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.  

Traditional beliefs

In some parts of BiH a house snake is called blazna. Even though she will never harm any of the inhabitants of the household and in case it was seen inside the house it was chased outside with the help of smoke, usually one would burn an old rag or something else which will create a lot of smoke and that would make it leave the house. In Ljubinje if they find a snake inside a house they will not kill it, they will chase it out with smoke. In Mostar they say that a house snake shouldn't be killed but chased away with smoke or it should be caught in a gap, and bring it far away from home and release it uttering: "My Blazna, Blazna, you will protect my house from here"

In Mostar it is believed that the one that kills a house snake will die or that the householder of that snake will die. People from Mostar talk of a Glavaš who killed a blazna, and that he died the same year and that the house was destroyed in a couple of years.

Among the Bosnian people it was once believed that a snake can enter a human through his mouth and live in his stomach. That would usually happen when a man would fall asleep outside, on a meadow or in the forest, and at that moment carelessness the snake would enter his body through his mouth. According to belief, inside the stomach the snake would eat everything that the human eats or drinks and that's why he was skinny and pale. In order to expel the snake from his body the following methods were undertaken; milk would be cooked and the sick man would open his mouth wide above the bowl of milk so the snake can smell the milk and exit the body. Or one would place a grilled chicken next to a sleeping man, in order to entice the snake out by the smell of the chicken.

In the same way, the people believe that a snake has the power to blow inside a human or animal, i.e. to use its breath to fill out a human or animal body in such a manner as to seriously endanger its health. Each case that occurs during summer, when a cow would get bloated, is considered a snake intervention i.e. that it blew inside the animal. It is interesting to compare this belief with the legend of the dragon which tries to attack the rising sun every morning but it is prevented to do so, and as revenge it blows towards the sun and, according to folk belief, a wind is created which spreads across the entire world.

At the end we should also mention another belief about snakes which claims that each cow has its snake, which is its guardian and which feeds itself with the cow's milk. The owner of cattle shouldn't kill that snake, if he does his cow or calf will die. Snake as the guardian of humans and cows and the snake which enters the human body directly is connected to the mythological belief of Bosnian people about snijet - a dragon baby, which can only be borne by a woman or a cow.