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.

Spells cause death

Among the Bosnian people, but also the entire Balkans, the belief in spellbound eyes is an inheritance of our Illyrian forefathers. Namely, the name urok (spell) itself is Illyrian and meant – „to fascinate“, „bewitch“. According to the Roman historian Pliny, the Illyrian tribes were extremely prone to believing in the evil power of spellbound eyes and they fought against them, by (among other things) carrying red colour (thread) wrapped around the arm. It is not necessary to emphasize how much the Romans were scared of the Illyrians, not just because of their fighting spirit, but also because of their mystical powers which these ascribed to them. Namely, they thought that most Illyrians have spellbound eyes with which they could kill a man.

Though everyone is exposed to the destructive influence of evil eyes, animals and inanimate objects, the most vulnerable group are the children and young girls prior to marriage. Their naivety, youth and beauty are the main stimulants for activation of envy and jealousy among other people. It is especially easy to cast a spell on a small child, and if it happens that the spell is strong, according to folk tales, it can then have a catastrophic effect and lead to sudden death.

According to some old women which lost their children at a young age, they always cite the same example: the child was healthy and advanced until they came into contact or were visited by one or more persons to their home. Usually, during that evening when the guests leave the child would get a sudden fever and through hysterical weeping the child would droop and – die. A child which dies from spells, according to belief, turns blue and doesn’t get the typical deceased’ stiffness – rigor mortis – which usually occurs 12 hours after death, it is a sign that it is “dragging” a new death in the family in the near future.

Fatal power of a spell was described in certain folk songs. In the first one it is mentioned that Tuzla Derviš-beg with his small son went to Bihać, during the trip he decided to spend the night in Tešanj with Ali-kapetan, where one of the inhabitants cast a spell on his child and the child died. In another song called “Sinanbegovica gave birth to a son” the song describes a sudden death of a beautiful girl, which occurs due to direct contact with spells:

Sinanbegovica gave birth to a son,
from delight she created joy,
three kolo played for her in the court.
One kolo on the high tower,
another one on the marble courtyard,
third one in a green yard.
Which kolo on the high tower,
that kolo, young bride;
 which kolo on a marble courtyard,
that kolo, young bride;
which kolo in the green yard,
that kolo, young girl.
Kolo is being led by Sinanbeg’s sister.
O look at her, may she be marry!
All kola decorated her head,
and with her beauty she enchanted the kola.
No one can get enough of her!
She is being watched by both the young and the old,
and the young and the old say:
“Medet (help), medet (help), what a beautiful girl!
Her mother must be happy,
just like the hero to whom she is destined!”
Spells cut her down in her youth:
at the moment that she fell ill,
at that moment she had died,
and she died, bless her mother!



Oral magic

Because of the fact that a spell can cause death in humans, the traditional fear of it as a mysterious and secretive apparition does not surprise. This is why the belief in spells hides in it some elements of fatalism, those desires to stop  a possible inflow or evil or negative energy which can cause diseases, with preventive statements – “one accident always summons another one!. But, what is especially interesting to me are these short magical statements whose basic purpose is to stop or block any type of activation of a spell – negative energy stemming from jealousy or great admiration. I’m of the opinion that the conscious cognition that a spell can cause harm to a human degrades its strength even before one starts the prophylactic process i.e. uttering of a formula. On the territory of Velika Kladuša one can still hear among the oldest population in everyday communication one of the following “anti-spells” statements:

-Mašallah (literally: “As Allah wills!”, often in the following linguistic forms: “mašala”, “mašalna”, “mašalna išalna”, etc.).
- Ne poduročilo se! (May it be safe from spells!)
- Da ne bude uroka! (May there be no spells!)
- Bože, ne podreci! (God, shelter from spells!)
- Ne došlo mu šta od zlih očiju! (May he be unharmed by evil eyes!)
- Zle te oči ne vidjele! (May you be invisible to evil eyes!)
- Gluho bilo, ne bilo uroka! (May the spells be deaf!)

Antun Hangi writes that if a spell is cast on a child one should immediately bajati (incantation) since in three days it will activate a spell in the child and it could tear apart the child. Of course, under this we mean that it tears apart the child’s dream which is why it wakes wincing and crying. Out of precaution the mothers would repeat often, every night before bedtime, or over a sleeping child an exorcist formula, in order to overtake the spell and ensure a peaceful night to their child.

One characteristic of Bosnian folklore tradition is the unusual combination of a lullaby and basma against spells, which is only seen among Bosnian people in the Balkans. While putting the child to sleep in the crib the mother would softly sing this or a similar lullaby against spells:

Sleep, my son, in a stylish crib!
In a stylish crib!
Sleep, my son, in a stylish crib!
Your dream in the crib, and a spell outside of it!
May spells walk across a mountain,
may they eat grass, drink water from a lead,
they cannot hurt my child!


Mother gave birth, mother cured

As one can conclude the traditional role of a guardian of health of the family, since the age of the matriarchy belonged to women, the mother was in charge of the child’s health, and with that of spells, which is clearly emphasized at the beginning of the most famous Bosnian basma against spells: “Mother gave birth, mother cured…” According to this we can conclude that since the old days women were more qualified for simpler issues which were caused by supernatural factors, while men, i.e. Imam-healers and dervishes performed more demanding and dangerous undertakings such as exorcism, spiritualism (“sazivanje daire”)  or construction of amulets and talismans.

Spell and fear are considered to be the main culprits for loss of appetite among children or even thinness. Old grandmothers still today wave their head in protest when they see a child having a bad appetite or when the child is losing weight rapidly without having an evident health problem. Almost all such states are summed up with the statement “someone “cut” the child” – split his appetite with a spell.

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.

Fingers – energetic tentacles

Since our birth, and probably before that, we use our hands and fingers in order to coordinate them with our brain, which receives our messages through nerve endings on our fingers which we send and in such a manner it harmonizes with energy. In such a way the body is communicating with the mind with the goal of establishing a natural balance. A child in its earliest phase of life experiences first senses and cognition through its fingers which is an inborn human technique of learning. Fingers of a small child are often spread since in such a manner it receives the necessary energy from the world which surrounds it, and while it is sleeping it often sucks on its thumb.

A new-born baby hold their thumb in their mouths while sleeping in order to substitute the energy of the belly button through which they were connected with their mother. Thumb is therefore a symbol of a mother (female – life energy), while the other four fingers, somewhat divided from the thumb, symbolise male energy. In Islamic tradition they are represented through prophet Muhammad, son in law Alija and his sons Hussein and Hassan. Together the five of them represent a holy family presented through a well-known amulet “hand of Hazrat Fatima” or shortened “Fatima’s hand”, for which it was believed that it is universal since it protects from evil and also draws good fortune, business opportunities and helps in love. Besides, the middle finger of the hand signifies our consciousness, index finger our identity and beliefs, ring finger emotions and pinkie subconscious mind.

Finger and magic

Thumb of the right hand in Bosnian magic is called the strongest finger and that’s why it is used in numerous exorcist rituals, for example, when a mother wants to remove the effect of spellbound eyes, she would wet her right thumb with the saliva from her mouth and she would then stroke the child’s forehead uttering this basma: 


Cast a spell, got him hooked, 
with my formula it recedes, 
if god wills, veledalin amin!


At the end of the ritual she touches the heel on her right foot three times with the thumb, with this she is signalling, ritually, the departure of evil.     

Similarly, in love magic a woman which wants to tie her man down with passion and lust will take a sugar cube and a new sowing needle. First she stabs her right thumb with the needle and places a drop of blood on the sugar cube. She then stabs the thumb of her left leg, then the thumb of her left hand and in the end the thumb of her right leg. Each time she places a drop of blood on the sugar cube, the sugar cube will be placed into the husband’s coffee for him to drink. Ritually the process of intersection is actually an allusion to overlapping or crossing of two bodies, two hearts and two souls. The spell is based on the belief in the great love power from the blood of female fingers (thumbs), which can stimulate passion and intimate closeness of partners.

Magical influence of other fingers is not negligible, for example, the pinkie on the right hand is especially lucky when it comes to commerce. According to one famous craftsman from Sarajevo, Ćamil K. it is known that there are customers versed in the secrets of magic and they’re using certain ritual actions in order to lower prices of items. They touch the desired item three times, in secret, with the pinkie of their right hand. If we wet the tip of our middle finger with saliva and with it we stroke our partners lips we will stimulate desire and passion, etc.

Connecting fingers into a circle

Fingers are used individually or all together, as in examples of love magic where one wants to create feelings of closeness and desire for intimacy by looking at the desired person through spread apart fingers. The most important characteristic of fingers are the tips which transfer energy, which can be demonstrated by citing an example from spiritual medicine. Imam or a spiritual healer which wants to transfer beneficial power of the prayer onto water, would submerge the fingers of his right hand into the water and he would then pray. Such water, charged with positive energy is later consumed by the diseased in order to cleanse his body from negative energy.
 

What is especially important to note is that it is necessary to be acquainted with a very simple ritual which can be performed by connecting the tip of one finger with the other. Of course, you should know that in every exercise the fingers are always connected i.e. they touch the tips in order to form a shape of a circle – symbol of life energy, one which is constantly renewing itself.
 

For starters I’ll mention a couple of exercises which you can practice in order to convince yourself that you can help yourself.  For example, when we connect the fingertips of one hand with the other we harmonise energy in ourselves. In such a way we easily achieve calmness of our mind, we strengthen concentration and attention is focused on our heart and breathing. With these simple movements we slowly get the ability to see issues in a new light and find a solution for it. If we connect fingertips of one hand in one cup, and we do the same with the other hand, then we’re consciously creating a blockade which prevents the influence of someone else’s energy towards us.   

Middle finger signifies the head and consciousness. Connecting fingertips of the thumb and index finger we influence our consciousness, we “feed” it with energy and regenerate it. It is an extremely important exercise for students or people exposed to great stress.
 

Pinkie is connected to our subconscious mind but also the afterlife, which is shown by practice of breaking a boys pinkie who died uncircumcised. When we’re emotionally unstable, unlucky, depressed then it is desirable to connect the thumb with the pinkie, especially right thumb with the left pinkie, so that the tips of fingers are touching.
 

Between the thumb and index finger the zone of the stomach is located. Touching that part of the body, folk healers are checking whether people have stomach issues. Old Bosnian women had a custom of pulling one finger at a time while repeating prayer Fatiha, a few times in a row, each finger individually “dragging” it forward. When they finish these movements with both hands, they shake their fingers. With this simple process, which could be called a massage, they favourably influence circulation and metabolism.