Serbian Habits and Customs

SERBIAN HABITS AND CUSTOMS. BY DR. T. R. GKORGEVITCH. FROM what wc know of the important part that habits and customs have played among the Serbian people, and by the weaker part they arc still playing to-day, we can divide them into five groups. 1. The social habits are those which govern the com munications between the members of social groups. (The inner law, the assembly, forms of politeness, recreations, visits, education, etc.) 2. The economical habits arc those which govern the work necessary for the existence of these social groups. (Hunt ing, fishing, breeding, agriculture, trades, pillage, etc.) 3. The religious habits are those which govern the inter course between human beings and the divinity. (Prayers, ordinary prayers, sacrifices, funerals, offerings, funeral services, etc.) 4. The legal habits (customary rights) are those which govern abnormal communications and which protect the interests of society in general and of individuals in particular. (Tribunals, punishment of crime, commerce, shares, etc.) $. The medical habits arc those to which we owe the preservation of health or the healing of diseases. (Preven tions, cures, drugs, etc) Naturally customs become confused (social with legal, economical with legal, religious with medical, religious with economical, etc.), and it is often impossible to tell where their respective domains begin or end. Serbian Habits and Customs. 37 There was a time among the Serbs when habits were the real laws, and they are so called by the Serbs till the present day—unique laws which governed all social com munications, to which all works conformed, by which all criminals were judged and all crimes punished, they pro tected the interests, they established the formation of the communications between gods and men, and by them they preserved the health and healed illnesses. This time refers to a very distant period when, instead of the Serbian Govern ment, there existed only primitive tribes, each having their personal interests and their personal government; when, instead of the Christian religion, there existed only primi tive beliefs in divine beings and nature; and, instead of the written laws, there existed only the customary rights. It is the time of the full opening of the Serbian traditions and customs. The Serbian people did not remain very long in this primitive state. Their tribes became Serbian States in the common interest. In the State the social habits of the tribe could not exist any longer, and the Serbian State of the "Middle Age" eliminated them little by little, and, at last, the Emperor Dusan's Code (1331-1355) abolished them completely and submitted them to the interests of the Serbian Government. The introduction into Serbia of the Christian religion dates from about the period of the formation of the Serbian State—a religion entirely opposite to the pagan religious habits which, so far, had ruled the religious communica tions between gods and men. The struggle between the Christian Church and the national habits ended in different ways. Sometimes the Church has defended, condemned, cursed them, specially the exhumation and the cremation of corpses, which they believe to be vampires, magic, and sorcery. Sometimes she has permitted them to join in her rites—for example, the nuptial habits have remained, but the union is only valuable to the eyes of the Church as far 38 Serbian Habits and Customs. as benediction lias been given by the priest. Sometimes she lias adopted them by transforming them into Christian customs—for example, the Slava, which was the worship of ancestors, and which became the worship of saints; adoption, which was an artificial pagan parentage, and which became a Christian custom blessed by the Church. The Serbian Government took the initiative in the creation of tribunals for common interest, and by their creation abolished the use of the customary rights. Customs which were not against public interests and religious views, or which were not apparently antagonistic, lived and have remained untouched or almost the same. These are the economical and medical customs. This adaptation of the habits to the interest of the Government and to the views of the Church lasted as long as the Serbian States of the Middle Age remained, that is to say, until the end of the fifteenth century. When the Turks conquered the Serbian States, the dynasties and the nobility, representatives of the organisation of the Govern ment, disappeared. In the country, there only remained the mass of the people. What mattered to the Turks was the pcacefulness of the people, the payment of taxes, the execution of the statute-labours and the presence of a Serbian representative responsible to the Turkish Government. Left to themselves, the Serbian people almost secured a revival of the primitive customs which had governed them before the formation of the Serbian State. This return towards the past was not very difficult, especially in the mountainous regions of the West where the influence of the Church and of the State had hardly made itself felt. In these mountainous regions the tribe's life reappears, the chiefs arc not only chiefs of the tribe but also its repre sentatives towards the Turks, and the mediators between the people and the pachas. In the East, in the countries less mountainous where the organisation of the State in the Serbian Habits and Customs. 39 Middle Age was more strongly felt, the Knezina took the place of the tribes—almost self-administrative entities ruling—which have nearly the same organisation as the tribes. In the tribes, as well as in the Knezina, Knezovi (the hereditary chiefs), the national Serbs (Knez, bas- knrz, obor-knrz) govern. They do not differ from the people in any way, either in clothing or in their way of living. They govern in common agreement with the people, according to the old social traditions and customs. This is how the ancient social habits were revived. It is from the period of the conquest of the Serbian State that the disappearance of the Serbian written laws dates. The ancient legal customs took their place and played a great part, one which consisted in settling the disputes between the Knezina. The boundaries between the different Knezina were badly denned. The cattle of one feeding on the ground of the other was often the cause of conflict. These quarrels were treated by the customary laws. The pleaders gave full power to the tribunal of venerable old men, who settled the matter to the best of their power. If settlement was not possible, it was agreed to have an open fight between the two Knezina, the winner reserving to himself the right of making the law. In the same way discords between the villages of the same Knezina were settled. Homicides were judged by chosen arbitrators or by venerable old men who spontaneously declared themselves ready to be arbitrators. If, in a village, there was a criminal he was expelled or put to death by the inhabitants. If someone committed damage, a counsel elected by the villagers estimated the damage and the guilty one had to pay or compensate the losers. When a criminal remained undetected all the villagers assembled, each one of them mutually guaranteeing that he was not guilty. The individual who could not find a guarantee was unanimously declared guilty. If the guilty persisted in denying his crime he was submitted to the 40 Serbian Habits and Customs. Judgment of God (Hasija). A ploughshare heated to white heat was dropped into a large kettle filled with boiling water, the accused had to seize this ploughshare with his hand and throw it far away. If his hand was untouched after the trial he was declared innocent. If, on the con trary, he had traces of burns he was declared guilty. If two brothers disputed their inheritance the question was settled by arbitration. That is how the legal customs were continued. The Turks punished only rebellion, robbery and big crimes, when the latter were known to them. Under the Turkish Government the Serbian Church lost a great deal of her prestige in former times. The Turks abolished the independence of the Serbian Church imme diately after the conquest of Serbia. A great part of her clergy fled to Hungary. The crisis suffered by the Church under the Turkish Government made her more indulgent. She made numerous concessions to the popular religious views. The peasants occupied themselves with the care of the monasteries; they offered them gifts and kept and repaired them. They also named the bishop without themselves conforming to the rules of the Church of the Middle Age, and they left to the priests only the honour of giving benediction. When it was possible to obtain permission from the Turks to build churches, the Serbian peasants constructed them. Naturally they were no longer built in the magnificent style of the Empire at its height, but only in the simple style of the houses of the ordinary villages. The national artisans made ikons representing apocryphal incidents existing in the popular traditions. The priests permitted—but very rarely—bigamy. They themselves married again, shaved their beards, wore the national uniform, danced the Koto, led the people into battle against the Turks, and even rebelled themselves against their oppressors (hadjttci). Under these circum stances the peasants sometimes met without the assistance Serbian Habits and Customs. 41 of the Church's representatives to unite in prayer for rain, for the fertility of the country, for the health of their men, and the prosperity of the cattle. It is at this period that the superstitious religious traditions reappear : the exhumation and cremation of the vampires, the persecution of women who were believed to be witches, sorcery and magic, etc.

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