According to etymology the name nežit and poganica have an
interesting origin. Nežit is a term which comes from the term
"neither alive nor dead", because of the state the person is in which
is afflicted by this disease, while poganica comes from the term pogan(sordid)
or unclean, or even pagan, i.e. we could look for the origin of poganica
in the demons function from the ancient times, which the demon actually
represents, namely an evil spirit which in some ancient time in the religious
history of our region, represented one of the numerous dieties.
Undeniably the belief in nežit was present in each territory
where at some period during the middle ages Bogomils lived or even if their
religion was present in that area. Therefore, for example, in Herzegovina and a
part of Dalmatia, it was believed that this disease appears mostly through
unexpected pain in human limbs, while there is no visible wound. If the
diseased feels weakness and dizziness, the diagnosis is, without a doubt, poganica.
Folk belief from all parts of BiH coincide in the belief that poganica
manifests in a mysterious and secret way, usually as a manifestation of
spellbound eyes, evil gaze, black magic or by a person accidentally
"stepping" on it. During one of the enumerated extreme cases an evil
spirit of disease enters into a human and "through blood" attacks the
person, or better to say, "travels" through the body, which is
identical to folk description of how poganica can appear on any place on
the body. That's why, similarly, it is believed that poganica originates
from a hematoma, place where "blood has gathered".
According to some specific symptoms, poganica can even be
characterized as an imaginary illness, since it is demonstrated by a weird,
even phantom pain, which suddenly and unexpectedly appears. But, in order to
remove the veil of mysticism, we need to studiously fathom in all it represents
in folk medicine, how it is detected and cured. According to the symptoms which
follow poganica has the most congruence with rheumatism (Rheumatismus)
and gout (Greek, ostealgia), since it is manifested in acute pain, usually in
the bones of the arms and legs, neck but also the head.
Specificity of nežit or poganica is that the disease
changes its names if it is felt in the upper part of the body, especially
shoulders and neck, since then it is called by stravarke, Sijerma. Its
character is that it often attacks the human eye (herpes corneae) and then it
receives its third name Metalja.
What is interesting to mention is the fact that poganica is
sometimes used to name diseases for which people cannot find an obvious and
visible cause. In Bosnia, since the old days, it is claimed that one disease,
if treated on time, carries with it another, often more dangerous, disease. A
classic example can be found, in the traditional fear that individual wounds on
the child's body won't become inflamed and result in two inflammations, or more
often, that a hematoma (uboj) doesn't transform into a poganica.
This archaic belief is the product of mythological belief of pagan Bosnia when
the belief that wounds on human bodies, especially ones that have blood oozing
out of them, attract evil spirits of disease and stimulate them to attack the
diseased through them.
