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Serbian Habits and Customs

This document provides an overview of Serbian habits and customs from ancient times to the period following Ottoman conquest in the 15th century. It describes how customs originally governed all aspects of social, economic, religious, legal and medical life. Over time, as Serbian states and the Christian church grew in influence, many customs were adapted or abolished. Following Ottoman rule, when the Serbian government and nobility were removed, customs regained prominence in governing tribal and village life. Ancient legal customs were revived to settle disputes. Overall, the document traces the evolution of Serbian customs from purely governing social structures to being adapted or replaced by developing religious and governmental institutions, before regaining influence after the loss of those institutions to the Ottomans.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
43 views17 pages

Serbian Habits and Customs

This document provides an overview of Serbian habits and customs from ancient times to the period following Ottoman conquest in the 15th century. It describes how customs originally governed all aspects of social, economic, religious, legal and medical life. Over time, as Serbian states and the Christian church grew in influence, many customs were adapted or abolished. Following Ottoman rule, when the Serbian government and nobility were removed, customs regained prominence in governing tribal and village life. Ancient legal customs were revived to settle disputes. Overall, the document traces the evolution of Serbian customs from purely governing social structures to being adapted or replaced by developing religious and governmental institutions, before regaining influence after the loss of those institutions to the Ottomans.

Uploaded by

Sara He
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Serbian Habits and Customs

Author(s): Tih. R. Georgevitch


Source: Folklore , Mar. 31, 1917, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar. 31, 1917), pp. 36-51
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.

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SERBIAN HABITS AND CUSTOMS.

BY DR. T. R. GEORGEVITCH.

FROM what we know of the important par


and customs have played among the Serbian
by the weaker part they are still playing t
divide them into five groups.
I. The social habits are those which gover
munications between the members of social
inner law, the assembly, forms of politeness,
visits, education, etc.)
2. The economical habits are those which gov
necessary for the existence of these social gro
ing, fishing, breeding, agriculture, trades, pilla
3. The religious habits are those which gover
course between human beings and the divin
ordinary prayers, sacrifices, funerals, offer
services, etc.)
4. The legal habits (customary rights) are
govern abnormal communications and whic
interests of society in general and of in
particular. (Tribunals, punishment of crim
shares, etc.)
5. The medical habits are 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.

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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 (I331-1355) abolished
them completely and submitted them to the interests of
the Serbian Government.
The introdu'ction 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

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38 Serbian Habits and Customs.

as benediction has been given by the priest. Sometimes


she has 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 th
creation abolished the use of the customary rights.
Customs which were not against public interests an
religious views, or which were not apparently antagonist
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 peacefulness 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 are 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

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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 Kniezina, Knezovi
(the hereditary chiefs), the national Serbs (Knez, bas-
knez, obor-knez) 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 defined. 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

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40 Serbian Habits and Customs.

Judgment of God (Hazija). A ploughshare heated to wh


heat was dropped into a large kettle filled with boilin
water, the accused had to seize this ploughshare with
hand and throw it far away. If his hand was untouch
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 Kolo, led the people into
battle against the Turks, and even rebelled themselves
against their oppressors (hadjuci). Under these circum-
stances the peasants sometimes met without the assistance

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Serbian Habits and Customs. 4I

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.
It is in this way that the primitive religious habits were
renewed to the detriment of the Christian Church's habits.
The primitive economical and medical customs, which,
as we have already stated, remained nearly intact at the
time of the Independence of the Serbian State, continued
to exist under the Turkish Government. The communal
care of the cattle and oratory control vigils, popular docto
and popular chemistry, etc., remained almost the same as
in ancient times.

Such was the state of the Serbian customs during the


Turkish Government.
This state of affairs was not unacceptable to the Turks,
because it saved them trouble, especially when they had
the Knez, where the Serbian chiefs represented their people
to the Turks. These chiefs were provided with decrees
from the Turkish Government. The pachas protected this
arrangement, and punished the Turks who wanted to cause
disorder.
In the mountains of Dalmatia, under the Venetian
domination, the Serbian habits existed in all their purity.
There all persecution of customs by State and Church
failed. On one hand, we must attribute this to the
geographic situation of the mountainous country, and, on
the other, to the emigration of the Serbs, who, escaping
the Turkish yoke, constantly arrived in great numbers in
Dalmatia, bringing their unchanged habits and customs.
Another fate was reserved for the Serbian traditions and
customs in part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, where a certain
number of the Serbian inhabitants had adopted the
Mahometan religion. The latter were in a more favourable

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42 Serbiain Habits and Customs.

condition from the economical and social point of view,


and, unlike the other Serbs in Turkey, they did not return
to the primitive habits of the past. This caused the
disappearance of many economical and social customs
among them. But, in adopting the Mahometan religion,
they had to accept many of the purely Turkish religious
customs (nuptial and funeral customs and circumcision).
In spite of all this, the Mahometan Serbs preserved many
of the original purely Serbian customs, more particularly
those which were not at variance with the Turkish religion
(the brotherhood, the Christmas log, the fires of St.
Jean, etc.).
Even so, the traditions and customs of the emigrant
Serbs in Austria-Hungary weakened. There, in a well
organised State, the Serbian social habits completely lost
their significance. In the advanced economic circum-
stances the primitive habits were forgotten, and where the
religious level was at its height the old religious traditions
were banished. But, even so, the Serbian cultivated class,
philosophers, poets and other writers, raised their voice
against the popular customs, particularly against those that
were useless and prejudicial, and, finally, the representa-
tives of the Austrian Government did all that was in their
power to abolish these primitive traditions.
Although in Turkey and in Dalmatia conditions were very
favourable for the preservation of the primitive Serbian
customs, some of them completely disappeared, the cause of
their existence having ceased to exist. We must attribute
the principal cause of their disappearance to the change of
the daily occupation of the people and also to the new
methods of work. In some provinces agriculture took the
place of breeding, consequently customs relating to the
care of cattle lost their raison d'etre. In other provinces
more modern methods of agriculture succeeded the primi-
tive methods and therefore caused the disappearance of the
primitive customs which related to the latter.

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Serbian Habits and Customs. 43

There is a certain number of customs which died a


natural death, and we only know of their existence from
traditions and from some symbols which we still possess
They are barbarous, inhuman, brutal and immoral habits.
It is because of their nature that the enlightened society
had to abandon them. We find in the Serbian popular
tradition the extermination of old people when these
became a burden to their children; and also the survival
of stoning to death great criminals, etc. In some Serbian
provinces the peasants still practise symbolic sacrifices;
viz., the burnt offering of a sheep and of a cock whose
mixed blood is spread on the foundation of a great
building. This ceremony replaced human sacrifice, which
is much spoken of in the Serbian popular tradition. The
old sacrifices of human beings for the fertility of the land
are replaced by symbolic sacrifices. In some Serbian pro-
vinces dolls with human likeness are, during the prayers of
the processions, thrown into the river; in other provinces it
is the officiating priest whom they pretend to throw into the
water.

When the Serbs from Serbia and from Montenegro


liberated themselves from the Turkish Government the old
habits and customs rapidly weakened. Even before this
liberation they were not so numerous or so potential as
previously, and time made them still rarer. Of those
which remained there were, however, sufficient for serious
measures to be taken to crush them. In the eighteenth
and nineteenth century the Montenegrin bishops and
princes frequently took active steps against some of the
remaining customs, especially any opposed to the State, to
the Christian religion and to commonsense. In Serbia the
chiefs of the rebellion against the Turks, Kara George
(1804-I813) and Prince Milos Obrenovitch (I8I5-I839),
were faced with great difficulties in suppressing the remain-
ing harmful traditions.
Since the period of deliverance, thanks to the influence

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44 Serbian Habits and Customs.

of the State, of the laws, of the Christian religion provided


with a greater authority, of the foundation of a good
number of schools, of the installation of doctors, of national
civilisation, of changes and amelioration of daily occupa-
tion, in the free Serbian countries (Serbia and Montenegro)
the ancient habits and customs are gradually disappearing.
The actual state of Serbian habits and customs is as
follows: In the provinces which, all too recently, w
under the Turkish domination and particularly in th
mountainous districts where the communications were
difficult, and where the villages were small and scattere
they remained numerous and active. There even to-
the people live almost completely according to ancie
customs, and from the time of their conception even to t
time that follows their death they are surrounded w
local traditions. The relation of the parents towards
foetus, birth, childhood, adolescence, marriage, daily lif
death, and even the fate of the soul after death,-all is ru
by their traditions. It is not only the individual life tha
the customs rule, but it is also the life of the family, th
commonality and the tribes. This state of affairs exi
in several regions of Macedonia, Old Serbia, Dalmati
Montenegro and Herzegovina.
Beyond these provinces in East and North, where com-
munications are more developed and where civilisation h
made some progress, habits and customs are much rar
and weaker; there they have lost their restrictive pow
and a good many have disappeared. This state of thin
exists in Serbia in the valleys of the Bosnia, in Banat,
Slavonia and in Backa.
In big towns and in their surroundings, particularly in
those which were not under the Turkish domination, modern
civilisation had such an influence that the habits dis-
appeared completely, or else the inhabitants preser
them simply as survivals, as holy relics of the past o
national symbols.

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Serbian Habits and Customs. 45

Among all nations traditions have an extraordinary


resistance; they exist although harmful and ridiculous and
even when their raison d'etre has disappeared. It is not,
therefore, surprising that a certain number of habits and
customs still remain among the Serbians. This Serbian
people has a real tenderness towards the customs and
traditions in the past, when means of existence were very
hard under a foreign domination which lasted during
centuries, and which, in certain provinces, still exists. It was
the traditions and customs, as well as the language, which
contributed to preserve their national individuality and the
existence of the Serbian people. Although in free Serbian
countries the habits and customs have lost their raison
d'dtre and in some provinces have given place to the senti-
ment of the national individuality, the multitude of the
Serbian people would believe it to be a sin to let them
entirely disappear. The nation still believes that, by the
practice of the same habits and customs, she manifests her
national unity. She keeps them under a benign form,
excusing herself by saying, "Our ancestors did so" (Tako
je ostalo od nasihi starih) or " It must be done likewise"
(Tako se valja), or, in quoting the old proverbs, "Our
customs are our laws" (Sto je od obicaja, to je od
Zakona), " It is better to sell the country than to lose
her traditions" (Bo/fe je zemlju prodati, nego joj obicaje
izgubiti), "The destruction of a village is preferable to
the forfeiture of her habits" (Bolje je da selo propadne
nego u selzi obicaj).
Generally, women are more conservative than men.
That is why among Serbian women, specially among the
peasants, the habits and customs are more living than
among their men. They practise them in their work,
prayers, social relationships, etc. If, however, men con-
sider the customs useful or pretty, or an expression of
Serbian nationality, they keep them as a noble and dear
inheritance of which they are justly proud.

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46 Serbian Habits and Customs.

We will quote some examples of useful and "beautiful


habits" (an epithet daily applied to these customs) still
existing among the Serbian people.
When a peasant is poor and his pair of oxen is not suffi-
cient to plough his ground, or if, not being poor, he wants to
hurry on with his work, he obtains the help of another
peasant in the same circumstances and they work together.
This economical custom is called spreja. A common interest
binds them as closely as family ties. They consider them-
selves as relations. The bonds of a sincere affection unite
their respective families. They help one another on al
occasions. It is very difficult to break the spreja; it las
sometimes many years and is transmitted from fathe
to son.

When a farmer cannot finish his work in time he borrows


his neighbour's labourers and tools, and renders him the
same service under similar circumstances. This custom is
called pozaijmica. It is a sin not to do "as thou would be
done by."
On Sunday afternoons or on holidays when a farmer
who is the possessor of a large piece of cultivated ground
cannot finish his work in the desired time he invites boys,
girls, and the youth of the village to work for him. In the
evening he gives them a copious and delicious dinner,
which is followed by dancing and singing (there are special
songs for this custom-mobarskepesme-which is called
moba). It is not only the attraction of the feast that makes
the workers come. The moba is practised also in favour of
old people, of invalids and of absentees-that is to say, for
the good of all those unable to work themselves or unable
to pay for the work of others. Brothers still share their
inheritance according to ancient customs. They give a
feast to which their friends are guests, the latter dividing
the inheritance into equal parts for the brothers to choose,
and these continue to live on as friendly terms as before.
Serbian hospitality is proverbial. Foreigners, travellers,

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Serbian Habits and Customs. 47

common carriers and beggars all go to any of the houses of


the villages and receive their food and lodging gratis.
Each Serbian peasant has a high ambition in regard to the
custom of hospitality, and he feels ashamed of himself
if he cannot practise it generously. This custom is called
gostoprizmatve.
The custom of pobratimatvo (artificial relations) is very
tender and very touching. When two persons are united
by the bounds of a deep friendship they become pobratimes
(" brothers") for the rest of their lives. In the last century
they celebrated this by the mutual suction of their blood-
they cut the wrists of both pobratimes-the benediction
was given by the priest at the church, and presents were
exchanged. In our days the pobratimes assemble their
friends, swear fidelity, embrace each other, and give
each other a souvenir commemorating the ceremony.
Pobratimstvo creates not only the relationship between
the two pobratimes, but also between their respective
families. This relationship constitutes even an obstruction
to marriage. Gratitude, poverty, despair have often given
birth to this pobratimstvo. For example, a man saves the
life of another, the latter begs his saviour to become his
pobratimze. An orphan in great misery can ask the material
help of a man, begging him to become her pobratime.
Thepobratimes protect one another constantly, and never
hesitate to save each other. The wars against the Turks
and the present war show innumerable examples of mutual
sacrifices between the pobratimes. The woman who has a
pobratime can trust him as her own brother. We have a
very touching example of this. During the first half of the
nineteenth century a Serbian woman of Bosnia, whose
husband had been enslaved by the Turks, heard that he
was in Serbia. She went there to choose a Serbian peasant
for pobratime. With him as compagnon and protector for
a few months she went from place to place to find her
husband, not fearing calumny nor public suspicion.

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48 Serbian Habits and Customs.

A pretty custom exists also in Serbia, which consists in


meeting in the monasteries, in the churches, and in the
holy places of the villages (zapisi) to pray in common;
after this they amuse themselves in the beautiful natural
scenery-they dance, they sing popular ballads, celebrating
the heroic past and other exploits of their ancestors. This
custom is called sabor.
There are also many Serbian popular customs which are
more or less preserved. There is a custom which remains
intact everywhere up to the very borders of the Serbian
country, and is most sacred and venerated, and extremely
characteristic of Serbian nationality. It is the Slava, Krsno
ime, Sveti, Sveti dain, as the Serbs call it. Slava-that
is the old worship of the ancestors which, with the estab-
lishment of Christianity, transformed itself into worship of
the saints (very often St. Nicholas, St. Michel Archange,
St. Georges, St. Demetrius, St. Jean). The cult of the
Slava is practised in many different and ordinary cere-
monies. The most important are the family prayers, the
share of the communion pain benit (Slavski Kolac), the
preparation of cooked wheat that they eat, and the festival
at which all friends are guests. The Slava is a sacred
custom for each Serb. It is transmitted from generation
to generation like a precious inheritance and will disappear
only with the extinction of a family. All the Serbs
having the cult of the same Slava consider themselves as
relations. The Slava is a custom so essentially Serbian
that the Roman Catholic Serbs also practise it. Even
the Mahometans who, to conform with the precepts of their
religion, had to forsake it, still know that it was their
Slava, and on a certain day make offerings to the
Christian churches. There is a Serbian proverb: "There
where is the Slava is the Serb" (Gde je slava, tu je Srbin).
Which means that whoever practises it is Serbian. By
this custom we can say that the frontiers of the Serbian
country are defined.

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Serbian Habits aznd Czistoms 49

Serbian habits and customs are seldom mentioned in


writings of antiquity. That which is most frequently
mentioned in historical documents is the Slava. We find
it in Macedonia on the Lake of Ochrida already in IoI8,
later on in Herzegovina I391, at Konavlia I466, at the
" Bouches of Cattaro 1772," and many times among the
Serbian in Hungary in the eighteenth century. The
Christmas log is mentioned at Ragusa (Badnjak) 1271.
In Serbia in the eighteenth century abduction is
mentioned.

The Emperor Dusan speaks to us of the social, religious,


legal and economic habits. There was a special prayer in
the Middle Ages for the preservation of the custom of
pobratimzstvo. Travellers coming from the Occident and
crossing the Serbian countries in the Turkish period
noticed the existence of a good number of Serbian customs
and traditions. The existence of some of these is revealed
to us by the decrees that the Christian Church has pub-
lished against them. Finally, Serbian writers of the
eighteenth century in Austria also mention them. Informa-
tion about these customs has only reached us accidentally.
Th,e first collections and descriptions of them were
collected by Vuk S. Karadjic (1787-1864), the founder of
the " Yougoslaves Ethnographical Studies," and the father of
modern Serbian literature. In his many publications he
has gathered and described a great number of the Serbian
customs, particularly in.his "Serbian Dictionary" (Srpski
Rjecnik, Bec, I818), in the "Treasure," a history of the
language and of the customs of the Serbian nation
(Kovciszic za istorijuzQjetik i obicaje, 1849), and in the
posthumous work, " The Habits and Customs of the Serbian
People " (Obicaji naroda s;pskoga, 1867).
Since Karadjic the collections relating to the habits and
customs already constitute a considerable literature.
Recently the Yougoslave Academy at Agram and the
Royal Academy of Belgrade have done much for the
D

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50 Serbian Habits and Customs.

research and the publication of Serbian habits and


customs. The Yougoslave Academy has published 20
volumes, "Collections of the Habits and Customs"
(Zbornik za narodni zivot i obiiaje guznih Slovena, Zagreb,
I896, etc.). The Academy of Belgrade publishes a special
series of "Habits and Customs of the Serbian People'
(Obi'aji naroda srpskoga, i. I907 ii. I909, iii. 1912).
The scientific studies of the habits and customs among
the Serbians form a literature vast and important, and
their abundance and freshness have attracted the study and
attention of foreign men of science.
TIH. R. GEORGEVITCH.

The more important collections of the Serbian habits an


customs are: S. Ljubic, Obicajikod Morlakah u Dalmaciji,
Zagreb, I846. M. V. G. Medakovi6, Zivot i obicaji Crnogoraca
N. Sad, I860. S. Popovic, Risnjanin, Adeti bosanskih Turaka
Beograd, I869. V. Bogosic, Zbornik sadasnjih pravnih obicaja
fu$nih Slovena, Zagreb, I874. M. Gj. Milicevid, Kneezvin
Srbija, Beograd, 1876. The same, Kra/yevina Srbija, 188
The same, Zivot i obicaji Srba seljaka, Beograd, 1896. N. Begovic
Zivot i obicaji Srba Granicara, Zagreb, 1887. L. Grgjic,
Bjelokosic, Iz naroda i o narodu, Mostar, i.-iii. I890. A. Hangi,
Zivot i obicaji Muslimana u Bosni i .Herzegovini, Mostar, 190goo.

The works in foreign language on this subject being more


accessible to the French public, we will note the following: H.
Hecquard, "The Wassoevitchs, Tribe residing in the High
Albania" (Review of the East of Algeria and of the Colonies, Paris,
i855, t. ii. pp. 273-286). Milan Gj. Militchevitch, "The Zadrouga,
Studies on the Life in common among the Serbian Peasants,"
translated from the Serbian by Aug. Dozon (Oriental and American
Review, Paris, i860, t. iii. p. 401-416). Francis Levasseur,
Dalmatia, Ancient and Modern. her History, Laws, Habits,
Literature, and her Monuments, etc., Paris, i86i. Fedor
Demelic, The Customary Rzght of the Meridional Slaves, from the
Researches of M. V. Bog,isic, Paris, 1876. Henri Sumner Maine,

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Serbian Habits and Customs. 51

The Juridical Organisation of the Family among the Slaves of the


South and among the Rajpootes, translated from English, Paris,
1878. V. BogisiC, The Custom called Inckosna, of the Rural
Family Life among the Serbes and the Croates, Paris, 1884.
Gabriel Ardent, "The Zadrouga, Patriarchal Family and the
Rule of the Community in the Balkans since the Independence "
(Social Reform, Paris, i886, ii. series, t. i.). Emile de Laveleye,
" The Communities of the Family and of the Village " (Review of
Political Economy, Paris, June, I888). Stoian Novacovitch, "A
Popular Fete in Serbia Slava" (Political and Literary Review,
Paris, 1888, ii. series, t. xvi.). Grant Maxwell, "The Old Serbian
Customs," translated from Chambers's Journal (Encyclopedist
Review, Larousse, Paris, 1893, No. 68). G. Capus, "Tattooing
in Bosnia-Herzegovina" (Bulletin of the Society of Anthropology
of Paris, I894, t. v. No. 9). H. Sumner Maine, "South
Slavonians and Rajpoots" (Nineteenth Century, London, I877,
December, pp. 796-918). Grant Maxwell, "Old Servian Customs:
a Year of Superstition" (Chambers's Journal, Edinburgh, August,
1893). V. Titelbach, The Sacred Fire among the Slavic Races
of the Balkan Peninsula (The Open Court, Chicago, I901, pp.
143-149). Dr. Sima Troyanovitch, "Manners and Customs of
Serbians" (Alfred Stead, Servia by the Servians, London, I909,
pp. 169-199). VukS. Karadzic,MontenegroundMlontenegriner, 1837.
Og. M. Utiesenovic, Die Hauskommunionen der Sueslaven, Wien,
I859. Fr. Miklosich, Die Rusalien, ein Beitrag zur slavischen
Mythologie, I864. F. S. Krauss, Sitte und Brauch der Sudslaven,
Vienna, I885. Fr. Miklosich, Die Blutrache bei den Slaven,
i888. E. R. Vesnitch, Die Blutrache bei den Sudslaven, I8.
F. S. Krauss, Volksglaube und religioser Brauch der Sudslaven,
1890. S. Ciszevsky, Kunstliche Verzwandschaft bei den Sudslaven,
1898. A. Hangi, Die Moslim's in Bosnien-Herzegovina, ihre
Lebensweise, Sitten und Gebrauche, Sarajevo, 1907. F. S. Krauss,
Slavische Volkforschungen Leipzig, 1908. J. S. Yastrebov, Obicazi
ipesni touretskih Sezbov, Petrograd, 1886, iim ed. 1889.
Besides all this much has been written on the Serbian habits
and customs in the following reviews: Archive fur slavische
Philologie, Urquelle, Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien
und Herzegovina, etc.

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