Cult of fertility among the Bosnian People

ground and she or someone else
steps on it. If she becomes a
victim of spellbound eyes or her
own recklessness, and loses her
milk, by the advice of the mother
in law, she will look among her
neighbours for some trahana (small
dough used for soup) three years
old, which she will cook at her
home three times and eat, the milk
will then return.
News of the new member in the
family spread fast, especially if
a son was born, and then the
spread of the news would become a
small competition because of the
monetary reward which was given to
the messenger. It is still today
called muštuluk (good news).
There was also a custom to rip the
shirt of the father on the chest
when the good news is given to him,
obviously that ritual had its
origin in the pagan beliefs and
rituals of fertility. Namely, a
ritual recorded in Vlasenica
describes that a woman in late
pregnancy during the period of
full moon would knead bread, and
when the full moon showed up she
would go around the house three
times. She would break of one
piece of bread and store it, the
rest she would eat. When she gave
birth she would then again wait
for a full moon in order to rip
the first shirt she made for her
child at the chest and she would
pass through the hole in the shirt
the piece of bread that she made.
She would then put the shirt on
the child uttering: "As the moon
is full in the sky, so may you be
full as well." After a few months,
when the child starts eating food
other than his mother's milk,
during the night of a full moon
the mother would submerge that
piece of bread into cow's milk and
would give it to the child
repeating the same formula.
The mother and the child usually
never left the house until the
period of 40 days has passed, and
during the first few days of the
child's birth one would avoid
giving or loaning to others in the
household, it was even forbidden
to take out the trash when night
fell. People took care not to
bring in children's clothes which
were washed and dried after sunset,
until the sun has come out the
next day and has warmed up the
clothes. Otherwise the child could
suffer from a disease called
mračnica.
One foot in the grave
Though the entire cult of
fertility among the Bosnian people
in the past was based on magicalreligious
beliefs and rigid social
Raif Esmerović
38
Cult of fertility among the Bosnian People