Popular
Belief
The Hungarian Slovenes believed that every
house possessed a “house snake” (ižina
kača). According to popular belief, the house
snake lives inside the walls of old farmhouses. It is said that you hear its voice, which is similar to the
ticking of an alarm-clock, at night, and that it protects the house from evil.
Since the house snake also embodies the souls of the ancestors in the popular
belief of the Slavs, one is not allowed to kill it. If anyone kills the house snake, they
too or their animals will die. The Slovenes differentiate between the female (kačá) and the male snake (kač).
The male snake wears a crown on its head. One says that when this male snake
bathes, it takes off its crown, and if anyone stole this crown they would gain
wealth.
The Hungarian Slovenes preserve the name of the
God of Thunderbolt, which derives its origin from Slavic mythology, both in the
expression “the impact of Perun” - “Parün
je vadro” and in the
name of the Common House Leek* “parünovo pérge – Perun’s
feather”. They grew this plant on the thatched roofs in order to prevent
bolts from hitting their houses.
It is said that the goblin endangers both
babies and adults. It chokes adults in their sleep. It enters the house through
the keyhole and presses one’s chest, camouflaged as a cat. People can
drive away the goblin with the sound “mujc, mujc”. In order to protect themselves from the
goblin, the Slovenes from the Raba Region tamped the
keyholes and drew three crosses on the door with charcoal. The popular belief
says that the seventh daughter would become a goblin.
According to popular belief, the witches and
magicians (čaralice, comparnice,
čalejrge) were women
and men cooperating with the devil. They turned into toads, however, never into
pigeons. Anyone can become a witch or a magician by going to a place where the
church bells cannot be heard anymore. The belief says that there a cat shall be
flayed and licked three times.
The “Garabonciás”
(črne, šaule, diják), similar to the witches, was on amicable
terms with the devil. It is said that he causes storms and hail. If a “Garabonciás” enters a house you have to offer
him some milk. In the tradition of the popular belief, the “Garabonciás” was a student who had studied too
hard and thus went mad.
According to popular belief, women or men who
were nursed by their mothers three successive Good Fridays could
“hit” (zvörčiti) someone with
the evil eye. One could be cured of the evil eye by coal water. Prophecies were
highly popular and people recited them very often. The most advantageous days
for predictions were Saint Lucian’s Day, Christmas Eve, festive days and
the 13th days of every month. On Saint Lucian’s Day’s
Eve a girl had to lay men’s underwear under her pillow so that she could
dream about her future husband.
* lat.: Sempervivum tectorum
Translated from German into English: Joël Gerber
The German text is based on: Mukics
Mária, „A Magyarországi
Szlovének“; Press Publica, (2003)