Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 15. 1974 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1976)

Irodalom – Bescprechungen - Lukács László: Dobrudzsa. XV, 1974. p. 257–258.

handicraft production is followed by an ethnographical description of the raw material, the workshops, the tools, the technological processes and the finished products, including the craft of the blacksmith, the brass-founder, the cartwright, the cooper, the furrier, the saddler and the potter. The expansion of large-scale industrial production caused the ruin of handicraft in Bulgaria too. However, in Dobrudja this process began somewhat later than in other parts of the country because the craftsmen found here for a long while a compliant buyers' market for their products. The author underlines the fact that there is no substantial difference between Dobrudjean handicraft and the traditions of Bulgarian small-scale industry in general. The relationship with other Bulgarian areas can be demonstrated also by the resemblance of knowledge and practice, of the tools and the workshop equipment. In the chapter on folk architecture B. Georgiewa describes the living quarters and the buildings of the farm-yard, including the traditional building styles and the various forms of farm-yards, fences, doors and wells. She also examines the location of the farm buildings and the living-house on the groundplot, the building material, the construction of the buildings as well as the functional contacts and the communication between the different parts of the farm-yard. L. Pene wa deals with the questions of furniture and interior decoration. In a detailed analysis based upon functional characteristics she distinguishes the following seven categories of the objects to be found in a livinghouse : 1. Implements of firing and of the fire-place; 2. vessels for carrying and storing water; 3. vessels for cooking and storing food; 4. furniture; 5. objects for maintaining personal cleanness and for keeping the house clean; 6. ritual objects; 7. objects for interior decoration. Folk textiles of Dobrudja are described by G. Krist e w a, presenting the tools and techniques of weaving and spinning as well as the different fabrics according to their function. She thus distinguishes textiles used on resting-places (mattress, blanket), for interior decoration (carpets, cushions), for certain ceremonies (nuptials, funerals) and in every-day life (table-cloth, towel, sac), offers an analysis of coloured homespun, points out typical Dobrudjean characteristics as well as the rele of folk textiles in up-to-date arts and crafts. Another essay by G. Mihail о wa examines the clothing of men, women and children from the compositional and the functional viewpoint. She describes not only the everyday dressing but also the festive attire worn on family celebrations and other feasts, as well as the homogeneous Dobrudjean folk dress developing as a result of the integration process to be observed at the end of the 19

th с and the beginning of the 20

th c. within the various ethnographical characteristics of the tradional dressing. The author also deals with the question of the full abandonment of folk dressing and the introduction of modern clothes, a process taking place in the fourties of this century. (It should be noted that a beautifully illustrated volume on Dobrudjean folk art has been recently published: M. ДАКОВА, Народно изкуство. Окръжен исторически музей, Толбухин.) The essay on folk nutrition is by G. Kristewa who describes the traditional victuals as well as every process and implement related to the making, the storage and the conservation of food, including bread, different farinaceous foodstuffs and those of animal origin (especially those made with milk), which play an important role in Dobrudjean folk nutrition. Everyday food consists in every season mainly of vegetables and milky foodstuffs, except in winter when much pork is eaten. The author examines also the obligatory meals of festive occasions, an important element of the ceremonies and customs. In the description of the Dobrudjean material culture we miss the implements of load transport with human force. The first essay on the traditional social and spiritual culture is by S. Genchev on family customs and ceremonies. The author describes the ritual actions and customs related to nuptials, pregnancy, birth, children's education, death and funerals, emphasizing that these are entire systems and complexes of rites and customs within folk culture. Ritual actions, accessories and the terminology may be examined within any one of these ritual complexes. Different creeds and the poetry of folk customs are also analysed. Two basic processes may be observed in Dobrudja during the period examined : 1. An integration of family customs between the different groups of the population, 2. the disintegration of the systems and complexes of customs and rites, respectively. The customs of festive occasions are described by M. Vassiliewa, who examines these customs as practised in three subsequent seasons. She deals with the substance and the sense of some calendar customs as well as with their transformation and fading. The essay by S. Genchev is about rain-making rituals and relevant customs. Among the rain-making fertility rituals he describes the peperuda and the germán; we know that peperuda existed as a rain-making custom in the folk tradition of Bulgarian who lived in some southern districts of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (County Temes, Torontál and Krassó-Szörény). Z. Újvár у has published recently some very fine papers on these rain-making fertility rituals (Z. ÚJVÁRY, Une coutume des Slaves du Sud: la " dodola"

. Publicationes instituti Philologiae Slavicae Universitatis Debreceniensis, No. 38, 19(53; Z. ÚJVÁRY, Esővarázsló termékenységi rítusok — Rain-maiking Fertility Rituals. DMÉ, Í969-70, 447474.) We may learn from the latter that peperuda is rather part of Roumanian folk tradition, while germán is more vigorously represented in that of the Bulgarian people. Among the labour customs the author specifies those of agriculture, animal husbandry and folk architecture. The customs related to agriculture and animal husbandry have survived as far as the foundation of the collective farms, in fact, some old people sporadically still act accordingly in the sphere of household farming. Among the customs related to building it is only the celebration of a finished work which still exists today. The present condition, the characteristics and the variability of folklore tradition is the title of an essay by D. T о d о г о v who underlines the historical and cultural factors preserving the firmness of Dobrudjean folk poetry. Based on a manifold, recently collected material he deals with the poetry of folk customs, with the so called Hajdú songs and with folk ballads. After the chapter about the vernacular the authors present an overall summary of Dobrudjean folk culture. L. Lukács 258