Fear manifests itself in two ways inside the human body – through the bowels and nerves. As doctor Leopold Gluck has noted the first form appears primarily in children in form of uncontrollable jolting of the body while they're sleeping, which is declared in a milder form, also appearance of epilepsy, which is of course a more difficult form of disease. Among the adults, fear is manifested as an acute insanity or a strong headache, weakness in the limbs, especially trembling in the legs and dark circles around the eyes. Similarly frequent night mares are accompanying symptoms of fear.
When the fear is accumulated in the bowels then the diseased suffers from a chronic diarrhoea, due to which he weakens. In addition to that, it is still considered today that grown people which get diarrhoea due to fatty food or generally suffer from what is in general medicine classified as an irritable bowls syndrome were in childhood subject to physical or mental abuse due to which they suffered a great fright.
In case that fear has caused epilepsy folk medicine suggests that a diseased child in time of an epileptic attack mustn’t be fed nor touched, as long as the cramps are present, and under his nose a rag dipped in vinegar must be placed, with an intent that the sharp smell will ease the current difficulties in which the child is in. When the cramps become less intense, the mother wipes the saliva from the child’s mouth, and places a wrap i.e. a linen rag dipped in vinegar on the forehead and bellybutton (1). Only when the cramps completely stop, after some time, the mother is allowed to nurse the child.
If the fear (disease) has caught the bowels, before sunrise, it is recommended to pick a few branches of rue/sedefil (Ruta graveolens), crush it, mix with some water, and filter it through a gauze. Filtered liquid is spiced up with a half of tea spoon of honey and sugar and in the end that mixture is left somewhere outside – “on the sun and air” – for 24 hours. This remedy is given to the child three days in a row at dawn, i.e. one hour before sunset. To adults, this remedy is given for a longer period of time, usually around nine days, or just water in which completely crushed leaves of a plant Veronica officinalis is submerged.
Leaves of this plant were in the past given as a prophylactic remedy, as an amulet, to pregnant women, but also children, to carry it on their chest in order to be protected from the influence of fear.
In Visoko, but also other neighbouring places, Veronica officinalis or stravna trava would be placed in a metal bowl with spring water, which would be kept, covered on the stove until the water boils. As soon as this happens, while holding a bowl or casserole above the diseased person’s head the stravarka would pour the boiled water from the vessel and she would upturn the vessel in the middle of the casserole, making sure that there is no physical contact with the person. If the vacuum sucks the water underneath the vessel – “absorbs water” – the diseased person will be freed from the influence of fear. An identical procedure is repeated two more times. The diseased person uses the water to wash his face, his arms and legs are wiped and the rest of the water, with the plant, is poured in an intersection.
For curing symptoms of fear Bosnian stravarke often recommend this herbal tea mixture: a fingertip of Mentha pulegium and Veronica officinalis is submerged in two decilitres of water and is left covered for half an hour. The tea should be drunk three times a day with some honey.
Healing power of lead
Among the Bosnian people it is believed that lead that it possesses prophylactic properties which is confirmed by a custom of saying: “lead into the devil’s ears!” as soon as someone hears some bad news, especially about a disease of an accident. The most famous characteristics of lead, because of which it is usually an irreplaceable prop when curing fear, is that lead absorbs negative energy.
In folk medicine in BiH an influence of homeopathy is evident as well as a psychological belief that a shock can be cured by a new shock. Namely, when an individual, especially a child, is mightily frightened due to an unexpected and highly negative surprise, where it is literally overwhelmed by chill and tingling across his stomach and chest, the scared person loses its breath for a moment and then according to stravarke the heart can be moved – “jump out” – a few millimetres or centimetres to the left or the right.
Besides classic symptoms of tension, tiredness, paleness in the face and sudden jitters in sleep, a person whose “heart moved” often loses its breath and has feelings of something piercing their chest. The only cure in that state, according to stravarke, is the ritual of lead melting, whose efficiency in this case is clearly not based on the idea that the frightened person, over which the ritual is performed, will suffer a new shock from a loud sound which is produced by the molten lead touching cold water. During that short term shock, during the three times the lead is molten and poured in a vessel with water, the heart will slowly go back in its place. Material proof for this the stravarke find in the shape of the lead itself which must be shaped as an elongated tear, which is called – heart.
After being subjected to a magical ritual with lead, three hot coals are also thrown inside the water whose sound needs to have a calming effect on the diseased person, since the sound itself symbolises an extinguishing i.e. calming down. The water is used by the diseased person to wash his face and drink some of the water, which concludes the healing process.
There once existed a rule that measuring of fear must be performed before the lead melting ritual, in order to completely eliminate all influence of fear. Stravarke think that fear can enter a person’s blood and bones and “then it is difficult to get it out of a person”, and one must be persistent and inventive when curing.
(1) It is important to mention, that these two places on the human body are considered to be two cardinal spots, according to Bosnian occultism, through which the human body is connected to the spiritual world.