Paládi-Kovács Attila: A Barkóság és népe (Borsodi Kismonográfiák 15. Miskolc, 1982)

beneath the threshold, drinks milk and must not be killed. The Fiery man and the chicken who brings a treasure to its master {lidérc = 1. genius familiáris, 2. demon-lover, 3. nightmare), are also among the figures of Barkó folk beliefs. 11. Bands of gipsy musicians played at the wedding feasts from the latter half of the 19th Century on. These bands had at least four members (first violin, bass fiddle, cimbalom and clarinet). Up to the 1930s the zither was a popular instrument among the peasants (Fig. 75), and among the shepherds there were always one or two bagpipe players. Most shepherds played on some instruments. Playing musical instruments spread among the religious sects from the 1920s on (e.g. women playing the mandolin or guitar in groups). The Barkóság is in the northern Hungarian region which Béla BARTÓK called the No. II. dialect of Hungarian folk music. The old style melodies are popular to this day and are sung with an olden text closely related to the region in content. They often speak of the Mátra and Bükk Mountains, of Vidróczky and other outlaws. The hegemony of the pentatonic scale is shown in that even the new style melodies are sung in the old way. The way in which the singer decorates the basic melody and the frequency of melismas are noteworthy. Along with local ballads and olden style shepherd and outlaw songs, miner and day-labourer songs were also popular. (The day-labourer was an agricultural seasonal worker who travelled the plains seeking work in the summer). The most characteristic dance of the Barkós is the Vasvár verbunk (recruiting dance), performed solo, in pairs and by groups. It used to be danced by four boys. The local variations of the chardash, the dance of the shepherd twirling his stick (Fig. 77), the swineherds' dance, the bottle dance, the broom dance and the various dances by girls not even mentioned here indicate the rich dancing culture of the region. With respect to folk games there are several sports of this kind played by the Barkós, where teams of boys played against one another with wooden balls and striking sticks. They are called mancsozás, guncsa and méta. Worthy of mention among the girls' games of song and dance is the bridge game which is also very widespread among the western Slavic peoples. 12. When analyzing the specifics of the folk-life of the Barkó group, the author begins by viewing the specifics of the northern ethnic area and the highlands as a cultural region. He stresses the ecological factor and the role of Hungarian-Slavic cultural interaction in the creation of the regional unity of the culture. The cultural elements characterizing the whole region are to a good extent, made up of the folk culture of the Barkós. The author examines strat196