Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/248

 COLLECTANEA.

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(Folk-Lore, xxviii. 382 et seqq.)

The killing of the Old Men in the Serbian popular tradition.

Nova Tskza (New Spark) of 1898 Mr. S. Trojanovitch, Director of the Serbian Ethnographical Museum in Belgrad, has pubhshed an article with the title "Lapot," in which he collected many examples of Serbian popular tradition, and several references to the old Serbian custom of killing off the old men, when they were incapable of moving or when they became a burden on their families. This custom was called by the Serbian people Lapot.

I have not at hand Mr. Trojanovitch's article, but I remenber that his explanation of this custom was from the economical point of view, i.e. the old men could not work, they must be waited upon by the others, they caused trouble, they did not deserve to live, therefore they must die. Further, I remember that the killing of the old men was a solemn affair. The killing was announced in neighbouring villages. "In this and this village, in this and this house, there will be a Lapot, the people are invited to come to the wake." In the house in which the old man was to be killed, everybody wore their best clothes, and so did the old man too. What was very important is the old man was not reluctant to die; on the contrary, he was ready to submit himself to the old custom.

In the next year (1899) I began to publish "Kazadžić," the first Serbian folk-lore review, and in September and October Nos. of this review I published the folk-tale, "How the killing