Kecskés Péter (szerk.): Upper Tisza region (Regional Units of Open Air Museum. Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1980)

3. THE MUSEUM VILLAGE

separate the best quality flour; and a less fine sieve was used to separate the bread-flour from the bran. In the time of pig-killing, grinding „meal" or „porridge" („kása") was needed daily; but as millet quickly goes stall, only a small proporation was ground at a time. While waiting turns at the mill there was occasions for exhanging news. The mill was a meeting place; here men could discuss common problems such as electing a village judge or a caretaker, and they could meet other villagers. It was a central institution in the community life of the village. Cemetery In the small cemetery attached to the unit, Calvinist gravemarkers have been placed — and in addition to some from this region, from more distant parts of the Great Plain, such as Nádudvar, Hajdúböszörmény and Szentes. The description commences with the graveposts from Szatmárcseke, a village in Szatmár (8). In Szatmárcseke even now-a-days, the body of the deceased is placed under a post carved out of a huge oak, originally about 180 cm high above the ground, but with a base of about 65—70 cm. As time passes, and the bottom rots away, the post is dug deeper and deeper, and thus does not stand so high. The post is hewn hexagonally and is carved in such a manner that the front part projects for ward in a sharp edge. On the front, there is a deeper lying sawed-out tablet-space onto which the inscription is cut. The men who prepare such grave-posts are masters with the axe; they are often carpenters or wheelrights, and like to use such otherwise common ornamentation as the treble cut on the front and the curved line called „Hungarian moustache" („magyar bajusz"). These elements appear on carts, jokes and gates and may be regarded as stylistic elements deriving from Renaissance and Baroque times, altered to suit rural taste. Such decoration however appeared fairly late on graveposts, only around 1920. Generally, the man who carves the post decides upon the inscription. The posts used to be scorched by fire; later, tar was used: and recently black paint was employed with the intention of preserving the wood. The inscription is painted white (111. 60.). According to local custom, a new grave is dug every time somebody dies and thus there is a gravepost on each grave. The front of the gravepost leans towards the earth, the inscribed part facing westward. 76