Thursday 16 January 2014

Bosniaks - snake people

According to Bosnian mythology the snake is the first being that God created, it appeared 40 years before the first man and animal were created. This mythological data is especially interesting from the aspect of perceiving numerous other beliefs and legends about the snake in BiH since it gives us a basis for understanding the entire concept of the snake cult phenomenon. We should especially note the connection of this cult with the tradition of our people whose Illyrian genes justify denomination of Bosniaks as snake people.

 
Among the multitude of beliefs a legend about a giant snake stands out, this snake encircles the entire globe, forming a belt around it, which when analysed geometrically depicts a circle which has a dot in the centre. In such a way we get the symbol of the sun which is inseparable from the snake cult. We shouldn't disregard the peculiarity  of this transcendental myth which directs us towards a mystical idea that a snake has a celestial form besides its earthly one.
Folk beliefs claim that the snake is as large as a mountain in its original form but thanks to its mystical powers it manages to appear in its miniature form in front of humans. It is, according to all aforesaid, a being of exceptional magical power and one of the greatest forces that exist in the universe. The cult of mountain peaks, which certain folklorists and ethnologists hypothesised to belong to the solar cult, can be directly connected with the snake cult through simple logic and folk descriptions of the snake as a gigantic appearance which is compared to that of a mountain. In such a manner we again confirm the hypothesis about the inseparable connection of the sun and the snake in folk beliefs.