Horváth Attila – Solymos Ede szerk.: Cumania 2. Ethnographia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1974)

Dankó I.: Az 1739–40. évi kunszentmiklósi pestis népéletbeli szerepe

THE IMPACT OF THE KUNSZENTMIKLÓS PLAGUE 17 39—40 ON THE LIFE OF THE POPULATION BY IM RE DAN К Ó The analysis of a register from the year 1740 leads the author to discuss the changes in the life of the population of Kunszentmiklós, a village in the County of Bács-Kiskun, once belonging to the so-called Kiskun District (Little Cumania), which, in trun, used to be a part of the Hármas (Tripartite) District consisting of the Jász (Jazygia), the Nagykun (Great Cumania) and the Kiskun Districts. These changes were to a great extent due to the plague of 1739—40. Alongside with the above-mentioned register, local popular traditions and recollections of the plague have also supplied the author with valuable source-materiall. The data in the register proper are amply supplemented by memories of the plague of 1739—40, still living in the local popular traditions. In 1739—40, Kunszentmiklós had about 1000— 1200 inhabitanst. Animal husbandry, sheep-farming in particular was the main source of income of the population. The village community displayed a clearcut social division into landlords, farmers, cotters, serfs and farm-labourers together with an insignificant number of artisans among the adult population of the village, which, taken as a whole, was one of the slowly developing Hungarian country towns at the time of the plague. The plague itself broke out in June 1739 and came to an end in February 1740 with a death-toll of 339, i. e. one third of the whole population. This casualty figure indicates an even more disastrous devastation as it was mainly children and young people, i. e. biologically potent generations that were practically wiped out. This is why the ever so slow increase came to an abrupt halt and a conspicuous decrease in the number of the population took place. Consequently a marked labour shortage made itself felt. Soon after the plague, as spectacular immigration from the southern parts of the Felvidék (Highlands) began. Among the immigrants there were a few Slovaks as well, who, by the closing years of the 19th century became almost entirely Magyarized. The bulk of the immigrants was constituted of well-to-do people, as they were able to contribute towards the 1745 expropriation of Kunszentmiklós and its precincts. One of the motifs of the immigrants was the hope that by the expropriation of Kunszentmiklós, earlier a privileged little Cumanian settlement, they would obtain the rights of free farmers and be delivered from serf-labour and other feudal duties. Thus the partial resettlement of Kunszentmiklós at the period of the primitive accumulation and the second serfdom can be considered as a special feature of both the Hungarian bourgeois development and the growth of Hungarian country towns. The author presents the local memories and beliefs that considered plague as an incurable disease spread by inhaling dust whirled by the wind. This inhaled poisoned dust and the stale air would find their ways, through the blood og the lungs, to all parts of the body, attacking the blood-vessels int the first place. Tubers (göb) would be induced everywhere in the blood-vessels, and glands (mirigy) in the bends of the body Would inflame and become festering wounds. An especially great number of boils (duzzanat) would appear on the neck; they were called goitres (guga), hence plague was often called „guga"-plague or „guga"-death. Since many diseased persons got black before their deaths, plague was also referred to as „black death". The medical care the diseased got was next to nothing, since those who were not afflicted simply left them behind and ran away, which was a special way of isolation assisted by the authorities as weel. 375