Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 17. (Budapest, 1960)

Dr. Bencze József: ősmagyar motívumok orvostörténeti maradványainkban

Volke verwandten Kleinvölkern, in der Sowjetunion jüngst, vorgefundenen und publizierten. Es unterliegt daher keinem Zweifel, dass es sich in der Tat um schamanische Bruchstücke medizinischen Inhalts handelt; andererseits auch um - auf die Analogie gestützte - Beweise für die Verwandtschaft des ungarischen Volkes mit diesen Kleinvölkern, die heute schon gebildete und wirtschaftlich sich günstig entwickelnde Volksgruppen der Sowjetunion sind. Alldiese medizingeschichtlichen und volkskundlichen Funde werden im grossen und ganzen auch durch die Ergebnisse der vergleichenden Sprachforschung erhärtet. SUMMARY Curative medicine, as practised at the time the ancient Hungarians took possession of their present country, has not been studied in detail. The pertaining information had been passed from mouth to mouth after the Shamanistic Hungarians joined the Christian world. Written or printed evidence is available from as late as the i6th century, indicating that oral tradition had firm roots in the Hungarian people. The Hungarians of old believed in Shamanism, like the minor related tribes living in the Soviet Union did; Hungarians called it the „Táltos Creed"; „táltos" meant at that time scientist, helper, too. The ancient Táltos Creed had certain rituals the Hungarians included in the Christian ceremonies and traces of them are detectable even today. It is certain that many of the medical-curative practices of the táltos (Shaman) continued to live and were known in the nth—13th centuries, but now we find only traces of them in the customs, saga of simple people and in the nursery rhymes. They are becoming extinct and this seems to be the last chance to save some o fthem for the future. The findings relating to the Táltos Creed originate mostly from the 30 to 40 years' collection work of the author and show a very close similarity to recent evidence obtained by Soviet and Hungarian scientists and research workers among the small tribes living in the Soviet Union and closely related to the Hungarians. All these make it certain that the data concerning the curative activities of the „táltos" are reliable, on the one hand, and prove once again that these small groups of people, educated and living under good economical conditions now, are in fact closely related to the Hungarians, on the other. Comparative linguistic data are also presented to confirm the reliability of the medical historical folklore findings.