Some parallels between North German and Serbian folk
charms

 

  In “Northern Mythology�?by Benjamin Thorpe, there is a charm “To
write away an ague�?and it goes:

 

“Write the following on the leaf:

 

Des Fuchs ohne Lungen,

Der Storch ohne Zungen,

Die Taube ohne Gall

Hilft fur das sieben mid siebenzigsterlei Fieber all.

 

The fox without lungs,

The stork without tongue,

The dove without gall

Help for the seven and seventieth fever all.

 

If this leaf be worn round the neck, the fever will keep away.”[i]

 

  The same pattern of banishing the illness into the wild space where
nothing is the same as in the village can be found among Serbs. Look at
the following charm against the plague and cholera:

 

“Cuma i koljera

neka idu u goru i vodu

gde petlovi ne poju

gde macke ne maucu

gde pceta ne laju

gde koze ne vrestu

gde ovce ne bleju

gde svinje ne skucu

gde konji ne vistu

gde goveda ne rovu

gde ljudi ne govoru

gde zaeci ne vrestu

gde lisice ne laju

gde kurjaci ne viju

gde medvedi ne ricu.

Cuma i koljera neka idu

u tu pustu goru

u doboku vodu

koja kraja nema.

 

Plague and cholera

let them go to the mountain and water

where cocks do not crow

where cats do not meow

where dogs do not bark

where goats do not scream

where sheep do not bleat

where pigs do not grunt

where horses do not shriek

where cattle do not bellow

where people do not speak

where vixen do not bark

where wolves do not howl

where bears do not roar.

Plague and cholera let them go

to that barren mountain

to the deep water

which has no end.”[ii]

 

  Another similar patter is to be found comparing following two forms
of folk charms �?charm against a shot in Slavic folklore and against sty
in North German folk magic.

 

“Tri devojke,

tri probotkinje,

tri ustrelkinje:

jedna gluva,

jedna nema,

jedna slepa.

otud idu vuci,

vuci prvostenci.

Gluva ne docula,

nema ne doznala,

slepa ne videla:

vuci Bodeza rastrgose.

Stu, ustupete, probodi!

Natrag se vrnete!

 

Three maidens,

three piercing ones,

three shooting ones:

one is deaf,

one is mute,

one is blind.

Thence came wolves,

first-born wolves.

The deaf maiden heard not,

the mute one learnes not,

the blind one saw not:

the wolves torn Dagger apart.

Go, go away, stabbing pains!

Go back!”[iii]

 

  The charms where the three maidens appear is the second major type of
charms that appear in Serbian folk magic. The charm against a shot and
other similar ones against variety of pains is traditionally performed
in the woodshed with the afflicted person sitting in a stump used fro
shopping kindling. While charms is being pronounced, the cunning-woman
draws an axe across the subject’s eyebrows and repeats the charm three
times.

 

“For the Stot (disorder of the eye, sty?). take in slience a little
stone from the field, press it on the eye, and lay it afterwards in the
place whence it was taken. During the operation say thrice:

 

Es gingen drei Jungferrn auf grunen Wegen,

Die eine hob die Steine aus den wegen,

Die zweite hob as Laub vom Buam,

Die dritte hob das Stot asu dem Auge.

I.N.G.u.s.w.

 

There went three maidens on the green ways,

One lifted the stones out of the ways,

The second gather’d the leaves from the tree,

The third removed the ‘stot�?from the eye.

In the name, etc.”[iv]

 

 

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[i] Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology (London, Wordsworth Editions
Limited, 2001), 548.

[ii] Joseph L. Conrad, Magic Charms and Healing Rituals in Contemporary
Yugoslavia (Southeastern Europe, 10, No. 2, 1983), 106.

[iii] [iii] Joseph L. Conrad, Magic Charms and Healing Rituals in
Contemporary Yugoslavia (Southeastern Europe, 10, No. 2, 1983), 105.

[iv] Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology (London, Wordsworth Editions
Limited, 2001), 553.

*From another Group*