Nagy Gyula: Parasztélet a vásárhelyi pusztán (A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 4. Békéscsaba, 1975)
Idegennyelvű kivonatok, képaláírások, képek
be fought down first of all. According to popular belief there were men who could cast an evil eye on people. They knew many methods to give rise to love or to cure love. Witch is one of the most frequent malific ghosts and harming powers. They spoke much about these questions and they can tell many belief-stories, but in the 20 th century it is rather anecdotic, literary and not so much a life regulating element of consciousness. The 10 th chapter tries to give a general idea of aestherical notions, opinions, value judgments of the inhabitants of the "puszta" by a few concrete examples. It was possible to find the aesthetical claim in every-day work, e.g. as they beautifully form the strawstack, they lay grass beautifully when they mow, as they form the horn of the cow for their own pleasure. The author brings many examples about this topic which together draw well the aesthetics of every-day life. This claim can be seen especially cleanly at the horse-keepers, where the outward appearance of the animal is as important as other advantageous features. The tying of horse-tail has completely artistic variations. The bread had to be not only good but beautiful as well. The other question the chapter examines is the estimation of the environment. To this belongs the natural world, but their own-created environment does also. The birds, the dawn, the evening, the storm all contain aesthetically appreciable elements and the inhabitants of the "puszta" do perceive it. The clean courtyard, the well-kept houses show prestige on one hand and aesthetical claim on the other hand. He surveys the opinions about human beauty from babyhood to the greybeard. They advance different claims against boys and against girls. The face had the most important role in their beauty-idea, but they also estimated the way of walking. They did not like the girls who became too much tanned. They liked mostly the middle-sized hips and breasts. In elder age criteria of beauty were cleaness and well-groomed appearance. Aesthetical claim can be most easily seen in decoration of different objects. The inhabitants of the "puszta" have no distinctly outstanding folk art but their aesthetical opinions can be approached by several self-made objects or by objects which they brought from master craftsmen. They took special notice of the forms and decorations of their earthenware vessels for brandy. These were partly made to order and thus the individual taste could manifest itself in these. The author presents many of these earthenware vessels. But the bells hung on the animals, the whips, the mangles, the pipes, the stack-cutters and other articles for use also express clearly their susceptibility to beauty. Though even the texts on the vine-keeping earthenware vessels show poetic claim but the highwayman-poetry is a much more characteristic artistic manifestation of it. In the last century there lived quite a lot of highwaymen in the country-side who engrossed the attention of the people very strongly up to the present. They sympatized with them, thought of them as strong, smart, brave, just men, though the state power was dealing with all of them as with robbers. The chapter performs several highwayman-stories and a few songs from the rich fund. The 11 th chapter deals with the great events of life it summarizes the rites and behaviourforms in connection with birth, baptism, marriage, wedding, death and funeral. In the generation before the World War I. many children was typical. Birth-control has become general only in the 20 th century. The newborn was usually received with big gladness. But only the elder man or widower took a girl-mother to wife. Since delivery was quite frequent in matrimony therefore they didn't pay big attention to it and it was not rare that a woman delivered her child during work. If this happened on the field then she took home the newborn in her apron. If the gravid woman desired something they had to fulfil her wish born in her apron. If the gravid woman desired something they had to fulfil her wish. Generally they were more delighted at boys. But most mothers had carefully arranged the clothes of the baby. Since the end of the last century midwives were working even on the 41 641
