Field records: Muma paduri

In all traditional cultures, mythical beings exist as part of the "real" world. In the Vlach folk tradition, it is perhaps best expressed through the belief in Muma Padura, which can be both good and bad. it fills the world outside the settlements and cultivated fields. With this mythical being, man shared his everyday life, it influenced his behavior and thinking, with its existence it made the world more complete and understandable. this segment of the miraculous everyday life is the best reflection of the sphere of the fantastic for a man from the Balkans, but also from other premodern cultures.

In the following text, I will refer to parts of the transcript and field research on Muma Paduri. using the method of a qualitative interview, I came across biographical stories about how and where and under what circumstances the narrators met Muma Paduri. One part of the narrator never saw Muma Paduri, but only heard her, while others had an encounter with her. both groups of narrations are equally important for further analysis.

Petar Grujić from Bukovska, in his account of meeting her, gives a detailed description of Muma Paduri, as well as Zlatko Stojković from Bosiljkovac.

"I worked with horses in the forest, it was spring, it started to rain and we stopped working, we tied the horses and lit a fire. one of my colleagues woke up and was silent, but a branch stabbed me to look in that direction, when I saw what it was about, we noticed a woman sitting, we woke up a third colleague who was with us, a woman who she had black long hair likeraven… You know what a raven is… She looks at us, we look at her, and at one point, she raised her wings and flew to the sky, then they lowered the branches all the way to the ground. I also heard from the old people that they said that it is not good if you meet her to talk because you will remain silent for the rest of your life, that was enough, the old people told me… They say that if she is heard near the house, everyone will die those houses and that the household will remain desolate. according to Brodica, the household was left deserted, but the bird was also heard, when it is heard, someone has to die near the house, that is a 100% guaranteed thing for you. she looks like an owl, she comes in front of the house and sings chuvik, chuvik… And it doesn't take long and someone from the family dies. " Petar Grujić (1953) from Bukovska.

and Zlatko Stojković met her on Stanka's arm: "She can laugh like a child, sing like a woman, cry, there is a Mumam Paduri at their property on Ruskić's property." he fell to the ground in fear ...I saw her with a child, suddenly a storm appeared and at that moment we heard screams, cries, laughter imagine that when you hear it in the forest and the son asks me, dad what is this, and I say it is, son, Muma Paduri, and the storm is just around us, and clear on all sides, I told my sonjust cross yourself and look ahead, don't look back ...the second time i saw her in the same place, from here when you look like towards that hill it is like a woman dressed in a nightgown with black long hair and standing in a poplar high on a branch. We all locals know where she is and she can be heard there on Stanka's arm. "

in the hamlet of Krš near Rudna Glava, Muma Paduri is often heard, according to Zorica Petrović (1959). Muma Paduri has not been heard on Krš for years, and when she announced herself, one family from Krš soon disappeared.

I noticed similar stories from my grandmother Petrija Repedžić (1938), who heard Muma Paduri herself several times. The earliest encounter took place during World War II:

"At one point there was a big storm, like a wind, my father picked us all up and took us home and told us to keep quiet, he quietly told us that he heard someone say hey, then that voice started to get faster and faster. approaching and clinging to him, hey, hey, hey ...our dogs barked and I remember something passing by the house so quickly and you could hear them screaming hey hey hey hey hey hey, until it passed up there near Shalarevic. my mother Ruža Šalarević saw it once, I don't know what it was, but it stood by the roadside like a ball so big and shining, she looked at it and quickly ran home to pick up her father, when they returned, that red-hot ball was no longer end of the road. Well, later I heard it later when the children were big, I think your father remembers that too. .my sister was collecting hay and I thought she was calling me and I answered, and suddenly that sound spread closer and closer until he went to where Stepan first has a house, there we barely heard him after, it didn't take long

and Stepan died after that. she can sing beautifully, cry like a small child, laugh, she can turn into a haystack, your grandfather told me that he once saw a haystack going towards him quickly when he was with the sheep in the forest, but he he was not afraid, he heard her many times, and when he heard her he did nothe told me not to be scared.you shouldn't answer her because they will throw stones at you then, if you hear her in the woods, look at your business, don't imitate her and don't laugh at her, I heard that and I saw it when I was little to be afraid of dogs. many have heard her and it is bad when she is heard, someone always dies after that. "

From the narrator Mike Vojvodanović from the village of Blizana, I only heard from him that he had sexual contact with Muma Paduri. since Mika died a long time ago, I heard this story from him when I was in high school, so I will paraphrase his words that I remember in the following text. "I was still a guy then and I wasn't married, I went hunting where Ilija Golubović has a house, the one who was a manipulator in ŠIK, and a storm started suddenly when a beautiful woman all in white appeared in front of me. dressed, she is silent, I am silent when suddenlysomething got confused in my head and one over the other and it took me a long time to tell you, she wouldn't let me go. I turned to one side when she suddenly disappeared, and nothing like that ever happened to me after that. "

Marija Mladenović (1939) from Lučko Polje, who knows a lot of charms, told me that she learned a charm from her grandmother how to drive away Muma Paduri. according to her, Muma Paduri attacks small children, and often small children cannot fall asleep or are very crying. Then she uttered a charm and the crying disappeared. Unfortunately, due to the strong wind during the field work with Marija, it is impossible to perform the transcript of the basma.

during the fieldwork, I noticed many recordings in which the narrators say that it has not been heard for a very long time, and the reason is that people have moved away from their properties. Maybe more people heard her earlier because she hinted that the hamlets would remain deserted and without people. this statement surprised me quite a bit by explaining why the hamlets were deserted in the area of ​​Zvizd, Gornji Pek and Porec.

the myth of Muma Padura and its appearance can be classified in the category of apparitions that are characteristic of the beliefs of our people. apparitions are often mentioned in several works, and according to Dr. Daniel Sinani, research concerning phenomena that can be classified in this category includes Muma Paduri. such works have led to the false impression of a good study of the very phenomenon of apparitions. .it turned out that the general concept was neglected for the sake of studying its individual segments, ie parts of the belief complex related to the contact with the other side, which is realized through apparitions. therefore, when analyzing field research, I will rely on the work of Dr. Daniel Sinani on apparitions.

Similar to the apparitions in western Serbia that Sinana explores, Muma Paduri also appears mostly at night, more precisely from dusk to morning. however, we see from the previous transcript that apparitions can also appear in broad daylight, which, according to Sinani, confirms that the other side is always present. It is also believed that not all persons are able to see and feel the presence of the other side. a large number of narrators told me that they had never heard her, but that they had, however, heard that someone had heard and seen, or that someone from a close or distant family had heard or met Muma Paduri.

sinani's work on apparitions can be used in the ethnological analysis of Muma Paduri. .As with apparitions, prevention is important here when meeting Muma Paduri, which the author divides in his work into two stages: avoiding apparitions and procedures for avoiding the negative consequences of encounters (the first and foremost thing to do is to be silentnot to imitate the sounds it produces, to cross).during the meeting with Muma Paduri, there is a direct contact with the afterlife, and here, as with the apparitions in Sinani's work, a direct connection is realized between this world and the afterlife. mostly these encounters are short-term predictions, indicating someone’s sudden death. Unlike the apparition in western Serbia, contact with Muma Paduri does not leave direct consequences for anyone who meets her. the harmful effect is neutralized only in children through basma, which soothes crying and insomnia.

the area bordered by the Danube in the north, the Morava in the west and the Timok in the east, as we saw in this paper, was home to many cultures, but also a place of meeting and intertwining, a place where they exchanged beliefs, myths, customs and rituals. Muma Paduri is just one of the many demons and mythical beings that still exist

inhabit this magical space. This text is not a scientific work and as such should not be taken into consideration. the text tries to explain the diversity of beliefs in the Mother Goddess and how she survived through various cultures and for many centuries all the way to Muma Padura. muma Paduri, a resident of our forests, is less and less heard, and even less seen, so we are witnesses but also chroniclers of the modification of Muma Paduri into some other apparitions. as such, it will still remain the unknown we will hear and some of us will have the opportunity to see it many more times. she will live for a long time in the memories of our people through new mythical creatures that we can still see today in various movies and series of epic fiction. I will end the conclusion of this paper with a quote from my great friend, archaeologist Dragan Jacanović: “Legends and myths of the population of this region are not the fruit of the wild imagination of its inhabitants. they represent coded knowledge of the world and life, transmitted orally for centuries from generation to generation. these legends and myths are inextricably linked and strictly defined named places as immovable landmarks and marks in space and time. ” This is exactly what Muma Paduri is like.

Excerpt from the book

Muma paduri - Forest mother

by: Aleksandar Repedzic