Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/68



what we know of the important part that habits and customs have played among the Serbian people, and by the weaker part they are still playing to-day, we can divide them into five groups.

1. The social habits are those which govern the communications between the members of social groups. (The inner law, the assembly, forms of politeness, recreations, visits, education, etc.)

2. The economical habits are those which govern the work necessary for the existence of these social groups. (Hunting, fishing, breeding, agriculture, trades, pillage, etc.)

3. The religious habits are those which govern the intercourse between human beings and the divinity. (Prayers, ordinary prayers, sacrifices, funerals, offerings, funeral services, etc.)

4. The legal habits (customary rights) are those which govern abnormal communications and which protect the interests of society in general and of individuals in particular. (Tribunals, punishment of crime, commerce, shares, etc.)

5. The medical habits are those to which we owe the preservation of health or the healing of diseases. (Preventions, cures, drugs, etc.)

Naturally customs become confused (social with legal, economical with legal, religious with medical, religious with economical, etc.), and it is often impossible to tell where their respective domains begin or end.