Oral charms

In the culture of a people a lot of attention is devoted to linguistics and all forms of literary expression such as lyric and epic poetry and drama, where symbolism and meaning of words get their strongest expression. Not at all insignificant a part of that concept encompasses so called magical prose based on a rhetoric form, which we come across in all those segments which are tied to concepts of sorcery, spells, curses, blessing or invocations. To better fathom in the meaning of the poetic expression among the Bosnian folk we need to pay attention to a forgotten form of love expression between loved ones - ašikovanje (from the Turkish word ašk - love). In a conversation between two lovers stress was placed on ingenuity, imagination when choosing words as well as their rhyme, which has the effect to stimulate a certain dose of excitement and elation, for example, a boy utters to a girl:

When I see you in a tarboosh, I go swoosh, when I see you in a sleeveless coat, like a quad in a coat, when I see you in a hijab, I go to an Imam in a mosque.

Kad te vidim u fesiću, čini mi se poletiću, kad te vidim u ječermi, k’o kadija u mešćemi (sudu), kad te vidim u šamiji, kajno hodžu u džamiji.

This modus operandi is recognisable in the domain of love magic, to which girls were inclined to for ages in Bosnia in order to achieve a marriage covenant, through repetition of magical formulas which usually followed some simple actions. Namely, with the help of love formulas the girls (love basma) tried to "call" their beloved to come under their window so they can lead long conversations i.e. in order to ašikovati. Besides, by the repetition  of the formulas they wanted to make themselves even prettier, more attractive and desirable and in that manner influence the success of the relationship, with the emphasis on getting married. An interesting article published in Novi Behar, from 1939 speaks about this.

When a boy frequently goes under a girl's window, his friends usually tease him with that familiar utterance: "Have the bean's cracked?" With this joke they're trying to signal to him that it is not love that is drawing him near to her, but that the woman used a love spell. Boys, of course don't believe in this much and when someone mentions bajanje (oral charms) they reject it as a joke but it really exists.

Bajanje is an old folk skill which is popular among women, especially girls. It has the purpose to acquire and realize those wishes which cannot be realized in a natural way. If a girl is interested in a boy, and he doesn't reciprocate or even if she is being avoided by a boy she is in a relationship with, she then practices bajanje in order to stimulate feelings of love and desire. Even married women abandoned by their husbands or disregarded by them are looking for help in bajanje. If a woman or a girl is skilled in this type of magic, then success will follow. A boy, pushed by an unknown force will start feeling sudden desire towards the girl and will be ready to marry her, and a husband will return to his wife which he previously abandoned or will change his behaviour to become more caring and gentle, firmly believing that he is doing it on his own accord.

Before there was a much larger number of girls or women which were skilled in bajanje. For a girl, which was versed in this knowledge, this was a winning combination, since she could utter magical formulas and stay completely discrete. All other girls, which were not aware of this magical knowledge needed to seek help from those women which they thought would be discrete. And moreover, they needed to entrust them with their most intimate desires, which was probably not pleasant. Therefore these girls were helped by cousins, as the most reliable persons, and there were cases when mothers themselves performed bajanje for their daughters.

 As in the past so too today, though to a lesser extent, there are women that believe in bajanje and who still practice it. They are mostly provocative women spoiled and capricious, or single daughters which want men to please them and fulfil all their wishes. There are those to whom this is the only way to win over a man and get married. It is said among the people that they never rest and always practice bajanje even when they go to sleep and when they wake up, when they perform house work and when they rest, it is even believed that they repeat magical formulas in their sleep.

Women are extremely prone to believing in the power of bajanje, while men are suspicious, though they are wary not to become victims of such magical practice. Young men though see a potential witch in every girl. Therefore, if a woman offers a cake to a man as customary, as a sing of love, he will accept it out of courtesy, but he will not eat it. Such cakes are usually given to children or to a friend, since it is believed that bajanje has an effect on the person whose name was mentioned during the incantation of the formula.

Qur'an strictly condemns bajanje. That's why god fearing and wholesome girls take care not to practice that sin, and those that perform bajanje hide it as the greatest secret. If it is found out, namely, that a girl invokes spells, a heavy taint will fall on her and she will be considered faulty, this stigma cannot be cured over time, no matter if she uses spells on her own or with the help of another woman. Therefore it is understandable that it is difficult to find even the smallest discoveries regarding this skill. Secrets of bajanje are told and entrusted only to those that are closest and most reliable. Others can only find out about it if an old lady decides to mention it before she dies. (Novi Behar, 1939)

Probably because of that traditional norm among the Bosnian people there are two dominant types of magical expression based on the usage of basma in love magic and basma for exorcism i.e. healing.

 

Cult of zviždenjak

Animism, which is inseparable from shamanism is evident in many segments of Bosnian folk religion in whose auspice the longest living cults, which got their religious sense from the Illyrians, embedded their beliefs into the collective consciousness of Bosniaks. The cult of zviždenjak (Salamandra salamandra) among the Bosnian people is closely linked to the cult of the snake and the belief in dragons. The name zviždenjak was given to this lizard since people believed that his scream or whistle could instantly make you deaf. He is also called družđ or diževnjak.

Based on the ancient Bosnian belief we can conclude that in fact zviždenjak is a miniature form of a dragon on earth. Its yellow colour with black spots faithfully depicts Illyrian legend about the god of evil, a large black dragon, who managed to swallow two suns in the sky while the third sun was saved by a swallow. People still today believe that the yellow colour between the black spots represents traces of the two suns that he swallowed. The concept of swallowing in this legend is analogous to the devouring of a dead human body by a zviždenjak and this imposes a conclusion that a dragon feeds of life energy which he gives back to nature in its vegetative or even reincarnating cycle, all the while waking new life in nature itself.

Although in its miniature form zviždenjak has the power to hurt any human that tries to hurt him. Namely, still today it is believed that if someone disturbs or steps on a zviždenjak he can become deaf from zviždenjak scream. It is also connected to rain among the folk since according to folk belief it appears before rain or immediately after it.

Besides obvious fear of seeing a zviždenjak and the belief that this reptile is the messenger of rain, there is no classic divination among the folk about a chance meeting with this animal according to which someone's fortune or misfortune is predicted, as is the case with the fox, rabbit, wolf and the like. Analogous with the snake, the beliefs about zviždenjak are also contradictory; in some, respect is shown to it and in others it is suggested that one should throw a curse on it: "God willing, if you are mine, you should die before me!" or to even undertake more rigorous measures i.e. to kill it. In Kakanj it is believed that it is best to kill zviždenjak 40 days prior to one's own death?! The reason for such behaviour according to belief stemming from Glamoč, Livno, Kupres and Mrkonjić Grad, is that a zviždenjak enters a dead man's body through his mouth and spoils his physical purity, and it is a good deed to kill it. Killing a zviždenjak is in opposition with the attempts of certain anthropologists and ethnologists to proclaim a zviždenjak as man's animal doppelganger, since if that was the case, killing this animal would be forbidden and would represent a great sin.

According to a belief among the Bosnian people each man has his own zviždenjak, although it remains an unknown if one gets him during birth or it appears during one's lifetime. When a man dies, the third day after the funeral, zviždenjak visits that man inside the grave. If the man was sinful during his lifetime, zviždenjak will start devouring him from his nose, but if the man was noble then it will only lay beside that person. That's why one shouldn't kill zviždenjak, if one sees him on a road it is advisable to take it with your hand and place it across the road or onto a meadow. This act of kindness can be connected with a human's attempt to propitiate his afterlife companion so that he will spare him.

In another belief it is mentioned that after a man's death a zviždenjak will visit his sahibija (master) in the grave to welcome him and he will start devouring the cadaver from his big toe. It is interesting to mention that among the Bosnian people it is believed that after a man dies and is buried, at one moment the soul returns into his dead body, entering through the toes, which results in resuscitation of the body but also shock and fear which cause a man to try and get up, he then hits his head on the wooden beams above his head and dies again. That's why we can presume that a zviždenjak starts devouring the body from the toes in order to stop him from reviving; or this act can have a mythological depiction as "life devouring" or taking away life energy from someone.

Besides eating humans from the toes, people in certain parts of Bosnia believe that a zviždenjak eats a man's nose or eyes as soon as he enters a grave. Since eyes are, according to belief, god's gift to humans and are as such holly, which also supports another belief which claims that there is no greater sin then a man swearing by his eyes, we can conclude then that a zviždenjak always goes after tabooed parts of the body. According to folk belief god had the most trouble with creating a nose, and that's why making fun of someone's nose is considered to be a great sin. Analysing the above we come to a conclusion that a zviždnejak's task is to devour a man's toes in the grave (in order to stop him from reviving), or nose and then drinks his eyes i.e. to take away his heavenly gift after which the body will be completely lifeless and without any divine sanctity. By that the human body becomes a clod of earth, from which it was created.

In the myth about the black dragon and his devouring of the sun or moon, we notice the hunger of this being for all that which sparks and has a divine characteristic. The attack of darkness and evil on light and good is an anthological tradition about two universal principles through whose interaction, creation, destruction, life and death are possible. As zviždenjak represents a miniature dragon his devouring of evil people inside a grave can be seen as an act of feeding a dragon who needs strength from evil. This is clearly visible in those parts of belief which accentuates that zviženjak starts devouring the body at the beginning or end of the body, i.e. at the places considered holly. Besides zviždenjak in the Bosnian tradition it is believed that a snake visits a dead person inside a grave and devours him and in such a way he becomes a part of it. This fits perfectly into the Illyrian myth about the great grandfather of the Illyrians which turns into a snake after he dies.