Magyar Hírek, 1987 (40. évfolyam, 1-23. szám)
1987-05-03 / 9. szám
1 Sssíq THE ZSELIC Jubilee year REGION i in veterinary teaching The Zselic Region is in the Southern part of Transdanubia, on the border of counties Somogy and Baranya. The clay hills of Zselic were onoe covered by forests. The extensive oakforests offered excellent mast for swine. The swineherd followed the herd, holding either a club worn shiny, or a carved-handled whip. Most of the time he carved the handle of the whip himself, he had plenty of time to do it. '“For forty years a dweller of the woods / A top-knot saves his hair from winds, / and while he carves ornaments with his knife, / four hundred pigs eat grass / and their leader is the boar of the herd / drives the wild of the thickets further in... ” as Gyula Takáts wrote. The Zselic forests yielded timber for the homes of the peasants. The rainwater running down from the hills during the heavy autumn rains often inundated the villages built on clearings in the valleys. The groundwater was high in springtime. Reinforced concrete foundations, tar-paper insulation was not known. Digging foundations was not advisable. The adobe, or mud walls would soon have become damp. Where timber is abundant, and the soil is damp, the conditions are given for one of the special forms of folkarchitecture, the pedestalled house. This form of peasant architecture has been dominant for centuries in the tiny villages of Zselic, the region between Kaposvár and Szigetvár. How was the pedestalled house constructed, and what did it look like ? No plans were drawn for the builder. The size, shape of the structure was not determined by the plan either, but the size and length of the timber found in the forest. The builders were not joiners or carpenters, but friends and relatives. The footing, the roof structure, and the post holding the roof of the porch were made of timber, and so were the kitchen door that opened onto to the yard, and the gable. In the Zselic villages the bridges across the streams, the grave-markers, and the fence built around the yard were all made of timber. A few years ago a careful plan was drawn up to save the folk-architecture and the timberwork of the Zselic. Using the relics of the folk-architecture of South Somogy and old buildings found standing in the village, an openair museum was established at Szenna, in one of the old Zselic villages, close to the historic building of the Calvinist church built in 1785 and resplendent with a painted wooden ceiling. The plans of the village museum were made by Tünde Szabó, of the County Designing Enterprise. Now the surviving relics of the local folkarchitecture can be seen by all at Szenna. They bought and re-erected a pedestalled house at Rinykovács complete with all of its trimmings. There is also a presshouse there from Szalacska and a tool-shed from Szenna was also re-erected there. These and more are now between the historic monument of the church and the old, uninhabited, home of Aunty Lidi Peti, the famous mourning-woman of Szenna. Like everything else, the villages of Zselic are also undergoing transformation. The haphazardly built villages, where the houses were build without any preconceived plan are becoming orderly settlements of homes with streets and properly laid out building blocks. The arrangement of the streets, the boundaries of the new blocks arc marked out by surveyors, and would be builders select the shape and size of the house they want from standard designs. Once the material, the site, the shape and the size of the homes were determined by the geographic situation, the natural environment and common sense. That is how the pedestalled houses came into being in the development of the old villages of Zselic. TIBOR TÜSKÉS Rottenbiller utca, Budapest. Century-old buildings behind century-old trees. There are some modern buildings amongst them, yet the basic atmosphere is given by red-brick. One of the teachers is talking to us about the history of Hungarian Veterinary medicine, as the Veterinary School is about to celebrate its two hundredth birthday: — “There can be no doubt” he said “that the Hungarians were skilled in the healing of their animals even before 1787.” (A chair of Veterinary Medicine, the forerunner of the present Veterinary School was established at the Pest University just two hundred years ago in 1787.) “Indeed, it is also certain” he continued “that the nomadic proto-Hungarians were skilled in the care of their animals, horses, cattle and sheep, which provided their livelihood, in their ancient home beyond the Urals and even more so after the landtaking. Had they not been familiar with lore handed down from father to son, they would have been left without beasts of burden, or cattle of any sort in the middle of the steeped within a few decades. And that would have spelled their destruction.” The notion that comes to my mind is that our situation is not much different today: were we not able to care for the cattle of our country with an expertese corresponding to what the age demands we surely would be in a mess. Fortunately, the quantities and the range of meat and meat products and of dairy products available in the shops are important, precise and typical indeees of the standard of living enjoyed by the people. There has been no reason to complain in this respect in Hungary for twenty to twenty-five years now. Indeed, meat products as well as animals on the hoof are amongst the most important export commodities of the country. Surgery is in progress at the University clinic. Pets as well are treated, not only farm and barnyard animals, dogs, cats, parrots, indeed an increasing number of snakes, frogs and tortoises. Their data are fed into a com-PHOTO FERENC NOVOTTA puter facilitating study and further care. Thanks to closed circuit television, classes can witness surgery seeing even detail. As they proceed with their studies, they become active participants. The surrounding park is studded with busts of noted teachers of yesteryear and the walls of various rooms are also decorated with portraits of eminent, veterinary surgeons. When looking at the portrait of Aladár Aujeszky I was informed that a disease, the pathogen and prevention of which he discovered is known even today by his name. Ferenc Hutyra discovered in 1895 the pathogen of swine fever, which used to kill hogs by hundreds of thousands, and elaborated prophylactic methods. The text book of Animal Pathology by József Marek was a standard book for many decades. Translations into nine languages provided a much-needed manual to veterinary surgeons of many countries. “How did the teaching of veterinary medicine develop in Hungary in the, course of time?" “Graduates have been awarded the doctorates since 1906 onwards. After 1945 many professors and other highly qualified staff were dismissed being stamped class aliens, and also many of the students who happened to be sons of “kulaks” and other prescribed categories, amongst them of veterinary surgeons, had to leave. For a time there were no doctorates for veterinary surgeons. The teaching of veterinary medicine — and with it the life of Hungarian veterinary surgeons, - moved onto firmer ground only about a couple of decades ago. Our school was granted university status including the right to confer degrees in 1962. This marked the beginning of a by no means smooth, but still steady era of progress. We can only admit 90 first-year students a year out of 450 - 500 applicants. Students come here to study from other countries also, we have about 12 — 15 students each year from West Germany, Sweden, Norway and Canada, mostly children of Hungarian immigrants. Indeed, increasing Western interest — young men and women who are not of Hungarian descent apply for enrolment in increasing number —prompted us to plan to start parallel courses in the nineties, where every subject will be taught in English.” "Is not the relatively low cost III« motive of this great interest from abroad? Or perhaps that it is easier to obtain veterinary qualifications here?" “As far as costs are concerned one really can obtain a degree cheeper herei than in Western countries. But there is no question that students have to study less here than elsewhere.” — “How does the Hungarian degree in veterinary medicine rank internationally?” “It is accepted everywhere. In a number of countries graduates of our school have to pass special examina tions, because of differing laws and re gulations governing animal health. ISTVÁN KISPISTA 30
