Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/79

 Serbian Habits and Customs.

47

common carriers and beggars all go to any of the houses of the villages and receive their food and lodging gratis. Each Serbian peasant has a high ambition in regard to the custom of hospitality, and he feels ashamed of himself if he cannot practise it generously. This custom is called gostopriinatvc.

The custom of pobratiuiatvo (artificial relations) is very tender and very touching. When two persons are united by the bounds of a deep friendship they h&corae pobratiiiies ("brothers") for the rest of their lives. In the last century they celebrated this by the mutual suction of their blood — they cut the wrists of both pobratinies — the benediction was given by the priest at the church, and presents were exchanged. In our days the pobratwies assemble their friends, swear fidelity, embrace each other, and give each other a souvenir commemorating the ceremony. Pobrativistvo creates not only the relationship between the two pobratinies, but also between their respective families. This relationship constitutes even an obstruction to marriage. Gratitude, poverty, despair have often given birth to this pobratinislvo. For example, a man saves the life of another, the latter begs his saviour to become his pobratiiiie. An orphan in great misery can ask the material help of a man, begging him to become her pobratiine. T\\Q pobratinies protect one another constantly, and never hesitate to save each other. The wars against the Turks and the present war show innumerable examples of mutual sacrifices between the pobratinies. The woman who has a pobratinie can trust him as her own brother. We have a very touching example of this. During the first half of the nineteenth century a Serbian woman of Bosnia, whose husband had been enslaved by the Turks, heard that he was in Serbia. She went there to choose a Serbian peasant for pobratinie. With him as conipagnon and protector for a few months she went from place to place to find her husband, not fearing calumny nor public suspicion.