USING MEASURING AGAINST FEAR (Part 2.)

Fear i.e. fright can be caused by numerous factors such as a dog’s bark, lightning strike, fire, water, bad news, and other factors. Often it is the culprit for numerous life difficulties and failures since it makes a person insecure and prone to withdrawal, and underestimation of oneself. If for example a child gets scared during the first months of their life can often be the main reason why a child has difficulties making its first steps or walking in general.

Fright can appear anywhere or at any time, but there are specific situations when we are directly exposed to it, as in case of some danger. If a person feels drowsy during the day and suffers from insomnia at night, is irritable, prone to depression and anxiety, then it is often believed that he is a victim of a suffered shock. There are some alarming signs that fear is excessively present in a human and those are nightmares. Stravarke reveals that if a person dreams of a horse or some other animal that attacks him, is a certain sign of a great fear which continually takes over the body and mind.

It is interesting to note that in Latin America fear is called susto, which is literally translated as “loss of spirit” and according to the local curanderosa (healers), susto is a disease caused by one or more traumatic experiences. Symptoms include unrest, lethargy, depression, insomnia, and irritability. Each of them agrees that it is a very bad state for a human’s spirit. The especially worrying fact is if the frightened person awakes tired, has heavy legs, and often feels the loss of fluids in the body, especially in the mouth.

Bosnian stravarke in the past used a method more often than today which annulled the effect of fear in a diseased person, the method included measuring the length of the frightened person’s body. There are a few calls such as “odsjecanje krajčice”, “urezivanje krajčice”, “mjerenje skrate” or more simply “mjerenje od straha”.

The procedure of checking if the deceased person’s body is contorted out of fear was performed in the following way in the past: the diseased person is lying on the ground or floor, face down with spread arms and legs. Stravarka takes a grain of barley and carefully breaks it into four equal parts. These miniatures pieces are placed under the palms of the diseased person and under the left and right leg. As it is evident in this example she is following an ancient magical rule to always begin and end with the right side, which is considered to be positive and divine*, i.e. the first piece is placed under the right palm, the second under the left leg, the third under the left palm and the fourth under the right leg.

When she finished the first part of the ritual the stravarka goes into measuring the length of the diseased person by measuring diagonally from the right hand using a wool thread, top of the middle finger, until the left foot, i.e. top of the thumb. During this, the thread is tightened in order to get a precise length. Then the beginning of the thread which was on the top of the middle finger is placed in the left hand, also on the top of the middle finger and the one which was on the left foot is placed onto the right one – thumb. The thread is again tightened, as in the first case. If it turns out that there is even a minimal difference between the first and second measuring (measure) the stravarka brings a final conclusion – the diseased has fallen ill from great fear! But, if it is established that both measures are of the same length it is said that the diseased person suffers from another ailment.

In the third and final phase of the ritual, which is conditioned by a correct diagnosis, if the diseased is overtaken by fear and his body has contorted i.e. shrunk because of it, stravarka cuts the wool thread with scissors or a knife into nine equal parts and later she throws them at the closest intersection. After the diseased carefully raises from the ground, stravarka takes a broom and in the same way, she placed barley pieces she mows them towards the four sides of the world, repeating a short exorcist formula: “Run fear, a cow will sting you!”. After that she draws out four straws from the broom and also she throws them one by one into the four sides of the world, following the path of the sun (clockwise), in order to influence the healing process with such a ritual gesture. While leaving the stravarka home he must strictly abide by the rules of not looking back, because of the belief that the spirit of disease can interpret the gesture as a sign of weakness and return to the body of the diseased.

*All magical forms of curing in Bosnian folk medicine are based on the fight against the forces of the “left side” – evil spiritual beings, caused of disease and bad luck – and through ritual gestures and actions domination of the “right side” is intensified on which according to mythological belief angels and other clean and positive forces dwell.

Influence of fear on the nerves and bowels

Fear manifests itself in two ways inside the human body – through the bowels and nerves. As doctor Leopold Gluck has noted the first form appears primarily in children in form of uncontrollable jolting of the body while they’re sleeping, which is declared in a milder form, also appearance of epilepsy, which is of course a more difficult form of the disease. Among adults, fear is manifested as acute insanity or a strong headache, weakness in the limbs, especially trembling in the legs, and dark circles around the eyes. Similarly, frequent nightmares are accompanying symptoms of fear.

When the fear is accumulated in the bowels then the diseased suffers from chronic diarrhea, due to which he weakens. In addition to that, it is still considered today that grown people which get diarrhea due to fatty food or generally suffer from what is in general medicine classified as an irritable bowls syndrome were in childhood subject to physical or mental abuse due to which they suffered a great fright.

In case that fear has caused epilepsy folk medicine suggests that a diseased child in a time of an epileptic attack mustn’t be fed nor touched, as long as the cramps are present, and under his nose, a rag dipped in vinegar must be placed, with an intent that the sharp smell will ease the current difficulties in which the child is in. When the cramps become less intense, the mother wipes the saliva from the child’s mouth, and places a wrap i.e. a linen rag dipped in vinegar on the forehead and belly button (1). Only when the cramps completely stop, after some time, the mother is allowed to nurse the child.

If the fear (disease) has caught the bowels, before sunrise, it is recommended to pick a few branches of rue/sedefil (Ruta graveolens), crush them, mix them with some water, and filter it through gauze. The filtered liquid is spiced up with half of teaspoon of honey and sugar and in the end that mixture is left somewhere outside – “on the sun and air” – for 24 hours. This remedy is given to the child three days in a row at dawn, i.e. one hour before sunset. To adults, this remedy is given for a longer period of time, usually around nine days or just water in which completely crushed leaves of a plant Veronica officinalis are submerged.

Leaves of this plant were in the past given as a prophylactic remedy, as an amulet, to pregnant women, but also children, to carry on their chest in order to be protected from the influence of fear.

In Visoko, but also in other neighboring places, Veronica officinalis or stravna trava would be placed in a metal bowl with spring water, which would be kept, covered on the stove until the water boils. As soon as this happens, while holding a bowl or casserole above the deceased person’s head the stravarka would pour the boiled water from the vessel and she would upturn the vessel in the middle of the casserole, making sure that there is no physical contact with the person. If the vacuum sucks the water underneath the vessel – “absorbs water” – the diseased person will be freed from the influence of fear. An identical procedure is repeated two more times. The diseased person uses the water to wash his face, his arms and legs are wiped and the rest of the water, with the plant, is poured into an intersection.

For curing symptoms of fear Bosnian stravarke often recommend this herbal tea mixture: a fingertip of Mentha pulegium and Veronica officinalis is submerged in two decilitres of water and is left covered for half an hour. The tea should be drunk three times a day with some honey.

Healing power of lead

Among the Bosnian people, it is believed that lead that it possesses prophylactic properties which are confirmed by a custom of saying: “lead into the devil’s ears!” as soon as someone hears some bad news, especially about a disease or an accident. The most famous characteristic of lead, because it is usually an irreplaceable prop when curing fear, is that lead absorbs negative energy.

In folk medicine, in BiH, an influence of homeopathy is evident as well as a psychological belief that a shock can be cured by a new shock. Namely, when an individual, especially a child, is mightily frightened due to an unexpected and highly negative surprise, where it is literally overwhelmed by chill and tingling across his stomach and chest, the scared person loses his breath for a moment and then according to stravarke the heart can be moved – “jump out” – a few millimeters or centimeters to the left or the right.

Besides classic symptoms of tension, tiredness, paleness in the face, and sudden jitters in sleep, a person whose “heart moved” often loses its breath and has feelings of something piercing their chest. The only cure in that state, according to stravarke, is the ritual of lead melting, whose efficiency, in this case, is clearly not based on the idea that the frightened person, over which the ritual is performed, will suffer a new shock from a loud sound which is produced by the molten lead touching cold water. During that short-term shock, three times, the lead is molten and poured into a vessel with water, and the heart will slowly go back in its place. Material proof for this the stravarka found in the shape of the lead itself which must be shaped like an elongated tear, which is called – the heart.

After being subjected to a magical ritual with lead, three hot coals are also thrown inside the water whose sound needs to have a calming effect on the diseased person, since the sound itself symbolizes an extinguishing i.e. calming down. The water is used by the diseased person to wash his face and drink some of the water, which concludes the healing process.

There once existed a rule that measuring fear must be performed before the lead melting ritual, in order to completely eliminate all influence of fear. Stravarke thinks that fear can enter a person’s blood and bones and “then it is difficult to get it out of a person”, and one must be persistent and inventive when curing.

(1) It is important to mention, that these two places on the human body are considered to be two cardinal spots, according to Bosnian occultism, through which the human body is connected to the spiritual world.

Examples of curing fear

Fighting 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 (the 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 anymore. 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 one cure for 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. In 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 the 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.

The 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, often comes “in a dream”, i.e. the stravarka to dream 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 after 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 it 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 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 a 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 to a shamanistic ritual kill i.e. more precisely trap the 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 husbands. I reveal this immediately and I tell her – you are afraid of your husband! Of course, sometimes I find a figurine that shows that the husband is afraid of his wife. To remove the fear it is important to find the cause.

She helps only those that need such a help

When talking to other stravarke with which I had the opportunity and pleasure to talk, 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 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 for 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 that 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.