Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1917 — DOWN THE DALMATIAN COAST [ARTICLE]

DOWN THE DALMATIAN COAST

Strange Superstitions of the Mixed People That Live Along the Adriatic. A much mixed, backward, and strangely superstitious people are those who dwell along the eastern shores of the Adriatic sea, according to a bulletin of the National Geographic society. Greek colonies and Homan municipia; Byzantian officials arid sick Franks abandoned on the rocks of Zara by Crusaders; Italians exiled during the centuries of strife among their petty states o_r brought thither by trade ventures; the flood of Slavonian and, later, of Ottoman, invasion ; all these are the elements of the people living along Austria-Hun-gary’s seacoast. Franks, Byzantians, Croats, Bosniaks, Turks, Hungarians, Genoese, Neapolitans, Germans, and, of first importance, Venetians have ruled various parts of this coast*'at different times. The heavy groundtone of this shore people is Slavonian, but there is besides a jumble of almost every other racial element From Trieste downward, the Slavonians predominate. Latin writers noted that the'Siavonian tribes knew no form of monarchal government, but that all matters of the tribe were dealt with 'by a common national council. And today the individual Dalmatian and Istrlan is one of sturdiest Independence. These Slavonians wqi-shiped a god of thunder, sacred groves, nymphs, ahd genii, special-powered beings of all rtescripticns; and they still do inany

odd fetish services, though more Christian peoples, of more simple and’ abundant faith, are not to be found. Vampires, diabolical ghosts, witches, “vilen,” and vengeful spirits are held in great respect throughout this country, and the folklore Is rich in their doings and In the common mortal’s philosophy of self-preservation in a world filled with such discouraging things. The “alp,” or nightmare, is a bitter old maid, recognizable by her garb, who sits on the back or breast of the sleeper and torments him, mayhap fatally. She cannot, for some reason or other, sit-upon the sleeper’s side, and the true Dalmation never thinks of sleeping in any other way than on his side. The vampire pursues its peculiar Dalmatian orgies in the guise of a man or woman, lately dead and of faulty existence, and is said to be merely a human skin filled with blood and covered with a Shroud. Witches are bad-weather creatures; their evil is unfettered only with the storm and mist. To kill them, one throws three grains of corn and a wax candle at the lightning before the thunder sounds. Thus, they are best killed while the storm is yet a great way off. “Vilen” are .maids with horse’s hoofs. Mostly these “vilen,” or wood creatures, are good and tolerant of human happiness, but they have a fatal tendency for stealing handsome, new-born children. The newly arrived baby, therefore, in a. Dalmatian district frequented by “vilen” is, closely watched until baptism, when the abductors are powerless. > •