As a religious and national symbol of the Illyrians
the snake was present in numerous folk beliefs and practices around Bosnia and
Herzegovina. The cult of the snake the guardian of the hearth and home and a
holly animal with which all of the Illyrian tribes identified with was so
dominant in the religion of our ancestors that the arrival of Slavs and
monotheism couldn't uproot it.
The belief in the snake a guardian of the house was
widespread around Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was believed that she is inside a
hole in a wall or a nearby hole in the ground from where she protects the
inhabitants of the house. Her presence was never doubted even when none of the
inhabitants have seen her. According to folk belief she was usually of a
dark hue, and as a protector of the house she was usually gifted with food
placed next to the house or a hole. In such a way people showed devotion and
gratitude. As a totem symbol she was directly connected with the owner of the
house and therefore it was forbidden to kill her out of fear that the owner
might also die or someone else from the family. However, the in difficult times
the snake could sacrifice itself to protect the inhabitants of a household.
Since the snake was a totem symbol from the ancient
times we shouldn't be surprised by graphical depictions through drawings on the
house or tattoos on the skin. Tattooing was also a heritage from the Illyrians
which was upheld by the Bosnian Catholics in the form of a tattoo of the cross
on the hand but it was also noted among the Bosnian Muslims in the form of a
snake. Augustin Kristić in his ethnological work "From the folk medicine
of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (original title: Urežnjaci iz narodnog
liječenja po Bosni i Hercegovini ), mentions tattooing of the snake on the
arms: "Not a lot, but on the hands of women and less in men, I came across
a tattoo of a snake. By asking: "Why did you tattoo a snake?" I
didn't get the same response everywhere. The most common answers were: "It
protects against spellbound eyes", "It brings luck", "I
won't get bitten by a snake".
While among the Arab people we come across a practice
of painting a hand on the walls of the houses as a prophylactic symbol against
spellbound eyes and evil in Bosnia we see carvings or drawings of a snake. In
such a manner it was clearly shown that the house was under the protection of the
snake, its guardian, which has the power to protect the entire family from the
disease, evil and bad luck.
It is interesting to mention a few examples of how the
snake cult adopted into Islam, the religion of the Bosnian people, i.e. into
the representation of the religion according to the people also called
"folk Islam" which is much more liberal and tolerant from the
official Islam in which the old Illyrian religion is mentioned through
monotheistic tradition.
According to the tradition from Velika Kladuša, a
snake saved Noah's ark and by that act the entire world. In that legend a mouse
made a hole in the bottom of the ark through which water started coming in. The
only animal that realised what was happening was the snake, she quickly jumped
on the mouse swallowed him and curled on top of the hole and stopped the water
from coming in. That's why among the folk there is a belief that it is a sin to
kill a snake since it indebted the entire human animal species.
A snake like the sheep can be a sacrifice to God i.e. kurban.
When a house is threatened by a great evil or bad luck, the snake (guardian)
senses it and offers itself willingly as kurban (sacrifice) to save that
family. Usually in such extreme moments the snake appears in front of the enemy
of that family trying to attack him/her in order for him/her to be
frightened and punished. In such events it was often the case that the snake
died but her death according to folk belief would remove the danger from the
home. Uncommonly if the snake felt a great evil arrive she would attack the
owner of the house in order that the owner can kill the snake and neutralise
the danger and remove the evil from the house.
Either in this case only or generally in all other it
was believed that a pierced or severed snake cannot fully die until the sun
sets in the west, which undoubtedly points to the folk belief of
interconnectedness between the sun and the snake. But, that is a topic which we
will discuss at length some other time.
