Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 17-18. (1983-1984) (Szombathely, 1989)

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burning of some kind of plant parasite (Fomes fomentarius). It is found only in three localities in Bosnia and Croatia among Serbian and Croatian inhabitants. Otherwise in all other parts of the Balkans and even in the Europe we wer not able to found the existence of this custom. We can only find it among the Midganas in the south Ethiopia arid Somalia, among the Tongas and the Ngunis in the south-east Africa and among the Zulus and the Vendas. This would be essential data about the recent customs on the Balkans. Among majority writers from the classical past, notes has been preserved about decoration of body among particular tribes and peoples of Europe, Asia and Africa. Sometimes it is difficult to establish about the type of decoration - whether it is common painting of a body by colour or it deals with tattooing or cauterisation. The oldest data of the existence of tattooing among the Balkan peoples comes from Herodot (5. century B. C.) in his "History" aut is related to the Thracians : "Pricking is among them a sign of nobility, and one who is not pricked derives from a lower class." Plutarch (1. century) also says : "The Thracians prick their women because of the reveng of Orpheus". It is very likely that among the Thracians (excep tattooing) cauterisation was also in practise. It can be noticed from the quotation of Dio Chrysostomus who says that free women in Thracia are full of brands with the abundance of different scars. It can also be seen at Roman poet Valerius Flaccus (1. century) who in his mithological epic poem "Argonautica" mentions that a captured Thracian girl liked barbarian custom "colourful and branded hand". Some other writer are also quoted in the papers. In the west part of the Balkan penninsula tattooing was practised by the Japods about whom Strabon (1. century B. C.) reports in his work "Geographica". Telling about the Japods he says that "they prick themselves like the rest of the Illyrians and the Thracians". With the Strabon's information mentioned above we have exploited almost all the oldest classical data and we have gainde, without any doubt, a confirmation about the dispersion of the custom of tattooing as well as cauterisation among the old Balkan inhabitants. 184