Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/249

Rh of the old men was stopped," which was sent to me by Mr. I. L. Szeckovic from Paraćin, a town on the river Morava. The tale runs:

"In old times it was the habit to kill old men when they had passed fifty years. A man who was nearing his fiftieth year had a good son, who was very sorry for his father and hid him in a wine vat, in which he cared for him secretly. Once he bet with some of his neighbours who should see the first rising of the sun in the morning. The merciful son told his father of his bet and his father said to him: 'Be careful, and when you are at the place to see the rising of the sun take the precaution not to look to the east as the others will do, but look instead to the west at the highest point of the mountains and you will see first the rays of sun on the heights of the mountains and you will win the bet.' The son did as his father had advised him, and so saw first the rising of the sun. When the neighbours asked him who had advised him what to do, he said it was his father, whom he must hide and protect from a forced death. The people were astonished at such clever advice and concluded that the old men are clever and that they do not deserve to be killed but respected ("Kazadžic" Nos. Sept.-October 1899, p. 209).

In "Kazadžic" in Nos. of June and July 1900 I published another popular tradition of the killing of the old men, which was sent to me by Mr. P. Variljevic from the village of Krepoljin in Eastern Serbia, in the district of Omolje. The tradition runs:

"On the right bank of the river Mlava, near the village of Krepoljin, is situated a very high hill, Gradatr (Fort) by name, on which one can see the ruins of an old disabled and deserted fort. The popular tradition says that it was once a Roman or Latin fort. The Romans who occupied this fort were very bellicose people. Their leader ordered all the holders of the fort up to forty years of age to be active fighters, from forty to fifty to be guards of the fort, and after fifty to be killed, because they have no military value. Since that period the old men were killed.

"An old man who was nearing his fiftieth year had a grandson who was very fond of him. On the eve of the day on which the old man was ordered to be killed the enemy attacked the