Gulyás Katalin et al. (szerk.): Tisicum. A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok megyei Múzeumok évkönyve 27. (Szolnok, 2019)

Néprajztudomány - Kókai Magdolna: "felit viszem, felit nem" Adaok az állatokhoz fűződő hiedelmekhez a Jászságban

TISICUM XXVII.

MAGDOLNA KÓKAI:

„I TAKE HALF, LEAVE HALF”

DATA ON BELIEFS CONCERNING ANIMALS IN THE JÁSZSÁG

As the data cited in the paper shows, a significant amount of beliefs concerning animals belong to the magic of analogy and transference. We find several examples of how ordinary objects can change into magical ones due to a specific mode and time of action, (e.g. smoking with wooden crosses collected in the cemetery, holding a mirror above a consecrated candle on the eve of Saint Lucy’s Day, so that the face of the hen-thief appears etc.) The animals and some of their body parts were used as useful substances in folk medicine, but as the different shapes and familiars of supernatural beings (witch, shaman, the miller in league with witches) they could also cause people harm. We can read about magic words and sacramentals to protect animals or keep others away. We can discover the educative intention in some beliefs to teach propriety, the warning to behave appropriately. In the current paper this pertains to behaving appropriately with animals, to protecting them, (e.g. the prohibition of destroying the nest of swallows and spiders, the protection of kittens, the prohibition of playing with a ball in order to protect the hatching chicks etc.)

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