Nežit is also another type of dangerous demon of disease against which the
Bogomil priest Jeremiah revealed exorcist formulas through which he emphasizes
the dualistic battle of good and evil, with the goal of releasing the human
body i.e. healing. One of those formulas reads:
Nežit went from the dry sea, while
Jesus went from the sky, they met and Jesus told him: "where are you
going, Nežit? Nežit replied: "Sir, I'm going
into a human's head, to drink his brain, brake his jaw, bite his teeth, bend
his neck and deafen his ears, blind his eyes, stuff his nose, spill his blood. Jesus
told him: "go back, Nežit,
into a desolate valley and desert, find a deer head and move into it,
etc."
(This is an
original text of exorcist formulas against Nežit as written by Bogomil
Jeremiah).
After the basma has been uttered one
would continue with the religious prayers[1]
until all the negative effects of this demon has disappeared. As we can see
from the above text of the basma, the meeting between Jesus and Nežit is described, where the demon
reveals ways in which he will torture humans, while Jesus discourages him and tells
him to inhabit a deer's head, etc. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in all places
where Bogumils lived, the belief in Nežit
has been preserved, over time Nežit
was beginning to be called poganica,
we will discuss this later.
[1] It is easy to discern from the name "Bulgarian basma" why it was
regarded in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a very powerful formula, for which it was
claimed that it "travelled throughout the entire world" and that even
planet Earth is standing on top of it. All these beliefs are actually
inheritance from all those things which Jeremiah preached and wrote about.
Similarly, the practice of healing with basma is an integral part of
folk medicine which is based on the teachings of Bogomils, which is in a way
testified by the complete lack of the usage of the term bajalica or bajanje.
This is why the term basma itself could be translated as a Bogomil
prayer or Bogomil formula. And in the end, no less important to mention that
Bogomil priests uttered religious prayers in the healing rituals, which
completely coincides with the traditional practice of healing formulas in BiH
as well as in the terms "uči", "učiti", which
are used to utter formulas (prouči basmu/utter a basma), but also
prayers (prouči sure/utter a surah).
