaviour and order, so that we can live next to each other, but there must also be a freedom of choice, since if we don’t have this a human is no longer a human, but a robot. I’m of the opinion that in this imposition, fear has its starting position.



Based on everything that has been written so far we come to a rational conclusion that for a better understanding of the term of fear itself and its influence on our life, but also of each individual, we need to pay more attention to studying this phenomenon in human beings, and the best starting point for such research is found in folk medicine, which unlike the official one, is much more flexible and more open minded, and in a specific way it delves into the intimacy of each individual.

Using measuring against fear

Fear i.e. fright can be caused by numerous factors such as a dog’s bark, lightning strike, fire, water, bad news and other factors. Often it is the culprit for numerous life difficulties and failures since it makes a person insecure and prone to withdrawal, underestimation of oneself. If for example a child gets scared during the first months of its life can often be the main reason why a child has difficulties making its first steps or walking in general.

Fright can appear anywhere or at any time, but there are specific situations when we are directly exposed to it, as in case of some danger. If a person feels drowsy during the day and suffers from insomnia at night, is irritable, prone to depression and anxiety, then it is often believed that he is a victim of a suffered shock. There are some alarming signs that fear is excessively present in a human and those are nightmares. Stravarke reveal that if a person dreams of a horse or some other animal that attacks him, is a certain sign of a great fear which continually takes over the body and mind.

It is interesting to note that in Latin America fear is called susto, which is literally translated as “loss of spirit” and according to the local curanderosa (healers), susto is a disease caused by one or more traumatic experience. Symptoms include unrest, lethargy, depression, insomnia and irritability. Each of them agree that it is a very bad state for a human’s spirit. Especially worrying fact is if the frightened person awakes tired, has heavy legs and often feels loss of fluids in the body, especially in the mouth.

Bosnian stravarke in the past used a method more often than today which annulled the effect of fear in a diseased person, the method included measuring the length of the frightened person’s body. There are a few calls such as “odsjecanje krajčice”, “urezivanje krajčice”, “mjerenje skrate” or more simply “mjerenje od straha”.

Procedure of checking if the diseased person’s body is contorted out of fear was performed in the following way in the past: the diseased person is lying on the ground or floor, face down with spread arms and legs. Stravarka takes a grain of barley and carefully breaks it into four equal parts. These miniatures pieces are placed under the palms of the diseased person and under the left and right leg. As it is evident in this example she is following an ancient magical rule to always begin and end with the right side, which is considered to be positive and divine*, i.e. the first piece is placed under the right palm, the second under the left leg, the third under the left palm and the fourth under the right leg.

When she finished the first part of the ritual the stravarka goes into measuring the length of the diseased person by measuring diagonally from the right hand using a wool thread, top of the middle finger, until the left foot, i.e. top of the thumb. During this the thread is tightened in order to get a precise length. Then the beginning of the thread which was on the top of the middle finger is placed in the left hand, also on the top of the middle finger and the one which was on the left foot is placed onto the right one – thumb. The thread is again tightened, as in the first case. If it turns out that there is even a minimal difference between the first and second measuring (measure) the stravarka brings a final conclusion – the diseased has fallen ill from great fear! But, if it is established that both measures are of the same length it is said that the diseased person suffers from another ailment.

In the third and final phase of the ritual, which is conditioned by a correct diagnosis, if the diseased is overtaken by fear and his body has contorted i.e. shrunk because of it, stravarka cuts the wool thread with scissors or a knife into nine equal parts and later she throws them at the closest intersection. After the diseased carefully raises from the ground, stravarka takes a broom and the same way she placed barley pieces she mows them towards the four sides of the world, repeating a short exorcist formula: “Run fear, a cow will sting you!”. After that she draws out four straws from the broom and also she throws one by one into the four sides of the world, following the path of the sun (clockwise), in order to influence the healing process with such a ritual gesture. While leaving the stravarka home he must strictly abide by the rules of not looking back, because of the belief that the spirit of disease can interpret the gesture as a sign of weakness and return into the body of the diseased.



*All magical forms of curing in Bosnian folk medicine are based on the fight against the forces of “left side” – evil spiritual beings, caused of disease and bad luck – and through ritual gestures and actions domination of the “right side” is intensified on which according to mythological belief angels and other clean and positive forces dwell.  

Influence of fear onto the nerves and bowels

Fear manifests itself in two ways inside the human body – through the bowels and nerves. As doctor Leopold Gluck has noted the first form appears primarily in children in form of uncontrollable jolting of the body while they're sleeping, which is declared in a milder form, also appearance of epilepsy, which is of course a more difficult form of disease. Among the adults, fear is manifested as an acute insanity or a strong headache, weakness in the limbs, especially trembling in the legs and dark circles around the eyes. Similarly frequent night mares are accompanying symptoms of fear.

When the fear is accumulated in the bowels then the diseased suffers from a chronic diarrhoea, due to which he weakens. In addition to that, it is still considered today that grown people  which get diarrhoea due to fatty food or generally suffer from what is in general medicine classified as an irritable bowls syndrome were in childhood subject to physical or mental abuse due to which they suffered a great fright.

In case that fear has caused epilepsy folk medicine suggests that a diseased child in time of an epileptic attack mustn’t be fed nor touched, as long as the cramps are present, and under his nose a rag dipped in vinegar must be placed, with an intent that the sharp smell will ease the current difficulties in which the child is in. When the cramps become less intense, the mother wipes the saliva from the child’s mouth, and places a wrap i.e. a linen rag dipped in vinegar on the forehead and bellybutton (1). Only when the cramps completely stop, after some time, the mother is allowed to nurse the child.

If the fear (disease) has caught the bowels, before sunrise, it is recommended to pick a few branches of rue/sedefil (Ruta graveolens), crush it, mix with some water, and filter it through a gauze. Filtered liquid is spiced up with a half of tea spoon of honey and sugar and in the end that mixture is left somewhere outside – “on the sun and air” – for 24 hours. This remedy is given to the child three days in a row at dawn, i.e. one hour before sunset. To adults, this remedy is given for a longer period of time, usually around nine days, or just water in which completely crushed leaves of a plant Veronica officinalis is submerged.

Leaves of this plant were in the past given as a prophylactic remedy, as an amulet, to pregnant women, but also children, to carry it on their chest in order to be protected from the influence of fear.

In Visoko, but also other neighbouring places, Veronica officinalis or stravna trava would be placed in a metal bowl with spring water, which would be kept, covered on the stove until the water boils. As soon as this happens, while holding a bowl or casserole above the diseased person’s head the stravarka would pour the boiled water from the vessel and she would upturn the vessel in the middle of the casserole, making sure that there is no physical contact with the person. If the vacuum sucks the water underneath the vessel – “absorbs water” – the diseased person will be freed from the influence of fear. An identical procedure is repeated two more times. The diseased person uses the water to wash his face, his arms and legs are wiped and the rest of the water, with the plant, is poured in an intersection.

For curing symptoms of fear Bosnian stravarke often recommend this herbal tea mixture: a fingertip of Mentha pulegium and Veronica officinalis is submerged in two decilitres of water and is left covered for half an hour. The tea should be drunk three times a day with some honey.

Healing power of lead

Among the Bosnian people it is believed that lead that it possesses prophylactic properties which is confirmed by a custom of saying: “lead into the devil’s ears!” as soon as someone hears some bad news, especially about a disease of an accident. The most famous characteristics of lead, because of which it is usually an irreplaceable prop when curing fear, is that lead absorbs negative energy.

In folk medicine in BiH an influence of homeopathy is evident as well as a psychological belief that a shock can be cured by a new shock. Namely, when an individual, especially a child, is mightily frightened due to an unexpected and highly negative surprise, where it is literally overwhelmed by chill and tingling across his stomach and chest, the scared person loses its breath for a moment and then according to stravarke the heart can be moved – “jump out” – a few millimetres or centimetres to the left or the right.

Besides classic symptoms of tension, tiredness, paleness in the face and sudden jitters in sleep, a person whose “heart moved” often loses its breath and has feelings of something piercing their chest. The only cure in that state, according to stravarke, is the ritual of lead melting, whose efficiency in this case is clearly not based on the idea that the frightened person, over which the ritual is performed, will suffer a new shock from a loud sound which is produced by the molten lead touching cold water. During that short term shock, during the three times the lead is molten and poured in a vessel with water, the heart will slowly go back in its place. Material proof for this the stravarke find in the shape of the lead itself which must be shaped as an elongated tear, which is called – heart.



After being subjected to a magical ritual with lead, three hot coals are also thrown inside the water whose sound needs to have a calming effect on the diseased person, since the sound itself symbolises an extinguishing i.e. calming down. The water is used by the diseased person to wash his face and drink some of the water, which concludes the healing process.

There once existed a rule that measuring of fear must be performed before the lead melting ritual, in order to completely eliminate all influence of fear. Stravarke think that fear can enter a person’s blood and bones and “then it is difficult to get it out of a person”, and one must be persistent and inventive when curing.


(1) It is important to mention, that these two places on the human body are considered to be two cardinal spots, according to Bosnian occultism, through which the human body is connected to the spiritual world.

Examples of curing fear

Fight against fear is not simple and often requires a lot of patience. This is best evidenced by stravarke whose work experience is full of various cases. Stravarka Emina Hadžihasanović told the following story to a journalist of a Sarajevo magazine:

-I was melting lead to a man, he was imprisoned by četniks (name for Serbian paramilitary army which committed the most war crimes in BiH), he was imprisoned in a concentration camp and was tortured, also a grenade exploded in his building. He was ready to die. He couldn’t walk normally any more. He wasn’t able to go alone anywhere, so he took his child with him everywhere he went. He couldn’t even go to the toilet without the child taking him there. He was a butcher by trade, a good man. He asked doctors for help but they couldn’t help him, his medical results were good but he couldn’t walk straight. I have molten 77 lead pieces for him and he recovered. He is now working in a butcher shop on Ilidža.

Obviously the issue of great fear in a man requires great effort, which is evidenced by another case from the practice of this stravarka:

-There was once a woman. And an ox wanted to kill her, but he didn’t. And due to such a shock she fell into a coma. From that day she always slept a little and fell into a coma a little. It happened that no matter where she was, she would feel a bit weak, she would then fall to the floor. She would fall unconscious. Here, there are 79 leads that I molten for her until now and now the condition has gotten better, she only feels like this maybe once a week. While I melt a couple more she will recover completely. There is only cure in melting lead. Doctors are oblivious. They’re looking – all is good, all is nice and a person cannot function normally. Fear resurrects in the body and all is negative. It strikes the legs and arms and the head, everywhere. You melt three lead pieces – and it feels as if you took it with your hand and threw it away, everything disappears. From the old days the lead melting ritual was practiced, it is a part of our Bosnian tradition for ages.




Illyrian inheritance

For the lead melting ritual, which is familiar in numerous Balkan countries, but also Middle East such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iranian anthropologists believe that it stems from the Illyrian warriors, which spread it across the Roman empire while serving its armies, to all corners that the powerful, ancient Empire covered. That is why the Turks, Arabs, Persians and the Jews took it over, which confirms that we are dealing with an effective and efficient ritual for annulling fear, spellbound eyes but also magic.

Curiosity which is among the folk usually connected with the gift of divination and lead melting is that both techniques are often a gift of supernatural forces to an individual. Namely, knowledge about lead melting, according to a stravarka, it often comes “in a dream”, i.e. the stravarka to be dreams it. One of such examples was the already mentioned Emina Hadžihasanović:

-I dreamt that I will die. And my house in the dream is placed on a high hill. I was looking for someone to say the prayer Yasin for me, and I couldn’t find anyone. I then placed a blanket next to this bed and I lay down to die. I started uttering Yasin and three mubina (chapters) of Yasin I finish, and I die. When I woke up in the morning, I remembered the dream and what had happened, I then went to an Imam on Vratnik to tell him what had transpired.

He said: It is good for you that you dreamt it if you are going to melt lead. I never did, I said, but I can start. From there I came here, there was a woman there – she went from one doctor to the other. She was struck by it, she couldn’t move. She said: I dreamt last night that you will melt lead for me. I smiled and said: I have never molten lead for anyone. She said that I shall to her, now. I said when this is the case then I shall. She entered the house through the stairs on her knees. She couldn’t bend her leg. There I took a spoon and I started melting lead. When I have finished melting lead for her for the third time, she suddenly rose up and started walking. She lived for another three-four years and died. And from that day on I melt lead.


Doctors cannot cure fear

Stravarka Hadžinca from Potur in Travnik is another one of the rare people which haven’t received much attention from internet portals and media in general. During an interview with a journalist, Hadžinica revealed some of the secrets of this ancient technique.

-This is no divination, it is useful, but there are people which think otherwise, and I wouldn’t like if you would reveal my identity. I wouldn’t like it because of my family either, you know how it is, she explained. She says that people come from all over the place, from central Bosnia, Zenica and even Sarajevo. Everyone comes with his own story and his own troubles. From workers, up to doctors, politicians and singers. It is a tradition to charge for lead melting. Someone gives some money, someone a present, but for everything to be complete, a reward must be given. That’s why lead cannot be molten by closer relatives which live in the same house. Although it is popular belief that this ancient exorcist skill is solely practiced by women, lead can be molten by men, but they say that it is not appropriate for a man to melt lead for a woman, because of the conservative society.

The ritual with lead without a doubt stems from shamanism which is based on animism. Probably because of its somewhat mysterious power of transformation, to change from solid into the liquid state and reverse, the lead spurred ancient Illyrian shamans to try and change the state of the diseased with the help of lead, through a magical ritual. Besides, stravarke, but also some Imam’s, which practice this method, agree that lead has a lethal power towards humans but also demons. Namely, as a rifle bullet can kill a man so too can lead in a shamanistic ritual kill i.e. more precisely trap energy of a spirit and so remove it from the diseased person.

In three consecutive lead melting rituals, the figure of lead does actually come out in a form similar to the thing that caused the fear.

-Women come to me and they don’t know that they’re afraid of their husband. I reveal this immediately and I tell her – you are afraid of your husband! Of course, sometimes I find a figurine which shows that the husband is afraid of his wife. To remove the fear it is important to find the cause.


She helps only to those that need such a help

When talking to other stravarke with which I had the opportunity and pleasure to talk to, I came across an identical opinion. Each of the categorically claim that everything that is shown in the lead can no longer hurt the diseased person.

-Lead melting will always help to the one who is a case for it, i.e. who is full of fear or some other negative energy, and if his problem cannot be solved by the ritual then he will have no use from it, said Mevlida O. from Velika Kladuša, one of the stravarka which inherited her knowledge from her mother in law.

-No one knows how old this custom is. I feel sad because it is dying out, there are no young women which would like to learn it, and there are few of them that could – says Hadžinica and she explains the stern predispositions: the one which is experienced in lead melting, gives to the student izun, i.e. permission. The woman needs to be pious, with a covered body and it would be good if she is educated, especially in an Islamic spirit. She doesn’t have to go to Hajj, but as Hadžinica says, it won’t hurt.

Continuing the discussion stravarka Hadžinica said that they brought her a singer which sang in a nearby restaurant.

-He says, I don’t know what is wrong with me, I just want to quarrel?! I thought tha someone must have frightened him. I melt lead for him, and each time a figure of a man shows. I ask – who scared you? He then told me everything, that he accepted a friend in his house so he can spend the night there, but in actuality the man was a crook and he wanted to rob him. The singer kept quiet about this event and kept the fear to himself, but when the problem escalated he came to seek help.

Punishing the spirit which causes fear

Besides lead melting and „odsjecanje skrate“ stravarke also know other methods of curing fear, such as "uvarivanje strahe“ or knife cutting. This last method is very rare and it is difficult to find a stravarka which practices it. Now deceased Fatima Dizdarević, was known for this method during the end of the previous century, she had learned it from her mother in law.

Stravarka takes a knife with a black handle (sheath) and as she touches the frightened, which is lying on the floor or the bed facing the ceiling, she follows the text of the esoteric basma. As in all other variations of curing with the help of magical formulas in this one too, the stravarka starts by nami body parts, starting from the head:

I’m not cutting you N nor your body,
but I’m cutting the head of the black fear,
I’m cutting its throat,
shoulders left and right hand,
fingers from the smallest to the largest,
I’m opening its chest,
cutting the heart and taking out the intestines,
cutting its stomach and breaking its spine,
cutting both legs,
feet and all ten fingers.
Be gone you dirty heathen,
you will not eat nor sleep here,
be gone black fear,
far away from N;
where the dog doesn’t bark,
where the cat doesn’t meow,
the rooster doesn’t crow,
with my formula and god’s will, huuu!

After blowing into the knife, stravarka repeats the movements with the knife from head to toe citing the text of the formula and repeats it nine times in total. After the last time she repeats it the stravarka throws the knife behind her back.



It is evident from the text that fear is seen as a supernatural parasitical being without sexual characteristics i.e. a “black spirit” which has possessed the diseased. At the end of the formula the stravarka calls it contemptuously “dirty heathen” – dirty mater – alluding that she has uncovered him and beaten him. With imitative movements and words, the stravarka touches the diseased gently with the blade of the knife, and she ritually punishes the spirit because he dared to enter the human body and he dared to torture it (1).

Personification of fear through the form of a dark spirit is no coincidence, it is based on the belief of all stravarke about the existence of a dark spirit (terror) which enters a human’s head and it is difficult to get it out. Similarly, there is “daily fear” and “nightly fear” – if someone gets scared during the day will be cured of the fear much more easily than the one frightened during the night “since it is the dark terror and it enters the human’s head!”.

Punishing fear is not a rare occurrence in the folk medicine of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In anthological works of Antun Hangi about the life and customs of Bosnian people, the author describes the method of lead melting and mentions that at the end of the ritual the stravarka uses scissors to “cut” the surface of the water in all directions, alluding with such movements that she is cutting the fear. Another data clearly points to the folk representation of fear as a spirit, namely, all stravarke have some rules which they or the diseased perform as a precaution that the fear doesn’t come back, whether it is putting on new clothes, hanging the scissors and knife above the entrance door, not looking back, etc.


Power of saliva

It is noticeable in shorter or longer exorcist formulas that fear is always chased away from the bones (among the folk it is said when one person scares another “he struck fear into his bones!”), like this one from Sandžak where the Bosnian stravarka says:

Be gone, fear,
from the bones under the skin,
from the skin onto the hair,
from the hair into the black sea!

Among the Bosnian folk there are some prophylactic processes which serve for annulling the influence of fear. Most frequently it is spitting lightly into one’s own chest. When we’re talking about negative particulars, especially about disease, or if a person is scared of something, there was a custom of lightly loosening the collar of the shirt, in order to separate it from the body, this would enable the saliva to reach the chest, close to the heart.

Traditional custom of spitting to the side or in front of oneself, when one wants to chase away evil, is a segment of an identical practice. Namely, in such a case if one notices thrown lead pieces and coal pieces on an intersection, remnants of a lead melting ritual intended for a random passerby to walk over, one should spit towards these objects and say: "On whom you have dwelt, on him you should stay, fear!", with the goal of saving oneself from such a supernatural transmission.

Fear like magic, according to folk belief, can be directed from one person onto another but only during that most recent moment, while it hasn’t overtaken completely the mind of the person. As soon as the first shock has passed, the frightened person, and if he sees another person at a fair distance can repeat three times the following formula, focusing on his target:

On a worm a worm,
on an ant an ant,
on a horse a horse,
on a cow a cow,
and on you my fear, huuu,
from God help and from me magical words!

Then he spits on his finger (index finger) and wipes it off of a tree or earth, in order to chase the fear and cleanse the body with such a ritual procedure.



(1) In folk medicine in BiH the practice of using metal, as a useful means of scaring spirits of disease, is traditional and its origin should be sought in the earliest human history. This skill is based on the belief that anything that can hurt or kill a man, such as lead (bullet) or iron (knife), can also have an identically destructive effect on the demon’s of disease. Ultimately such a notion is understandable if we take into consideration that spirits which attack and possess humans, exist in a similar manner as human’s themselves and are thereby vulnerable.