Bosnian Illyrians: cult of snake

As a religious and national symbol of the Illyrians the snake was present in numerous folk beliefs and practices around Bosnia and Herzegovina. The cult of the snake the guardian of the hearth and home and a holly animal with which all of the Illyrian tribes identified with was so dominant in the religion of our ancestors that the arrival of Slavs and monotheism couldn't uproot it.



The belief in the snake a guardian of the house was widespread around Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was believed that she is inside a hole in a wall or a nearby hole in the ground from where she protects the inhabitants of the house. Her presence was never doubted even when none of the inhabitants have seen her. According to folk belief she was usually of a dark hue, and as a protector of the house she was usually gifted with food placed next to the house or a hole. In such a way people showed devotion and gratitude. As a totem symbol she was directly connected with the owner of the house and therefore it was forbidden to kill her out of fear that the owner might also die or someone else from the family. However, the in difficult times the snake could sacrifice itself to protect the inhabitants of a household.



Since the snake was a totem symbol from the ancient times we shouldn't be surprised by graphical depictions through drawings on the house or tattoos on the skin. Tattooing was also a heritage from the Illyrians which was upheld by the Bosnian Catholics in the form of a tattoo of the cross on the hand but it was also noted among the Bosnian Muslims in the form of a snake. Augustin Kristić in his ethnological work "From the folk medicine of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (original title: Urežnjaci iz narodnog liječenja po Bosni i Hercegovini ), mentions tattooing of the snake on the arms: "Not a lot, but on the hands of women and less in men, I came across a tattoo of a snake. By asking: "Why did you tattoo a snake?" I didn't get the same response everywhere. The most common answers were: "It protects against spellbound eyes", "It brings luck", "I won't get bitten by a snake".



While among the Arab people we come across a practice of painting a hand on the walls of the houses as a prophylactic symbol against spellbound eyes and evil in Bosnia we see carvings or drawings of a snake. In such a manner it was clearly shown that the house was under the protection of the snake, its guardian, which has the power to protect the entire family from the disease, evil and bad luck.



It is interesting to mention a few examples of how the snake cult adopted into Islam, the religion of the Bosnian people, i.e. into the representation of the religion according to the people also called "folk Islam" which is much more liberal and tolerant from the official Islam in which the old Illyrian religion is mentioned through monotheistic tradition.



According to the tradition from Velika Kladuša, a snake saved Noah's ark and by that act the entire world. In that legend a mouse made a hole in the bottom of the ark through which water started coming in. The only animal that realised what was happening was the snake, she quickly jumped on the mouse swallowed him and curled on top of the hole and stopped the water from coming in. That's why among the folk there is a belief that it is a sin to kill a snake since it indebted the entire human animal species.



A snake like the sheep can be a sacrifice to God i.e. kurban. When a house is threatened by a great evil or bad luck, the snake (guardian) senses it and offers itself willingly as kurban (sacrifice) to save that family. Usually in such extreme moments the snake appears in front of the enemy of that family trying to attack him/her in order for him/her to be frightened and punished. In such events it was often the case that the snake died but her death according to folk belief would remove the danger from the home. Uncommonly if the snake felt a great evil arrive she would attack the owner of the house in order that the owner can kill the snake and neutralise the danger and remove the evil from the house.



Either in this case only or generally in all other it was believed that a pierced or severed snake cannot fully die until the sun sets in the west, which undoubtedly points to the folk belief of interconnectedness between the sun and the snake. But, that is a topic which we will discuss at length some other time.