Child Stealing and Bridge Building in Bosnia March 13, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
This story appeared in 1897 in the British newspapers, it circulated around the world appearing in New Zealand and Pennsylvania, as well, though it is one of those tales where there was no follow up: did it reflect facts on the ground or a desperate hack with nothing to write about? It related, in any case, to events and traditions in Bosnia, the western region of the Ex Yugoslavia.
An old superstition has been revived in Bosnia. The people have believed at all times that a bridge could not be firm and lasting unless a human being was walled up in it. There is a legend connected with the Roman bridge at Mostar to the effect that the fine arch across the Narenta could not be finished until the architect walled up in it a bridal pair. Now that a solid bridge is being built across the Save at Brazcka, this superstition is revived. It is rumoured everywhere that gypsies are stealing children to sell them to the contractors, who wall up one in each pillar. A few days ago there was a regular pursuit of some gypsies.
This story is interesting because it combines two common themes. First, the idea that certain structures need a human sacrifice (or a substitute like a dead cat) to stand properly. Bridges are particularly associated with this legend and this blog publicised before the story of two thousand children being sold to Russia for bridge building. Such stories are particularly important in Balkan ballads, and who is betting that there is not one for the fabulous bridge at Mostar (photo above). Second, there is the idea, examined of late in this blog, that gypsies steal children, an idea that stretches from eastern Europe through to the New World, where it was taken up with enthusiasm. Somewhere off in the crepuscular silence of the sources we might also imagine that the themes meet and mesh together. There is the hint, in that twilight breeding ground of myth, of a third idea: namely that the gypsies are a diabolical people carrying out pagan rituals in Christian (or Muslim) territory. The gypsy population made for good scapegoats: itinerant, different and between one and two percent of the population. Beach wonders whether anyone died from this bout of gypsy loathing: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
Others in our child-stealing gypsies series have includes the modern Italian hysteria around gypsies, a fabulous French picture and a post on the origins of this complex of fears: very likely the Jewish blood libel in the Middle Ages
31 Mar 2015: Leif writes in ‘The idea that a structure requires a human sacrifice is the theme of Sergei Parajanov’s wonderful 1985 film ‘The Legend of Suram Fortress’ (Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa).
But in the legend the film is based on, the sacrifice is a hero not a victim.’
