Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/705

Rh returned to the orchard and lay down under a plum-tree. Grandfather fell into a sleep, and it took him by the hair and began to beat his head against the tree. We jumped up forthwith and ran into the cellar."

The truest and firmest friendships for mutual help in peace or suffering are concluded among the South-Slavic peasantry by the confirmation of an elect brotherhood or sisterhood. Obviously a connection of that kind with such powerful beings as the Vilas must be considered exceedingly precious. In the sagas and heroic songs of the people every great champion has a sworn sister among them. How such privileges are obtained was as unknown to me as to every other writer on the subject, for the people, if they know, will not willingly give up such a secret to every questioner; but Mother Eve, of Pleternica, who keeps all these traditions of the past living in her mind down to the present day, told it all to me. The fact that it is so fresh in her recollection is evidence that the cult still exists. The time of the telling was February 28, 1888.

If a person wishes to contract this relationship, he must take a horse's hoof, a piece of skin cut from under the hoof, and two or three hairs from the mane, the tail, and the head of the horse. He must also take a new broom that has never been swept with, and the price of which he has not beaten down in buying, and must provide himself with some horse-dung. Then, on the first Sunday in the new moon, he must go into the yard, sweep a circle around himself, and in the middle of the circle put the hoof and the other things he has taken from the horse, and, standing with the right foot on the hoof, with both hands brought together by the palms, call three times between the hands, three times turn around with the hoof, and utter the formula: "Sister Vila! I seek you over nine fields, nine meadows, nine brooks, nine woods, nine hills, nine mountain-peaks, nine ruined towers! Come to me and let me swear brotherhood with you!"

When the Vila appears, the person performing the conjuration says: "Sister Vila! I have found you now, and am your chosen brother!"

The conjuring person again blows three times through his closed hands and continues: "Sister Vila! give me your help whenever I call upon you, and help those whom I would help."

He must next name the person whom he holds dearest in life: if a man, the maiden of his choice; if a woman, the man. After which he adds: "Sister Vila! I conjure you by the living God and the sister Vilas that I may have what is mine from the beginning of the world." The rising sun is meant by "the living God."

By contracting this relationship one may assure himself of