Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/78

 46 Serbian Habits and Customs.

We will quote some examples of useful and *' beautiful habits" (an epithet daily applied to these customs) still existing among the Serbian people.

When a peasant is poor and his pair of oxen is not suffi- cient to plough his ground, or if, not being poor, he wants to hurry on with his work, he obtains the help of another peasant in the same circumstances and they work together. This economical custom is called spreja. A common interest binds them as closely as family ties. They consider them- selves as relations. The bonds of a sincere affection unite their respective families. They help one another on all occasions. It is very difficult to break the spreja ; it lasts sometimes many years and is transmitted from father to son.

When a farmer cannot finish his work in time he borrows his neighbour's labourers and tools, and renders him the same service under similar circumstances. This custom is called pozajuiica. It is a sin not to do "as thou Avould be done by."

On Sunday afternoons or on holidays when a farmer who is the possessor of a large piece of cultivated ground cannot finish his w^ork in the desired time he invites boys, girls, and the youth of the village to work for him. In the evening he gives them a copious and delicious dinner, which is followed by dancing and singing (there are special songs for this custom — niobarskepcsiue — which is called moba). It is not only the attraction of the feast that makes the workers come. The moba is practised also in favour of old people, of invalids and of absentees — that is to say, for the good of all those unable to work themselves or unable to pay for the work of others. Brothers still share their inheritance according to ancient customs. They give a feast to which their friends are guests, the latter dividing the inheritance into equal parts for the brothers to choose, and these continue to live on as friendly terms as before.

Serbian hospitality is proverbial. Foreigners, travellers,