Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 13. (1998)

Frankovics Györyg: Dema-Istenek Vilék, Kígyók) Magyarországi Dráva menti Horvátokról, és kapcsolataik

326 Dema Gods (viles and snakes) from the Croats along the Drava in Hungary and their Relations GYÖRGY FRANKOVICS The vile (fairy) is introduced for the first in the literature as a demigoddes. Amongst the characteristics of the demigoddess we find: identification with root plants (lily), food plants (wheat, acorn), grapes, wine and animal breeding (pigs). The viles regarded as agricultural goddesses marry the men in the village and bear a child for them. Right after the harvest, the end of the agricultural cycle, they leave the husband and tear up the child. Then the people have animals (pigs) tear the vile. The Croatian vile thus dies a death characteristic of demigods. Her agricultural nature is characterized by the following: she practices all the features characteristic of agricultural gods, for these gods teach the sacred secrets of farming to people. She sits on the dead branch of an oak tree, a place reserved for Perun, Perkunas, the main god of lightning for Slavic and Baltic peoples, and she is often visible at the time of lightning. She brings rain and dew for the crops. She can also be related to the pipe-players and the lads of the village with whom she dances ecstatic dances. In Hungarian folk belief the viles, that is, the fairies called fair women, retain only their negative (demonic) features from the Croatian and Serbian legends, their positive properties like bringing a good harvest or improving progéniture can no longer be observed. The snake, which is cut into pieces on the willow tree at the beginning of the spring plowingseeding season, has a number of similar features. The first furrows are meant for the snake, however, due to its godlike character, the people, identifying themselves with it, eat up its flesh in the course of the rite, whereas they its head in the earth with the purpose to increase fertility. The snake protects the crops of the Ian, and the Serbs and Croats intend the drink of immortality, the wine - a Dionysos analogi - for it, just like for the fairies. Its figure is insepparable from the crops (fields of wheat, the mell) and the cultiv (Christmas) bread. The snake often transforms into a woman (a daughter-in-law, a beatiful young woman, a bride). In the cyclic fights the rivals of the fairies come from the descendants of Perun the Lightning Hurler who steal the crops (acorn) from the fairies and defeat them, but in the case of the snake - after having been cut into pieces - it cyclically resurrects in a triple female guise bringing a rich harvest, and partially pays for the defeat, it paralyses its rivals. The reference to the godlike character of the snake and the fairies is also indicated by the fact that people close their eyes (which usually brings good things) and kneel down before them. At Christmas - at the beginning of the cycle - they visit the people in their homes, the snakes apper on their cultic beread, while the fairies in white with horse-like legs make their way into the yards of the houses while the fairies in white with horse-like legs make their way into the yards of the houses where they are offered some wine. Since these communities professed two faiths, they used two language systems simultaneously, which the Croats by the river Drava have preserved to this day.